Urban Expansion and Farmland Loss in Beijing during 1980–2015

Yingjie Hu,Xiangbin Kong,Ji Zheng,Jin Sun,Mingzhe Min,Linlin Wang

doi:10.3390/su10113927

Yingjie Hu, Xiangbin Kong + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su10113927

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Abstract

The analysis of urban land expansion and farmland loss is essential to adequately understand the land use change in a rapidly urbanizing China. We found that both urban expansion and farmland loss in Beijing experienced high- and low-speed stages and their spatial patterns were consistent during the past 35 years as most of the newly expanded urban land was converted from farmland. The area of farmland loss by urban expansion in Beijing is 12.6 km2/year, 39.86 km2/year, 23.38 km2/year, and 41.11 km2/year during the period of 1980–1990, 1990–2000, 2000–2010, and 2010–2015, respectively. The urban expansion in Beijing continuously preferred to consume “above average” quality farmland during 1980–2015. Meanwhile, although the urban expansion in Beijing was highly dependent on occupying farmland, the dependence of urban expansion on farmland consumption has declined over time. However, the contribution of urban expansion on farmland loss increased during 1980–2010 and decreased afterward. In order to protect the farmland from urban expansion, we call for more effort to improve the urban land use efficiency with rigid controls over areas of urban expansion.

Highlights

Urbanization is an increasing phenomenon all over the world that is expected to go further over the coming decades
The urban area of Beijing expanded from 471 km2 in 1980 to 1642.52 km2 in 2015, with an expan3.s1i.oUnrboafn3E1x.1p9anksmion2/inyBeaeirj.inOgvdeuritnhge1p98a0s–t230515years, the urban area of Beijing has been continuously growing Tbhuet uthrbeanraatereaanodf Bineitjeinngsietyxpoafndeexdpafrnosmion47u1 nkdme2rwine1n9t80sotmo e16r4i2s.e52ankmd 2fainll 2p0h15a,sewsit(hFiagnure 2, Tableex2p).aDnsuiorninogf t3h1e.19firksmt 2d/yeecaard. eO(v1e9r8t0h–e1p9a9s0t )3,5uyrebaarns, athreeausrboannlyareexapoafnBdeeijding14h.2as9bkemen2.coInnttinhueofuoslllyowing decadgreo(w1i9n9g0b–u2t0t0h0e),rathteeaunrdbianntegnsroitwy othf eoxfpBanesiijionngusnpdeedrwuepntwsoitmhethrieseeaxnpdafnaslliopnhaasreesa(Foifgu54re.927, Tkambl2e/year and a2n)
This study investigated the expansion pattern of urban land, the shrinkage pattern of farmland, as well as the quantity, quality, and spatial pattern of farmland consumed by urban expansion in Beijing from 1980–2015 by using the land use/cover dataset

Summary

Introduction

Urbanization is an increasing phenomenon all over the world that is expected to go further over the coming decades. According to the latest forecast by the World Bank [4], almost 70% of the Chinese population—about one billion—will live in urban areas by 2030 This ongoing rapid urbanization process has inevitably profoundly reshaped the land use pattern in China, primarily characterized by intensive urban sprawl and continuous farmland loss [5,6]. Rapid urban expansion may cause changes in regional climate [7,8,9], hydrology [10,11], biodiversity and ecosystem [12,13,14,15], while the farmland loss has negative impacts on food production [16,17,18] These two typical land use changes with consequentially significant impacts have drawn scientific interest and it is documented that the urban land expansion of a city can be inextricably associated with farmland loss in former rural areas. The comprehensive analysis of urban land expansion and farmland loss is necessary to adequately understand the land use change in the urbanization process

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