Identifying Priority Areas for Ecological Protection and Restoration by Constructing a Water Ecological Security Pattern

Accurately identifying priority areas for the protection and restoration of water ecosystems is essential for refined management of national land space. The water ecological security pattern (WESP) integrates multiple ecological elements and serves as an effective approach for prioritizing conservation and restoration efforts. Taking Guangxi Hechi, a typical karst region in China, as the study area, we quantitatively evaluated different types of water ecological sources based on a “function–structure–resilience” framework. Then, we used circuit theory and surface runoff model to extract flood corridors and life corridors, further identifying priority areas for protection and restoration. The results showed that the WESP included 17 ecological sources (7,344.59 km 2 ) in the form of strips and patches, as well as 24 flood corridors (769.30 km 2 ) and 3 life corridors (5,138.02 km 2 ). Priority protection areas included habitat important areas in the sources (4,952.96 km 2 ) and 47 pinch points (393.51 km 2 ) in the corridors. Priority restoration areas included ecologically fragile areas in the sources (1,913.19 km 2 ) and barriers in the corridors (219.03 km 2 ). Furthermore, the most urgent areas for water ecosystem management were overlapping patches of priority protection and restoration areas in both sources (478.44 km 2 ) and corridors (45.33 km 2 ). This study proposes a comprehensive framework for constructing a WESP and identifying priority areas within water ecosystems, offering an effective solution for watershed ecological protection and restoration in ecologically fragile areas worldwide.