A new multi-dimensional framework considering environmental impacts to assess green development level of cultivated land during 1990 to 2018 in China

Abstract

China has achieved food security in the last three decades through massive use of fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation water, resulting in negative environmental impacts to the cultivated land use system (CLUS). Hence, it is urgent to assess the green development level of cultivated land (GDL-CL). The objective of this study was to develop a new multi-dimensional framework considering environmental impacts to assess GDL-CL based on “elements – processes – dimensions – goals – drivers” according to the interaction between the soil-water-plant-atmosphere system (SWPAS) and CLUS. The entropy weight method, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and the Geodetector method were applied to provincial data in China from 1990 to 2018 to determine the spatiotemporal evolution, correlation, and quantitative attributes, respectively, of GDL-CL. The results indicated that the changing agricultural input-output farming patterns in China during 1990–2018 followed U-shaped trend in GDL-CL that reached an inflection point in 1998. In addition, GDL-CL differed significantly between the eastern and western regions in China, with the eastern areas showing an obviously high-high agglomeration and the western areas showing an apparently low-low agglomeration. The reason behind this phenomenon is that climate and socio-economic factors such as temperature, precipitation, sunshine, assets, markets, education, employment, and policies profoundly and extensively influenced GDL-CL in different regions during 1990–2018. However, the contribution of climate factors to GDL-CL overtook the socio-economic factors in 2010–2018. Therefore, this study suggests that priority should be given to optimizing production modes of cultivation, coordinating regional GDL-CL contradictions, and warning of climate change to sustainably manage cultivated land.