Abstract:Zoning management is an effective approach to reducing the spatial difference in city cluster ecological security. Based on the supply and demand theory, this study constructs a framework for a dynamic model of the relationship between ecosystem services supply and demand, and uses this relationship to characterize the ecological security pattern in the Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou city cluster. This article evaluates the status of the ecosystem service supply and demand of the city cluster and analyzes the zoning of the ecological security patterns using the InVEST model, landscape quality index, ecological resilience model, and entropy method. This article also analyzes the factors and current status of the ecological security pattern by using the environmental Kuznets curve. The three main findings are as follows: (1) in total, 50% of counties in the city cluster belong to the "high supply imbalance zone" of ecological security, and 70% of these counties are within Zhangzhou City; 32.14% of counties fall into the "high demand imbalance zone" of ecological security, and these counties include districts and coastal areas; 17.86% of counties belong to the zone where both the supply and demand for ecological security are imbalanced; no counties are located in a zone where both the supply and demand for ecological security are balanced. (2) The demand for ecosystem services in the Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou city cluster is weak. There are still over 80% of counties below the average level. There is a notable spatial difference between some coastal counties of Xiamen and Quanzhou and surrounding counties. The overall ecosystem service supply of the city cluster is better, but the difference in ecosystem service supply between the coastal and inland counties is remarkable, and it presents an increasing trend from the coast to inland. Zhangzhou performs quite well, and all counties in Zhangzhou perform above the average level, but Xiamen shows an opposite pattern, and there is a distinct difference between the inland and coastal counties in Quanzhou. (3) From the environmental Kuznets curve of ecological security that we constructed, it can be suggested that the whole region is still in a "dilemma state", where there is great disharmony between the ecological environment and economic development. Meanwhile, the study helps to explain the dislocations in supply and demand, and the spatial difference in the ecological security patterns of the Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou city cluster.