Abstract
Understanding the relationship between the spatiotemporal expansion of rural settlement land and the variation of rural population is the foundation of rational and specific planning for sustainable development. Based on the integration of Landsat TM, ETM+, and OLI images and demographic data, using mathematical models, landscape indexes, and a decoupling model, the spatiotemporal changes of the rural settlement land area and its decoupling relationship with the rural registered population were analyzed for the middle basin of the Heihe River in China. During the period 1986–2014, the following changes occurred: (1) The study area experienced increases of 124.94%, 55.16%, and 1.56% in rural settlement land area, number of patches, and rural registered population, respectively; (2) Edge-expansion, dispersion, and urban encroachment were the dominant patterns of dynamic changes in the studied rural settlement land. Among these, edge-expansion was the most prevalent development pattern; it contributed more than half of the total increase in the number of patches and the total area growth; (3) The annual growth rate of the rural registered population increased from 0.7% in 1986–2002 to −0.5% in 2002–2014. By that time the rural settlement land area had undergone a gentle increase from 3.4% to 3.6%. Generally, the rural registered population and rural settlement land has experienced a shift from weakly decoupled in 1986–2009 to strongly decoupled in 2009–2014; (4) From 1986 to 2014, rural urbanization and modernization were the main causes that led to the decline in the rural registered population; however, economic growth promoted the expansion of rural settlement land during this same period. We believe that with the rapid development of urbanization, the decoupling relationship between the rural settlement land area and the reduction in the rural registered population cannot be completely reversed in the short term. It is recommended that the government should enhance the role of planning rural settlement land during the process of urbanization.
Highlights
The policies enacted with the Chinese Economic Reform have led to rapid urbanization
From 1986 to 2014, the majority of the rural settlement land (RSL) was located in the corridor plain area, approximately cen4.t1r.eTdhooennPtaththteeertnhthsreroefeDcicytinteiasem.sT.icThCehheraenrmegmeaianiiRnniugnrRgalSRSLeStpLtlaeptmcahetnecthsLewasnewrdeeprerepdroemdoinmanintlaynltolycaltoecdatneedarntehaer rtihveerrsiv(tehres m(thaeinmbFararinonmcbhr1ea9sn8o6cfhttoehs2e0oH1f4e,tihthheee,HmLeiayijhouerai,ntyL, aoiynfudthaBena,RiSaliLnadnwgaBRsailiovliceaarntseg)daRninidvtehmresac)jooarrnrriddoaomdr spa,ljaowirnitrhaoraedas,sma, pawplliretorhxpiamorasttmieolanylloenr tphoecretpnioiterndedomnoontnhttehapelliutehvdrimeaelofcnaittnieaosll.fuTtvhhieealsrofeaumntahoienfritnnhgaenRsdoSuLwthpeaesttrcenhrnaensrdewgweiroeensptoerfrentdhoremegsitinuoadnnytolfyartlehoaeca(sFtteuidgdunyreeaar3re)ta.h(eFrigivuerres 3)
This study showed that the relationship between the growth in land rural settlement and the rural population in the middle basin of the Heihe River in China over a long-term period was not synchronous
Summary
The policies enacted with the Chinese Economic Reform have led to rapid urbanization. The accompanying socioeconomic transformation has resulted in a concomitant decrease in the rural registered population (RRP) since 1996 [1,2]. Despite this decrease, as the main type of area in which the rural population to lives and works, rural settlement land (RSL) has undergone continual expansion. According to the National New Urbanization plan (2014–2020) of the State Council of China, during 2000–2011, the RSL area increased by 20,300 km, while the rural registered population (RRP) simultaneously decreased by 1.33 billion [3]. As reported by the Xinhua news agency, there were nearly 100 million acres (66,700 km2) of uninhabited RSL (more than 1/18 of the country’s cropland) in China’s rural areas in 2014 [5]. The problem of detecting and understanding spatiotemporal changes in RSL as well as the relationship between the RSL area and the RRP has attracted scientific attention in recent years [1,6]
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