Journal of Geographical Sciences >
Extent and spatial distribution of terrace abandonment in China
Dong Shijie, PhD, E-mail: dongsj.18b@igsnrr.ac.cn |
Received date: 2023-03-07
Accepted date: 2023-04-15
Online published: 2023-07-24
Supported by
Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China(41930757)
GDAS' Project of Science and Technology Development(2020GDASYL-20200104005)
Driven by urbanization and industrialization, arable land in hilly and mountainous regions of China is gradually becoming marginalized, with the extent of arable land abandonment rapidly expanding from poor-quality sloping arable land to high-quality terraces. The abandonment of large-scale terraces will lead to a series of socio-economic and ecological effects. A national sample survey was used to investigate the extent and spatial distribution of terrace abandonment in China, and a total of 560 valid village questionnaires from 329 counties were collected in the mountainous areas of China. The main findings are as follows: (1) The phenomenon of terrace abandonment was widespread throughout the country, with 54% of the total surveyed villages exhibiting terrace abandonment, and the area of abandoned terraces accounting for 9.79% of the total. (2) The degree of terrace abandonment is high in the south and low in the north. The most serious region with abandonment was the hilly and mountainous areas in the south, especially in the middle and lower Yangtze River region. (3) The main driving factors of terrace abandonment were rural labor migration, agricultural mechanization level, irrigation conditions, and transportation conditions for cultivation. Targeted measures should be taken based on the specific conditions of each area to alleviate terrace abandonment. Measures such as improving terrace mechanization are universally applicable. Specifically, low-quality terraces can be withdrawn orderly, and for high-quality terraces, multiple measures are needed to consolidate agricultural production, such as adjusting the planting structure, strengthening agricultural infrastructure construction, and encouraging the transfer of land-use rights as well as large-scale operation.
Key words: terraces; arable land abandonment; national sample survey; spatial variation; China
DONG Shijie , XIN Liangjie , LI Shengfa , XIE Hualin , ZHAO Yuluan , WANG Xue , LI Xiubin , SONG Hengfei , LU Yahan . Extent and spatial distribution of terrace abandonment in China[J]. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2023 , 33(7) : 1361 -1376 . DOI: 10.1007/s11442-023-2133-7
Figure 1 Regions of terraced fields and provincial areas of terraced fields in ChinaNote: Figure 1a is based on the standard map (GS (2016) 1595) downloaded from the standard map service website of the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the base map is unmodified, the same below. |
Figure 2 Distribution of the surveyed counties in China |
Figure 3 Temporal changes of surveyed villages with terrace abandonment in China |
Figure 4 The number of surveyed villages with terrace abandonment in China |
Figure 5 Provincial terrace abandonment rate in China |
Figure 6 The primary driving factors of terrace abandonment |
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