Urban-rural Construction Land Research Articles

The impact of gradient expansion of urban–rural construction land on landscape fragmentation in typical mountain cities, China

ABSTRACT Hillside urbanization currently provides the most economical solution for urban expansion. However, limited attention was paid to the characteristics, processes, and patterns of gradient expansion of construction land (GEC) in mountainous regions and its impact on landscape fragmentation. This study suggests an approach to identify GEC in mountainous regions and quantify its spatial impact on the fragmentation of cultivated land and ecological land. The results are as follows: (1) GEC can be categorized as ‘unidirectional’, ‘bidirectional’, or ‘multidirectional’ expansion, influenced by the proportion of topography in different directions of the cities. The magnitude of expansion is correlated with the city's economic level. (2) GEC leads to an increasing trend of landscape fragmentation, with nearly a three-fold increase in arable land fragmentation and a two-fold increase in ecological land fragmentation within the focus areas over 20 years. (3) The impact of GEC on the fragmentation of cultivated and ecological land diminishes with distance, primarily influencing within 3 km. The results of this study provide a methodological reference for identifying key areas and characteristics of GEC, and serve as a theoretical basis for reducing landscape ecological risks in the process of mountainous urban development and promoting sustainable development.

A Comparative Analysis of the Interaction between Urban-Rural Construction Land Transition and Population Flow: Dominant and Recessive Perspectives

Population flow caused by rapid urbanization has driven the urban-rural construction land transition. A systematic recognition of their interaction is essential for achieving coordinated and sustainable urban-rural development. We chose Hangzhou, one of the most urbanized cities in China, as the study area to analyze this interaction from the perspectives of dominant morphology and recessive morphology during the period of 2010 to 2020. From the perspective of dominant morphology, a structured analysis method is applied to assess the variation in the internal components. A dynamic land utilization efficiency index is proposed and combined with an original static land utilization efficiency index to comprehensively portray a complete periodicity of urban-rural construction land transition and population flow from the perspective of recessive morphology. Results demonstrate that the path dependence of rural industrialization leads to a seemingly stagnant urban-rural construction land transition in Hangzhou. Meanwhile, the rapid increase in the demographic urbanization rate has been supported by the massive inflow of external migrants. Based on the more stringent dynamic land utilization efficiency index and the more comprehensive combination of static and dynamic indices, the moderate expansion of urban construction land increases the proportion of township-level units of the intensive land utilization pattern while, instead of population loss, the general non-intensive land utilization pattern in rural areas has been driven by the overexpansion of rural residential land.

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of Urban-rural Construction Land in Rural Industrialized Areas in China: Case Studies in Changyuan City and Xinxiang County of Henan Province

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of Urban-rural Construction Land in Rural Industrialized Areas in China: Case Studies in Changyuan City and Xinxiang County of Henan Province

Exploring the Determinants of the Urban–Rural Construction Land Transition in the Yellow River Basin of China Based on Machine Learning

Understanding the determinants of urban–rural construction land transition is necessary for improving regional human–land relationships. This study analysed the spatiotemporal pattern of urban–rural construction land transition at the grid scale in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) of China during 2000–2020 by bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis and further explored its determinants based on a machine learning method, the gradient boosted decision tree (GBDT) model. The results showed that both urban construction land (UCL) and rural residential land (RRL) increased, with an annual growth amount of UCL three times that of RRL, and the proportion of UCL (LUUR) remained stable after 2015. The determinants of UCL, RRL, and LUUR varied. The UCL mainly depended on socioeconomic factors, with their contribution exceeding 50%, while the RRL transition was mainly determined by physical geographic factors, with their contribution decreasing from 67.6% in 2000 to 59.7% in 2020. The LUUR was influenced by both socioeconomic and physical geographic factors, with the relative importance of socioeconomic factors increasing over the years. Meanwhile, the impacts of different determinants were nonlinear with a threshold effect. In the future, optimizing the distribution of urban–rural construction land and rationally adjusting its structure will be necessary for promoting urban–rural sustainability in the YRB.

Rural Revitalization and Land Institution Reform: Achievement, Conflict and Potential Risk

Rural depression is a global issue in the process of worldwide urbanization. Compared with rural economic institution reform, rural land institution reform is more thorough in realizing rural revitalization. In this paper, polycentric governance theory is used to introduce marketization reform of collective profit-oriented land (MRCPL). MRCPL aims to allow rural collective profit-oriented construction land to be sold and leased with the same rights and at the same price as state-owned construction land. In the process of MRCPL, we suppose that the key subject is the central government, and the multiple auxiliary subjects include local governments, markets, villagers, and village collectives. Herein, Deqing County was selected as the research area and its achievements, conflicts, and potential risks in the process of MRCPL were studied. This study found that in Deqing County, a unified urban–rural construction land market has been preliminarily established, the rural revenue allocation mechanism has been updated, and the rural land finance mechanism has been developed. However, MRCPL may have conflicts with existing land requisition institutions and land banking institutions, and may also have conflicts within different subjects (farmers, village collective, local government, and central government). These conflicts may lead to potential risks, such as rent-seeking risk, land-financing risk, and real-estate-bubble risk. In general, the MRCPL aims to allow rural collective profit-oriented construction land to be sold and leased with the same rights and at the same prices as state-owned construction land. This reform can protect farmers’ land rights and promote the construction of urban and rural integration.

The Spatial and Temporal Evolution Pattern and Transformation of Urban–Rural Construction Land in Karst Mountainous Areas: Qixingguan District of Guizhou, Southwest China

Studying the temporal and spatial evolution pattern and transformation rule of urban–rural construction land in karst mountainous areas has important guiding significance for urban development boundary planning, red lines for ecological protection, and cultivated land protection. The present study took 46 townships (streets) in Qixingguan District of Guizhou Province, southwest China, as the research area; collected the current status of four-phase land use data in 2009, 2013, 2017, and 2020; and used GIS spatial analysis models and geographical detectors to analyze the temporal and spatial evolution pattern characteristics and influencing factors of urban–rural construction. The results showed the following: (1) Since 2009, the total area of urban–rural construction land has continued to increase; the largest area is rural residential land, followed by urban land and transportation land, with relatively little urban industrial and mining land, scenic spots, and special land. The growth rate of land used for transport increased rapidly, and urban land grew faster than rural residential land. (2) More than 57.72% of the newly increased urban–rural construction land came from cultivated land, but the transformation of cultivated land for construction gradually slowed down; 57.48% of urban–rural construction land was transferred for reclamation as cultivated land. During the study period, the transformation of cultivated land to construction land was more intense (the transfer out of cultivated land was greater than the transfer in by 9541.94 hm2). (3) There are strong spatial differences in the density of urban–rural construction land, showing scattered agglomeration distribution, and the degree of aggregation in medium-high- and high- density areas is further strengthened, expanding to the east and southwest. (4) The growth of urban–rural construction land has been controlled by a variety of complex factors, the most influential of which are the completion of fixed asset investment in society as a whole and the total fiscal revenue, with explanatory power (PD) values of 0.819 and 0.607, respectively. Interactions between detection factors have a greater impact on the spatial differentiation of urban–rural construction land than single factors. The results of this study can provide basic research data and support the control and high-quality development of urban–rural construction land in Qixingguan District and karst mountain areas.

Evaluating the Carrying Capacity and Spatial Pattern Matching of Urban and Rural Construction Land in a Representative City of Middle China

Evaluation of the carrying capacity and spatial pattern matching of urban–rural construction land is critical for solving problems associated with irrational land use and the destruction of ecosystems. Here, we present a case study exploring the spatial matching relationship between the carrying capacity and current development status of urban–rural construction land in Nanchang, the capital city of Jiangxi Province, China. Land suitability evaluation for urban and rural construction was performed using the analytic hierarchical process and restrictive coefficient method. The spatial matching degree between current construction land and available construction land was obtained by a spatial overlay analysis. Results show that the area most suitable for construction land development (19.2% of the total) is mainly concentrated in the central urban districts, while the relatively suitable area (17.5% of the total) is present around the most suitable area. The ultimate development intensity (i.e., carrying capacity threshold) of construction land in the study region is 41.4%, and the residual development intensity (i.e., development potential) is 24.2%. The available construction land (including most suitable and relatively suitable areas) is generally abundant. The spatial matching degree of construction land ranges from 69.5% to 99.1% in different counties (districts). Pearson’s correlation analysis reveals that the spatial matching degree is positively correlated with the carrying capacity threshold of construction land (r = 0.926; p < 0.01) and the abundance of available construction land (r = 0.732; p < 0.05). The results could be useful for the rational development of urban–rural construction land and the optimization of land space at the city scale.

An Analysis Method of Quantitative Coupling Rationality between Urban–Rural Construction Land and Population: A Case Study of Henan Province in China

Scientifically measuring the quantitative coupling relationship between urban–rural construction land (URCL) and population and formulating URCL utilization countermeasures are needed for protecting cultivated land resources, intensive utilization of land resources, and sustainable socioeconomic development. This study proposed an improved transition process theory of URCL and population and a coupling model of polar coordinates. Then, the coupling model was applied to Henan Province in China to analyze the coupling relationship between URCL and population, showing that the coupling relationship between URCL and urban–rural population (URP) in the province was unreasonable. However, the coupling rationality between rural construction land (RCL) and rural population (RP) had a significant improvement tendency. Furthermore, the coupling relationship between URCL and the population of prefecture-level cities in Henan province was analyzed, and the coupling model of polar coordinates proposed in this study achieved satisfactory results. Thus, compared with the commonly used Tapio’s decoupling model of elasticity, the coupling model further extends the concept of coupling analysis to the coupling type, coupling strength, and coupling rationality. The extension makes the measurement of the quantitative coupling relationship between URCL and population more scientific, comprehensive, and accurate.

The effect of urban–rural construction land transition on ecosystem services: A theoretical framework and empirical evidence for China

Urban-rural construction land transition (URCLT) is one of the main manifestations of global urban-rural transition development, which has caused many negative effects on local landscape ecosystem. Better understanding of the ecosystem services (ES) changes due to URCLT is of great significance to achieve sustainable urban development. This study proposes a theoretical framework elucidating the dynamic effect of URCLT on ES, and summarizes two effects to support the framework, namely scale and structural effects. Subsequently, a series of econometric models are built to meticulously verify the proposed framework and two supposed effects. Taking China's prefectural-level city as case study, the results show that URCLT exerted an inverted N-shaped effect on ES during 2000–2015, and this cubic relationship mainly occurred in the Midwest. Followed tests demonstrate the existence of scale and structural effects, and both jointly determined the magnitude and direction of the effect of URCLT on ES at different transition stages. A major finding is that China's unique urban-rural dual system has seriously hindered the sustainability, especially in central and western areas. Finally, specific policy recommendations for sustainable urban development were proposed for the regions in China. In addition, the proposed framework can also provide effective guidance for urban planning in other rapidly urbanizing cities across the world.

城乡建设用地关联对生态系统服务的影响——以洞庭湖地区为例

城乡建设用地关联对生态系统服务的影响——以洞庭湖地区为例

Occupation of Cultivated Land for Urban–Rural Expansion in China: Evidence from National Land Survey 1996–2006

Construction land expansion often occurs on cultivated land in developing countries during rapid urbanization and industrialization. Understanding its characteristics and driving mechanisms is of great significance for land-use policy and sustainable development. This paper depicted the spatio-temporal patterns of China’s urban–rural expansion and its occupation of cultivated land based on national land survey data from 1996 to 2006. It further explored the influencing mechanism of cultivated land occupation for urban–rural construction land. The results showed that the establishment and expansion of various economic development zones contribute to more than half of the occupation of cultivated land while the expansion of cities and towns is relatively slower, and their sources of construction land are more diverse. The empirical results showed that (1) economic growth and investment play key roles in shaping the spatio-temporal patterns of the occupation of cultivated land for urban–rural construction land, and (2) the mechanisms of cultivated land occupation in different stages of regional development are different. In particular, the establishment of national economic development zones is conducive to the intensive use of construction land and the protection of cultivated land in inland regions, whereas provincial economic development zones have led to a waste of land resources in coastal regions. Based on the results, this study suggested that the policies to the intensive use of land resources and cultivated land protection required regional disparities.

Urban–rural construction land transition and its coupling relationship with population flow in China's urban agglomeration region

Urban–rural construction land transition (URCLT) and population flow serve as two significant issues in the global process of urban–rural transition development. Better understanding of URCLT and its coupling relationship with population flow has great significance for enriching the theory of land use transitions and coordinating human–land dynamics in this process. This study develops a theoretical model of URCLT based on the land use transition theory using the structure transition index of urban-rural construction land (LUUR). In addition, a decoupling model is utilized to reveal the relationship between URCLT and rural-to-urban population flow. Taking the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration of China as an example, the results shows that LUUR in the study area experienced a rapid rise and then steady ascension during 2000–2015. The spatial transition trend of LUUR decreased as the distance from urban downtown increased and noticeably rose in the suburbs in the study period. The relationship between URCLT and rural-to-urban population flow converted from coupling in 2000–2005 to weak decoupling state during 2005–2015 and displayed substantial regional differences. Regulating URCLT and properly coordinating its relationship with population flow can help stabilize urban–rural transition development in China.

Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Urban–Rural Construction Land Transition and Rural–Urban Migrants in Rapid-Urbanization Areas of Central China

AbstractRapid urbanization accompanied with socioeconomic transformation in China has resulted in significant changes in urban–rural construction land and human–land relationships. Understanding th...

Urban–Rural Construction Land Replacement for More Sustainable Land Use and Regional Development in China: Policies and Practices

With the rapid development of urbanization and industrialization, land exploitation in China has caused a decrease of cultivated land, posing a threat to national food security. To achieve the goals of both economic development and cultivated land protection, China launched an urban–rural land replacement measure supported by a new land use policy of “increasing vs. decreasing balance” of construction land between urban and rural areas in 2008. Setting China’s urban and rural land use policies in a historical context and urban–rural sustainable development, this paper discusses four practices in Jiangsu Province, Tianjin Municipality, Shandong Province, and Chongqing Municipality. These practices achieved success in impelling agricultural modernization development, improving rural infrastructure and living circumstances, releasing the potential of rural land resources, and increasing cultivated land and urban construction land in the past decade. However, in some practices, problems, and even some conflicts, exist in the protection of farmers’ rights and interests. These challenges are discussed in the context of implementation. In order to better implement urban–rural construction land replacement and achieve better results, the authors argue that farmers’ rights and interests must always be put first and their wishes should be respected more, a consolidated urban–rural land market and a better land market mechanism should be founded, the supply of public goods and services for villagers should be further improved, and supervision and evaluation mechanisms should be further strengthened.

Urban - Rural construction land Transition(URCLT) in Shandong Province of China: Features measurement and mechanism exploration

The change in urban construction land (UCL) and rural residential land (RRL) and their coupling relationship are the main manifestation of urban-rural construction land transition (URCLT) and the mapping of urban-rural factor flow. It is of great significance to systematically understand and master its laws for expanding the theory of land use transition (LUT) and adjusting the man-land relationship between urban and rural area. This paper constructs a theoretical model of URCLT, analyses the spatial and temporal characteristics of urban and rural construction land (UARCL) scale, elasticity and structure transition in Shandong Province from 1996 to 2015, reveals the transition process and coupling mechanism of UCL and RRL by using the method of geographic detector. The research shows that the UCL and RRL in Shandong Province have evolved along a coordinated track of increase and decrease as a whole, but with certain periodic fluctuations, resulting in insufficient elasticity and structural transition of URCLT. The rationalization degree of UCL growth was reduced, the low synchronization and non-synchronization of RRL reduction predominates, while the dominant type of urban-rural human-land relationship changed from urban-rural (UR) increase or decrease coordinated to both urban (U) and rural (R) increase uncoordinated. The URCLT had obvious spatial differences. The UARCL in the “blue-yellow” economic zone and the provincial capital urban agglomeration was active, but was dominated by uncoordinated transition, and the non-synchronization reduction of RRL was dominant. The factors influencing the transition of URCL were complex, diverse and unstable, and the transition mechanism was the interaction process of self-regulation of population, industry and land elements within the urban and rural system and intervention of external natural environment, science and technology and institutional policies.

Evaluation of carrying capacity and spatial pattern matching on urban-rural construction land in the Poyang Lake urban agglomeration, China

Land carrying capacity is one of the important research fields for land management and sustainable use. Urban-rural construction land is an essential component of land use type, the rationality of whose structure and layout is crucial to the sustainable use of land. Here, we executed the evaluation of the suitability of urban-rural construction land development, accounted the bearable critical threshold of urban-rural construction land, calculated the bearable abundance of urban-rural construction land, and compared with the current urban-rural construction land, analyzed the matching of the space layout, and then obtained the remaining development intensity of each county (city or district) of the Poyang Lake urban agglomeration. The results showed that the most suitable, more suitable, less suitable and unsuitable area about the evaluation results of urban-rural construction land development suitability were 3130.62, 2477.29, 867.03 and 29509.14 km2, respectively. The bearable critical threshold of urban-rural construction land (developable strength) was 16.6%, and the value of each county (city, district) was 7.7%-100%. The abundance of urban-rural construction land in each county (city, district) was mainly 0.15-1.30. The remaining development intensity was 12.3%, and the spatial matching degree was 0.76. The remaining develo-pment intensity of each county (city, district) was 4.9%-53.5%, and the spatial matching degree of each county (city, district) was 0.11- 1.00, with a wide range. Our results would help to clarify the relationship between the current development status and the rational development status, which could provide a basis for the refined management of urban-rural construction land and the regulatory policies' formulation of spatial pattern optimization.

The Analysis of the Agricultural Applicability of Reclamation Land under the Complementary Mechanism of Urban and Rural Construction Land and Its Strategy

With the steady advancement of urban integration and poverty alleviation. it is urgent for China to form a benign complementary mechanism between the rehabilitation of rural construction land and the demand for urban construction land, ensuring the dynamic balance of cultivated land. It is the basic requirement for realizing the integration of urban rural development and industrial transformation upgrading. In the process of land redevelopment and expansion, it is inevitable to carry out the necessary suitability analysis of reclaimed land, in order to meet the crop cultivation suitability of the region and realize the expected economic benefits and effects. Therefore, this paper intends to carry out the necessary land-for-agriculture analysis of the land for rural construction that needs to be rehabilitated, under the complementary mechanism of urban rural construction land, in order to provide practical and feasible countermeasures for land reclamation.

Efficiency and distribution of rural construction land marketization in contemporary China

Since 2015, a national trial on rural construction land marketization has been conducted in 15 counties in China; this trial is regarded as the most significant step taken to date to reform the extant rural-urban dual land governance system. The trial aims to investigate the performance of an integrated rural-urban construction land market in facilitating land resource allocation efficiency and land revenue distribution equality. The objective of this paper is to understand the ongoing rural construction land marketization in China, with a particular focus on its efficiency and distribution effects. To this end, the theoretical model for rural construction land marketization is extended based on Tan, Qu, Heerink, and Mettepenningen (2011), a partial equilibrium model is developed for the empirical analysis, and recent rural construction land marketization practices in Deqing County, Zhejiang Province, are examined for empirical evidence. The study concludes that 1) rural construction land marketization indeed improves land allocation efficiency, and 2) rural construction land marketization also leads to a welfare gain for the rural sector, in particular by inducing redistribution effects from the urban to the rural sector.

How China’s linked urban–rural construction land policy impacts rural landscape patterns: a simulation study in Tianjin, China

To prevent the area of arable land from crossing the limit of 120 million ha arable land red line, China’s government proposed a linked urban–rural construction land policy. This policy helps to protect the arable land but will impact the rural landscape. The objective is to evaluate the effect of the linked urban–rural construction land policy on rural landscape in the future. We performed a simulation method to predict the rural landscape pattern changes in Tianjin during 2005–2020 using a cellular automata and multi-agent system model under the scenarios with or without implementing this policy. The landscape metrics were calculated for both scenarios to find the effects caused by this policy. Following this policy, the Total Area and Large Patch Index of arable land decreased slowly. 65.50% of the occupied arable land can be compensated. For rural settlements, the Mean Patch Area increased to 2.87 times that in 2005. Number of Patches reduced greatly, and 1053 of the total rural settlements distributed along the periphery of Tianjin were reclaimed for arable land during 2005–2020. Aggregation Index increased greatly. According to the simulation model, the policy is effective on slowing down the loss of total arable land and the process of large arable land fragmentation. The increasing degree of aggregation of rural settlements is beneficial to the optimal allocation of resources and rural centralized management. However, as the rural settlements gather to urban construction land, they are more vulnerable to urban issues.

Addressing the rural in situ urbanization (RISU) in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region: Spatio-temporal pattern and driving mechanism

Rural in situ urbanization (RISU) indicates that rural settlements transfer into urban land within the original rural settlements area from the perspective of land use. A quantitative study from the perspective of land use can reveal trends of RISU and provide a basis for the promotion of the healthy and rational development of urbanization. Based on the investigation data of land use change of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei in the period from 2003 through 2015, this paper analyses the spatio-temporal pattern of RISU through the elaboration of RISU and the construction of a rural in situ urbanization index (RISUI), and the driving mechanism of RISU is subsequently discussed. The results showed that RISU fluctuated during the study period in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and its scale between different levels shifted from polarization to balance. RISU displayed a significant spatial agglomeration with the combined influence of siphon and spillover effects in Beijing and Tianjin, and its spatial scope expanded to the periphery with Beijing as the centre. The findings further revealed that RISU was developed under the comprehensive influence of population, economy, social public service and space. To realize the healthy and benign development of urbanization, the government should vigorously promote the RISU of small towns on the basis of resource environmental bearing capacity and the land construction foundation. Meanwhile, urban-rural construction land and the allocation of public service resources should also be arranged.