ecological and socioeconomic targets., Though as one of the most valuable freshwater wetland in north china plain,
Hengshui Lake has been suffered from serious habitat fragmentation and ecological function degradation due to
increased human activities within and surrounding the nature reserve. Aiming at enhancing its ecological
performance while balancing the needs between the conservation priorities and indispensable socioeconomic
activities, we elaborated three scenarios of wetland restoration schemes considering the different scopes and
magnitude of wetland restoration, we identified the measures to realize the scenarios and modelled resulted wetland
landscape and landuse types spatial explicitly by using GIS technique, this research is expected to provide a
methodology and tool to develop restoration schemes for wetland restoration.
2. Study Area
Hengshui Lake national nature reserve has been established in 2002 aiming at conserving endangered waterbirds
and associate freshwater habitats (fig.1), which is regarded as the most ecologically valuable freshwater ecosystem
in North China Plain with a vast area of reed marsh. The total area of the reserve is 265.25km2, with its maximum
water storage capacity of 1.88 billion m3. The nature reserve provides wintering and perch habitats for a verities of
endangered waterbirds, especially acting as the most important wintering habitat for grey crane. In addition,
Hengshui lake also has special socioeconomic significance as it has been designated as a key hub of middle route for
world largest water project, i.e., the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP), which nevertheless will
greatly favor for its wetland development besides those socioeconomic benefits, therefore the wetland restoration in
Hengshui Lake can be supported by adequate water resources from SNWDP.