Rural land use transition of mountainous areas and policy implications for land consolidation in China

doi:10.1007/s11442-019-1687-x

Abstract

Abstract:

The cultivation of mountainous land results in water loss and soil erosion. With rapid urbanization and industrialization in China, labor emigration relieves the cultivation of mountainous areas in regions with high poverty and leads to a significant land use transition. This research built an analysis framework for “land use transition - driving mechanism - effects - responses” for mountainous areas of China undergoing land use transition and then proposed the direction of mountainous land consolidation. The results showed that the turning point of land use morphology was the core of rural land use transition in mountainous areas. The expansion of cropland and the contraction of forestland have transitioned to the abandonment of cropland and the expansion of forestland; this transition was the main characteristic of the dominant land use change. Land marginalization and land ecological functional recovery were the main characteristics of the recessive land use transition in mountainous areas. Socioeconomic factors were the primary driving forces during land use transition in mountainous areas, with labor emigration being the most direct force. The rising costs of farming and the challenging living conditions causing labor emigration were fundamental driving forces. Rural land use transition in mountainous areas reduced the vulnerability of the ecological function of land ecosystems. The advantages and disadvantages of the socioeconomic effects should focus on rural development of mountainous areas as well as the livelihood of farmers; this should be further supported by empirical and quantitative research. Rural land use transition of mountainous areas improves natural restoration and is related to socioeconomic development. Rural land consolidation of mountainous areas should conform to land use transition, with the goal of shifting from the increase of cultivated land to the synergies of ecological and environmental protection.

Key words: land use transition, driving force, effect, land consolidation, mountainous area

ZHANG Bailin, SUN Piling, JIANG Guanghui, ZHANG Ruijuan, GAO Jiangbo. Rural land use transition of mountainous areas and policy implications for land consolidation in China[J].Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2019, 29(10): 1713-1730.

Figures/Tables 6

Figure 1

Table 1

Table 2

Characteristics of land use transition in mountainous countryside of China"

Contents of land use transition	Region	Characteristics of land use transition
Farmland abandonment	Mountainous areas in Chongqing	In 2011, the abandonment rate of farmland in Wulong County, Chongqing, was 12.8%, and the abandoned proportion of villages in middle and high mountain areas was 20% (Zhang et al., 2014).
	Mountainous areas in Chongqing	The abandonment rate of farmland in three counties, Shizhu, Wushan, and Youyang, of Chongqing in 2011 were 14%, 19.9%, and 19.2% respectively; the average abandonment rate was 18%, and the abandonment rate (20.4%) in dry land was higher than that of the paddy field abandoned (11.5%) (Shi and Xu, 2016).
	Mountainous areas in southern Ningxia	From 2008 to 2009, the abandonment rate of farmland, especially sloping fields and dry land, was 37.5%, while less irrigated land was abandoned (Tian et al., 2010b).
	Mountainous areas in Shaanxi	In 2014, the abandoned land of Mizhi County in 2014 accounted for 32.54%, which was mainly distributed in the sunny side and large slope area of the mountain, and the possibility of farmland abandonment in the sunny side was greater than that in the shaded hillside (Song et al., 2016).
	Whole country	13.5% and 15% of the agricultural land was in idle state, respectively, through the investigation of 29 provinces and 262 counties and cities in the country in 2011 and 2013 (Li and Li, 2016). During 2014-2015, the abandonment rate of farmland in mountainous counties was 14.32%, showing a distribution pattern of “south-high and north-low” at the provincial level. The abandonment rate for the Yangtze River Basin was the highest, while that for the northeastern mountainous area was the lowest (Li et al., 2017).
Homestead idle and abandoned	Typical villages in China	The average hollowing rate of the typical villages in China was 10.15% in 2010. The hollowing rate (12.24%) of homestead in mountainous countryside was higher than that of the plain area (9.91%) and hillock area (5.86%) (Song et al., 2013).
Forestland expansive	Chongqing	The forest coverage rate in Chongqing increased from 23.1% in 2000 to 42.1% in 2012, among them, the contribution rate of barren hills and wasteland to farmland area was 40%, and the conversion of farmland to forest was 28% (He et al., 2016).
	Three Gorges Reservoir area	The proportion of forest area in the Three Gorges Reservoir area increased from 54.66% to 55.05% from 1992 to 2012 (Shao et al., 2014).
	Whole country	During 1980-1990, forestland area has changed from continuous reduction to restorative growth in China, and conversion of farmland to forest and closed forest played an important role (Li and Zhao, 2011).

Table 2

Table 3

Figure 2

Figure 3

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Land use transition	Characteristic attribute	Characteristic index	Connotative diagnosis
Morphological transition of dominant land use	Change of quantitative structure /use conversion	The area of land and its proportion, the rate of abandoned farmland, forest and grass coverage	Farmland evolved from continuous reclamation to abandonment, and forestland changed from continuous contraction to restorative growth
Morphological transition of dominant land use	Change of spatial layout	The terrain gradient of arable land abandonment, the terrain gradient covered by forest and grass, landscape morphological features of land use	Farmland abandonment and natural vegetation restoration occurred in poor land with steep slope and thin soil
Morphological transition of recessive land use	Change of land use intensity	Input-output index, average actual farming area, average labor input	The land pressure index decreased, and land marginalization took place
Morphological transition of recessive land use	Change of land function	Production capacity of biological products, proportion of productive land use, supply capacity of ecological products, proportion of ecological land	The ecological function of land converted from degradation to recovery; the important production function of land is relatively low

Index of land use morphology	Measurement of land use transition	Literature
The proportion of rural homesteads to total construction land (the change of single land use type in time series)	Rural homestead/increase of construction land	Long, 2006
Quantitative change of regional land use types in time series	Dynamic degree of land use	Guo et al., 2016
Transfer of regional land use types	Land use transfer matrix	Chen et al., 2015; Liu and Long, 2016
Spatial changes of production land use area/living land use area/ecological land use area	Gravity center model	Lv et al., 2013
Transfer coupling of cultivated land and rural homestead	Correlation analysis, coupling coefficient of cultivated land and homestead change	Long and Li, 2012
Spatial changes of per capita cultivated land area and crop yield per unit of cultivated land	Moran’s I index, Local Moran’s I index	Xiang et al., 2016
Tertiary industrial gross output value and its change per unit land area	Tertiary industrial gross output value in district under its jurisdiction/the area of district under its jurisdiction	Qu and Long, 2016