Construction of ecological network using morphological spatial pattern analysis and minimal cumulative resistance models in Guangzhou City, China.

Construction of ecological network is important for improving urban ecological environment under the scenarios of rapid urbanization. We extracted the core area with good connectivity as the ecological sources with the methods of morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) and landscape index with Guangzhou City as the study area. The ecological network was then constructed by minimal cumulative resistance (MCR) model and was quantitatively analyzed by gravity model and connectivity indices. After that, an optimized ecological network was finally constructed. The results showed that ten core patches could be used as ecological sources. In addition, eighteen important corridors as well as twenty-seven general corridors were identified, which were mainly distributed in the northeast part of the city. Five more ecological sources and thirteen more planning corridors were suggested under the optimized ecological network. Our results indicated that forests were the main composition of ecological corridors. The appropriate width for the important corridor and planning corridor was 60-100 m and 30-60 m, respectively. Our results provide scientific guidance for designing urban ecological network.