Expansion Of Rural Settlements Research Articles

Trends in the future evolution of rural settlements in oasis-desert areas under water use simulation scenarios: Take the Hexi Corridor region of China as an example

The uncontrolled expansion of rural settlements caused by the imbalance in the matching of land and water resources has hindered the realization of the goal of sustainable rural development in the oasis-desert area. In this study, “water resources-land resources-oasis rural settlements” are integrated into the same framework of symbiosis development, and the evolution of rural settlements in the context of water and land resources constraints is predicted. We used the coupled “SD-SOS-FLUS” (“system dynamics-suitable oasis structure-future land use simulation”) model to predict the differences in rural settlement sizes and their spatial distribution under the inertial development water use scenario (ID) and sustainable development water use scenario (SD) in the northeast part of the Hexi Corridor in China. In addition, we explored differences in oasis circle structure and land use structure under different water allocation scenarios. Compared with a single model, the coupled model “SD-SOS-FLUS” can better simulate the symbiosis relationship between “water resources-land resources- oasis rural settlements”. Through the prediction, the proportion of water used for production in the ID scenario is still as high as 86.30 %, while the proportion of ecological water use is only 11.50 %, and the continuous imbalance of the water use structure results in the area of arable land and rural settlements will be increased to 7,473.21 km2 and 487.16 km2. It increased by 115.63 km2 and 41.28 km2 respectively compared to 2020, which in turn made the oasis area expanding outward, and the radius R of the oasis also increased from 53.65 km in 2020 to 54.79 km in 2030. The area of arable land and rural settlements under water and land resource constraints in the SD scenario decreased to 5223.56 km2 and 105.04 km2. The contraction of the oasis increases the transition zone circle width B2 from 19.88 km in 2020 to 24.58 km in 2030, an increase of 5 km compared to the ID scenario. As a result of the spatial reconfiguration, the number of rural settlement patches decreased from 1.04 × 104 to 0.15 × 104 in 2020, saving 3.41 × 104 ha of land after optimization.

Impact Deforestation on Land Surface Temperature: A Case Study Highland Kundasang, Sabah

In recent decades, extensive deforestation in tropical regions has dynamically reshaped forests and land cover. Driven by demands for intensified agriculture, rural settlement expansion, and urban growth, this transformation underscores the need for vigilant monitoring of vegetation and forest cover to comprehend global and local environmental shifts. This study focuses on the intricate interplay between deforestation and its impact on land surface temperature (LST) within Sabah's Kundasang highland. Analyzing years 1990, 2009, and 2021, the study employs Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 satellite data spanning three decades to decipher forest cover dynamics. Utilizing remote sensing techniques, it unveils the evolving relationship between deforestation, forest cover, and LST fluctuations, validated using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) insights from 1990 to 2021. Motivated by the scarcity of research on tropical deforestation's LST impact, the study's core aim is to establish a robust link between forest loss extent and ensuing thermal changes. The findings highlight a tangible influence of reduced vegetation on rising surface temperatures, necessitating a precise understanding of deforested areas and their thermal responses. Revealing a striking scenario, around 76% of Kundasang highland's forest cover transformed into agriculture and urban zones over 27 years. The study further uncovers a clear inverse relationship between LST and forest area in square kilometers, as well as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). These findings provide valuable guidance for forest management, identifying vulnerable areas, while also empowering local governance to shape sustainable land management strategies.

Dynamic changes and driving factors of rural settlements at the county level in a rapidly urbanizing province of China from 2000 to 2020

Urbanization and industrialization in developing countries has contributed to great changes in rural settlements, which presents an increasing threat to rural sustainability. Spatiotemporal changes in rural settlements at the county level are significant to land use planning and are not clear in the highly urbanized regions. This study considered Jiangsu, one of the most urbanized provinces of China, as an example and investigated the spatial variation in rural settlements and their socioeconomic driving factors during the period of 2000–2020 using mixed geographic weighted regression. The results showed that the area of rural settlements in the highly urbanized province expanded from 2000 to 2015 following a decrease in the rural population, but then began to decrease from 2015. There were obvious spatial differences in the rural settlements in the counties of Jiangsu Province. The area of rural settlements in the different counties maintained a positive association with the rural population and cropland but had a negative correlation with the rural production value in 2000. By 2020, the area of rural settlements was only positively associated with the rural population. The correlation between the area of rural settlements and rural population continually decreased from 2000 to 2020. The area of rural settlements had no significant association with the area of urban settlements. The expansion of rural settlements mainly occurred at the expense of cropland. The decrease in the rural settlements was accompanied by an increase in the urban settlements and an expansion of cropland. The policy implications arising from this study are presented to provide guidance for rural development at the county level and ensure rural sustainability.

Have rural settlement changes harmed ecosystem carbon in China?

The rural landscape is undergoing rapid changes. In China, the expansion of rural settlements is widespread, causing problems to the environment. Previous studies have focused on the effects of built-up land expansion on ecosystem carbon, and this paper further explores the effects of rural settlement changes on ecosystem carbon and investigates the spatial heterogeneity of the relationship. The result shows: rural settlement expansion has led to a significant loss in carbon sinks and vegetation carbon stock, respectively. The main pathway of ecosystem carbon loss is the occupation of cropland. A total of 31% of the regions have a negative coupling relationship between the area of per capita rural settlement and the growth of carbon sinks. The regions where both rural settlements and carbon sink function have declined are mainly concentrated in the northwest, and ecological and rural development in these regions requires additional attention. 63% of the regions show great resilience in terms of carbon sink function in the face of rural settlement expansion.

Simulating the Coupling of Rural Settlement Expansion and Population Growth in Deqing, Zhejiang Province, Based on MCCA Modeling

Analyzing the relationship between rural settlements and rural population change under different policy scenarios is key in the sustainable development of China’s urban and rural areas. We proposed a framework that comprised the mixed land use structure simulation (MCCA) model and the human–land coupling development model to assess the spatiotemporal dynamic changes in rural settlements and its’ coupling relationship with the rural population in the economically developed region of Deqing, Zhejiang Province. The results showed that rural settlements and urban land increased by 14.36 and 29.07 km2, respectively, over the last 20 years. The expansion of some rural settlements and urban land occurred at the cost of cropland occupation. Rural settlements showed an expansion trend from 2000 to 2020, increasing from 42.69 km2 in 2000 to 57.05 km2 in 2020. In 2035, under the natural development scenario, the cropland protection scenario, and the rural development scenario, rural settlements are projected to show an expansion trend and Wukang and Leidian are the key regions with rural settlement expansion. The distance to Hangzhou, nighttime light data, distance to rivers, and precipitation are important factors influencing the expansion of rural settlements. The coupling relationship between rural settlements and the rural population developed in a coordinated manner from 2000 to 2020. For 2035, under different scenarios, the coupling relationship between rural settlements and the rural population showed different trends. In the rural development scenario, the highest number of towns with coordinated development between rural settlements and the rural population is in Deqing, predominantly with Type I coupling. Overall, an important recommendation from this study is that the sustainable development of regional land use can be promoted by controlling the occupation of cropland for urban and rural construction, balancing rural settlement expansion and rural population growth, and formulating land use policies that are more suitable for rural development.

A Comparative Analysis of Farmland Occupation by Urban Sprawl and Rural Settlement Expansion in China

The farmland loss caused by urban–rural land development has exacerbated China’s challenges of using limited farmland to feed more than 1.4 billion people. Earlier studies shed light on the impacts of urban sprawl and rural settlement expansion, separately. However, there is little quantitative understanding of which one has more severe impacts on farmland and its net primary productivity (NPP). Thus, this study used spatially explicit satellite data including land-use maps and estimated NPP data, as well as spatiotemporal analysis methods to conduct a comparative analysis of farmland loss due to urban sprawl and rural settlement expansion at different scales from 2000 to 2020 in China. The results show that during the study period, urban sprawl resulted in a loss of 49,086.6 km2 of farmland area and 8.34 TgC of farmland NPP, while the loss of farmland area and farmland NPP due to rural settlement expansion reached 18,006.8 km2 and 3.88 TgC. The largest gap between the total area of farmland loss due to urban sprawl and the total loss area due to rural settlement expansion was 12,983.3 km2 in Eastern China, while the smallest gap was 1291.1 km2 in Northeastern China. The largest gap between the loss of farmland NPP due to urban sprawl and the total loss due to rural settlement expansion occurred in Eastern China at 1.97 TgC. Spatially, the total loss of farmland and its NPP due to urban sprawl and rural settlement expansion occurred mainly in the eastern and central regions of China; the areas of farmland loss by urban sprawl were more concentrated than that by rural settlement expansion. The negative impacts of urban sprawl on farmland area and its NPP were greater in southern China than that of rural settlement expansion. Noticeably, the loss of NPP per unit of farmland due to rural settlement expansion was higher than that by urban sprawl, especially in the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. The results highlight the non-negligible impacts of rural settlement expansion on farmland in China. It is necessary to improve farmland protection policies by optimizing the spatial allocation of urban and rural construction land.

Ecological Disturbance of Rural Settlement Expansion: Evidence from Nantong, Eastern China

Rural settlements are undergoing a reconstruction process in the context of rapid urbanization, which has a significant impact on ecological land. However, rural settlements encroaching on ecological land (RSEEL) and its associated ecological effects have been widely ignored. This paper aims to accurately and quantitatively evaluate the ecological disturbance caused by RSEEL in China’s rapid urbanization areas. An ecological disturbance index combining changes in both the scale and fragmentation was applied in Nantong, Eastern China. Three types, including jump expansion, extension diffusion, and internal filling, were identified in RSEEL. The results show that the jump expansion type accounted for the largest proportion (58.39%) at the patch level, whereas the extension diffusion was the dominant type at the village level, and the internal filling type was the least common. RSEEL unexpectedly did not make ecological land more fragmented due to the preference for small independent patches in most encroachment cases; hence, the degree of ecological disturbance caused by RSEEL was low in most areas of Nantong. When the encroachment type of RSEEL was combined with the ecological disturbance degree, it was found that the ecological disturbance caused by the jump expansion type was higher than that of the other two types, and extension diffusion and low-level disturbance was the main pattern observed in villages. The findings will contribute to our understanding of the dynamic relationship between rural settlement and ecological land and provide valuable information for rural settlement reconstruction under ecological civilization.

Temporal and Spatial Changes of Rural Settlements and Their Influencing Factors in Northeast China from 2000 to 2020

Rural settlements in Northeast China have undergone significant changes in the process of rapid urbanization, which has profoundly affected food production and the process of sustainable rural development. Based on multi-period remote sensing interpretation data of land use and economic statistics, this study quantitatively analyzes the temporal and spatial pattern change characteristics and influential factors of rural settlements in Northeast China from 2000 to 2020. The results show that: (i) Between 2000 and 2020, the area of rural settlements in Northeast China increased by 190,603.03 hectares, which accounts for 7.62% of the total rural settlements area, and 129 counties (cities) (70.88%) increased the area of rural settlements; (ii) The expanded state of rural settlements presents a low spatial distribution pattern in the northwest and high spatial distribution pattern in the southeast. The core density value of rural settlements in the north decreases, and the core density value in the southeast increases slightly. In addition, the landscape pattern of rural settlement expansion is irregular and there was increased disturbance from settlement expansion; (iii) A total of 81.6% of the land occupied by the expansion of rural settlements comes from cultivated land. The soil’s organic matter content is 10.0 g/kg–20.0 g/kg, and the high-quality cultivated land occupied by the expansion is 218,274.17 hectares. However, it is interesting that the expansion of rural settlements coincides with the increasing number of hollow villages. From 2000 to 2020, the utilization degree of rural settlements in Northeast China decreased by 56.97%; (v) The main factors affecting the changes of rural settlements in Northeast China are water resource conditions, terrain conditions, traffic location, and the level of county economic development. In areas with superior agricultural production conditions, the influence of various factors on the change of rural settlements is more obvious.

Discerning Spatiotemporal Patterns and Policy Drivers of Rural Settlement Changes from 1962 to 2020

Despite two centuries of urbanisation worldwide, 45% of the world’s people still live in rural areas. Driven by urban development, the form and structure of rural settlements have undergone drastic changes. Reasonable planning according to the scale of the land and spatial layout of rural settlements is particularly important for the development of rural areas. The continuous development of the economy means that the housing needs of farmers and the macro policy background will inevitably change. We create a relationship curve for the “policy-scale of rural settlements” in different periods according to the laws of Maslow’s psychological demand theory and game theory and conduct an empirical study on Dingzhou City, China. The limited availability of remote sensing data means it is difficult to map the evolution patterns of rural settlements on medium and long time scales, and therefore, this paper explores and decrypts military satellite images, reveals the spatial evolution characteristics of rural settlements in Dingzhou, China from 1962 to 2020, and discusses the impact of policy factors on changes to rural settlements in different periods. The study found that from 1962 to 2020, the total area of rural settlements in Dingzhou showed a trend of continual increase, with a total increase of 8354.97 ha (73%). The average annual growth rates in 1962–1972, 1972–1990, 1990–2000, 2000–2010, and 2010–2020 were 0.29%, 1.17%, 1.81%, 1.26%, and 0.05%, respectively. The growth rate of rural settlements was relatively slow from 1962 to 1972. The policy was mainly because rural homesteads (land for building rural residences) were transformed from private ownership to “one homestead, two systems”, and the expansion of rural settlements was inhibited. From 1972 to 1990, with the deepening of reform and opening up, there was a boom in building houses in rural areas, and the growth rate of rural settlements increased. From 1990 to 2000, although the state strengthened the management of rural settlement use, there was still an increasing trend in the area of rural settlements; from 2000 to 2020 the implementation of policies such as “one house for one household" and “connecting increase and decrease" meant that the growth rate of rural settlements slowed.

Assessing the effects of the new-type urbanization policy on rural settlement evolution using a multi-agent model

Urbanization is an inevitable trend of modernization. In recent years, the Chinese government has proposed a new urbanization policy to accelerate the citizenization of the migrant agricultural population. The proposal of China's new urbanization strategy will inevitably cause the large-scale migration of China's urban and rural population, thus impacting the evolution patterns of China's rural settlements. To investigate the future evolution trends of rural settlement patterns against the background of new-type urbanization, we constructed a rural settlement multi-agent system (RSMAS) that can explicitly simulate the influences of government policies. In the model, we set four types of agents, including urban area, rural area, government, and peasant household. Through top-down control and bottom-up response, the model can reveal the mutual gaming relationships, influencing relationships, and feedback relationships among agents against the background of new-type urbanization. Taking Jizhou District of Tianjin, which is one of the first pilot areas of new-type urbanization, as an example, we first simulated the changes of rural settlement patterns in Jizhou District from 2005 to 2015 using the RSMAS. The accuracy of the model simulation was 60.96%, indicating that the model has good reliability. Second, we predicted the impact of the new-type urbanization policy on the rural settlement patterns in Jizhou District in 2030, using 2015 as the starting year. The household registration system is no longer the key constraint to urbanization. The trend of the expansion of rural settlements has been effectively curbed after the implementation of new urbanization. In addition, government-led urbanization processes would increase the local financial burden. Therefore, we suggest that the government should effectively control these processes, activate the rural financial market, and promote the participation of local state-owned enterprises in financing.

Impacts of Different Rural Settlement Expansion Patterns on Eco-Environment and Implications in the Loess Hilly and Gully Region, China

While the eco-environmental effects of rural settlement expansion are of great significance to rural sustainable land use, the relationship between rural settlement expansion and eco-environment under different expansion patterns is still unclear. To fill this gap, the current study used Baota district of the loess hilly and gully region as a case study area. We first investigated the spatiotemporal expansion patterns of rural settlements from 1990 to 2015 and then estimated their impacts on ecosystem services by implementing the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model and the global agro-ecological zones (GAEZ) model. Results showed the following: 1) edge expansion was the primary pattern of rural settlement expansion in Baota district from 1990 to 2015, and the area of edge expansion was 757.40 h m2, accounting for 71.76% of the total expansion area of rural settlements. 2) Rural settlement expansion caused 1744.60 t loss of crop yield, 40,155.78 Mg C loss of carbon storage, and a significant decline in habitat quality of water areas during 1990–2015. 3) According to the unit expansion area, the edge expansion and leapfrog expansion patterns contributed more to ecosystem services loss than the infilling expansion pattern. 4) There were gradient differences in the impacts of three expansion patterns on ecosystem services, and the impacts were gradually weakened by the increased distance. Accordingly, we concluded that the expansion of rural settlements reduced surrounding ecosystem services, especially food production service, and that the edge expansion and leapfrog expansion patterns had higher levels of stress on ecosystem services.

Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Driving Factors of Rural Settlements in Low Hilly Region-A Case Study of 17 Cities in Hubei Province, China.

With the rapid development of the social economy, factors of social and economic development in China’s rural areas have been continuously reorganized, and the pattern and distribution of rural residential areas have undergone significant changes. In rural areas, there have been many peculiar phenomena of “reducing people but not reducing land in rural areas, which has caused tremendous pressure on land resource protection. We used geographic detectors and a geographically temporally weighted regression model (GTWR) to explore the rural settlements’ evolution and driving mechanism in Hubei Province from 1990 to 2015. The results show that the kernel density of rural settlements decreased from 1.62 villages/km2 in 1990 to 1.60 villages/km2 in 2015. The scale of rural residential patches has obvious regional differentiation characteristics. From southeast to northwest, there is a wave-like distribution structure of “high-low-high-low-high”, and the clustering characteristics of “cold and hot spots” are strengthened with time. Based on GTWR analysis, the total rural population, total power of agricultural machinery, and rural electricity consumption have promoted the expansion of rural settlements, with the regression coefficients 0.096, 0.484, and 0.878, respectively. Cultivated land, agricultural output value, and rural labor force have negative impacts on the expansion, the regression coefficients of the village were −0.584, −0.510, and −0.109, respectively.

Zonation on non-point source pollution risk in the lower reaches of Zijiang River based on the "source-sink" theory

Non-point source pollution risk assessment and zonation research are of great significance for the eco-environmental protection and optimization of land use structure. We identified the "source" and "sink" landscape using the "source-sink" landscape pattern theory based on the two phases of land use data in the lower reaches of Zijiang River in 2010 and 2018. We comprehensively considered the non-point source pollution occurrence and migration factors, and used location-weighted landscape contrast index (LCI) and non-point source pollution load index (NPPRI) to analyze non-point source pollution risk spatio-temporal characteristics in the study area. Zonation on non-point source pollution in the lower reaches of Zijiang River was studied by identifying the key factors of non-point source pollution risk. The results showed that the overall risk of non-point source pollution was relatively low. The sub-basin with "sink" landscape was the main type, accounting for 61.2%. Non-point source pollution risk was low in the southwest and was high along the banks of Zhixi River, Taohua River and main stream of Zijiang River, as well as plain in the northeast of the lower Zijiang River. The risk of non-point source pollution from 2010 to 2018 showed an increasing trend. The changes in landscape pattern, especially the expansion of rural settlement, arable land and the shrinkage of forest land had positive and negative responses to the risk of non-point source pollution, respectively. LCI, slope, and distance were the key factors affecting the change of the risk index of non-point source pollution. The lower reaches of the Zijiang River could be divided into four control regions: pollution treatment area near river, low slope pollution control area, ecological restoration-risk prevention and control area, and ecological priority protection area.

Spatial pattern evolution of rural settlements from 1961 to 2030 in Tongzhou District, China

Rural settlement is an important land use type in China due to the country’s large rural population. In recent years, China's social economy has undergone dramatic transformation, and the land use pattern of rural settlements has also significantly changed. Against this background, it is important to reveal the evolution rules of rural settlements to provide references for rural settlement rearrangement. Based on interpreting high-precision military satellite remote sensing images, we selected Tongzhou District of Beijing as a case to discuss the evolution process of rural settlements during 1961–2015. Tongzhou has a history of rural settlement construction for more than 2000 years and will face rapid changes in rural settlement patterns due to the new urbanization policies. The land transformation model (LTM) was employed to simulate the spatial expansion of rural settlements in 2030. The results showed that the number of rural settlement sites in Tongzhou continuously decreased during the past 50 years, with a total decrease by 43.30 %, whereas the total area continuously increased during 1961–2015 (146.64 %). The spatial pattern of the rural settlements was regularized continuously, but the spatial distribution of density varied in different stages. In total, spatial density first presented a decreasing trend, followed by an increase. For over 50 years, there were mainly four evolution modes for the spatial distribution of rural settlements in Tongzhou, namely the extinction, the diffusion, the infilling, and the merging mode. The simulation results obtained by the LTM showed that the rural settlements of Tongzhou all expanded, albeit to varying degrees, and that their expansion mostly followed the diffusion mode, based on the existing rural settlement sites.

Expansion of Rural Settlements on High-Quality Arable Land in Tongzhou District in Beijing, China

Settlement expansion caused by urbanization is an important factor leading to the loss of arable land across the world. Due to various factors in China, such as institutional problems, the total number of rural settlements is decreasing, while the total area continues to increase. Rural settlements expand mainly into arable land, resulting in a significant loss of high-quality farmland, thus threatening long-term food security. However, research on this subject is relatively scarce. In this study, using KeyHole and RESURS F1 satellite remote sensing images, we examined the spatial expansion of rural settlements in Tongzhou District, Beijing, in 1972 and 1991. Then, the consumption of high-quality arable land by rural settlements expansion was assessed. It was found that the overall accuracy of the produced maps for 1972 and 1991 were 93% and 90%, respectively. The accuracy of mapped changes from 1972 to 1991 was as high as 90%. From 1972 to 1991 and from 1991 to 2015, the rural settlements in Tongzhou District expanded by 51.54% and 79.91% respectively, with 53.72% and 60.64% of the expanded rural settlements being on arable land. Rural settlements expanded mainly into high-quality arable land at the beginning of the study period, whereas later on, medium- and low-quality farmland was also occupied, albeit to a lesser degree.

The population, utilization and local management of Elaeodendron transvaalense in the Blouberg Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract. Rasethe MT, Semenya SS. 2019. The population, utilization and local management of Elaeodendron transvaalense in the Blouberg Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa. Biodiversitas 20: 2978-2985. Elaeodendron transvaalense is highly harvested by rural communities of the Limpopo Province (South Africa) to meet various livelihoods. However, its information on the population, uses, harvesting practices, threatening factors and local management is still not investigated and documented in many parts of this province. The current study therefore, provides a base-line data of E. transvaalense occurring in two villages of the Blouberg Municipality, Limpopo Province. Data on the population locations, utilization and local management strategies of this species was collected from community members, traditional healers and leaders via semi-structured questionnaires, supplemented by field observations on harvesting practices, threats, area of occupancy, population size, density and demographic structure and population health. Two populations, referred in this study as Sebotlana and Makgabeng covering an area of 25252.17 m2 and 45099.79 m2, respectively, were located in the two villages of the Blouberg Municipality. Both populations were characterized by a mixture of healthy seedlings, sapling, juvenile, middle trees, adult trees, and senescent trees, with Makgabeng population having the highest plant density. Various morphological parts such as bark and roots were mainly used by respondents as common ingredients in traditional medicines, mainly for cough, fever, diarrhoea, symptoms of AIDS and as blood purifier. Evidence of harvesting was only observed on Sebotlana population, which was also highly impacted by rural settlement expansion. Overall, there were no local management strategies meant specifically for the identified E. transvaalense around the Blouberg area.

Rural Settlement Expansion and its Effect on Food Security in Salanpur, West Bengal, India

The settlement may be viewed as the manifestation of delicate human-nature interaction and cultural impression of humanity in the landscape system. With the progress of civilisation, the perception of use of natural resources and cultural development become ever-changing phenomena that causes the changes in the rural settlement all over the world. Salanpur C.D. Block of Paschim Bardhhaman district has registered an unusual settlement arrangement and spatio-temporal changes. Using satellite imageries and competent GIS technologies it is observed that an unplanned growth of rural settlement has developed in this part of West Bengal. This paper examines the spatio-temporal dynamics of the rural settlement over ten years (2008-2018), employing PR index, and SI index. In doing so, it, analyses the dynamic change of rural settlement at Gram Panchayat Level and its relation with overall land-use in the study area. This paper also envisages how the rural settlement expansion affects the various dimension of food security in Salanpur C. D. Block. Along with this, the Spearman Rank-order Correlation Coefficient (rho=p) is also applied to comprehend the effect of the rural settlement expansion on regional food security. Growth of rural settlement towards productive agricultural land, unequal access to food, insufficiency in clean water, sanitation, and health care facility are also indicators of increasing threat to the long run food security of the people in the study area. The result shows a positive correlation between the rural settlement expansion index (SI) and food insecurity Index (FISI), it indicating that if the rural settlements expand, it would enhance the risk of food insecurity of the area. Development and growth are the buzz of the modern era, but the dark side of it is that destruction of agricultural lands would be ultimately responsible for food insecurity and uneven economic growth. The findings suggest that lopsided and unplanned growth of settlements is pose threats on food security of the study area. Therefore, sound planning is required to come out of these potential threats for the sake of the inhabitants.

The changing patterns of cropland conversion to built-up land in China from 1987 to 2010

Over the past few decades, built-up land in China has increasingly expanded with rapid urbanization, industrialization and rural settlements construction. The expansions encroached upon a large amount of cropland, placing great challenges on national food security. Although the impacts of urban expansion on cropland have been intensively illustrated, few attentions have been paid to differentiating the effects of growing urban areas, rural settlements, and industrial/transportation land. To fill this gap and offer comprehensive implications on framing policies for cropland protection, this study investigates and compares the spatio- temporal patterns of cropland conversion to urban areas, rural settlements, and industrial/ transportation land from 1987 to 2010, based on land use maps interpreted from remote sensing imagery. Five indicators were developed to analyze the impacts of built-up land expansion on cropland in China. We find that 42,822 km2 of cropland were converted into built-up land in China, accounting for 43.8% of total cropland loss during 1987–2010. Urban growth showed a greater impact on cropland loss than the expansion of rural settlements and the expansion of industrial/transportation land after 2000. The contribution of rural settlement expansion decreased; however, rural settlement saw the highest percentage of traditional cropland loss which is generally in high quality. The contribution of industrial/transportation land expansion increased dramatically and was mainly distributed in major food production regions. These changes were closely related to the economic restructuring, urban-rural transformation and government policies in China. Future cropland conservation should focus on not only finding a reasonable urbanization mode, but also solving the “hollowing village” problem and balancing the industrial transformations.

Detection of spatiotemporal dynamics of land cover and its drivers using remote sensing and landscape metrics (Pingtan Island, China)

Land cover change (LCC) and its drivers are important inputs for tracking and tackling environmental problems. Pingtan has been experiencing rapid LCC recently, but it is not well documented. The general objective of this study is to detect land cover dynamics using three Landsat images from the years 2000, 2009 and 2013 based on metrics of land cover transition and pattern, together with driving factors. The overall trends in LCC depicted the expansion of forest land (6.75%), shrubland (4.81%), urban land (12.05%) and rural settlement (15.54%), as well as the reduction of grassland (− 17.86%), water body (− 0.71%), wetland (− 3.23%), farmland (− 17.16%) and bare land (− 0.19%). The land use intensity was also increased. Transformation of each land cover type was characterized by unbalanced expansion and contraction simultaneously and a spatial shift in their locations. During 2000–2013, a class-to-class transformation was dominated by the expansion of urban land and rural settlement (70.26% of gross gain), as well as the reduction of farmland and grassland (59.69% of gross loss). Landscape-level metrics indicated the decline of landscape heterogeneity and shape irregularities. However, there are some inconsistencies at the class level. LCC was driven primarily by policy factors and socio-economic development. Detailed quantification of spatiotemporal LCC will have significant contributions for sustainable land resource conservation and to improve land use planning policies.

Quantifying the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Rural Settlements and the Associated Impacts on Land Use in an Undeveloped Area of China

Rapid urbanization and economic growth in China have accelerated changes in rural settlements and associated land-use types that are expected to alter ecological services and the environment. Relevant studies of the dynamics of rural settlements and corresponding rural land-use changes are in short supply, however, especially in undeveloped areas in China. This study, therefore, investigated the spatio-temporal dynamics of rural settlements and their impacts on other land-use types by using 30 m rural settlement status and dynamic maps from the end of the 1980s to 2010. These maps were generated by visual interpretation with strict product quality control and accuracy. Henan province was selected as a case study of undeveloped regions in China. We examined in particular how the expansion of rural settlements affected cultivated lands and the processes of rural settlement urbanization. This study looked at three periods: the end of the 1980s–2000, 2000–2010, and the end of the 1980s–2010, with two spatial scales of province and prefecture city. Major findings about the rural settlements in Henan from the end of the 1980s to 2010 include (1) the area of rural settlements grew continuously, although the increasing trend slowed; (2) the expansion of rural settlements showed a negative trend contrary to the trend of the urbanization of rural settlements; (3) rural settlement expansion occupied considerable expanse of cultivated lands, which accounted for up to 96% of the total expansion lands; (4) urbanization of rural settlements was the main mode by which rural residential lands vanished, accounting for more than 98% of the lost lands. This study can provide suggestions for the conservation and sustainability of the rural environment and inform reasonable policies on rural development.