Measures and planning for wetland restoration of Xianghe Segment of China’s Grand Canal

ABSTRACT

Wetlands are critical components in the landscape of Xianghe Segment of China’s Grand Canal (XSCGC) as they have many ecological functions such as water purification, habitat and biodiversity maintenance, and provide a lot of ecosystem services for human society. However, severe deterioration and destruction of the wetlands in XSCGC not only have caused the loss of ecological functions and ecosystem services, but also have threatened ecosystem health and stability of the Grand Canal. The restoration of wetland ecosystem of the XSCGC has become an important task. Based on field investigation, this paper analyzed the main ecological problems and their causes, proposed XSCGC wetland restoration measures, including water quality improvement, vegetation and habitat restoration, river channel reconstruction, and wetland reserve establishment and management. Further we proposed a dual-core wetland ecosystem pattern for XSCGC to restore wetland ecosystem and promotion of its ecosystem service, using the principle and methodology of landsenses ecology under comprehensive consideration of the background conditions of river and wetland ecosystems of XSCGC. In this pattern, we designed two key wetlands, namely upstream wetland and downstream wetland, and proposed their reconstruction goals of ecosystem services.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecological restoration
• ecological planning
• ecosystem management
• wetland
• pattern
• China’s Grand Canal

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Supporting Program of the 12th Five-Year Plan for Science and Technology Research of China [grant number 2012BAJ24B05].