Rapid urbanization has been a driving force behind the continuous increase in ecological risks in both urban areas and their surrounding regions. Understanding these ecological risks in urbanized areas, exploring the factors responsible for their changes, and proposing effective risk control strategies are of paramount importance for achieving harmonious development between the ecological environment and socio-economics in urbanized regions. Taking Beijing as a case study, this study used ecosystem services to quantitatively characterize ecological risks, analyzed the influence of urbanization factors on ecological risks, and explored the strategies for risk control. The findings reveal that the expansion of impervious surfaces (IS), economic growth, and population growth have all had significant driving effects on ecological risks, with the expansion of IS emerging as the dominant driver. Economic and population growth indirectly affect ecological risks by impacting the impervious surface ratio. Notably, the direction and magnitude of their driving effects underwent substantial changes after the year 2010. For Beijing, the ecological risk control strategies involve addressing the IS in different IS ratio ranges. In areas with an IS ratios exceeding 70%, the primary strategy of risk reduction should be reducing the IS ratio. However, these areas tend to have high urban economic and social activity levels, making measures to reduce IS ratios socially and economically costly. Therefore, strict measures should be implemented to prevent further expansion of IS in these areas. Additionally, new urban development should be carried out with IS ratios kept below 70%. In areas where the IS ratio falls between 40% and 70%, the driving effect of IS expansion on ecological risks intensifies, while other factors simultaneously contribute significantly to increased risks. In these areas, multiple measures are recommended for risk control, such as increasing the permeability of paved surface, increasing the green space area, and building compact construction land. In areas with IS ratios ranging from 0% to 40%, ecological risks in Beijing are primarily influenced by factors other than IS. Thus, reducing the IS ratio alone is unlikely to effectively mitigate risks in these areas. Risk control strategies in these areas should focus on increasing ecosystem quality, strengthening risk prevention measures, and reducing exposure to risks. Furthermore, in districts such as Haidian, Changping, Tongzhou, and Shunyi, reducing ecological risks should involve elevating the population and economic urbanization intensity. This study offers insights into the impact of urbanization on regional ecological risks and can provide references for ecological risk control in Beijing.