Redai dili (Mar 2023)
Understanding and Thinking of Territorial Space Ecological Restoration Based on the Selection of Typical Cases in Guangdong Province
Abstract
After more than thirty years of rapid development, China has made great social and economic progress; however, this has inevitably damaged the ecological environment. The ecological environment is the foundation of human survival and development. With the development of social economy and the improvement of living standards, the demand for a better ecological and living environment is increasing. Therefore, ecological restoration of territorial spaces of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, and lakes, providing a good ecological and living environment for the people, and building a beautiful China has become necessary to promote the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature while achieving modernization. In terms of theory and method, ecological restoration of territorial space is a new discipline. In recent years, many scholars have proposed various theories, technologies, and methods of ecological restoration from the perspectives of traditional ecology, geography, planning, and other disciplines. Ecological restoration practices are supported by national policies and promoted by the people's needs, and numerous ecological restoration projects have been carried out across the country in recent years. These include the practice, verification, and exploration of ecological restoration theories. However, because these projects are scattered across different departments, provinces, cities, or regions, they are difficult to summarize and evaluate uniformly. Under the guidance of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Natural Resources, two rounds of selection of ecological restoration examples were conducted in Guangdong in 2019 and 2021, wherein the ecological restoration projects carried out by different cities and departments in Guangdong Province in recent years were reviewed and evaluated. Based on the analysis and evaluation of nearly 100 types of ecological restoration projects conducted in the two rounds of selection, this study aims to identify the problems, summarize experiences, and put forward suggestions. The purpose of this study is to provide references for future ecological restoration projects and promote comprehensive and sustainable ecological restoration in China (especially in Guangdong Province). The main domestic and foreign ecological restoration literature were reviewed and their theoretical framework, concerns, and technical methods were analyzed. Subsequently, we analyzed the regional distribution, type coverage, funds used, and other aspects of the selected cases, and evaluated multi-dimensional indicators, such as the improvement of ecological environment quality, optimization of landscape function, increase of economic benefits, and the strengthening of social benefits. Some typical problems were analyzed in greater detail by comparing the advanced ideas and methods both domestically and internationally. Our study also improves public knowledge and raises awareness of ecological restoration. The present study analyzed and summarized the available data regarding, and disclosed the issues associated with, the ecological protection and restoration measures in the Guangdong Province. These include the presence of unrestored regions selected for environmental conservation and restoration, the disorganized geographical distribution of projects, the failure to incorporate engineering approaches during the implementation of restoration measures, overexploitation, and the transformation of restoration-designated regions into landscape projects. These activities have not only failed to achieve ecological restoration, but have also destroyed the original environment and its ecology. The following reasons could be attributed to the failure of the existing restoration measures: firstly, a lack of authentic scientific principles that could be systematically applied to the varied ecosystems; secondly, inefficient overall planning at the provincial level; and finally, a lack of technical and scientific methods to perform in-depth analysis to combine, relate, coordinate, and integrate multiple factors. This study aims to serve as a reference for future ecological restoration projects by providing suggestions regarding overall planning at the provincial, city, and county levels to improve overall project management and ensure the sustainable and smooth operation of the ecological restoration projects.
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