The Yangtze River Economic Belt is an importantly nationally strategic development zone, and the optimization of its development and protection pattern of territorial space is an important part of realizing the ecological civilization construction. Based on the framework of "Core point-Development axis-Strategic area", the core point of development was extracted by the intensity index of spatial development and nighttime light data, the resistance surface of spatial development under various decision visions was simulated by Ordered Weighted Averaging algorithm, and the Minimum Cumulative Resistance model and Circuit Theory model were used to identify the axis of spatial development and its internal development and protection strategy area. The quantitatively constructed optimization scheme of spatial pattern under different decision preferences breaks through the limitation of single objective and qualitative analysis in the traditional research. The results show that there are 63 development core points of territorial space in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, accounting for about 5% of the total area, and the number of core points decreases from east to west. Under the three scenarios of urban expansion, synergistic development, and ecological constraint, there are 61 development axes, covering county-level units accounting for 36.6%, 36.5% and 36.7% of the total, respectively, showing the pattern of "one horizontal and three verticals". Under the three scenarios, the development strategic areas account for 4.5%, 4.9% and 4.8% of the axis area, respectively, and are mostly distributed along the mainstream of the Yangtze River and its tributaries. The protection strategic areas account for 17.1%, 13.9% and 15.3% of the axis area, respectively, which are mainly distributed on the south bank of the Yangtze River. The development and protection pattern of territorial space formed on this basis can provide decision-making reference for implementing the strategy of "promoting well-coordinated environmental conservation and avoiding excessive development" in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.