基于功能-要素耦合关系的生态优先保护区识别

[Objective] The identification of ecological conservation priority areas is a critical step in the decision-making and implementation of territorial spatial governance. However, current understanding of ecosystem multifunctionality and complex coupling relationships remains limited, hindering comprehensive and effective ecological conservation. Based on the functional-element coupling relationship, this study identifies ecological conservation priority areas under multi-objective synergy, providing support for ecological governance policies in territorial spatial planning. [Methods] Taking Sanmenxia City as a case study, this study employed various quantitative models and spatial analysis methods, including the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs model, water balance equation, and Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, to evaluate the importance of four ecosystem functions (EFs)—biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, water conservation, and soil conservation—and three landscape elements (LEs)—mountains, water bodies, and vegetation. Additionally, the spatial coupling relationships between EFs and LEs were revealed, thereby identifying ecological conservation priority areas. [Results] (1) The overlapping area of high-importance areas for the four EFs was only 36.9 km2. However, this overlap increased approximately 14-fold and 45-fold when considering only two or three EFs, respectively. The combined area of high-importance areas for the three LEs totaled 4619.8 km2, with an overlapping area of 1242.8 km2, accounting for 36.8% of the integrated high-importance LE area. (2) The integrated high-importance areas for EFs and LEs accounted for 29.6% and 34% of the total area of Sanmenxia City, respectively. Moreover, over 75% of these areas exhibited strong spatial synergy. (3) High-priority areas for ecological conservation covered 41.0% of the city's total area, whereas existing protected areas accounted for less than half of these priority areas. Furthermore, in terms of representativeness, synergy, and implementation challenges, major challenges were identified and action recommendations for ecological conservation in Sanmenxia were proposed. [Conclusion] The framework for identifying ecological conservation priority areas proposed in this study not only integrates the dual perspectives of EFs and LEs, but also balances accuracy and applicability through the integrated application of multiple quantitative methods, thereby contributing to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15 (Life on Land).