Henan, China, is likely the most populous agricultural province worldwide. It is China’s major grain-producing area, with a continuously increasing population (96 million), which is greater than 93% of countries worldwide. However, this province has been experiencing unprecedented urbanization recently due to national policies and measures, such as a plan to build the capital city of Henan into a national center, resulting in severe conflicts in land use that endanger food security regionally and globally. To facilitate decision-making on this problem, we explored the detailed urban-rural development of Henan by modeling these land-use conflicts. Conventional modeling of a region’s urban-rural development is to navigate trade-offs (a) solely between different land-use types (b) by assuming that each type provides a single service (e.g., croplands produce all the food), and (c) under a polynomial regression-based projection of population. In contrast, we considered both land-use type and intensity, resulting in a detailed land system for Henan. By introducing the concept of land system services (e.g., food production), we established a many-to-many relationship between land system classes and services. These allowed us to carry out the most comprehensive modeling of Henan’s urban-rural development under eighteen combined scenarios of population growth and land-use policies on food production. The modeling results of these scenarios provide a solid basis for making decisions regarding Henan’s urban-rural development. We also revealed the influence mechanism of population growth, land-use policies, and their combinations, highlighting the benefits of securing food production by agricultural intensification rather than merely expanding the area of cropland.
The dramatic land use changes that occur in rapidly urbanized areas are important inducement to changes in the eco-environmental quality. Investigating urban land use changes and their eco-environmental quality responses can provide theoretical support and a decision-making basis for sustainable and high-quality development in rapidly urbanizing areas. Taking Wuhan, China, as the study area, this paper extracts land use information using Landsat satellite remote sensing images and a support vector machine classification. Based on this, a remote sensing-based ecological index evaluation model including humidity, greenness, dryness and heat is constructed to explore the changes in land use and their eco-environmental quality responses from 2000 to 2018. The results show that (1) the structure, extent and spatial layout of land use in Wuhan from 2000 to 2018 have undergone tremendous changes under rapid urbanization, and the change of construction land is the greatest among all land use types; (2) the overall quality of eco-environment in Wuhan continues to improve as the scale of the improved eco-environment areas is greater than that of the deteriorated areas. The direction and magnitude of the impact of each indicator on the eco-environmental quality are different; (3) the improvement or deterioration of eco-environmental quality is closely related to the changes of different land use types within the study area. The eco-environmental quality shows significant spatial heterogeneity, especially between the main urban areas and the suburban areas. This paper argues that reasonably adjusting the land use structure can serve to maintain or even improve the quality of the regional eco-environment. Finally, this study puts forward suggestions for the coordinated development of land use and the eco-environment in rapidly urbanizing areas.
High-intensity land use and resource overloaded-induced regional land use spatial pattern (LUSP) are essential and challenging for high-quality development. The empirical studies have shown that a scientific land uses spatial layout, and the supporting system should be based on a historical perspective and require better considering the double influence between the current characteristics and future dynamics. This study proposes a comprehensive framework that integrates the resource environment carrying capacity (RECC) and land use change (LUC) to investigate strategies for optimizing the spatial pattern of land use for high-quality development. China’s Zhengzhou city was the subject of a case study whose datasets include remote sensing, spatial monitoring, statistics, and open sources. Three significant results emerged from the analysis: (1) The RECC has significant spatial differentiation but does not follow a specific spatial law, and regions with relatively perfect ecosystems may not necessarily have better RECC. (2) From 2020 to 2030, the construction land and farmland will fluctuate wildly, with the former increasing by 346.21 km2 and the latter decreasing by 295.98 km2. (3) The study area is divided into five zones, including resource conservation, ecological carrying, living core, suitable construction, and grain supply zones, and each one has its LUSP optimization orientation. This uneven distribution of RECC reflects functional defects in the development and utilization of LUSP. In addition, the increase in construction land and the sharp decline of farmland pose potential threats to the sustainable development of the study area. Hence, these two elements cannot be ignored in the future high-quality development process. The findings indicate that the LUSP optimization based on dual dimensions of RECC and LUC is more realistic than a single-dimension solution, exhibiting the LUSP optimization’s effectiveness and applicability.
Land spaces function in capacities of urban development, agricultural production, and ecological conservation, among many others. Research of land space utilization efficiency (LSUE) and coupling coordination relationships among its subsystems are significant for sustainable land space development. In this study, taking the Urban Agglomeration in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR) as the study area, we establish a measurement index system to evaluate the LSUE (2000-2018) and analyze its coupling coordination degree by utilizing an improved coupling coordination model. The main results include the following. (1) The average efficiency levels of urban space and agricultural space in the UAMRYR increased 2000-2018, while the average efficiency of ecological space declined. (2) The spatial pattern of the LSUE values varied greatly, with the distributions of high-efficiency and low-efficiency levels significantly different. (3) The coupling degree of LSUE includes three types, i.e., high-level coupling, break-in, and antagonism. Each coupling degree type was characterized by change over time. (4) The proportion of areas with high coupling coordination and moderate coupling coordination increased from 2000 to 2018, while the proportion of areas with basic coupling coordination, moderate imbalance, and serious imbalance declined during this period. Given that the spatial differentiation of the LSUE and its coupling coordination, it is necessary to implement a differential land space development strategy in the UAMRYR. This study is helpful to promote the efficient utilization and coordinated development of land space utilization systems.
Based on the carrying capacity of the resources and the environment, this article defines the connotation of the land multifunctional space (LMFS) from three aspects, ecological protection, agricultural production and urban construction, in the new era of land space planning system. Moreover, a framework is constructed for the coordinated development of the multi-functional oriented space to match the use of land space (ULS) with the supply of resources and environment (SRE). Based on this, the technology and methods of comprehensive evaluation, dominance recognition, and matching relationship division functions of the use of land space (FULS) and functions of the supply of resources and environment (FSRE) are discussed. The advantageous functions of the use of land space (AFULS) and advantageous functions of the supply of resources and environment (AFSRE) are also identified in the study area. A LMFS coordinated development system integrating “function position-comprehensive partition-regulation strategy” is proposed. Through the empirical study of Shandong province, we found that, first, the FULS of ecological protection space in the province is mainly found in high value areas, and the FSRE is mainly in low value areas, which has certain complementarity in the space. The FULS of agricultural production space is mainly observed in high value areas, the FSRE is mainly in middle value areas, and the spatial distribution is balanced and staggered. The FULS of the urban construction space and the FSRE are mainly in middle values areas, and the spatial distribution is basically similar. Second, the FULS in the study area is dominated by the single advantage of agricultural production and urban construction, while the FSRE has a relatively balanced distribution of the advantages of ecological protection, single agricultural production and compound advantages of agricultural production and urban construction, and urban construction and ecological protection. The matching between the two is mainly at high and middle levels. Specifically, 70% of the province’s land space still has a certain development and utilization potential, and 30% of ULS intensity is close to or exceeds the resource and environment carrying capacity. Third, considering the comprehensive impact of resource endowment, social and economic development and policy and institutional environment on different matching relationships, this paper constructs the land spatial development strategic pattern of “two screens-seven regions-multicore” positioning and “four regions-eight categories” hierarchical area of Shandong at the macro level, and puts forward a differentiated land space development strategy.
Rapid economic development and human activities have severely affected ecosystem function. Analysis of the spatial distribution of areas of rapid urbanization is the basis for optimizing urban-ecological spatial design. This paper evaluated the spatial distribution of urbanization in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region, and then quantified the ecosystem services (ES) budget in the region based on an ES supply and demand matrix. The results showed that (1) urbanization patterns in the BTH region were relatively stable from 2000 to 2015, with clear patterns of low levels of urbanization in the northwest and high levels in the southeast; (2) areas with positive ES budget values were found throughout the region, except in built-up areas, with high ES supply areas concentrated in the northwest, and high ES demand areas in the southeast; (3) at both the county and prefecture-city levels, urbanization had negative, positive, and negative correlations with ES supply, demand, and budget, respectively; (4) the coupling coordination degree (CCD) increased, with high CCD values in the southeast. Based on these results, policy recommendations include strengthening rational land-use planning and ecosystem management, promoting the coordinated development of the economy and ecological function, and coordinating the provision of production-life- ecological functions.
Identifying the dynamics of the eco-efficiency of cultivated land use (ECLU) is important to balance food security and environmental protection. The Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is a vital region of national strategic development in China. However, the spatio-temporal characteristics and typical patterns of the ECLU in the YREB remain unclear. This study aims to reveal the spatio-temporal characteristics of the ECLU by using the super-efficiency slack-based measure (SBM) and a spatial autocorrelation model. The typical patterns of the ECLU were classified based on a decision tree algorithm. The results indicate that the overall ECLU increased from 0.78 to 0.87 from 2000 to 2019, dropping sharply in 2003 before rising again. Different reaches had similar trends. The local indicators of spatial association (LISA) cluster reflect that the spatial distributions of high-high and low-low agglomeration varied dramatically among these years. The ECLU was divided into three typical patterns considering the restriction of agrochemicals and water resources (RAW), cultivated land and agrochemicals (RCA), as well as technology (RT). Most cities belonged to the low ECLU category in RT pattern. Fully understanding the spatio-temporal characteristics and classification of the ECLU will provide a reference for decision-makers to improve the ECLU in different regions.
Building the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is one of China’s three national development policies in the new era. The ecological environment of the Yangtze River Economic Belt must be protected not only for regional economic development but also for regional ecological security and ecological progress in this region. This paper takes the ecological space of the Yangtze River Economic Belt as the research object, based on land use data in 2010 and 2015, and uses the FLUS model to simulate and predict the ecological space of the research area in 2035. The variation of the research area’s ecological space area and its four sub-zones has remarkable stability under diverse situations. Both the production space priority scenarios (S1) and living space priority scenarios (S2) saw a fall in ecological space area, with the former experiencing the highest reduction (a total reduction of 25,212 km2). Under the ecological space priority scenarios (S3) and comprehensive space optimization scenario (S4), the ecological space area increased, and the ecological space area expanded even more under the former scenario (a total growth of 23,648 km2). In Yunnan-Guizhou, the ecological space is relatively stable, with minimal signs of change. In Sichuan-Chongqing, the Sichuan Basin, Zoige Grassland, and Longmen Mountains were significant regions of area changes in ecological space. In the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the ecological space changes mainly occur in the Wuyi Mountains, Mufu Mountains, and Dabie Mountains, as well as the surrounding waters of Dongting Lake. The Yangtze River Delta’s changes were mainly observed in the eastern Dabie Mountains and Jianghuai Hills.
Rapid economic and social change promotes to improve human wellbeing (HW), but poses threats to ecosystems and the environment. Studying the coupling relationship between HW and ecosystem services (ES) is crucial for informing high-quality development. Firstly, we built a comprehensive index system for HW assessment, and evaluated HW for 17 prefecture-level cities in Shandong province, China, from 2000 to 2018. Then, we quantified ES based on land use data. Finally, we assessed the coupling coordination degree and analyzed the relationships between HW and each type of ES value. The results were as follows: (1) HW values increased overall in Shandong, with the highest value in Jinan (0.8034) and the lowest value in Heze (0.4965) in 2018. (2) The total ES values for the 17 cities increased slightly. The ranking of 17 cities according to the ES value per unit area was different from the ranking according to the total ES value. (3) All 17 cities in Shandong were in the coordinated development phase after 2015, with increasing coupling coordination degrees. There were clear positive relationships between HW and ES. General and specific policy recommendations were proposed, providing scientific evidence and a reference for Shandong’s urban management and policy formulation.
In recent years, Cadmium (Cd) pollution has been found in many soil geochemical surveys in Northern Zhejiang Plain, a crucial rice production area in East China, located in the lower Yangtze River. To more scientifically predict the effect of soil Cd on rice safety, data including 348 local rhizosphere soil-rice samples obtained in 2014 were used in this study. Meanwhile, we extracted 90% of random samples as variables based on soil Cd content (Cdsoil), soil organic matter (SOM), pH, and other indicators. In addition, a multivariate linear model for rice Cd content (Cdrice) prediction based on the indicators including the soil Cd content (Cdsoil), the soil organic matter (SOM), and the pH value. The remaining 10% of random samples were used for the significance test. Based on the 2014 soil Cd content (Cdsoil14) and the 2019 soil Cd content (Cdsoil19), this study predicted Cd content in 2019 rice grains (Cdp-rice19). The spatio-temporal variation of Cdrice was contrasted in the five years from 2014 to 2019, and the risk areas of rice safety production were analyzed using the Geographical Information System (GIS). The results indicated that compared with the actual Cd content in 2014 rice grains (Cdrice14), the proportion of Cdp-rice19, which exceeded the standard food level in China (GB2762-2017), increased dramatically. Moreover, the high-value areas of Cdrice distributed greatly coincidentally in these two years. By contrast, both Cdrice and Cdsoil show very different spatial scales. The dominant reason is the distribution of the local canal systems, indicating that economic activities and agricultural irrigation may aggravate the risk of soil Cd pollution, thus threatening safe rice production.
