Governance pattern of basin ecological space in Loess Plateau of China

Abstract: The governance pattern of basin ecological space is an important spatial blueprint to implement high-quality development in the Loess Plateau in China. The rapid economic development at the expense of natural ecological resources has posed a serious threat to the high-quality development of land and space, such as imbalance of spatial pattern, inefficient utilization of resources, and degradation of ecological functions. The Loess Plateau is one of the areas with the most serious soil erosion. There is a long-term impact of soil conservation in the Loess Plateau with the unique hydrology, climate, and geomorphology on the ecological security of the Yellow River, and the sustainable development of regional communities. Therefore, the basin ecological space control model is one of the most important approaches to deal with the ecological and environmental challenges in the Loess Plateau. The concept of ecological space was first introduced into China in the 1990s. The spatial relationship began to draw much attention in the ecosystem, including scale, spatial pattern, and mosaic dynamics. Since then, various concepts have emerged continuously, such as ecological security patterns, ecological zoning, ecological corridors, and ecological networks. Most control models of ecological space were dominated by the spatial pattern, boundary, relationship, and control rules. The ecological space on spatial planning can be used for the regional ecological environment and comprehensive evaluation from multiple dimensions, such as ecological service, sensitivity, carrying capacity, and disaster risk. Two main types can be divided, such as the zoning and element type. The ecological space control has presented much more comprehensive, diversified, different and systematic features in recent years. However, a previous ecological space system failed to realize the zoning and factor coordination suitable for the complex ecological process and the spatial positioning of regional control contents at different scales. A basic paradigm was normally selected to explore the relationship between the ecohydrological process and landscape pattern, due mainly to the climatic and geographical conditions of the Loess Plateau. In this study, a new framework was proposed for the basin ecological space management during the ecohydrological process, considering the connotation and characteristics of basin ecological space control under territorial spatial planning. At the element level, an element control model was established with the coordination of landscape pattern, eco-hydrology, and land use. At the zoning level, a three-layer bidirectional zoning control model was constructed to combine vertically stratified conduction and horizontally restricted control. Taking Sanshui River Basin in Xunyi County as the research area, the zoning control was implemented from "surface, line and point" to construct the ecological security pattern at the basin scale and complete the index control of ecological elements from landscape index and land allocation. Finally, the spatial positioning of control content can be realized in the form of a guide map, particularly for the decision-making in ecological space restoration and comprehensive management. This finding can promote the scientific guidance of ecological space at the river basin scale for a better ecological environment in the Loess Plateau of China.