The Three Gorges Reservoir Area (Chongqing section) is one of the segments in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River ecological barriers. Rapid urbanization has posed a significant challenge to balancing human activities and ecosystem services in recent years. Regional ecological security can depend mainly on the water and flood control in the National Key Ecological Function Zone and the priority area for biodiversity conservation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Land use has also encroached on the ecological space under the Three Gorges Project and urban expansion. Fortunately, ecological restoration has alleviated the pressures, such as grain-for-green and shelterbelt construction. It is often required for the increasingly diverse demands on the ecosystem under the spatial expansion of urbanization. However, conventional ecosystem service is predominantly limited to assess the supply-side economy valuation and supply–demand relationships. In this study, a three-tier conflict–adaptation framework was developed to assess the ecosystem services. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework was also integrated with Schwartz's theory of human values. The Chongqing section of the reservoir was applied from 2006 to 2015 and 2024. The framework was used to examine: 1) the interactions among seven supply services (water yield, food production, carbon storage, PM₂.₅ removal, landscape aesthetics supply, habitat quality supply, and soil conservation supply); 2) value–driven dynamics among seven demand services (water demand, food demand, carbon emissions, PM_2.5 exposure risk, landscape aesthetics demand, habitat quality demand, and soil conservation demand); and 3) coupling between the function and capacity subsystem. Results reveal that there was a “scissors-shaped” spatial divergence: the high-conflict zones were concentrated in the metropolitan Chongqing and radiated southeastward along the main Yangtze channel, while the high-adaptation areas expanded southwestward from the northern mid-reservoir toward inland regions. Supply-side analysis indicated that the structural reconfiguration of the service relationship was weakened or reversed into trade-offs. On the demand side, the activities driven by the “hedonism–self-direction–stimulation” values (e.g., carbon emissions and landscape aesthetics demand) increasingly intersect with those rooted in the “security–tradition–universalism” (e.g., water demand, food demand, and habitat quality demand). There was the society transition from the basic subsistence into material and experiential well-being, and from the single-dimensional evaluation to multi-system dynamic analysis. This framework was used to bridge the gap between human values and ecosystem service demands. Furthermore, the targeted strategies—such as the graded restoration in the conflict zones and radiation effects from the adaptation zones–were proposed to align with the specific value orientations for the habitat quality demand and PM_2.5 removal. This approach can transfer for the river basins like the development–conservation tensions. Spatially explicit planning can also support the “mountains–rivers–forests–farmlands–lakes–grasslands–deserts” life community.

Homestead reconstruction is one of the most effective means to govern rural planning. Traditional research cannot fully consider the individual differences of rural homesteads, easily leading to uneven spatial development, and even social and economic problems. In this study, a novel framework of rural settlement was reconstructed to integrate the land suitability and reconstruction urgency of rural homesteads. The individual differences were considered in the rural homesteads using a questionnaire survey in Pingba Village, Chongqing City, in southwest China. This framework combined the differentiated characteristics of rural homesteads, in terms of the concentration ratio, utilization status, livelihood, travel convenience, and willingness to relocate. A comprehensive evaluation index was established to divide the rural homesteads into different reconstruction types. Participatory rural assessment (PRA) was selected to conduct the questionnaire survey in all 292 peasant households living in the study area. The results show that: 1) more than half of the rural settlements were distributed in the high-suitability areas before reconstruction. A trend of agglomeration was found under the complex terrain and location conditions in the mountainous areas. 2) The scale of rural homesteads were expanded three times that need to be optimized in the study area after considering individual differences, compared with only land suitability. The newly added rural homesteads shared the land suitability, but there was low utilization or a conflict between the expected production output and lifestyle. 143 rural homesteads were then determined to be optimized using reconstruction, according to their own utilization problems. The obstacles of these homesteads were identified, in terms of the utilization status, travel convenience, and concentration ratio. 3) The land suitability and individual needs were comprehensively considered to divide into five types: the retained, locally rebuilt, integrated, production-, and travel-based relocated homestead. The proportions of the five types of homesteads were 34.79%, 22.89%, 9.04%, 16.94%, and 16.34%, respectively. Furthermore, the types were varied in the different reconstruction needs. Among them, the retained homesteads were the fundamental reconstruction. Production- and travel-based relocated homesteads needed to be optimized and reconstructed after relocation. 4) The five types of homesteads constituted of three optimization modes: relocation, integration, and space replacement. The new spatial pattern of rural settlements was established after rebuilding, relocating, and replacing the five types. Finally, 10.34 hm² of construction land resources were saved after optimization, which was far greater than the amount of the conserved when considering only the land suitability. The integration and replacement modes were added to produce the more complex reconstruction of rural homesteads within the village, compared with the simple demolition and relocation. The rural homesteads were shifted from areas of low or no suitability into high ones, indicating the increasing number. Therefore, the larger scale of rural homesteads in the regions with the higher suitability was conducive to the realization of a new pattern with the moderately centralized residency in the mountainous villages. The reconstruction significantly improved the level of agricultural suitability in the rural homesteads, fully meeting the differentiated needs of farmers for utilization. The finding can provide a new perspective on rural planning and space governance. An exploratory tool can be expected for rural space optimization, considering the influence of individual differences in the rural homesteads on the rural reconstruction plans.