Abstract
Residents of rural areas live and depend on the land; hence, rural land plays a central role in the human–land relationship. The environment has the greatest direct impact on farmers’ lives and productivity. In recent years, the Chinese government carried out vigorous rural construction under a socialist framework and implemented a rural revitalization strategy. This study was performed in a rural area of Huanjiang County, Guangxi Province, China. We designed a survey to measure rural households’ perceptions of three types of rural spaces: ecological, living, and production spaces. The survey was administered to 379 farmers, and their perceptions and satisfaction with Ecological–Living–Productive spaces were evaluated with the use of structural equation modeling. Analysis of latent and observed variables indicates that: (1) Farmers’ overall satisfaction with Ecological–Living–Productive spaces was moderate. The average satisfaction score for production spaces was lowest (2.881) while that for living spaces was highest (3.468) and that for ecological spaces was in between (3.351). (2) The three most important exogenous observed variables associated with living space satisfaction were house comfort > domestic water supply > domestic sewage treatment. The three most important exogenous observed variables associated with production space satisfaction were irrigation water > cultivated land quantity > cultivated land fertility. The three most important exogenous observed variables associated with ecological space satisfaction were garbage disposal > vegetation cover > flood and waterlogging. Based on the requirements of the rural revitalization strategy and the results of our analyses of rural households’ spatial perceptions, we propose corresponding countermeasures and suggestions.
Highlights
Rural space is defined as an area of land that rural residents live in and depend on
Cronbach's alpha is a measure of internal consistency, howalpha closely related a set of itemswas areused as a group
The RMSEA value was 0.074, which is less than the standard of 0.1. These findings indicate that the model generally fit the data well, indicating that it is reasonable to model the three latent variables in the household Ecological–Living–Productive space satisfaction model
Summary
Rural space is defined as an area of land that rural residents live in and depend on. It plays a central role in the relationship between humans and the land. Rural land has direct impacts on the lives and production capacity of rural farmers [1] and, as such, has long been the focus of research on the relationship between humans and the land. Multifunctionality of land use considers that all types of land use interact. Overall, it relates to the products and services that the land can provide for residents of a certain area [8]. The multifunctionality of land use emphasizes land use versatility; as such, research on it is comprehensive and covers a wide range of topics
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
