Abstract: The construction of urban green space networks (UGSN) should be adapted to local conditions such as climate, physiognomy, and development status. Taking the core urban area of Lanzhou as an example, we comprehensively used importance evaluation of ecological land, Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA), and modified Minimum Cumulative Resistance (MCR) to construct UGSN in arid hilly area of Northwest China. The results showed that the UGSN in the core urban area of Lanzhou consists of 22 key ecological sources, 1162.89 kilometers-long ecological corridors, and 71 ecological strategic points. The main parts of key ecological sources are grassland and bare land, accounting for more than 70%. The key ecological source area scattered in the built-up area is small, whose ecological value, however, is not lower than that of large natural basement around the built-up areas. The construction of UGSN through the comprehensive application of the importance evaluation of ecological land, MSPA and modified MCR model can simultaneously take into account ecological benefits and morphological attributes of ecological land as well as its significance in the whole ecological pattern, and maximize ecological value with minimum land area, which is suitable for the ecological construction of high-density cities in the arid hilly regions of Northwest China.

Key words: urban green space network, arid hilly area of Northwest China, importance evaluation of ecological land, MSPA, minimal cumulative resistance