Study on the transformed farmland landscape in rural areas of southwest China: A case study of Chongqing

Abstract

Exploring the characteristics and trends of rural farmland landscape transformation under the background of socioeconomic differentiation can help clarify the desires and needs of farmers in diverse rural areas and formulate scientifically-based strategies for rural managers in agricultural land management. The farmland landscape in Southwest China's rural areas is transforming from livelihood-oriented extensive agriculture to market-oriented intensive agriculture through agricultural land use conversion, planting structure adjustment, and large-scale farmland management. This paper used Google Earth's high-definition remote sensing imagery and selected typical townships from Chongqing Municipality for comparison to clarify the transformation characteristics and trends of rural farmland landscapes in Southwest China from the landscape ecology perspective. The results show that the formation of the transformed farmland landscape (TFL) bases on the conversion of cultivated land (mainly grain crop production), accompanies by a small amount of forest, shrub, and grassland. The characteristics of the TFL landscape pattern in each township are significantly different. And there is a significant agglomeration trend, mainly concentrates in low-altitude areas. TFL presents mostly a type of economic fruit forest planting in areas with large topographic fluctuations and vegetable planting in areas with low topographic fluctuations. TFL in rural areas of Southwest China is multifunctional agricultural land, formed by the combination of a forest transition process and agricultural intensification. It is essentially the functional transformation of cultivated land based on the joint action of farmers' needed economic benefits and government-supported ecological policies. • The landscape of rural farmland in Southwest China has undergone a transformation. • The theoretical background of transformed farmland landscape (TFL) is presented. • The spatiotemporal variation of TFL is explored through typical case studies. • The development modes and enlightenment of TFL are summarized. • The rural TFL has positive implications for improving rural development.