In recent years, although rapid development of industrialization and urbanization stimulated China's economic growth, uncontrolled urban expansion occupied a large number of ecological land and caused a series problems on urban ecological systems. Due to those problems are constraining China's sustainable urban system development, safeguarding the fragile urban ecological environments is becoming a central issue. Ecological security pattern can support the healthy development of natural ecosystems in a region. How to develop ecological security pattern in urban areas is increasingly important. Landscape security pattern which take interaction between landscape process and pattern as the core, can be used to build ecological security pattern for urban areas. The research area of this paper is Yangzhou that located in the middle of Jiangsu Province. After a decade of rapid urbanization process, ecological land and construction land remain contradictory in research region. Resources and environmental problems caused by unscientific planning are becoming a bottleneck which restricting the regional economy. Using Yangzhou as a case study, this paper explores how to create a practical zoning system for regulating construction land that balances ecological and economic development. The study design uses a framework of landscape security pattern theory and cellular automata theory. First, five landscape security patterns are built, for flood management, oil and water conservation, biodiversity conservation, cultural heritage protection and safeguarding recreation areas. Second, the regional urban construction land expansion pattern in the target year is simulated without ecological constraints with the aid of the neural network cellular automata model. Finally, according to the ecological protection and socio-economic development demands of the study area, regional landscape security pattern and urban construction land expansion pattern are combined to identify priority construction zones, flexible construction zones, conditional construction zones, restricted construction zones and forbidden construction zones. In the study area, the five construction zones occupied 2.88%, 4.81%, 1.05%, 90.07%, 1.19% of the total land. Control rules are established for each type of control zone based on its nature and landscape components. In priority construction zones, land development for urban construction is the priority use. In flexible construction zones, adjustment of new construction land is the priority use. In conditional construction zones, protection of farmland and establishment of green activities and local cultural experience corridors are prioritized. In restricted construction zones, the use of land for urban construction is carefully restricted, while the construction of infrastructure capable of protecting the natural and cultural landscape is encouraged. In forbidden construction zones, the focus is on protecting biological habitats and local culture, the development of construction is prohibited in principle. The results show that this practical zoning system, which values construction land over ecological land, can significantly reduce ecological pressure caused by construction and maintain the stability of urban ecological systems. Using regional landscape security patterns and urban construction land expansion patterns to divide construction land into control zones integrates ecological priorities into zoning and achieves an ecological and economic win-win. The system not only caters to present economic needs, but also supports sustainable economic development. Furthermore, flexible construction zones also give local government space to adjust new construction land. In the planning period, flexible new construction land accounted for 43.76% of all land allocated for construction. Government can freely provide new construction land in these zones according to demands. This practical system provides full autonomy to local government in construction matters and effectively combines control and self-management.