The Pattern Analysis of Wilderness in Malong District, Qujing City

The study maps the distribution of wilderness in Malong District by carrying out overlay analysis, which choosing the remoteness from settlements, remoteness from access, population distribution density and biophysical naturalness as 4 indicators. The study also analyzes and evaluates the horizontal distribution, altitude distribution, landscape pattern and protection space of the wilderness area. According to the results, the wilderness in Malong District shows a zonal structure distribution in horizontal space. The central region has a large wilderness and relatively high quality. In the peripheral area, the wilderness is small and the quality is low, and the phenomenon of 'isolation' and 'fragmentation' is serious. The quality of the wilderness in the most peripheral area is obviously improved and the integrity is high. Malong District has large reserves of high-quality wilderness which is distributed in the altitude from 1 957 m to 2 178 m mainly, and the area proportion is 52.92%. The first-level wilderness patches has the best connectivity, the second-level and third-level wilderness patches are more fragmented, and the fourth-level wilderness patches has the most complex shape. Existing protection forms do not cover all the high-quality wilderness. The analysis suggests that more wilderness reserve should be established in Malong District to increase the protection coverage for high-quality wilderness and the artificial methods should be used to restore and improve the quality of low-quality wilderness at the same time. The research can provides references for the works of wilderness protection in Malong District.