Abstract:Identifying priority areas is an important basis for the scientifically ordered ecological protection and conservation of mountains-rivers-forests-farmlands-lakes-grasslands. Taking Huaying Mountain as the case study area, we extracted 1392.63 km2 ecological source areas accounting for 35.60% of the total area based on the importance of ecosystem services. Based on the sensitivity of geological hazards and land-use types, the ecological resistance surface was constructed, and 84 ecological corridors were extracted by the minimum cumulative resistance and circuit models. Based on the circuit model, a 0.1 km2 pinch point area and 10 corridors with pinch points were identified, which were mainly distributed in Guang'an District with severe landscape fragmentation, and the southern end of Huaying Mountain. The effect of ecological restoration was simulated using the method of barriers analysis, and thus, 93.86 km2 priority areas of ecological restoration were identified. They were mainly located in fragmented ecological areas frequently disturbed by human activities in Guang'an District, where corresponding ecological restoration strategies included vegetation restoration and the transformation of farmland to forest. It also covered areas with frequent geological disasters in Huaying Mountain, Tongluo Mountain, and Mingyue Mountain, with mine ecological restoration and vegetation restoration as the main ecological restoration strategies. This study proposed an approach to construct ecological security patterns, and to simulate the impact of ecological restoration, in order to quantitatively conduct the ecological protection and restoration of mountains-rivers-forests-farmlands-lakes-grasslands.