A novelty modeling approach to eliminate spatial conflicts and ecological barriers in mining areas of a resource-based city

High-intensity coal mining damages land cover and ecosystems, causing land use spatial conflicts and blockage of ecological connectivity. The optimal allocation of land resource spatial layout is an effective way to alleviate land use conflicts and enhance ecological connectivity. This study designed a patch-level index for evaluating land use conflicts of “production-living-ecology” space and constructed a weighted roulette wheel mechanism to guide the biomimetic intelligent optimization model in improving the connectivity between the research area and surrounding ecosystems. A case study of typical urban mining areas showed that (1) the index can effectively characterize the spatial conflicts from complexity, vulnerability, and competitiveness and serve as an optimization objective to alleviate conflicts in land use allocation; (2) barrier spots and ecological pinch points were identified to provide a reference for the model in discovering potential areas that can be supplemented as ecological sources and corridors; (3) with only 0.7% grid adjustment, land use conflict was reduced by 4.9% and all other objectives were improved. Findings provide theoretical and methodological framework supports for characterizing and optimizing the spatial conflicts and ecological connectivity in resource-based cities, which can guide the sustainability of urban development, resource exploitation, and ecosystem protection.