A functional classification method for examining landscape pattern of urban wetland park:a case study on Xixi Wetland Park,China

With the rapid approval and establishment of urban wetland parks,it is necessary to assess the sustainability of urban wetlands.The paper took Xixi Wetland Park as a case study area because of its representative of urban wetlands in China.Xixi National Wetland Park is located at the west part of Hangzhou,covering an area of 11.5km2,and featuring abundant ecological resources,beautiful natural scenes and a rich cultural heritage of many millennia.It is a model for integrating wetland ecological conservation,recreations,scientific research and education.We use Quick bird images and GIS to inventory information of landscape in Xixi Wetland Park,in particularly established a functional classification system for examining landscape pattern of urban wetland park.The results showed that:(1) patches and corridors in the landscape can be classified by the ecological conservation and the recreation according to their functional characteristics in Xixi Wetland Park;(2) Xixi Wetland Park is of the characteristics of both ecological conservation and rational utilization,in which 54% area for ecological protection and 46% area for tourism and recreation;(3) the ecological patches in Xixi Wetland park is featured with large area,complex shapes and low diversity,and the recreation patches is featured with small area,sample shapes and high diversity;(4) although the area of ecological corridors was only half of the recreational corridors,its network structure is quite complex,which is in favor of the conservation of wetlands in the park;(5) the ecological patches in the buffer areas of ecological corridors covered of 70.7%,and the recreational patches only account of 29.3%,which indicated that the ecological corridors performed a great role in connecting ecological parches.Synchronously,the ecological parches covering of 46.8% in the buffer areas of recreational corridors indicated that the recreational corridors not only can meet visitors,but also can be in favor of ecological protection;(6) the method of landscape pattern analysis based on functional classification is in favor of identifying spatial characteristics of landscape functions,and can exhibit the spatial relationship between ecological conservation and utilization for a landscape in urban park.