Urban ecological corridors construction: A review

An ecological corridor, with both ecological and cultural functions, is a symbol of urban ecological or green civilization, and has therefore become one of the major topics in the fields of landscape ecology, urban ecology, and ecological planning. On the one hand, along with the prominent contradiction between regional ecological protection and economic development, as well as between the growing ecological demands of urban residents and the destruction of natural ecosystems, the construction of urban ecological corridors is very challenging. On the other hand, with contemporary urbanization and ecological civilization development, the standards and requirements for the construction of urban ecological corridors are set higher and higher. Constructing an urban ecological corridor is therefore particularly important, and must adopt a spatial approach that balances the relationship between ecological protection and economic development. In this study, the classification of urban ecological corridors was firstly conducted according to the structural or functional differences. Secondly, research progress on the construction of urban ecological corridors was systematically summarized and the main inadequacies were indicated. Following the analysis of the main methods employed in the construction of urban ecological corridors, existing methods were classified into three kinds, i.e. qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, and spatial analysis. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of the methods of subjective judgment, suitability and sensitivity analysis, network analysis, and minimum cost path analysis were compared. To provide theoretical support for the construction and management of urban ecological corridors, four key research directions were also pointed out, i.e. the identification of key nodes of urban ecological corridor, the determination of the width of urban ecological corridor, the measurement of integrated effect of urban ecological corridor, and the multi-scale integration of urban ecological corridor. The present study will aid in accelerating and improving the process of ecological corridors construction in China's new-type urbanization.