Identifying and Zoning Key Areas of Ecological Restoration for Territory in Resource-Based Cities: A Case Study of Huangshi City, China

Abstract

Resource-based cities are cities that depend on the exploitation and primary processing of natural resources, such as minerals, metals, and oil, and whose rise and development are highly dependent on resources. Due to over exploitation, many problems related to ecosystem degradation have been caused. Ecological restoration of land space is urgent. One of the difficulties in carrying out ecological restoration of territorial space lies in the identification of key areas for ecological restoration and diagnosis of regional ecological problems. In this study, we applied the spatial assessment of ecological sensitivity and the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model to quantitatively analyze the overall ecosystem in Huangshi city so as to delimit the ecological restoration division of Huangshi City. The results showed that: (1) The overall distribution rule is that vegetation, such as that in mountains and forests, is dense, the sensitivity around water and wetlands is high, and the distribution of mines in Huangshi is high. (2) For the period 1980–2018, the habitat quality index of Huangshi was good, with a slight decreasing trend. The simulated habitat quality distribution was consistent with the region-dominated land cover type. (3) Huangshi formed a spatial pattern with natural protected areas as the priority protection areas, mining areas as the key restoration areas, and natural protected areas and mining areas as the general restoration areas. (4) During the period of 1980–2018, the water management of Huangshi generally improved, which indicates that the water pollution control in Huangshi had a positive effect. The results of this study can provide some reference for the green transformation development and ecological restoration of resource-based cities.