Abstract:

Background& Aim: Amid accelerating biodiversity loss and the growing mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation in policy and planning, a central challenge for urban-rural ecological spatial governance is how to translate complex ecological knowledge into spatial evidence that can inform planning and management. The surrogate species approach has long been valued in conservation biology because it can organize ecological information, identify conservation priorities, and support spatial intervention at relatively low informational and managerial cost. However, most existing applications remain rooted in protected-area designation and species-oriented conservation, and are not readily transferable to the multi-objective, multi-scalar, and implementation-oriented context of territorial spatial planning. This paper aims to reconsider the surrogate species approach from the perspective of urban-rural ecological spatial governance, clarify its planning-oriented conceptual boundaries, and explore how it may be translated into operational planning evidence and implementation pathways. 

Findings: The review shows that the surrogate species approach has gradually expanded from protected-area selection and species conservation toward broader spatial governance contexts, including ecological network construction, green-blue infrastructure optimization, watershed governance, and urban biodiversity enhancement. Nevertheless, several limitations remain. Conceptual boundaries among different surrogate-related categories are still blurred; application experiences are often fragmented and case-specific; cross-scenario and cross-scale integration is insufficient; and the spatial evidence derived from surrogate species has not been effectively incorporated into statutory planning processes. In response to these gaps, this paper develops a planning-oriented interpretive framework for the surrogate species approach. It proposes a translation logic linking ecological niches, ecological processes, and spatial planning, establishes a three-dimensional analytical framework structured around ecological baselines, disturbance intensity, and planning objectives, and discusses differentiated technical pathways for three typical scenarios: urban built-up areas, urban-rural transitional zones, and watershed-rural zones. It further identifies the main planning interfaces through which surrogate-species-based spatial evidence can enter county- and lower-level master plans, detailed plans, and special plans, and outlines an implementation framework composed of practical constraints, supporting conditions, and adaptive operation. 

Recommendations: The significance of the surrogate species approach does not lie in replacing the full complexity of ecosystems with a few representative species, but in providing an intermediate pathway through which ecological recognition can be transformed into spatial evidence and further incorporated into planning, implementation, and feedback processes. Future research should strengthen dynamic scenario simulation, cross-scale translation, multi- objective evaluation, institutional embedding, and the integration of intelligent technologies, so as to enhance the applicability and practical effectiveness of the surrogate species approach in urban-rural ecological spatial governance.

Key words: surrogate species, biodiversity mainstreaming, territorial spatial planning, ecological networks, green-blue infrastructure, spatial governance