Establishing ecological security patterns, and implementing ecological restoration and spatial optimization are important ways to promote the health of regional ecosystems and the sustainable development of society and economy. Using Ruijin City, a southern hilly and mountainous region of China, as a case, this study demonstrated the regional ecological security patterns and the bio-physical and socio-economic characteristics through ecological sensitivity assessment and a least resistance model. Then the strategies for ecological restoration and spatial optimization were finally proposed. The results show that:(1) the identified ecological source areas in Ruijin City is 123.22km², accounting for 5% of the total area. They are mainly composed of important mountainous forests and water bodies, and distributed around the central basin. (2) There are 119 potential corridors and 72 ecological nodes, which form a closed network in the surrounding mountains. However, the central basin only possesses a single corridor with dense nodes and low network connectivity. (3) The mountainous Ruijin City turns to be a typical plateau resistance surface. The urban areas under development in the central basin, the economic extension zone in the gully area, and the west mining areas, where the ecological resistance is extremely high while the radiation from the ecological source is weak, should be ecologically pre-warned and restored with priority. In terms of spatial optimization and ecological protection and restoration in Ruijin City, the work should be arranged macroscopically as a whole, propelled regionally and implemented meticulously. Moreover, the ecological restoration core area, the ecological monitoring and pre-warning area, the ecological protection buffer area, and the ecological protection key area should be classified with distinct principles for spatial regulation. Specific countermeasures for regional ecological protection and restoration should be based on the "source-corridor-node" pattern.