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As the basis for constructing ecological security network, the ecological source has been broadly understood as larger patches that provide important ecosystem services and high comprehensive habitat quality. But the traditional methods for identifying ecological source (e.g. selecting natural vegetation patches and connectivity analysis) are not suitable for the Yanhe River Basin due to its fragmented patches and high vegetation cover. With the progress of research, the multidimensional evaluation framework is used to extract ecological source to mine more function and characteristic of ecosystem. Considering the fragmented nature of patches and the rapid recovery characteristics of vegetation in the Yanhe River Basin, a comprehensive evaluation model was developed based on the three-dimensional framework of ecological adaptability cycle (potential-resilience-connectivity) to extract ecological source. Additionally, due to the insufficient size of the extracted ecological source area to meet the increasing demand for ecosystem services in the future, the potential patches with high ecosystem services and large distribution were considered as secondary ecological source, and the patches with weak connectivity but high potential resilience were as considered tertiary ecological source. Finally, the ecological corridors were delineated based on the three ecological sources and the selected ecological resistance surface. The primary ecological sources were predominantly located in the central region, where grassland was the dominant land use type. The secondary ecological sources were mainly distributed in the southern woodland belt with the highest ecological services, but further enhancements to these services were unattainable. The tertiary ecological sources were mainly distributed in the western region and represented high-quality potential targets for future ecological source expansion. Therefore, it is recommended to give priority to the construction of a primary ecological corridors. The secondary ecological corridors exhibit the lowest comprehensive resistance, and can be constructed concurrently with the primary ecological corridors. Given its highest total comprehensive resistance, construction of tertiary ecological corridors should be contingent upon economic feasibility.

As critical prerequisite for sustainable development research of social ecosystem (SDSE), the relationship between landscape security pattern and ecosystem services should be explicitly evaluated to support SDSE research. However, the existing evaluation system lacking of integrating analysts of the factors led to vague knowledge of the SDSE mechanism. To tackle this issue, this study, therefore, explored the relationship between landscape ecological risk and ecosystem services (e.g. carbon sequestration, soil conservation, water yield, crop production and residential support) at Xi’an Metropolitan Area using remote sensing data in 2010 and 2020. The results show that the overall landscape ecological risk decreased from 0.2618 to 0.2479. Although the rapid development of urban leading improvement for landscape ecological security and residential support, the total ecosystem services has declined due to the decline in water yield and crop production. Preventing the landscape ecological risk on landscape fragmentation cannot improve the level of ecosystem services. Notably, the stronger interference of human activities overwhelmingly caused a single advantageous ecosystem services with extreme risk, while the less caused multiple advantageous ecosystem services of ecological regulation with medium–low level ecological risk. Additionally, the competitive relationship between the crop production and residential support would not produce higher risk led by the intervention of human activity. The integrating of crop production and carbon sequestration (or soil conservation) resulted in high risk. Using these results, a potential spatial plan of Xi'an Metropolitan Area is then made based on multiple advantageous areas of ecosystem services. This study benefits decision-making for regional comprehensive risk prevention, future spatial pattern planning and development orientation, and sustainable development research of social ecosystem.