Background  With the aim to support coordinated development of ecology, production and living, which is the requirement of soil and water conservation in the New Era, it is necessary to classify the small watersheds into different categories and implement targeted guidance according to local conditions. Current studies on small watershed classification were mainly focusing on the differences of small watersheds in natural conditions and requirements for soil and water conservation, while the synergic relationship between ecological protection and development of production and living condition was not fully considered.

Methods  This paper proposed a small watershed classification system in consideration of both ecological conservation and development of production-living functions. Analytic hierarchy process and step-by-step judgment method were adopted to identify the category of small watershed according to a set of indicators that were selected through literature research. In order to validate the feasibility of the proposed small watershed classification system, an empirical study was conducted in Jiangsu province using data achieved from dynamic monitoring of regional soil and water loss, as well as data collected from public report on natural environment and social-economic development.

Results  1) A two-level small watershed classification system was proposed. The first-level categories, namely high ecological sensitivity, medium ecological sensitivity and low ecological sensitivity were classified based on ecological security. The second level categories, namely industry agglomeration, green development, urban livable, beautiful village, landscape leisure and ecological conservation, were classified based on the dominant function in production and living. 2) With 14 indicators selected in consideration of ecology, production and living, a multi-criteria decision model of ecological sensitivity and a progressive decision model of dominant function in production and living were constructed respectively. 3) The proposed method was applied to classify the 3909 small watersheds in Jiangsu province as an empirical study. As for the first level classification, the category of low ecological sensitivity was the majority, accounting for 62.98%. As for the second level classification, categories of green development, ecological conservation and landscape leisure accounted for 23.92%, 23.10% and 20.13% respectively, followed by the categories of beautiful village and urban livable, accounting for 17.32% and 10.69%. The category of industry agglomeration was less, accounting for 4.83%.

Conclusions  The small watershed classification method based on ecology-production-living can comprehensively reflect the small watershed characteristics in terms of ecological protection and dominant production-living function. The proposed leading direction and priority of development for comprehensive management of each categories of small watershed could provide a scientific basis for the classified construction of small watersheds.