Eco-geographical regionalization provides a scientific basis for rational management and sustainable utilization of natural resources such as in constructing healthy eco-environment and making policies of sustainable development. Under the conditions of global environmental changes, loss of biodiversity and lack of land resources, methods of eco-regionalization and eco-mapping have drawn considerable attention, because they are important issues in macro-ecology and geography studies at home and in abroad. Large efforts have been made in abroad to elucidate the ecosystem’s response to global environment changes, to analyze the causes, and to provide a scientific basis for exploiting and utilizing resources, conserving biodiversity, and making strategy of regional sustainable development. Conception, principle, and methodology, index system of eco-geographical regionalization have been studied, and schemes of which have been expounded in global, national and regional scales in recent years. Studies on eco-geographical regionalization have gone through a process from single factor regionalization to integrity function, process and structural demarcation, in which disciplinarian recognizing of differentiation of single ecological factor, polymerization of ecosystem and mankind as a part of ecosystem were transformed into layer restriction, interactive embodiment and incomprehensive hierarchical patch.
Studies on eco-geographical regionalization in China have also made great progress in principle, methodology, and theory since 1930s, for example, comprehensive eco-regionalization and element regionalization in national and regional scale have been discussed, and no less than ten schemes of eco-regionalization have been put forward since 1954. However, theory, methodology and technical system of eco-geographical regionalization has not been consummated. For example, a rational standard of regionalization system to regulate regional ecosystem and to formulate sustainable development strategy has not been identified. Meanwhile, earlier studies paid more attentions to elucidate the impacts of natural factors rather than human factors, making it difficult to reflect actual effect of human activity itself and the mechanism to eco-regional system.
In all, more efforts should be made to strengthen basic theory studies on eco-geographical regionalization, to construct more rigorous regionalization system, to pay more attention to impact of human factors, and to apply new technology and method in practice of regionalization, such as GIS, GPS and RS. Furthermore, we should constructer basic database of eco-geographical regional system based on the massive data coming from RS and field investigation, experimental simulation and physiochemical analysis, and strengthen regionalization studies on typical ecoregions such as in loess plateau, Yangtze River delta, and Zhujiang River delta.