Objective In view of the problems of unsystematic evaluation system and difficult quantification of ecological importance and management feasibility in the spatial planning of national parks, standards were set for national parks. Taking the candidate areas of Xiaoxing’anling National Park as an example, a multidimensional comprehensive evaluation framework was constructed and its priority planning areas were identified to promote the systematization of National Park spatial planning and provide reference for the construction of national park system in China.

Method Through the construction of a three-dimensional evaluation system of “national representativeness-ecological importance-management feasibility”, AHP-EWM weight method were used to carry out comprehensive evaluation and spatial analysis combined with GIS, MaxEnt, FRAGSTATS, CASA and InVEST models, and the priority planning areas of national parks with the widest range of suitable areas for representative species, the strongest landscape representativeness, the highest ecological integrity and authenticity, and strong management feasibility within the Xiaoxinganling research area were identified.

Result (1) The weights of the criteria layer are national representativeness (0.434), ecological importance (0.316) and management feasibility (0.250), respectively. Representativeness plays a dominant role in the identification of priority planning areas of national parks. (2) In the dimension of national representativeness, the weight of species representativeness was the highest (0.550), and the AUC values of MaxEnt model of seven representative species were higher than 0.8, and the suitable areas were mainly concentrated in the south central part of the study area, which was consistent with the distribution of high-grade landscape. (3) In the dimension of ecological importance, the weight of ecological integrity is relatively large (0.662). The overall differentiation pattern of ecological pattern process service is high in the middle and low in the periphery, which is consistent with the authenticity evaluation results. (4) In the dimension of management feasibility, the population density in the study area is relatively low, less than 20 people/km²within about 50%, and the central and southeast regions have high concentration of protected areas, which have good management and construction foundation and public service conditions. (5) The comprehensive evaluation results show that the optimal planning area of Xiaoxing'anling National Park candidate area is about 17613.6 km², accounting for 14.05% of the total area of the study area, and the better planning area accounts for about 10.88%. The priority planning areas are mainly concentrated in Yichun City and the south of Xunke County, Heihe City.

Conclusion The priority planning area of Xiaoxing'anling National Park is highly consistent with the subentry results of the dimensions of representativeness, importance and feasibility, showing significant spatial agglomeration characteristics. The central region with Yichun City and Xunke County in Heihe City as the core has high ecological integrity and authenticity, which is an important support for regional ecological security. The multi-dimensional comprehensive evaluation framework constructed in this study provides quantitative basis and technical support for the scientific identification and spatial optimization of the candidate areas of Xiaoxing'anling National Park, which can provide reference for the construction of natural conservation land system and land spatial planning with national park as the main body, and has certain reference significance for the planning and management of candidate areas of other national parks.