Wetland has the features of high biodiversity and cultural diversity, possesses high tourism value, and environmental education and community participation functions. Wetland ecotourism reflects the sustainable development of tourism economy and wetland protection, which has received great concerns from governments and scholars at home and abroad. Wetland parks act as a new way of wetland protection and a new carrier of ecotourism and the construction of ecological civilization. The popularity of wetland parks construction at home and abroad brought a new opportunity for protective utilization of the wetland. However, the monographic study of wetland parks lagged behind their construction and development as a result of weak research background and unsystematic content, simple research methods, incomplete research systems and insufficient direction for park construction practice. Therefore, it is of greatly theoretic significance and practical value to construct studying system of wetland parks.
The present study attempts to construct a primary studying system of wetland parks from research theory, content and method based on a review on recent literatures.It put forward the definition of wetland park ecosystem and took composition, function, impact evaluation and management as main index system of wetland parks. A research method system containing basic theory explore, planning research, experimental research and spatial analysis was constructed after analyzing and commenting on existing research methods of wetland parks, and concluded the development trend of wetland parks research.
Two empirical studies were incorporated into the studying system. We suggested to strengthen the macroscopic control and guidance of wetland parks construction and to pay more attention to the quality construction and harmonious regional-development through the investigation on distribution patterns and classification of the state-level wetland parks in China. Classification of wetland parks played an important role in displaying the diversity of wetland parks and priority should be given to the construction of different types of wetland parks. We investigated and analyzed the diversity dynamics of herbaceous plants under different disturbances in the conservation area of Taiping Lake national wetland park in China, and the results showed that the estuary environment changed under different disturbances, it come up with some protection and restoration strategies towards the main problems in biodiversity conservation in the conservation area of Taiping Lake national wetland park. The paper set up the studying system including research theory, research content, and research method about wetland parks for the first time, and put forward the definition of ecosystem of wetland parks with theoretic innovations. It can promote the progress of monographic study of wetland parks and put forward the advices about the management of wetland parks.