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Agriculture and rural development in China have entered a new stage with the rapid globalization, urbanization, and the shift in consumer demand. A new style of consumption is forming the value of rural diversification. In order to promote the rural reform and modern agriculture, the rural revitalization and urban-rural integration, a Rural Revitalization Strategy has been released at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, particularly on a series of policies, such as the Rural Revitalization Strategy Plan (2018-2022), the active use of idle homesteads and housing bases. To revitalize countryside, the diversification of rural functions is becoming a new topic of rural space research in China. There are diversified research trends in previous studies on rural space, such as multi-functional transformation, rural revitalization, and rural space commercialization, social and cultural differentiation. However, most research interests are still focused on the new rural construction, such as hollow village, rural renovation, possibly due to the insight was confined by the urbanization process and the stage of rural development in China. The further explore is also lacking in consumption-oriented modern leisure for the rural functions. In the counter-urbanization of developed countries, the diversification rural space has become hot research directions, such as urban-rural migration, consumption of rural areas. In this paper, the combination of conventional reading method and knowledge mapping analysis in CiteSpace document analysis software was used to sort out the research context of international rural spatial diversification, and then to identify research hot spots, finally to extract the explanation of research topics. The results show that (1) international rural space has undergone a series of transitions from rural production relations, rural reconstruction, rurality to rural functions transformation, urban-rural integration, social policy changes, continuous resource management to urban-rural immigration, consumption differences, rural space reproduction, and rural gentrification. The attention and its intensity on diversification research are increasing rapidly, while the research focus and hotspots are constantly updated. The degree of diversified research attention has increased rapidly. (2) In recent years, the research results and influence of developing countries represented by China have been growing rapidly, and the overall research shows a spatial pattern of "Western Europe as the core, North America and Asia as the two wings". (3) Five topics, including rurality, rural function transformation, rural space reproduction, urban-rural immigration, rural gentrification, have dominated the current international rural spatial diversification research. Compared with international research experience, this paper proposed that the future strength can be focused on the theoretical system of rural spatial diversification in China, the process and mechanism analysis, and micro analysis, thereby to provide valuable reference for further research on rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rational construction of a well-facilitated farmland become necessary for food security and modern agriculture in China. In farmland construction, the automatic management of spatial data can benefit to accurately distinguish well-facilitated farmland from the various land types. Various discriminating ways of well-facilitated farmland are adopted due to the different influence factors of agricultural production in in different regions, where the spatial distribution and structural features of well-facilitated farmland are quite different from place to place across the country. Most of the previous studies focus mainly on policies, benefit evaluation, preliminary planning and design in the well-facilitated farmland construction. There is still lacking on the studies of the discrimination and analysis for the regional structural features of the well-facilitated farmland. In this paper, a framework of an index system was constructed to identify the spatial distribution and structural features of the well-facilitated farmland using the law of spatial differentiation together with the related national standards and strategic planning, ranging from the scale and shape of farmlands, irrigation and drainage facilities, traffic accessibility, and farmland protection ratio. The identifying system was designed on the basis of the index framework with C#. NET and Arc Object. Subsequently, the proposed system was verified for its availability by taking a case study of a Loess Plateau and a southern mountainous region. The results were as follows: (1) In the Loess Plateau area, the standard rate of the farmland scale, farmland shape, irrigation and drainage facilities, traffic accessibility was 87.01%, 83.12%, 80.52%, 90.91% and 83.12%, respectively. The well-facilitated farmland area can be identified by the system was 38.33 hm² with the total discriminating precision was 94.38%. There were some farmlands that did not meet the requirements of the well-facilitated farmland, such as incomplete irrigation and drainage facilities, the irregular shapes of the fields that distributed in the branch furrow and furrow head around the farmland. (2) In the southern mountainous area, the standard rate of all spatial features was 100%. The well-facilitated farmland area that identified by the system was 30.07 hm², which was 10.34 hm² higher than that of the state-approved well-facilitated farmland. The high identified areas can be because some fields that meet the requirements of well-facilitated farmland have not been classed as the permanent basic farmland in some administrative regions. When regardless of this classification, the total discrimination precision was 100%. This index system can be used in different scenarios, such as macro monitoring and evaluation, project design and inspection of the well-facilitated farmland. This system was also applied for the Northeast Plain, North China Plain, Loess Plateau and southern mountainous regions, while the key elements of the spatial features of well-facilitated farmland construction can be detected with a reliable discriminant resolution. When combining with the remote sensing technology, the index system can help automatic management to know the real-time spatial data of well-facilitated farmland construction. Therefore, the developed system can be successfully applied to identify the extract well-facilitated farmland in the construction area, and then to analyze the obtained spatial data in real time, finally to implement automatic management for well-facilitated farmland construction. Furthermore, the proposed system in this paper can offer a promising reference to the current comprehensive supervision platform, and improve the management effectiveness of well-facilitated farmland construction in modern agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has great significance to study the trade-off mechanism of productive and dwelling space of rural settlement and the optimized of its productive and dwelling space nowadays in China, which is one of the basic means to improve the rural habitat environment and adjust the inner structure of rural residential land. With the development of socio-economic, productive and dwelling space of rural settlements gradually diversified in developed areas such as suburban areas and industrial areas in eastern China, which present reciprocal tradeoffs. These changes distinguish from the abandonment and hollowing of productive and dwelling space of rural settlements in traditional agricultural area. However, current researches mainly consider the rural settlement as a single entity and tend to neglect its inner productive and dwelling space. This paper introduces the concept of ecosystem service trade-off, analyzes the trade-off between productive space and dwelling space of rural settlements in economically developed areas from the aspects of “types of trade-off, driving forces, effects,” and then this paper puts forward the idea of optimizing the productive and dwelling space of rural settlement. The results show that, the trade-off of productive and dwelling space of rural settlements which in developed areas, is caused by the diversification of farmers' livelihood and the development of non-agricultural industries in rural areas, farmers have a demand for living apace, industrial and commercial space, and choose various functional spaces according to their needs. According to the spatial combination of productive space and dwelling space of rural settlement, the trade-off types can be divided into residential-industrial space trade-off, residential-commercial space trade-off, residential-rental space trade-off, multi-space trade-off and so on. Land use versatility and the diversification of productive and dwelling space of rural settlement that driven by industrialization and urbanization is the premise of the productive and dwelling space trade-off of rural settlement. The types and its variations of productive and dwelling space trade-off of rural settlement are directly determined by the livelihood and life needs of farmers. While the land plan control by the government and the lack of village planning has exacerbated the process of the productive and dwelling space trade-off of rural settlement. The trade-off of productive and dwelling space of rural settlement improves the livelihoods of farmers and promotes the economic development and the vitality of rural areas, but also causes a variety of negative effects, such as the spatial clutter of rural settlements, the deterioration of human living environment and other problems. The reconstruction model of rural settlement as homogeneous space is far from the needs of farmers. In the future, under the background of the shortage of construction land in rural areas, it is necessary to meet the diversified demands of farmers and the optimizing of the productive and dwelling space of rural settlement by the multifunctional composite and functional improvement of land use of rural settlement. This paper puts forward the concept of productive and dwelling space trade-off of rural settlement, which provides a new perspective for the study of rural residential transition and a new idea for improving the rural space quality and the residential living environment, and promotes the formation of scientific and reasonable village planning. Above all these will serve for rural revitalization strategy in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As land is an important livelihood resource for rural households, land transfer means that rural households intend to break inherent livelihood pattern and seek alternative livelihoods through the integration of livelihood capital to ensure their livelihood security. In this paper, we aimed to determine the livelihood capital integration characteristics of rural household, including its direction, intensity and benefit. Taking three villages of Shuangkui Town, Hechuan District, Chongqing City, China as a case study, 267 questionnaires of rural household renting their farmland were collected prior to land transfer in 2013 and after land transfer in 2017, respectively. In this paper, firstly, according to the employed industry and its change, rural households were divided into five categories:stable pure households, non-agricultural pure households, stable part-time households, non-agricultural part-time households and stable off-farm households. Secondly, based on the livelihood capital system that included six subsystems: human capital, physical capital, productive capital, living capital, financial capital and social capital, the difference of livelihood capital among different types of households was analyzed. Finally, the radar chart, livelihood capital disturbance index and growth index were applied respectively to evaluate the integration direction, intensity and benefit of households’ livelihood capital before and after the land transfer. The results indicated thatthe livelihood capital totality of stable off-farm households, non-agricultural part-time households, stable part-time households, non-agricultural pure households and stable pure households were 3.248, 3.142, 2.967, 2.460 and 2.274, respectively, in 2013. Besides, non-agricultural pure households and non-agricultural part-time households had more human capital, living capital, financial capital and social capital, while stable pure households and stable part-time households dominated in physical capital and productive capital before land transfer. It was apparent that the livelihood condition is the basis of livelihood transformation of rural households. The results also showed thatthe human capital, living capital, financial capital and social capital of non-agricultural pure households and non-agricultural part-time households increased, while the physical capital of stable pure households and stable part-time households rose. Therefore, for livelihood capital intensity direction, non-agricultural pure households and non-agricultural part-time households were inclined to the integration of human capital, financial capital and social capital, while stable pure households and stable part-time households focused mainly on the integration of productive capital. But, there was no obvious difference in the intensity direction of livelihood capital for stable off-farm households. In addition, livelihood capital disturbance index from large to small were non-agricultural pure households (0.169), non-agricultural part-time households (0.144), stable pure households (0.124), stable part-time households (0.105) and stable off-farm households (0.098). It showed that livelihood capital integration intensity of non-agricultural households was higher than that of stable style households. Moreover,livelihood capital growth index from large to small were non-agricultural part-time households (0.135), non-agricultural pure households (0.120), stable part-time households (0.094), stable off-farm households (0.093) and stable pure households (0.088), respectively. Thus, it could be seen that livelihood capital integration benefit of non-agricultural households was also higher than that of stable style households. From this research, we concluded that path inertia law existed in the livelihood capital integration process of rural households. That was, certain livelihood capital pattern was able to trigger off particular livelihood strategy which solidified the corresponding livelihood capital pattern, which was positive for non-agricultural part-time households and non-agricultural pure households but not for stable part-time households and stable pure households. The results would provide references for the establishment of policies on accelerating land transfer to ensure livelihood sustainability of households. Besides, the interactive mechanism between farmer’s livelihood capital integration and land transfer would be better understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rural micro-energy-grid with electricity-heating-cooling-gas was a hot issue in the field of energy. Most researches have been done on the modeling, planning and operation of micro-energy-grid. But the planning evaluation system of rural micro-energy-grid is still lacking. To evaluate the planning performance on rural micro-energy-grid, the planning evaluation system of rural micro-energy-grid was established in this study. The planning evaluation system contained four primary indicators, seven secondary indicators and fourteen tertiary indicators. Specifically, the four primary indicators were the reliability, economics, environmental protection and benefit. The seven secondary indicators were the electrical reliability, heat and cool reliability, system economics, environmental protection of energy-supply equipment, environmental protection of energy-storage equipment, stable benefit, environmental benefit. The fourteen tertiary indicators were the electrical deficiency rate, heat deficiency rate, cool deficiency rate, initial investment cost, maintenance cost, ratio of price to available life on the equipment, pollutant emission, installation rate of renewable energy, installation rate of heating-cooling-electricity for supply unit, replacement cycle rate of battery storage, replacement cycle rate of cool storage, replacement cycle rate of heat storage, electrical power exchange cost with distribution network, environmental pollution penalty cost. The formula of each indicator were given for these 25 parameters. The weight of each evaluation indicator was solved using an entropy method, indicating a flow chart for the implementation. The weight distributions of these indicators were obtained in the micro-energy-grid, representing the evaluation value of each planning scheme. In the actual planning process of a project, it was usually focused on small parts of the indicators, depending on the environmental condition, funding and the needs of the project. It was not possible to select the whole planning scheme fully complying with these 25 indicators in the actual evaluation. Therefore, an expert evaluation method was also establish to show the weight table of expert evaluation indicators. The new weight/ values of the different indicators in the planning schemes were obtained combining the entropy and the expert evaluation method, as well the new evaluation values of the whole planning schemes on the rural micro-energy-grid. Three planning schemes of a village in the western China were selected as a case study to verify the proposed planning indicators in this paper. The loading data of the heating-cooling-electricity in four seasons was given before the simulation, as well the time-of-use electrical price and equipment parameters of the rural micro-energy-grid. The results showed that the evaluation values of the scheme 1, 2 and 3 were 1.32, 1.14 and 2.47, respectively,according to entropy method. In the scheme 2,there was the minimums in the installed rate of renewable energy and heating-cooling-electricity supply unit, whereas in the scheme 3, the maximums considering all the evaluation indicators were the reliability, economics, environmental protection and benefit. Therefore, the expert system 1, 2, 3 and 4 focused on the reliability, economics, environmental protection and benefit, respectively. The whole planning schemes of the rural micro-energy-grid were also re-evaluated by combining the method of expert evaluation and entropy. The comprehensive evaluation value of scheme 2 has the highest value because the expert system 3 focused on the environmental protection indicators. In experts 1, 2 and 4, the comprehensive evaluation value of scheme 3 has the highest value. If the project need is the reliability, economics and benefit, scheme 3 can be the best choice. The findings demonstrated that the propose devaluation system can efficiently evaluate the planning scheme of the micro-energy-grid, and provide an insightful applied guidance for the construction and planning of micro-energy-grid in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The southwest karst region of China is the key and difficult area for rural revitalization. In view of the conditions and problems faced by the rural revitalization of the southwestern karst region, the paper discusses the relationship between urban and rural development and the path, mode and countermeasure of rural revitalization in the southwestern karst region of China. The result shows that: 1) On the basis of the existing urban system, a new type of mountainous urban system with small cities, small towns, key towns and central villages as the main body will be built to increase the urbanization rate and reduce the number of rural population and villages, and to a certain extent, improve the integration of urban and rural areas and realize the rural revitalization. 2) To achieve the deep integration of urban and rural economic development, the new mountainous characteristic urban system and agricultural modernization transformation is the core. On the basis of reducing the number of rural population and rural, we will realize agricultural modernization transformation with the multiple intensification, improve agricultural labor productivity, promote the deep integration of rural economy and urban economy, enable agricultural production to better share the fruits of economic development, ensure farmers' income is not lower than the average income level of migrant workers, and form a “endogenous” driving sustainable development mechanism of rural revitalization.3) On the specific path selection of rural revitalization: first, combined with the characteristics of karst mountain, we will focus on the implementation of new mountain characteristic urban construction projects, optimize the existing urban system through construction of small cities, small towns, key towns and central villages, fully realize local urbanization, enhance the radiation drive of towns, and promote the integration of urban economy and rural economic. Second, carrying out the multi-intensive agricultural modernization transformation of “labor and technology and capital”, improve unit land productivity and unit labor productivity, resolve the contradiction between “small production” and “big market” of rural agriculture in the southwestern karst region, realize the close relationship between rural economy and market economy, leave agricultural profits in rural villages, to improve the link between rural economy and market economy, to leave agricultural profits in rural areas, and ensure the continuous increase of farmers' income. Third, implement of the construction of vertical and horizontal extension industrialization of karst mountain-specific agriculture. Through the integration of agricultural product strains and production supply and marketing, the vertical industrialization of agriculture is extended. Relying on historical and cultural villages, ethnic villages or production bases of characteristic agricultural products, etc., through rural tourism, agricultural tourism integration project or rural pastoral complex project, to achieve the horizontal industrialization of agriculture, agricultural production and economic development of the deep integration, to achieve the horizontal industrialization of agriculture, promote the deep integration of agricultural production and economic development, to achieve the development of agricultural endogenous drive, and finally achieve the endogenous sustainable development of rural revitalization. 4) In terms of rural revitalization support policies, we should start from the following aspects: First, according to local conditions, scientific planning, to build a reasonable new urban and rural system in southwest karst mountain. Second, innovate the agricultural management system and give full play to the leading agricultural enterprises and large agricultural households. With agricultural cooperatives, “companies and farmers”, land circulation, land trusteeship and other modes of operation, achieve the organic convergence of farmers' agricultural production and market, to ensure farmers' income and stimulate the vitality of farmers. Third, strengthen rural intelligence and talent support; improve the level of scientific and cultural level of farmers. Fourth, innovate the rural land use and management system mechanism, invigorate rural land resources, and activate the bidirectional of urban and rural factors. Fifth, further improve the supporting role of infrastructure to ensure the transformation and revitalization of rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land is the carrier of human activities. All kinds of social and economic problems in the process of urbanization can be reflected in land use. A large number of labor force has been transferred from rural areas especially in mountainous areas to cities, which has changed the population distribution pattern and land use pattern in different time and regional systems. The marginalization of cultivated land is a typical land use pattern in mountainous areas, and clarifying the characteristics of land marginalization and its mechanism can be used for reference to realize land capital appreciation and rural revitalization. By employing the survey data about 901 farm households involving 6563 plots in Wulong District and Youyang County in Chongqing City of China in 2012 and 2018 and compilation of agricultural product cost and benefit data from 2007 to 2017, this paper regarded cultivated land as an asset for families and revealed the evolution characteristics of cultivated land asset value in recent years, and a Probit model was constructed to identify the driving forces and explored the driving mechanism of abovementioned phenomena. The results showed that: 1) in recent years, the assets value of cultivated land in the investigated areas kept declining, which was manifested in the fact that the generally cultivated maize per km² has changed from yield to loss, and the average weighted net yield of major crops has decreased from 1 384.50 yuan per hm² in 2012 to 252.30 yuan per hm² in 2018, with a drop of 77.09%. The average rent of cultivated land dropped from 1577.45 yuan/hm² in 2012 to 361.65 yuan/hm² in 2018, while the proportion of rent-free land transfer rate from 71.09 % to 82.21 %. It can be seen that the assets value of cultivated land in typical mountainous areas in Chongqing are in the decline stage. (2) Plot size, the distance from the homestead, plot quality and land fragmentation were the important determinants of free-rent land transfer, while the rising opportunity cost of farming was the root cause. The mechanism of devaluation of cultivated land is that urbanization has pushed up labor costs and reduces agricultural profits, and cultivated land assets have devaluated and even abandoned. From the view of cost-benefit analysis, the abandonment of cultivated land in the study area is a normal and rational economic activity for farmers, and the devaluation of cultivated land assets is exactly in line with the original intention of returning farmland to forests. The devalued cultivated land or abandoned land of these assets is conducive to improving the ecological environment of the mountainous areas. At the same time, the idle or abandoned land resources in mountainous areas become relatively rich. The government should reasonably introduce urban capital and fully exploit the land resources in order to realize the land capital appreciation in mountainous areas and develop local economy. Furthermore, the government should stop large-scale land reclamation projects in mountainous areas and appropriately replenish cultivated land through land reclamation to avoid waste of public financial funds and destruction of the ecological environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes Gaobeidian City of Hebei Province as the research area. Based on the Landsat TM/OLI data from 1999 to 2001, 2007-2009 and 2015-2017, the CART decision tree classification method is used to extract the distribution of abandoned arable land in the study area. Finally, we analyze its spatial pattern change characteristics and influencing factors. The study draws the following conclusions: 1) Using CART decision tree classification method to interpret remote sensing images in Gaobeidian City and verify the accuracy. The result shows that: 1）the classification accuracy of 18-stage images are between 87.5% and 96.4%, which can meet the accuracy requirements of this study; 2) The type of abandoned arable land in Gaobeidian City is mainly seasonal abandonment. The area of abandoned arable land reached 21 888.42 hm2 in the spring of 2001, and the area of seasonal abandoned arable land and perennial abandoned arable land are gradually decreasing; 3) The analysis of landscape indicators including plaque number (NP), average plaque area (MPS), median plaque area (PSMD), plaque area standard deviation (PSSD), and average shape index (MSI) of the abandoned arable land shows that the main form of the abandonment of arable land has changed from large-scale centralized abandonment to small-scale decentralized abandonment; 4) The development of rural industry is the main driving factor leading to the abandonment of arable land. The result of the buffer analysis shows that the closer the industrial center is, the higher the comprehensive abandonment rate; The traffic conditions and farming radius also affect the abandonment of arable land to a certain extent, but in the flat plains region, its impact gradually weakened; 5) The gap in crop yields leads to seasonal differences in the cultivated land reclamation in Gaobeidian City. The long-term low net income per unit area of wheat is the main factor leading to the large-scale spring abandonment of arable land in Gaobeidian City, and the arable land transfer can effectively inhibit the abandonment of arable land. The results of rural survey show that the arable land transfer rate in the six surveyed villages shows a significant negative correlation with the change of the arable land abandonment rate. Due to the low resolution of remote sensing images used in this study, the interpretation accuracy may be affected. In addition, the selection time of remote sensing images is mainly based on the growth of spring wheat and summer maize, which do not take into account the late planting of summer stubble carrot and other crops in different growth periods. Although the sowing area of such crops is small, it may still cause errors in the interpretation of abandoned arable land. In order to solve the above problems, it is necessary to use Google high-resolution image for manual visual interpretation and correction, but this method will cost a lot of manpower and time. In future research, other remote sensing data sources with higher spatial resolution and richer spectral information can be considered for interpretation in order to solve these problems. The research results can provide reference for the study of abandoned arable land in other similar areas in China, and provide basis for the formulation of national food security and regional sustainable development policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the coupling relationship between rural population and rural residential land area change and promote the economization and intensification level of rural residential land, in this paper the Tapio decoupling model was introduced to reveal the decoupling degree of rural population-land change. From the perspective of urban and rural demographic shift, the factors decomposition model for rural residential land expansion was established. The logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) was adopted to quantitatively analyze the influencing factors accounting for the changes in rural residential land area. The change of rural residential land area was decomposed into 4 main driving effects including rural residential land intensive use effect, urban-rural population structure effect, urbanization effect and total population effect. The addition decomposition method was used to measure the magnitude of 4 driving effects. The rural residential land area of China (1996-2016) and 31 provinces or municipalities (2000-2016) were taken as example. The results show that China has experienced rapid urban-rural transformation in the past few years. Rural population continues to decrease, presenting a 30.7 percent decline. But in the meantime, the total area of rural residential land increases continuously. The changes in rural residential land area among different provinces (municipalities) varied obviously, and overall the eastern and western regions indicated a greater growth. The relationship between rural population and rural residential land change is uncoordinated, and rural residential land tends to be more extensively utilized. From the decoupling index of China and 31 provinces or municipalities, the decoupling relationship between rural population and residential land area change were mainly characterized by strong negative decoupling. The degree of negative decoupling in the eastern and western regions was more serious than that in the central areas. What's more, the degree of negative decoupling is generally deteriorating. The values of 4 driving effects were measured from 1996-2016. The results indicated that the scale of rural residential land in China increased by 2.020×105 hm2 from 1996 to 2008 including a decrease of 116.833×105 hm2 caused by urban-rural population structure effect, and the increase of 33.497×105, 71.813×105, 13.544×105 hm2 for rural residential land intensive use effect, urbanization effect and total population effect, respectively. Additionally, during 2009-2016, the scale of rural residential land in China increased by 7.275×105 hm2. The rural residential land intensive use effect, urbanization effect and total population effect caused the increase of 36.689×105, -68.271×105, 32.164×105, 6.692×105 hm2, respectively. Among 4 driving effects, the urban-rural population structure effect was stronger than the others. The contribution of 4 driving effects to the change in rural residential land area in different periods performed differently. The value of urbanization effect was greater than that of rural residential land intensive use effect during 1996-2008, but after 2009, the rural residential land intensive use effect gradually exceeded the urbanization effect, and become the dominant factor caused the increase of rural residential land. Therefore, strengthening the planning and management of rural residential land, gradually promoting rural residential land consolidation, and actively exploring the exit mechanism of rural residential land may be effective measures for improving the intensification level of rural land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, there are still a large number of poverty-stricken counties in the western part of China. Although the government has recently increased financial support for rural areas, and the policy guidelines have been steadily tilting toward rural areas, especially poor rural areas, rural poverty is still difficult to resolve. In order to reasonably determine the optimal layout direction of rural settlements in poor mountainous areas, and put forward some scientific guidance in the rural land remediation and new rural construction in mountainous areas, this paper took Xundian Hui and Yi Autonomous County, a former national poverty-stricken county that was out of poverty in 2018, as a research area, and used the methods of remote sensing interpretation, GIS analysis, landscape shape index model, buffer analysis, Kernel density estimation and Getis-Ord Gi* to study the evolution characteristics and influencing factors of rural settlements in Xundian County from 2001 to 2017 in terms of space, scale and form. The research results showed that: 1) During 2001-2017, there were some changes in the scale, density, shape and spatial distribution of rural settlements in Xundian County. The main changes were as follows: from 2001 to 2017, the overall scale of rural settlements had expanded significantly, the landscape shape tended to be regular, and the average patch size increased; the characteristics of rural settlements clustering in areas with superior terrain were becoming more and more obvious. The analysis results of kernel density and Getis-Ord Gi* showed that the spatial divergence characteristics of rural settlements patch scales were apparent, and the distribution patterns were gradually expanding from small-scale decentralization to large-scale clustering; 2) The natural geographical factors such as geological and topographical conditions were the basic factors that influencing the distribution pattern of rural settlements in mountainous areas. The basic pattern of spatial distribution of rural settlements in mountainous areas is the result of long-term adaptation to topographic and geomorphological conditions; 3) Socio-economic factors, location factors and policy factors were the important factors influencing the change of spatial distribution. As the urban-rural income gap increased, the rural population of Xundian County flew to urban areas, so rural settlements were more concentrated in urban areas; the results of the neighborhood analysis of towns and roads also indicated that rural settlements tended to be concentrated in the distribution of towns and roads. In addition, the precise poverty alleviation policy with relocation as the main means was another major factor leading to the concentration of rural settlements in the plain areas with superior terrain conditions. According to the study, for mountainous rural areas with scarce natural resources, the poverty alleviation in mountainous areas should rely mainly on industrial assistance rather than policy assistance in the future. The local government should focus on increasing the employment opportunities of farmers and improving the livelihood conditions of farmers. Only in this way can we really help the poor and achieve the rural revitalization. This study can provide a practical guidance for the poverty alleviation work in the rural areas of the southwestern frontiers with frequent geological disasters; also provide a scientific theoretical basis for the optimization of the spatial layout of rural settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proportion of clean heating in northern China is low, especially bulk coal is widely used in winter in some areas. The emission amount of air pollutants is large, so it is urgent to promote clean heating. By the end of 2016, the total heating area of urban and rural buildings in northern China was about 20.6 billion m3, of which the heating area of rural buildings was 6.5 billion m3. Heating energy mainly includes coal, natural gas, electric energy, geothermal energy, biomass energy, solar energy, industrial waste heat and so on. Among them, coal-fired heating area accounts for about 83% of the total heating area. About 400 million tons of standard coals are consumed annually, of which 200 million tons of standard coals are bulk coals mainly distributed in rural areas. In rural areas, the total usage amount of bulk coal is large, burning season is concentrated, the discharge is dispersed, and without purification measures, so the pollutant discharge is serious. China is rich in crop straw, with theoretical resources exceeding 900 million tons, and among them still about 200 million tons are not effectively utilized. The rural straw clean heating can build distributed clean hearing system in rural areas by collecting local raw materials, processing and transforming on the spot, and consuming nearby. This model could reduce open-air burning of rural straw, provide clean heat, and realize directly replacement of coal burning in terminal consumption link. The rural straw clean heating has a great development space. Heating using straw could promote straw comprehensive utilization, and also promote clean heating in rural areas in northern China. Based on investigation and summary of present situation of straw clean heating technology, this paper puts forward a typical rural straw clean heating model with good application prospects, establishes the functional evaluation index system, and evaluates the technical economy of seven typical models by using the value engineering principle and the analytic hierarchy process. The results show that, without considering the external conditions such as resource endowment, transportation, physical geography and level of economic and social development, the corresponding value coefficients of CHP(combined heat and power) heating, pyrolysis cogeneration household heating, bundle-fired boiler central heating, pyrolysis cogeneration central heating, briquette fuel household heating, bundle-fired boiler household heating and briquette fuel central heating are 1.062, 1.050, 1.005, 0.990, 0.973, 0.965, 0.956, respectively. Overall, cogeneration, pyrolysis, bundle-fired and other technologies show relatively good economy for clean heating of rural straw. This study can provide important reference for guiding R&D and application of straw clean heating technology in rural area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese government devoted continuously to the rural poverty reduction program which was a long-term hot shot of government and academia since the Reform and Opening Up policy in 1978. Targeted poverty alleviation stratagem which aimed to fully eliminating regional overall poverty in 2020 was put into practice since 2013 in China. Since then, it achieved huge success and the number of people living in extreme poverty reduced sharply in China. But absolute poverty still existed in rural, for the increasing development disparity on account of regional variation; the urban-rural gap was prominent. According to research on rural poverty influencing factors, we found that it had significant differences at different areas and different scales, and lacked a common understanding. For it rarely thought about spatial effects of regional rural poverty for those current existing research on rural poverty influencing factors, it was necessary to study rural poverty influencing factors further. This paper analyzed spatial pattern of rural poverty and main influencing factors on county scale, by applying spatial econometric model and GIS spatial analysis based on the field trip and statistical data which including 15 factors that might influence rural poverty potentially for all of 129 counties in Yunnan province from 2010 to 2015, which intended to providing the theory basis for the formulation and implementation of scientific and effective regional macroscopic poverty reduction policy, and improving poverty reduction that combining poverty status and regional differences even more. This study carried out poverty alleviation and development zoning in Yunnan province, and proposed discrepant policy of regional rural poverty reduction. Results showed that: 1) The number of rural poverty population decreased year by year in Yunnan province, but which was still a high incidence area for rural poverty in China. Rural poverty demonstrated a “center-periphery-edge” pattern which corresponded to low, medium and high poverty among the 129 counties in Yunnan. High poverty areas were concentrated on the northwest, northeast, southeast and south of Yunnan, which involved Jinsha river reaches, Lancang river valley, Nujiang river valley and Red river basin. 2) Regression results of spatial lag model (SLM) showed that the significant influencing factors which affected county rural poverty included terrain relief, traffic distance to municipal government, illiterate rate of population at 15 years old and above of rural, number of hospital beds per thousand people, rate of elderly population at 65 years old and above of rural in Yunnan for the past few years. The regression coefficients of the five significant influencing factors were 0.005, 0.044, 0.380, -1.257 and -2.132 respectively. It produced positive effects on rural poverty for factors of terrain relief, traffic distance to municipal government, illiteracy rate at 15 years old and above of rural in Yunnan province, and the other two factors produced negative effects. 3) Rural poverty had regional differences in Yunnan. In terms of poverty degree and major factors of poverty influencing, Yunnan province was divided into 6 poverty reduction areas which were high poverty area at northwest of Yunnan, high poverty area at northeast of Yunnan, medium-high poverty area at west frontier of Yunnan, medium poverty area at west of Yunnan, high poverty area at southeast of Yunnan and low poverty area at central area of Yunnan. Poverty reduction should be accurately implemented according to regional poverty and major factors of poverty influencing, and strengthened the join forces between adjacent counties to consolidate results of poverty reduction in Yunnan. The spatial effect is an important part of regional rural poverty research, and can provide references for scientific and rational policy setting of regional poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The livability evaluation of living space was an important topic, which had important guiding significance for improving the livability of living space.This study aimed to explore the theoretical logical relationship between the multi-function of land use and livability of living space, and make use of the research about multi-function of land use for the optimization practice of livability of living space. So, this paper discussed the theoretical logical relationships between multiple functions of land use and livability of living space from the perspective of human needed products and services supplied by land use, and the evaluation index system was built based on the relationship and previous research. And then, the scheme of index spatialization was designed based on the technology of geographical information system(GIS) and remote sensing(RS). At the same time, multi-source data like remote sensing, survey, statistical and other spatialdataset were integrated by analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to quantify the spatial distribution of living space in ZhangbeiCounty, Hebei Province. The results showed that the livability of living space in ZhangbeiCounty presented the trend that the high value center was concentrated in the ZhangbeiTown and the subcenterwas distributed in Ertai-ShagouTown. The living space area above relatively strong levelwas only 2.42% of all county area.The spatial distribution characteristics of 3 types of land use were significantly difference;livingbearing function presented a trend like network distribution takingmain traffic trunk line as high value axis and ZhangbeiCounty as high value center. Living support function presented 2 groupsof high value centerscontaining the ZhangbeiTownand the north of YoulougouTown, and Ertai-shagouTown. The high value center of mental purification function was distributed in the ZhangbeiTown and the subcenterwas distributed in the area along the southwest of ZhangbeiTown to DaheTown and Ertai-shagouTown. There was a large difference in the distribution of livability between towns and villages. Most of the areas of livability space in town land were above the moderate level, especially, the area the livability level of which belonged to the higher and highest accounted for 78.37% of the total area of the town land, and meanwhile, accounted for 74.94% of the total area with higher and highest level of living space. This area was mainly distributed in the town of Zhangbei, Ertaiand Shagou, and YoulougouVillage. Most of the livability areas in rural land were under the moderate level, and the area oflower and lowest level accounted for 78.39% of the total area of the rural land, whatwas more, accounted for 95.32% of the total area with lower and lowest level of living space. This area was mainly concentered in the town ofHailiutu, Erquanjing, Dahe, Danjinghe, and Liangmianjing. The spatial difference of the functional elements of land use was the main reason to the difference in livability of living space. So, according to the above results, some conclusions can be drawn in this research. The villages, which containlarge lower and lowest livability space area, are the key areas of primary concern inthe implementation process of the“Revitalizing the countryside” strategy; what’s more, the theory and method of land use multi-function can be applied to the study of livability evaluation of living space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]