It’s significant to probe hydrological connectivity within the estuarine area for implementing the ecological restoration experiment on the damaged coastal wetland and the methodology development of wetland eco-hydrology. We established the Integrated Accessibility Index to Marine and Freshwater (IAIMF) to evaluate the hydrological connectivity based on the accessibility principles. 1 km grid was setup for quantifying spatially the grid based hydrological connectivity within the interaction zone of the freshwater and marine water in the Yellow River Estuary of China. The results demonstrated that: 1) IAIMF indicated a gradually changed hydrological connectivity from the freshwater dominative area to marine dominative area, which presented quantitatively the detailed spatial characteristics of the hydrological connectivity in the study area. 2) The correlation coefficient between the soil salinity data and IAIMF reached 0.694, demonstrating that IAIMF is reasonable to quantify the hydrological connectivity in the estuary area. 3) IAIMF played a good role for indicating the vegetation partition of marine-freshwater. IAIMF revealed a linkage between the spatial distribution of coastal wetland vegetation with environmental characteristics of creeks and soil salinity. Due to its presenting the key information of water accessibility to the wetland habitat, IAIMF can provide more effective and scientific schemes for decision makers on the costal wetland restoration and biodiversity conservation.

探索河口地区的水文连通性对实施沿海受损湿地生态恢复试验和湿地生态水文学方法学的发展具有重要意义。我们建立了海洋和淡水综合可及性指数（IAIMF），以基于可及性原则评估水文连通性。建立了1 km的网格，用于在空间上量化黄河口淡水与海水相互作用区域内基于网格的水文连通性。结果表明：1）IAIMF表明了从淡水主导区到海洋主导区的水文连通性逐渐变化，定量地显示了研究区域水文连通性的详细空间特征。2）土壤盐分数据与IAIMF的相关系数达到0.694，表明IAIMF可以合理地量化河口地区的水文连通性。3）IAIMF在指示海水淡水的植被分布方面发挥了很好的作用。IAIMF揭示了沿海湿地植被的空间分布与小溪的环境特征与土壤盐分之间的联系。由于提供了进入湿地生境的水可利用性的关键信息，IAIMF可以为决策者提供关于沿海湿地恢复和生物多样性保护的更有效和科学的计划。3）IAIMF在指示海水淡水的植被分布方面发挥了很好的作用。IAIMF揭示了沿海湿地植被的空间分布与小溪的环境特征和土壤盐分之间的联系。由于提供了进入湿地生境的水可利用性的关键信息，IAIMF可以为决策者提供关于海岸湿地恢复和生物多样性保护的更有效和科学的计划。3）IAIMF在指示海水淡水的植被分布方面发挥了很好的作用。IAIMF揭示了沿海湿地植被的空间分布与小溪的环境特征与土壤盐分之间的联系。由于提供了进入湿地生境的水可利用性的关键信息，IAIMF可以为决策者提供关于沿海湿地恢复和生物多样性保护的更有效和科学的计划。