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Abstract Context: Rapid urbanization has affected ecosystem stability, which can be effectively mitigated by building an Ecological Security Pattern (ESP). Previous research has mainly focused on ESP identification in a single year, ignoring the change of various landscape elements in ESP on a time scale. Objectives: We sought to improve the solution. We aimed to construct and optimize ESPs in different years, analyze their variations over time, and provide references for ecological security protection. Methods: We developed a framework in 2000, 2010, and 2020 to study the Wuhan Metropolitan Area (WMA) ESP. The ESPs were established by circuit theory and were optimized by the Centrality Mapper and the gravity model. Results: The findings indicated that the research area's key landscape elements exhibited clear spatial aggregation, they were mostly located in the east and south and gradually expanded to the north over the previous 20 years. From 2000 to 2020, there was a first decrease and then an increase in ecological source and corridor numbers. This change was also reflected in pinch points and barriers. We eventually obtained the optimized ESP in the three periods, among which the ESP in 2020 includes 9 primary, 21 secondary, and 48 tertiary ecological sources, 141 primary, and 37 secondary corridors, with 170.46 km2 barriers and 197.42 km2 pinch points. Conclusion: This research framework extends the time scale of ESP construction, providing the theoretical basis and reference for regional sustainable development and landscape pattern optimization in the process of urbanization.
Chen et al. (Fri,) studied this question.