Urban Lake Scenic Protected Area Zoning Based on Ecological Sensitivity Analysis and Remote Sensing: A Case Study of Chaohu Lake Basin, China

The protection of urban lakes is important for the construction and development of the city and the eco-environment. Affected by urban expansion, most urban lake scenic areas have suffered from a reduction in area and ecological degradation. Protecting and restoring urban lake scenic areas has been a hot topic among the public. Given this background information, we analyzed the ecological problems and contradictions from the perspective of landscape ecology. This study evaluated the landscape pattern and ecological sensitivity in the Chaohu Lake Basin, China. The proposed method was based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and geographical information system (GIS). The results showed that the ecological sensitivity map was divided into four sensitivity levels consisting of level 1, level 3, level 5, and level 7, which represent 65%, 27%, 5%, and 2% of the study area. It was found that highly sensitive areas existed primarily in the highlands, where the natural conditions were poorer than in other areas and human activities have been developing rapidly. Additionally, the medium sensitive levels occurred in the low lands, probably in response to agricultural practices. Based on our results, three ecological zones were proposed, which require different protection and utilization solutions in order to restore the local ecological environment in terms of sustainable development.