Spatial planning and territorial development can be a major strategy to coordinate the management and utilization of regional resources and ecological protection patterns, and further to promote the modernization of space governance system, serving as the construction of ecological civilization and the sustainable development. Territorial ecological restoration is increasingly recognized as a useful process for biodiversity conservation, comprehensive remediation, and ecological restoration of territorial space, with emphasis on imbalanced regional spatial patterns, inefficient use of resources, and damaged ecological functions. It is also the key components of the preparation and implementation of territorial spatial planning. Ecological restoration zoning is an essential prerequisite to the rational preparation for the restoration planning of land and space, from the scientific and practical development points of view. Since the 1950s, most counties in China have carried out functionally dominant regionalization, such as agricultural divisions, economic divisions, land use divisions, urban functional divisions, ecological functional divisions, and main functional divisions of territorial land. There are different emphases on land spatial functional zoning, due to the different objectives and functional positioning of zoning, including various methods and theories for its division, while the varying factors and indicators of evaluation, together with the wide variety of space types and zoning grades. Recent developments in spatial planning in China have been posed a great challenge on the ecological restoration of territorial space, in terms of an emergence or revival of strategic spatial planning. It is necessary to explore an integrated or holistic approach to spatial development, based on a solid investigation of territorial spatial ecological restoration zoning, and a comprehensive spatial planning in a multiplicity of national and regional contexts. These activities can be used to accelerate territorial spatial ecological restoration, and thereby to enhance the carrying capacity of territorial space, finally to construct the territorial spatial ecological security pattern. The emergences of more strategic approaches in China have been interpreted in terms of a practical application of key principles of spatial planning, in order to promote ecological civilization, and institutional capacity building. In this study, the idea and method for ecological restoration zoning of territorial space were proposed using the dominant function, in combination with the "top-down" and "bottom-up" methods, based on the zoning positioning and connotation characteristics of leading functions in the regional land, ecology, and economy. The fundamentals of territorial spatial planning and ecological civilization constructions were also used, such as the "community of life theory", "production-life-ecology coordination theory", and "suitability management". Three main purposes are to: 1) find out the background of natural resources, while complete the basic division of the first-level ecological function; 2) evaluate the status of regional ecological function for the secondary zoning of ecological restoration pattern; 3) clarify the key areas of ecological restoration for the mode division of the third-level ecological restoration. Taking Jiangxi Province as a practical application subject, the ecological modification areas can be divided into 5 large zones, including 24 subzone and 70 restoration zone. The findings can provide a sound reference for the decision making during the implementation of ecological restoration projects, and land space management in Jiangxi. In zoning process, the regional differentiation law was selected to integrate ecological, economic, and social factors, according to the dominant ecological functions, and major ecological problems. An integrated or holistic zoning was achieved with the practical validity and feasibility. Four characteristics can be obtained: 1) to highlight the dominant function, 2) to follow the ecological law, 3) to be suitable for the spatial scale, 4) to strengthen the connection between the upper and lower level ecological function. In this method, a comprehensive consideration can be made, including the target orientation, function orientation, problem orientation, and task orientation, in order to gain the scientific zoning for the ecological restoration and comprehensive improvement of territorial space. There are still some needs to accurately predict the development trend of ecological restoration zoning, with emphasis on differences, simplicity, and operability. The research can provide a promising scientific and technological support to the planning, implementation, and management for the ecological restoration of territorial space. © 2020, Editorial Department of the Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering. All right reserved.
