Potential Land Use Conflict Identification Based on Improved Multi-Objective Suitability Evaluation

A system dynamics-based synergistic model of urban production-living-ecological systems: An analytical framework and case study

Human-land coordination represents urbanization and is a key component of urban modernization. In this study, the theory of system dynamics was introduced, in which a "production-living-ecological" complex system was used based on the human-land coordination concept. Moreover, the characteristics of system dynamics of causal cycle, dynamic and sustainable development, man-land synergy, integrity and openness, and self-organization and adaptability were analyzed by dividing it into three subsystems: urban production, urban living, and urban ecological subsystems. Here, causal feedback and system structure flow diagrams were designed using causal loop diagrams and system structure flow diagrams to evaluate the causal relationships between variables and quantitatively analyzing their interactions between variables and predicting the future development of variables. Changsha City, China was selected as the case study area, where we constructed system dynamics practice equation model was then constructed to determine the interaction between the subsystems. Our findings indicate that by the year 2035 in the future, the overall trend of factors influencing the function of the subsystems such as population, GDP and built-up area are positively correlated with an increasing trend, and there are interactions between. Furthermore, these factors interact with each other, and a mutual correlation was found among the production-living-ecological functions system, Therefore, this study provides a novel perspective and exploratory practice for the study of the synergistic coupling of ecological, production, and living functions of cities and evaluating high-quality development of cities. Thus, the coupling and coordination of urban production, living and ecological functions reflects the coupling and coordination of the "people-land" relationship, which is the key to high-quality urban development.

Spatial evaluation and zoning strategy of land use elemental conflicts in heavy industrial zones: evidence from central Liaoning Province in Northeast China

The matching imbalance of resource factors leads to land use elemental conflicts (LUECs), which has become the bottleneck restricting high-quality social and economic development. The heavy industrial zones (HIZ) have become the focus area of LUECs due to the high-resource consumption. Taking the urban group of central Liaoning Province, the area of industrial revitalization in northeast China as a case study area, the study proposed a wavelet coherence approach to identifying the influencing indicators and indicators weight of LUECs for spatial evaluation. Two-dimensional graph theory is used to cluster the evaluation results of LUECs at the plot scale and controls the main indicators to put forward the zoning strategies of LUECs. The results showed that the main indicators affecting LUECs in the western part of the HIZ are mainly human indicators, while the fierce conflicts in the east mainly come from natural indicators. The zoning strategies of LUECs in the HIZ should prevent excessive energy consumption from increasing carbon emissions in intense conflict zone and moderate conflict zone and strengthen the rural settlement arrangement and soil erosion control in mild conflict zone and structure ecological security early warnings in potential conflict zone. This study provides an important reference for land use conflicts in the global heavy industrial urban agglomeration.

Land Use Conflict Identification Coupled with Ecological Protection Priority in Jinan City, China

Land use conflicts exacerbate soil erosion and reduce biodiversity, which is detrimental to sustainable development. Multiple methods such as multi-criteria evaluation and landscape pattern indexes can identify land use conflicts, but few studies conform to the concept of green development. The concept of green development gives priority to ecological protection and coordinates the relationship between production development, food production and ecological protection to achieve sustainable development. Taking Jinan City (China) as the study area, we identified the ecological source areas by evaluating the importance of ecosystem service functions and ecological sensitivity, then extracted and optimized the ecological corridor network (using the minimum cumulative resistance model and gravity model), and constructed the ecological security pattern. Spatial overlay analysis of cultivated land, construction land, and the ecological security pattern was performed to identify the types and intensity of land use conflicts. Spatially, we found that ecological land was in more serious conflict with cultivated land than construction land. Different types of land use conflicts have significant differences in spatial distribution. The key to land use conflict mediation in Jinan City is to balance food security with the improvements in the quality of the ecological environment. Hence, it is necessary to delineate the main functional zones and formulate tailored land use conflict mediation strategies in each zone. The method for land use conflict identification proposed here follows the principle of giving priority to ecological protection, providing a scientific reference for the utilization and protection of territorial space in other similar areas.

Investigation of Spatial Coupling Coordination Development: Identifying Land System States from the Adaptation-Conflict Perspective

With the advancement of global urbanization, ecosystem conservation and sustainable land development have become major issues. In this context, the uncoordinated and imbalanced development of the land-centered human-environment system requires urgent attention, especially in rust belt cities that pose critical challenges to regional land system sustainability. Therefore, taking Changchun City from 1990 to 2020 as an example, we identified and evaluated the ecosystem service (ES) balance and land use conflict from the perspectives of internal support and external development pressure. Based on the land system adaptation and conflict results, a coupling coordination degree model (CCDM) was constructed to investigate the spatio-temporal characteristics of land system development. The results indicated that there was an obvious downward trend in the regional ES balance, while areas with higher ES balance were mainly distributed in the eastern ecologically sound areas, and southern built-up areas presented deficient ES balance levels (i.e., demand exceeding supply), with a significant expansion trend from 1990 to 2020. Land use conflict was especially prominent in areas experiencing rapid rural-urban transformation, and the hot spots expanded noticeably. The spatio-temporal differences in the coupling coordination degree of ES balance and land use conflict were significant, whereas the land system of the study area has always been dominated by a balanced development pattern throughout the research period, except for the urban center, which tended to be in a stage of uncoordinated development, with the ES balance blocked. These findings suggest that it is necessary to coordinate urban and adjacent regions through regionally integrated efforts to alleviate the ES imbalance. This research can provide a scientific reference for analyzing regional land system states, coordinating the sustainable spatial development of ecosystems, and implementing revitalization strategies to achieve win-win land system goals.

An Analysis of Land-Use Conflict Potential Based on the Perspective of Production–Living–Ecological Function

Under the influence of human activities, natural climate change and other factors, the function-folding phenomenon of land use has appeared in China. The conflict levels of different land-use functions has intensified. Based on the perspective of production–living–ecological function, we constructed a land-use function evaluation model by using a multi-criteria evaluation analysis (MCE) method. According to the different arrangement and combination of each function intensity of land units, we constructed an intensity diagnosis model of land-use function conflicts (LUFCs) and divided LUFCs into eight types and four stages. The LUFCs potential was calculated and divided into four ranks, represented by four types of LUFC potential zones. We selected western Jilin Province, a typical, ecologically fragile area in Northeast China, as an empirical analysis area. Empirical research showed that the production, living and ecological functions in western Jilin Province were at low, high and medium intensity levels, respectively, in 2020. The proportions of different LUFCs stages were 54.90%, 24.99%, 19.06% and 1.05%, respectively. The entire study area was basically at risk of potential conflicts, with the area’s proportions accounting for 17.50%, 40.75%, 24.55% and 17.20% from zones of low potential to extreme potential. The hot spots for LUFC potential were concentrated in the east and south of the central area, which were basically consistent with the hot spots’ aggregation areas of LUFCs. The models and indicators established in this research can better reflect the conflict associated with regional land use, which can provide reference for land space planning and management.

Land Use Change and Its Driving Factors in the Rural–Urban Fringe of Beijing: A Production–Living–Ecological Perspective

Production–Living–Ecological Space (PLES) is a useful tool to identify land use status patterns and optimize land resource allocation. In this study, the spatial econometric model was chosen to analyze the driving factors of land use change in Chaoyang District, part of the rural–urban fringe in Beijing, from the perspective of PLES evolution, from 2005 to 2020. The results showed the following: (1) Production Space (PS) to Living-Non-Farm Production Space (LNPS) has been the most significant conversion process of PLES since 2005, making LNPS the PLES type with the highest proportion in the study area. (2) With the spatial order from near-to-far from the city center, the scale of PS was reduced and concentrated, Ecological Space (ES) was formed in a green belt at the periphery of Beijing, Eco-Agricultural Production Space (EAPS) and Living-Agricultural Production Space were rapidly reduced, and LNPS was rapidly expanded in the point-line-plane order. (3) The PS to LNPS conversion was mainly driven by economic development and industrial structure upgrades, while the PS to ES conversion was mainly due to the distribution of population density and also industrial structures. The conversion of EAPS to LNPS was driven by the increase of the urbanization rate and economic growth. This study confirmed the policy-driven effect of the conversion from PS to ES. Due to the “Concentric Circle” spatial structure of Beijing, the conversion of PLES is generally related to the distance from the city center.

Mitigating Spatial Conflict of Land Use for Sustainable Wetlands Landscape in Li-Xia-River Region of Central Jiangsu, China

Li-Xia-river Wetlands make up the biggest freshwater marsh in East China. Over the last decades, social and economic developments have dramatically altered the natural wetlands landscape. Mitigating land use conflict is beneficial to protect wetlands, maintain ecosystem services, and coordinate local socioeconomic development. This study employed multi-source data and GIS-based approaches to construct a composite index model with the purpose of quantitatively evaluating the intensity of land use conflict in Li-Xia-river Wetlands from 1978 to 2018. The results showed that the percentage of the wetlands’ area declined from 20.3% to 15.6%, with an overall reduction rate of 23.2%. The mean index of land use conflict increased from 0.15 to 0.35, which suggests that the conflict intensity changed from “no conflict” to “mild conflict.” The number of severe conflict units increased by about 25 times. A conspicuous spatial variation of land use conflict was observed across different periods, although taking land for agricultural activities was the overriding reason for wetlands reduction. However, in recent years, urban sprawl has posed the greatest threat to Li-Xia-river Wetlands. Coordinating land use conflict and formulating a practical strategy are the initial imperative steps to mitigate the threat to wetlands.

Land Use Multi-Suitability, Land Resource Scarcity and Diversity of Human Needs: A New Framework for Land Use Conflict Identification

Land use conflicts are intensifying due to the rapid urbanization and accelerated transformation of social and economic development. Accurate identification of land use conflicts is an important prerequisite for resolving land use conflicts and optimizing the spatial pattern of land use. Previous studies on land use conflict using multi-objective evaluation methods mainly focused on the suitability or competitiveness of land use, ignoring land resource scarcity and the diversity of human needs, hence reducing the accuracy of land use conflict identification. This paper proposes a new framework for land use conflict identification. Considering land use multi-suitability, land resource scarcity and the diversity of human needs, the corresponding evaluation index system was constructed, respectively, and the linear weighted sum model was used to calculate the land use conflict index. Taking Jinan as the study area, the spatial distribution characteristics of land use conflicts are accurately identified and analyzed. The results show that: (1) Land use multi-suitability in Shanghe county and Jiyang district is high, but the intensity of land use conflict is not. This indicates that land use multi-suitability is the premise and basis of land use conflict, but it is not the only determinant, which is consistent with our hypothesis. (2) Land use conflicts in Jinan were dominant by medium conflict, accounting for 43.89% of the conflicts, while strong and weak land use conflicts accounted for 25.21% and 30.90% of the conflicts, respectively. The spatial distribution of land use conflicts is obviously different, with high conflicts in the north and low conflicts in the south. Strong land use conflicts are concentrated in the urban and rural transition zones of Tianqiao, Huaiyin and Shizhong districts and in the northern parts of Licheng and Zhangqiu districts. (3) Inefficient land use and land resource waste aggravated regional land use conflicts in Licheng and Zhangqiu districts. (4) The new framework for land use conflict identification proposed in this study can accurately identify land use conflicts, providing a scientific reference and new ideas for accurate identification of land use conflicts.