Characterizing land use transition in China by accounting for the conflicts underlying land use structure and function

Human activities and global changes have undergone significant transformations in land systems. It is imperative to comprehend the intricacies of land use transitions (LUT), as they serve as indicators of the evolving dynamics within the complex human-environmental relationship. In this study, we adopt the conflict-coordination theoretical framework to delve into the role of land-use conflicts (LUC) in driving LUT. Our investigation involves the quantification of LUT and the assessment of LUC within China, spanning from 1980 to 2020. Subsequently, we scrutinized the interplay between LUT and LUC using Spearman correlation analysis and the Wilcoxon test. Our findings reveal that greater diversity in land-use structure can be attributed to ecological land fragmentation and the restoration of unused land, while the expansion of urban and cropland areas contributes to a less diverse land-use pattern. Furthermore, there is a discernible upward trend in land use function. Although the overall degree of LUC in China is relatively mild, there is a noticeable upward trajectory over the past four decades. More pronounced conflicts within land-use patterns promote a diversified land-use pattern, while conflicts arising from competing land-use functions elevate the level of land-use functionality. Moreover, a dynamic interplay between land-use transitions and conflicts becomes evident, with intense conflicts within land-use patterns weakening land-use functionality, and imbalances in functionality driving greater diversity in land-use patterns. Our research introduces an innovative analytical framework that elucidates LUT through the lens of LUC, with the potential for broader applicability across different regions. This framework not only enhances our understanding of LUT but also provides valuable scientific guidance for the effective management of conflicts to promote the sustainable development of land resources.

Analyzing the spatiotemporal carbon change mechanism: a land-based carbon flow network (CFN) for cities

High carbon emissions played a significant role in global climate change, which made cities with rapid urbanization responsible for local carbon mitigation. In this study, a land-based CFN framework was established by taking 15 land use types as different network nodes. The framework was intended to be a dynamic structure containing the carbon emissions/sequestration tracking, land-based carbon network and utility analysis, and carbon change mechanism identification. By taking Guangzhou city as an empirical study, the carbon metabolism patterns were shown as increasing emission expansion and spatial differentiation. The high-level emission patches extended from the city center to the suburb with 1/2 to 1/3 the original size from 2000 to 2020, which featured as land use transition toward T in the north and to C2 in the south. All the changing carbon processes among land nodes were detected to conduct CFN utility analysis for mechanism investigation. Exploitation was found significantly contributed to the carbon emissions in 2000-2005 and fell over time. In the built-up area, the dominant carbon relationship has changed from exploitation to mutualism with enlarged carbon emissions in 2000-2005, 2005-2010, and 2010-2015, and the exploitation became dominant in 2015-2020 with increasing carbon sequestration. Under the increasing competitive relationship, carbon emissions of the related land nodes decreased more than 90% from 2000 to 2020 with favorable mutual restriction between pairwise nodes. It provided valuable insight for the carbon mitigation options at a city level through local urban planning.

Spatial and temporal variation of multiple eco-environmental indicators in Erhai Lake Basin of China under land use transitions

Environmental degradation is a global ecological concern, and land use transitions play a critical role in a region's ecological well-being and long-term sustainability. In this paper, indicators related to land use transitions, including the regional eco-environmental quality index (EV), the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI), and soil erosion, are selected to analyze the eco-environmental quality of Erhai Lake Basin from 2000 to 2020. The results showed that (1) from 2000 to 2020, forestland, grassland, and cultivated land were the major land use types in the study region, and also the land use types where land use transition was notable; (2) over the 20 years of study, the EV value of Erhai Lake Basin increased by 0.003, its average RSEI increased by 0.14, and the average soil erosion modulus there decreased by 15.48 t/(km²·a), indicating that the eco-environment of the Erhai Lake Basin was improving. Evaluation based on multiple ecological indicators was superior to assessment relying on single indicators; (3) all three ecological indicators showed that the ecological environment of the basin was improving, but with significant regional differences. Forestland had the best ecological quality, while unused land and built-up land had the worst. RSEI was more regionally adaptable than the other two indices. (4) The transition of cultivated land into other land use types was the main reason for the improved ecological quality in the basin, while tourism had accelerated land use transformation. Compared with assessment based on single ecological indicators, evaluation based on a combination of multiple ecological indicators can more accurately reflect the ecological condition of the study area and provide a basis for eco-environmental protection in Erhai Lake Basin.

How does the local-scale relationship between ecosystem services and human wellbeing vary across broad regions?

Recent studies have shown that the relationships between ecosystem services (ES) and human wellbeing (HWB) can be positive, negative, or non-existent, but the underlying causes and processes remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate how and why the local level ES-HWB relationship would change geospatially and manifest on broad regions. Using data for Mainland China, we first calculated seven ES and Human Development Index (an indicator of HWB), then used geographically weighted regression and cluster analysis to quantify the county-level ES-HWB relationship, and finally adopted Wilcoxon test and random forest to investigate key influencing factors. We found that (1) the local-scale relationship between ES and HWB exhibited a great deal of spatial heterogeneity, varying from positive to negative or no correlations across broad regions; (2) the varying relationships merged spatially into three general types of regions: Positive Correlation-Dominant Region, Negative Correlation-Dominant Region, and No Correlation-Dominant Region; and (3) the variations and spatial patterns of the ES-HWB relationships were influenced by a number of social-ecological factors (e.g., population density and land cover compositions), and generally corresponded to different stages of land use transition and socioeconomic development: a positive ES-HWB relationship was found mainly in socioeconomically underdeveloped (rural or agricultural) regions with low ES production levels; a negative ES-HWB relationship occurred mostly in intermediately developed regions with abundant non-food ES; and ES and HWB had no relationships in socioeconomically well-developed (intensive agriculture/urbanized) societies with ample provisioning ES. These findings suggest that neither the "environmentalist's paradox" nor the "environmentalist's expectation" adequately accounts for the complexity of the ES-HWB relationship.

Effects of land use transition on ecological vulnerability in poverty-stricken mountainous areas of China: A complex network approach

Poverty-stricken mountainous areas are often subject to ecological vulnerability, and land use transition is a major factor affecting that vulnerability. Land use transition forms a complex network comprised of different land use types which interact with each other and respond to external environment processes, resulting in dynamics. This study develops complex network approach with cascade failure model to quantitatively explore the effects of land use transition on ecological vulnerability from the holistic and dynamic perspective. The study analyzes the characteristics of land use transition, identifying key transition types and simulating their impact on ecological vulnerability in 16 poverty-stricken mountainous counties in western Hubei Province, China, with the following findings. (1) The heterogeneity of change in agricultural land and construction land is significant; from 1990 to 2015, a short-term increase in the amount of agricultural land is followed by a gradual reduction, while the amount of construction land increased continuously. (2) Agricultural land is the dominant output land type, exported mainly to construction land and water area, and construction land is the dominant input land type, imported mainly from agricultural land. Sparse woods, woods, and dryland are the key land use types in the study area. (3) the critical points for maintaining resilience of ecosystem are 80% or higher for cultivated land and 80% or higher for woodland. (4) For the tolerance parameter α, 20% increase in cultivated land and a 10% increase in woodland would enhance ecosystem resilience and reduce its damage degree to corresponding land use transition. These findings are important points of reference for the sustainable management of poverty-stricken mountainous counties in western Hubei Province and in China more generally. They also have policy implications for land resources, especially in terms of the alleviation of poverty and the coordination between ecological protection and economic development.

A research framework of land use transition in Suzhou City coupled with land use structure and landscape multifunctionality

Under the premise of facing land-use sustainable development goals, clarifying the process and trend of regional land-use transition (LUT) is of considerable significance to the direction of national land-use optimization in the future. Suzhou City is not only an economically developed area in China but also a leading area of economic transformation and development, which embodies the changing process of regional development path since China's reform and opening up. This paper constructed an integrated research framework of micro-individual land use structure and macro-mixed landscape multifunctionality. It used spatial analysis technology to deeply analyze the LUT process of Suzhou, and quantified change characteristics of land use structure and function in Suzhou from 2000 to 2015. For structure, Suzhou has undergone a large-scale transition during the study period, mainly from farmland to construction land, in which transition speed and degree are at a high level until the trend slows down after 2010. For function, the number of high values of landscape multifunctionality gradually increases. Still, the scope of high-value areas progressively reduces by urban expansion constraints; the multifunctionality around urban expansion area gradually weakens. Besides, forest land, grassland, and other ecological land have the most significant number of land use functions. The comprehensive transition of land use structure and function can give a summary as a circle-layer dynamic change process of urban development. Transition hotspots can be divided into five specific regions of land management and finally realize comprehensive development zoning of urban and rural areas at the township level. LUT research framework based on structure-function coupling will provide ideas for land management mode transformation and contribute to sustainable land spatial planning strategy formulation.

Spatially-explicit modeling and intensity analysis of China's land use change 2000-2050

Land use change affected by wide ranges of human activities is a key driver of global climate change. In the last three decades, China has experienced unprecedented land use change accompanied by increasing environmental problems. There is a pressing need to project and analyze long-term land use scenarios that are critical for land use planning and policymaking. Using GlobeLand30 data, we examined China's land use change from 2000 to 2010, and developed a novel LandCA model for scenario projections from 2020 to 2050. The observed and projected land use change (2000-2050) was analyzed in terms of the interval, category, and transition levels. Our findings show that land Exchange intensity is more than 3 times greater than land Quantity intensity from 2000 to 2050, and the overall rate of land use change will decelerate from 2010 to 2050. During 2000-2010, the loss of built-up land to other categories was 12.7% while the gain was 32.5%, with a growth rate 3.4 times larger than that during 2010-2050. The total amount of cultivated land continuously decreases but will not violate the Chinese "Cultivated Land Red-Line Restriction" by 2050. We speculate that the government's goal of 26% forest cover by 2050 may not be achieved, as a result of strict land use policies preventing the transformation from cultivated land to forests. This study contributes to new evaluations of long-term land use change in China for the government to adjust policies and regulations for sustainable development.

Land use transitions and the associated impacts on ecosystem services in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China based on the geo-informatic Tupu method

Rapid urbanization in China has greatly exacerbated land use transitions (LUTs), which seriously threaten the ecosystem. The existing literature lacks information on the spatio-temporal analysis of LUTs, and assessments of ecosystem services remain incomplete. This lack of information may limit the formation and implementation of landscape plans and ecologically oriented policies. This study attempts to fill this gap by analysing the geographic features of LUTs with the geo-informatic Tupu method and exploring the responses of ecosystem services to LUTs. A newly revised benefit transfer method that utilizes the land use/land cover change data derived from the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (MRYREB) is implemented. The results indicate that the area of construction land continued to increase markedly, while the area of cultivated land declined continuously from 1995 to 2015. This increase in construction land was mainly derived from the occupation of cultivated land. The Tupu units of "forestland → cultivated land," "cultivated land → forestland," "cultivated land → water area," and "water area → cultivated land" were the dominant driving forces of the changes in ecosystem services value (ESV) in the MRYREB. Hotspots of ESV changes were mainly located in the surrounding mountainous areas during 1995-2005 and 2005-2010, while the coldspots during 2010-2015 were mainly located in the plains. The findings in this study have important implications for ecosystem conservation, ecological function zoning, ecological compensation decision-making, and related land development in the MRYREB.

Integrated analysis of urbanization-triggered land use change trajectory and implications for ecological land management: A case study in Fuyang, China

Land use change under rapid urbanization can drastically change terrestrial ecological conditions. This study presents an integrated analysis of land use dynamics and the resultant ecological impacts on sustainable development over the past 25 years (1990-2015) in response to urban development. Remote sensing and geographic information system techniques were employed to examine the spatiotemporal trajectory of land use changes. Based on the analysis of the equivalent factor table for land use types and ecosystem services value (ESV), the value of ecosystem services was calculated in the case study of Fuyang, China. Correlations were identified between ESV and a family of landscape fragmentation metrics. The results showed that the area affected by land use changes represented 33.35% of the total study area and caused a 31.74 million US$·a^-1 decrease in ESV from 1990 to 2015. The ESV was spatially imbalanced and generally low in urban areas. Ecological plans for cropland reforestation and urban green projects were effective in slowing ESV losses while urban areas rapidly developed. In addition, total ESV was negatively correlated with edge density (ED), patch density (PD), landscape shape index (LSI), and Shannon's diversity index (SHDI) but positively correlated with aggregation index (AI), suggesting that landscape fragmentation had an adverse impact on the overall ESV in Fuyang. Therefore, sustainable land use planning must be integrated with landscape patterns to provide useful guidance regarding the spatial regulation of a given area to protect and improve ecosystem services.

Exploring land use/land cover change and drivers in Andean mountains in Colombia: A case in rural Quindío

Given that Land Use and Cover Changes (LUCC) and deforestation are activities with the highest anthropic intervention on ecosystems and increase the loss of biodiversity, this paper explores the LUCC and the main drivers of change in Andean mountains, taking a rural area located between the municipalities of Montenegro and Quimbaya (Quindío, Colombia) (1954-2009), as a case of study. Aerial photographs and geographic information systems (GIS) are used to create maps of LUCC, as well as a systemized search of information on LUCC and main drivers. The results showed that pastureland presented the largest area during all periods, occupying >60% of studied area, while the secondary and mixed forests had a contraction from 23% in 1954 to 9% in 2009. The change rates evidenced a greater affectation for the secondary forest that lost 86% of its initial area through deforestation and transformation processes, while crops gained 410% with respect to their initial area. As for the transition matrix, about 27.8% of the study area presented transformation from land use and cover into other land covers, 14.7% presented deforestation and loss of land cover in their initial area, and 57.5% remained unchanged. It is concluded that socio-economic factors such as livestock farming, agriculture and market prices have been an important driver in the modification of the landscape.

Changing man-land interrelations in China's farming area under urbanization and its implications for food security

The Huang-Huai-Hai Plain (HHH) is typical of China's farming area, and was predicted as one of the fastest growing areas of urbanization in the world. Since the turn of the new millennium, construction land and farmland transitions in this region driven by rapid urbanization have resulted in dramatic loss of farmland, which triggered a serious threat to regional even national food security. In this paper, the coupling relationships between per capita construction land transition (PCCT) and per capita farmland transition (PCFT) in the HHH and their implications for regional food security are analyzed. During 2000-2015, the farmland decreased by 8.59%, 72.25% of which were occupied by construction land. There are two major coupling types between PCCT and PCFT, one is the double increasing of per capita construction land area (PCCA) and per capita farmland area (PCFA); another is the increasing of PCCA and the decreasing of PCFA. The fluctuant increasing of PCCT and decreasing of PCFT coexisted and presented symmetrical coupling characteristics in space. Physical, location, transportation and socio-economic factors play significantly different roles in driving PCCT and PCFT. The implications for ensuring food security involve promoting the reclamation and redevelopment of inefficient and unused urban-rural construction land, reducing inefficient occupation of farmland resources, developing appropriate scale management of agriculture, and establishing a better social security system to smoothly settle down the floating rural population in the city.