Zoning and Management of Ecological Restoration from the Perspective of Ecosystem Service Supply and Demand: A Case Study of Yuzhong County in Longzhong Loess Hilly Region, China

Abstract

The loess hilly region is a typical ecologically fragile and sensitive area. It is of great significance when measuring the balance between supply and demand of ecosystem services and clarify the relationship between supply and demand of ecosystem services for scientific ecological restoration zoning and realizing regional ecological security and social and economic sustainable development. We take Yuzhong County in the loess hilly region of Longzhong, China as an example; by constructing the matching and coordinating relationship between ecosystem service supply and demand and following the idea of “problem diagnosis—strategic orientation—key optimization”, this paper delimits the ecological restoration zones and proposes corresponding governance strategies. The results show that: (1) The supply and demand of ecosystem services were mainly at a low and medium level, with significant spatial heterogeneity. Overall, the spatial pattern of ecosystem services showed high supply and low demand in the southwest mountainous areas and showed low supply and high demand in the urban gully areas of Yuzhong. (2) There were four types of spatial matching of ecosystem service supply and demand: HH type, LH type, LL type, and HL type. The local spatial autocorrelation of supply and demand was dominated by high-low or low-high spatial misadjustment. The average degree of coordination between supply and demand of ecosystem services was 0.629, indicating that supply and demand were basically coordinated. (3) The ecological restoration zones in Yuzhong County can be divided into six categories: the ecological core protection area, ecological potential restoration area, key ecological restoration area, soil and water conservation restoration area, ecological agriculture development area, and ecological innovation promotion area. The results of this study can provide ideas for the refined management and targeted restoration practice of regional ecosystem services. It provides a strong guarantee for ecosystem management and decision-making in the loess hilly region.