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Based on the 3rd issue of Landsat remote sensing images in 2000, 2010 and 2018, the intensity and speed of urban construction land expansion in Urumqi, an oasis city in arid areas, and the characteristics of the three expansion modes of enclave, edge and fill were analyzed and their thermal environmental impact were analyzed. The results can provide examples and scientific support for optimizing the future land use structure and improving ecological efficiency of oasis cities, preventing the occurrence of land use conflicts, promoting regional harmony and stability, and building harmonious coexistence between man and nature. The results showed that the area of urban construction land continued to grow from 2000 to 2018, and its expansion rate showed a trend of first increase and then decrease, and the direction of urban expansion was mainly northeast, south and southwest. The three expansion modes between 18a were mainly grassland and arable land transfer. Under the background of construction land expansion, the environmental distribution of thermal field and construction land was spatially consistent from 2000 to 2018. The thermal phenomenon decreased locally during this period but showed an overall upward trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of social and economic, the transition rate of production living ecological land has accelerated, having a significant impact on the ecological environment and the coordinated use of natural resources. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal pattern of production-living-ecological land and its impact on the environment in Beijing-Tianjin -Hebei region from 2000 to 2018 using Geo-info Atlas and land use transfer matrix based on land use data. The results indicated that: (1) From 2000 to 2018, living and ecological land showed an increasing trend, while production land showed a decreasing trend. The primary spatial change of production-living -ecological land was the conversion of production land to living land, with some conversion to ecological land as well. (2) The ecological environment quality was relatively good in the east and north, while it was relatively poor in the southwest. Overall, the ecological environment quality was improving. (3) In areas with degraded ecological environment quality, the rate of living land increase was relatively high and the area of ecological land was reduced. Conversely, in areas with improved ecological environment quality, the rate of living land increase was relatively low, and the area of ecological land was increasing. These findings can guide the sustainable use of land resources and help reduce ecological environment risks in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an essential factor of production in economic development, land is an important tool for local governments to boost economic growth. The goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality will push local governments to change the extensive mode of attracting high energy-consuming and high-pollution enterprises by transferring industrial land at low prices. The lowcarbon city pilot policy is important for China to achieve green and low-carbon economic transformation and sustainable development. This policy will inevitably influence the land transfer behavior of local governments in heavily polluting industries. Based on the panel data of 286 cities from 2007 to 2019, this paper took the low-carbon city pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment and used the time-varying difference-in-differences method to empirically study the relationship between the pilot policy and the land transfer behavior of local governments. The results showed that: ① The implementation of the low-carbon city pilot policy significantly reduced the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries. The above conclusions still held after a series of robustness tests. ② The impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on land transfer in heavily polluting industries was affected by the intensity of environmental regulation of local governments and the tenure of officials. The stronger the intensity of environmental regulation in the pilot city became, the more the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries were reduced. When the tenure of the secretary of the municipal CPC committee in the pilot city was less than or equal to 3 years, the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries were significantly reduced. However, the age of the secretary of the municipal CPC committee had no significant impact on the land transfer in heavily polluting industries. ③ Heterogeneity analysis showed that non-resource-based cities, cities with high levels of economic development, and large cities displayed a higher reduction in the area and number of land transfers in heavily polluting industries. Based on these, this paper puts forward suggestions from three aspects: we should further promote the low-carbon city pilot policy, add environmental objectives to the assessment system of officials to increase the constraints of environmental objectives, and formulate and implement environmental policies in accordance with local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uniqueness, complexity and sensitivity of the geographical environment in Qinling make it a typical area for the study of resource environmental protection and man-land coordination. Therefore, in order to study the changes of cultivated land resources and environment in Qinling, the annual update evaluation and statistical yearbook data of cultivated land quality at 1:10000 county level from 2005 to 2019 in Shaanxi province were adopted based on dynamic attitude model, location index, center of gravity migration model and geographic detector. The spatial-temporal pattern and driving mechanism of cultivated land quality in 6 prefecture-level cities, 39 counties(county-level cities, districts)and 353 towns in Shaanxi section of Qinling were investigated. The results show that ① in terms of time, during 2005-2010, 2010-2015 and 2015-2019, the quantity of cultivated land resource decreases with an average annual decrease rate of 0.45%, 0.12% and 0.20%, respectively; the change of cultivated land quantity tends to be stable with an average quality of 10.98; it is slightly higher than the average of Shaanxi province (11.34) and lower than the national average (9.96); ② spatially, the Shaanxi section of Qinling shows a distribution pattern of high cultivated land quality in the north line and southwest line near Guanzhong plain, and in the central area, while low cultivated land quality in the east and west from 2005 to 2019; according to the changes of location index, Xi'an and Weinan cities with better natural geographical conditions have higher cultivated land and are the aggregation areas of high-quality cultivated land, while Hanzhong, Ankang and Shangluo cities in the southern Shaanxi have poorer cultivated land quality and a higher aggregation degree of middle- and low-quality cultivated land; according to the center of gravity migration, the center of gravity of the high-quality cultivated land transfers from Zhouzhi county to Huyi district of Xi'an city, that of the middle-quality cultivated land transfers from Ningshan county to Zhen'an county, that of the low-quality cultivated land transfers from Hanbin district of Ankang city to Zhashui county, and then to Zhen'an county; coordinate migrations of cultivated land are low-quality, middle-quality and high-quality in descending order; ③ the main driving factor of spatio-temporal change of cultivated land quality in Shaanxi section of Qinling is human activity; the interaction of each factor enhances the explanatory power, and jointly affects the change of cultivated land quality in Shaanxi section of Qinling. The research results provide scientific basis for further implementation of cultivated land resources, ecological environment protection and rural revitalization in Qinling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-grain conversion of cultivated land is a serious threat to national food security. Based on spatial autocorrelation analysis, a multiple linear regression model, and geographically weighted regression analysis, this study clarified the overall pattern of cultivated land non-grain conversion in arid and semi-arid areas of China in 2018. The findings reveal regional differentiation characteristics and main driving factors of non-grain conversion. The non-grain area of 63 municipal units in arid and semi-arid areas was 8.3×106 hm2 , accounting for 38.3% of the total cultivated land. In arid and semi-arid regions, the non-grain conversion rate of cultivated land decreased gradually from west to east, and the non-grain conversion area was high on both sides and low in the middle. The land circulation area of policy factors were the most important driving factors of the spatial pattern of differentiation. The economic factor of per capita GDP and social factors of per capita arable land resources endowment and rural labor force also influenced regional differentiation of cultivated plants. However, the effects of the various factors displayed significant special heterogeneity in different regions. In the future, it will be necessary to regulate land transfer behavior, adjust agricultural subsidies, optimize agricultural resource matching, and enhance supervision of nongrain production to synergistically increase farmers′ income, protect farmland, and improve food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivated land can be one of the most important natural resources for national food security in recent years. The idle or barren cultivated land has normally occurred as an economic resource in rapidly urbanizing areas in China. It is of great significance to reveal the spatial pattern characteristics and causal mechanisms of cultivated land abandonment. The new pattern of development can be evolved under the process of urbanization and industrialization. Generally, the village is assumed as the smallest spatial unit in social management in China, when integrating the government agencies, economic markets, village collectives, individuals, and cultivated land. The multi-dimensional complex interaction has also posed a great challenge to the abandonment degree of cultivated land in villages. However, only a little attentions was paid to the abandonment of cultivated land so far. Therefore, it is urgent to grasp the spatial pattern characteristics and causal mechanisms of abandoned cultivated land in rapidly urbanizing areas. Taking Liyang County, Jiangsu Province of China as the research area, this study aims to construct a theoretical framework for the spatial pattern characteristics of abandoned cultivated land. The causal mechanisms were then clarified to reduce the cultivated land abandonment in rapid urbanization areas. The comprehensive abandoned rate of cultivated land was set as the abandoned cultivated land area to the total area. The spatial autocorrelation analysis was used to determine the aggregation effect of abandoned farmland. The kernel density analysis was then used to analyze the spatial characteristics of the agglomeration. Multiple linear regression was utilized to quantitatively reveal the causal mechanisms between abandonment degree and independent variables. The results showed that: 1) The abandoned area of cultivated land was 1 344.48 hm², including 762.77 and 581.71 hm² of irrigated and non-irrigated farmland, respectively. The comprehensive abandonment rate was 3.03% in 2019, where each village ranged from 0.01%-54.26%. The widespread abandonment of cultivated land was observed in rapidly urbanizing areas. 2) There was a significant positive spatial correlation with the abandonment of cultivated land. The global Moran index was 0.253. The high-density abandoned area of cultivated land was concentrated mainly in the areas with the high development level industry of commerce and tourism, and a high proportion of non-irrigated land. Cultivated land abandonment also presented a certain agglomeration and driving effect in space. 3) The abandonment degree of cultivated land depended on the resource conditions, economic level, social development, and policy regulation. Specifically, the abandonment of cultivated land was attributed to the loss of labor productivity and the high level of rural non-agricultural economy. By contrast, the cultivated land abandonment was effectively restrained via the high-quality resource of cultivated land, and the favorable policy of land transfer, and prime farmland. Two management strategies were also formulated: one is continue to promote the land improvement projects for the development mode of "tourism+ agriculture", in order to attract the more agricultural capital and enterprises to the village. Another is to actively promote the transfer of cultivated land in the rural areas, particularly with the high level of non-agricultural economic development and serious labor loss. As such, the prime farmland policy can be expected to implement with less abandonment of cultivated land. The finding can provide theoretical support and case reference for small-scale farmland protection and abandoned land management in rapid urbanization areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the land tenure system is a powerful measure to reduce farmers’ cropland abandonment, but the relevant empirical research is relatively scarce. Based on the panel data of China Rural Household Panel Survey in 2017 and 2019, this study took the new round of land certification as an example to empirically examine the impact of land tenure security on farmers’ cropland abandonment behavior, using the panel two-way fixed effect model. The study showed that: ① Land tenure security had a significant inhibitory effect on farmers’ cropland abandonment behavior and was helpful to strengthen the protection of land quantity. Compared with the farmers who had not completed the new round of land certification, the probability of cropland abandonment was about 3% lower for those who had. ② Land tenure security affected farmers’ cropland abandonment behavior mainly through promoting land transfer and increasing long-term investment. Transferring land allowed land to be reused, reducing unnecessary idleness, while long-term investment could increase soil fertility and reduce the abandonment of marginal land. ③ After considering land tenure security before certification, the new round of land certification mainly had positive effects on farmers who did not have land contracts or land certificates before, but there were certain negative effects on farmers who had those. ④ To accurately identify the policy effects of the new round of land certification, it is necessary to distinguish the time of land certification and consider the security of land tenure in the past. If the time of land certification is not distinguished, the role of the new round of land certification can be overestimated. If the security of land tenure in the past is not considered, the role of the new round of land certification can be underestimated. Based on the above conclusions, it is suggested that in the future, the reform of land tenure should be promoted from the definition of property rights to the implementation of property rights, and the ‘Land contract + Land certificate’ dual guarantee system should be established, and the possible adverse effects caused by excessive land tenure security should be prevented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Huaihai Economic Zone with a reclamation rate of about 70% is one of the main grain-producing areas in China. It is very necessary to grasp the spatiotemporal variation of the carbon storage for the carbon sink source areas of cultivated land. The driving factors can be used to ensure national food security for agricultural guidance in the achievement of China’s “Dual carbon” goals. In this study, the carbon storage of cultivated land soil was calculated using the soil type carbon density of the Huaihai Economic Zone. The net ecosystem productivity (NEP) model was also established to calculate the carbon sequestration of cultivated land vegetation. At the same time, the ArcGIS and Geo-Detector software were selected to study the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of cultivated land carbon storage, the “carbon” attribute of cultivated land and the driving factors in Huaihai Economic Zone from 2005 to 2020. The results showed that: 1) The soil carbon storage values of cultivated land were 6.028 2×108, 6.055 4×108, 5.927 8×108, and 5.888 9×108 t in the four years from 2005 to 2020, respectively. The land type transfer decreased by 1.393×107 t, indicating a spatial distribution of “high in the east and low in the west”. 2) The carbon sequestration of cultivated land vegetation in the four years from 2005 to 2020 was 2.706 7×108, 2.727 0×108, 2.882 3×108, and 2.802 1×108 t, indicating changing trend of “first increasing and then decreasing” with 2015 as the inflection point. The NEP showed a spatial distribution feature of “high in the southeast, low in the northwest”. The middle high-value area was extended to the southwest with time. 3) The overall Moran's I of the total carbon storage in the cultivated land were 0.19, 0.19, 0.16, and 0.14 from 2005 to 2020, respectively. There was a downward trend in the spatial distribution and concentration. Specifically, the number of “high-high” type areas also gradually decreased, mainly shifting to the insignificant and “low-high” outlier areas. 4) There were 32 carbon sink areas of cultivated land in the study area, where 21 medium-strength carbon sink areas were mainly distributed in the west, and five high-strength carbon sink areas were concentrated in the northeast. 5) The main factors were traffic accessibility, grain production, NDVI, elevation, slope, and aspect. The secondary factor was population, among the factors driving the spatiotemporal differentiation of cultivated land carbon storage. Therefore, the carbon source counties of cultivated land can take farmland protection and management measures in the carbon sink area, in order to reduce the loss of carbon storage of cultivated land. As such, the quality of cultivated land can be maintained for the carbon sink in the cultivated land ecosystem in the process of farmland protection in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivated land fragmentation has been widely known as one of the key limiting factors for cultivated land use efficiency, as well as agricultural modernization and transformation in China. Since 2014, much effort has been made to encourage the transfer of land management rights for the less cultivated land fragmentation, even for the cultivated land at a moderate scale. Most studies have also been conducted at the local or regional scales. However, only a few studies are focused on the fine-grained changes in cultivated land fragmentation from a national perspective. It is still lacking in the implementation effect of land management right transfer policy on the cultivated land fragmentation. In this study, a systematic analysis was made of the temporal and spatial variation characteristics of China's cultivated land fragmentation from 1990 to 2020. The influencing factors were also identified near the implementation of the land transfer policy (2008-2020). The long-term land use data was selected to supplement the landscape pattern index, trend analysis, and dynamic panel model. The cultivated land fragmentation was roughly divided into ownership fragmentation and landscape fragmentation, in terms of connotation. The landscape fragmentation of cultivated land (CLF) was then used in this case. The results showed that: 1) China’s CLF presented a distribution pattern of low in the plain and basin areas, and high in the mountainous and plateau areas. Specifically, the CLF was relatively low in the Northeast Plain, the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River Plain, as well as the Sichuan Basin, Junggar and Tarim Basin; while the cultivated land in the transition zone of the second and third-level topographic steps, as well as the Loess Plateau, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and the Southeastern Hills, was relatively fragmented. 2) China’s CLF generally showed a changing trend of continuous-improved-fluctuating fragmentation from 1990 to 2020. Specifically, the overall cultivated land showed a trend of landscape fragmentation from 2004 to 2013. More than 70% of the counties showed a significant increase in the PD/LSI or a significant decrease in the AI, which were concentrated in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River Plain, the Sichuan Basin, and the Guangdong-Guangzhou region. However, 70% of the provinces improved the landscape fragmentation of cultivated land from 2014 to 2020. Spatially, the counties with the improved CLF (that is, the counties with the significantly reduced PD and LSI, but increased AI) were mainly located in the transition zone of the second and third-level topographic steps, the Loess Plateau, northwest Xinjiang, and the Guangdong-Guangzhou region. 3) The land transfer policy significantly reduced the CLF. In addition, some important factors were the regional land use change, non-grained utilization of cultivated land, slope, and irrigation conditions. The spatial-temporal variation characteristics of CLF in China on a nationwide scale revealed the impact of land transfer policies and other factors on the CLF. The finding can provide a new research paradigm for the changes in the regional CLF and different land use/ecosystem types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sloping farmland has been one of the most important parts of cultivated land in the hills and mountains areas. It is a high demand to clarify the evolution characteristics and driving factors of the temporal and spatial pattern of sloping farmland, in order to rationally utilize resources and ecological functions. This study aims to reveal the spatial distribution characteristics and driving factors of sloping farmland in Chongqing City in southwest China. The aspects covered the temporal and spatial change characteristics, cold and hot spot patterns, as well as the driving factors of sloping farmland. Firstly, the local spatial autocorrelation (LISA) and cold hot spot were selected to determine the local spatial agglomeration characteristics of sloping farmland using the remote sensing data from 2000 to 2018. Secondly, the transfer of land use was obtained to overlay the land use data of each period. A transfer matrix of land use was then used to determine the transfer direction of sloping farmland. Finally, four dimensions were selected as the indicators, including the natural environment foundation, social living conditions, economic development level, as well as policy and institution. A geodetector was then used to determine the driving mechanism of sloping farmland change. The results showed that: 1) The area of sloping farmland decreased by 2.40% and 22 300 km2 in 2018, accounting for 59.35% of the cultivated land, compared with 2000. The average annual change dynamic degree of sloping farmland was greater than 1% in the six districts and counties (Yuzhong, Jiangbei, Jiangjin, Nan'an, Dadukou, and Shizhu). There was an outstandingly different change trend of sloping farmland areas in the different districts and counties. 2) Sloping farmland was significantly transferred from the forest land, grassland, paddy field, and construction land, where the transfer out and transfer in were generally balanced during the 18 years. The sloping farmland returning to the forest land was mainly concentrated in the regions of Shizhu, Wulong, Fengdu, and Yunyang counties in the Qin-Daba and Wuling Mountainous Areas. The area of sloping farmland showed a small decrease trend in the process of land use transfer. 3) There was significant heterogeneity of local spatial autocorrelation in the sloping farmland. The area of sloping farmland in most regions was in the state of high-high and low-low aggregation. The hot spots were concentrated in the northeast of the study area, whereas, the cold spots were distributed in the west and the main urban areas. 4) The factors in the forestry output value, per capita net income of rural residents, grain yield, rural employees, agriculture, forestry, and water expenditure greatly contributed to the slope farmland change, most of which were nonlinear and two-factor enhancement. Among them, the interactive driving factors with the greater explanatory power were the grain yield/slope (2005, 0.927), and per capita net income of rural residents/resident population (2018, 0.910). The leading factors of spatiotemporal characteristics were ranked as economic development, policy regulation, farmers' income, urban expansion, and socio-economic factors. A relatively less impact on the sloping farmland was found in the natural factors, including the altitude and rainfall. The findings can provide a scientific basis for the protection and pattern optimization of slope farmland in the mountainous and hilly areas of southwest China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid transformation of cultivated land use has posed a severe challenge to national food security in recent years. It is a high demand to promote the management mode of cultivated land resources in China. In this study, an index evaluation and trend analysis were adopted to clarify the transformation characteristics and evolution of cultivated land utilized in Hebei Province of China since 1949. Some dominant indicators (such as the area of cultivated land use, the type of structure), and some recessive indicators (such as the intensity of cultivated land use, the function, and management mode) were also constructed to determine the types of cultivated land use. The change characteristics of cultivated land use were also depicted in the study area from 1949 to 2019. The types of cultivated land use were diagnosed to determine the induced paths of transformation in the different periods using the turning point. Finally, the transformation characteristics were determined to clarify the evolution of cultivated land utilization. The results showed that: 1) The types of cultivated land use presented outstanding transformation characteristics. Specifically, the area of cultivated land use was changed from rapid to slow reduction. The utilization structure of cultivated land was characterized by more than 50 % of irrigated land, and then gradually evolved from dry land to irrigated land. The intensity of cultivated land utilization showed a trend of stable development after the rapid increase, and then the transformation into balanced development after reaching the highest intensity. The management mode of cultivated land was driven by the policy and gradually transformed from the family decentralized management to small farmers, land transfer, and land trusteeship. The utilization function of cultivated land showed an upward-downward-upward evolution, indicating the leading function of cultivated land from the social to production function. 2) The types of cultivated land use were transformed significantly with the development of society and economy. The structure and function of cultivated land use were fully transformed in 1975 and 1995, which were earlier than the transformation stage of social-economy development from the primary to the middle-advanced stage. The transformation of cultivated land use areas, management mode, and utilization intensity were completed in 2011, 2002, and 2008, respectively, which were later than the transformation stage. 3) The population growth, regional development policies, social development, and technological progress, farmers’ land use behavior were the important evoked pathways of regional cultivated land use transformation. Among them, the change in cultivated land-use patterns was attributed to the decision-making on the scarcity of cultivated land resources in the regional development policies. There was strong mutual feedback between the population growth/migration and cultivated land use transformation. Social development and technological progress posed a great impact on the transformation of cultivated land utilization through the recessive types. Farmers’ land use behavior and decision-making were the micro factors of cultivated land use transformation. Finally, the protection policies of cultivated land use were formulated for the current transformation stage. The specific path was determined to control the structural change of cultivated land use types, in order to promote rural development using the large-scale management of cultivated land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether farmland transfer can produce farmers’ income growth is an issue that has been widely concerned by society. However, previous empirical studies are quite different. This paper believes that the neglect of the heterogeneity of the impact of farmland transfer has led to these different conclusions. Thus, using the China Family Panel Survey (CFPS) data during 2010-2018, this paper analyzed the impact of farmland transfer on different types of farmers and different sources of income. The basic empirical results showed that: Firstly, farmland transfer did increase the income of farmers, but it was mainly on transfer‑out farmers, and the impact on the net income of transfer ‑in farmers was not obvious. Secondly, the impact of farmland transfer on different sources of income of the transfer‑in farmers and transfer‑out farmers was inconsistent. The growth rate of wage income of transfer‑out households was much higher than the decline rate in operating income. And wage income contributed 80% of the growth in net income of transfer‑out households; as for transfer ‑in households, the growth in operating income could not compensate for the decline in wage income, which eventually could not increase their total income obviously. The above empirical results did not change after a series of model sensitivity analyses such as the difference‑in‑differences model and the treatment effect model, indicating that the basic conclusions were robust. Furthermore, we analyzed the reasons for income heterogeneity and found that the key mechanism was on the labor resource allocation decision. Actually, for transfer‑out households, farmland transfer could increase the probability of migrant work and business opportunities, as well as the labor input for non‑agricultural production. On the other hand, for transfer‑in households, they would invest more labor in agricultural production and increase agricultural inputs. Further policy discussions also found that due to the weak dependence of transfer‑out farmers on technological improvement, the transfer‑out farmers only needed to ensure that they could find alternative jobs to obtain a higher income; but for the transfer ‑in farmers, due to lack of sufficient technical assistance, their land production improvement was limited. Thus, it was difficult to produce the optimization of resource allocation mentioned in the theory of land retention, which might limit the further expansion of the farmland transfer market. In summary, the research in this paper provides certain theoretical and empirical evidence for optimizing the land transfer policy, increasing the participation rate of land transfer, and finally realizing the improvement of the social welfare of farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied changes in ecological land use and the transfer of ecological service value in the low mountain and hilly regions of Sishui County. We used the dynamic model of land use change and the evaluation of ecosystem service value to evaluate the characteristics of ecological land usage changes and their impact on the profit and loss values for ecological services in Sishui County. Logistic regression modelling allowed us to determine the driving factors for these changes and discuss their impact. The results showed that from 1997 to 2017, the area allocated for ecological use in Sishui County changed significantly, decreasing over time with a total decrease of 3.60×103 hm2 over this twenty years. The overall transfer rate for ecological land between 2007 and 2017 was much higher than the transfer rate for 1997 to 2007. In addition, grassland was shown to be the largest contributor to these transfers, the outward transfer was always larger than the inward transfer. The proportion of ecological land in this area was reduced while forest, water areas and cultivated land were increased. In this twenty years, the total value of ecosystem services in the research area decreased over time, but was preceded by a short period of increasing value resulting in an overall increase of 1.42×108 yuan over this time period. The ecosystem service value of cultivated land and grasslands both decreased over time while that of forest and water areas increased over the same time period; forests made the most significant contribution. Regression analysis showed that the distance to the river, population density, and distance to the town center and cultivated land were the major driving factors affecting the evolution of ecological land. These results could provide insight into determining ecological compensation and resource development in Sishui County, and provide important context for ecological planning and sustainable development in mountainous areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use change is one of the key factors that directly dominate the hydrological process of the watershed. Human activities have changed land-use patterns, thereby indirectly posing an impact on surface infiltration, evapotranspiration, and soil water in the water cycle process. The water resources were also evolved for the water balance in the basin. This study aims to further explore the impact of land-use evolution on the spatiotemporal changes of blue and green water in the Weihe River Basin. A Cellular Automata-Markov (CA-Markov) model was selected to predict the land-use pattern in 2035 using land-use data in 1995 and 2015. Firstly, a standardized preprocessing was performed on the constraint data using a FUZZY module, including elevation, slope, highway, and railway. Secondly, the Markov module was superimposed onto the land use data to obtain the land transfer probability matrix from 1995 to 2015. Thirdly, the multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) module was used to make land-use maps suitability. The CA-Markov model was used to predict land-use structure in 2035. A variety of land-use change scenarios were set to quantitatively analyze the temporal and spatial responses of land-use change and blue-green water using the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT). The results showed that: 1) The CA-Markov model was effective in simulating the land-use pattern in 2015, where the Kappa coefficient was 0.89, suitable for the prediction. 2) During 1995-2035, the cropland was mainly transferred to building land and grassland, while the grassland was mainly transferred to woodland and cropland. Meanwhile, the cropland showed a decreasing trend, with the single attitude of -0.27%, and the building land had the largest growth rate, with the dynamic attitude of 3.75%.3) The model calibration showed that the evaluation indicators of five hydrological stations all met the standards of R²>0.6 and ENS>0.5, indicating that the SWAT model presented good applicability in each basin of the Weihe River Basin. 4) The blue water increased by 2.38mm/a, and green water decreased by 18.74mm/a from 1995 to 2035. By contrast, the blue water increased by 14.82mm/a, and the green water decreased by 15.23mm/a from 2015 to 2035. As such, the evapotranspiration was reduced in the basin, but the runoff was increased. 5) Returning cropland to woodlands and grasslands contributed to reducing the blue and green water, where the blue water volume decreased by 9.27mm/a, 11.37mm/a, while the green water volume decreased by 32.94, 21.13 mm/a, respectively, under the extreme land-use scenarios. The main reason was that the cropland increased the runoff and evapotranspiration in the basin. The amount of blue and green water decreased, after a large area of cropland was converted into woodland and grassland. Therefore, it is necessary to reasonably plan the cropland, woodland, and grassland for the control of soil erosion, thereby promoting the improvement of the ecological environment in the study area. These findings can be expected to provide a sound scientific reference for land-use planning and water resources management in the Weihe River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land transfer difficulty and shortage in fund, technology and talents perplex private enterprises to participate in the rural industry revitalization. Measures such as strengthening the government' s support, increasing investment on land consolidation, building information technology platform, amplifying credit and loan scale and giving strong backing to agricultural innovation projects can encourage private enterprises to participate in the rural industry revitalization in Dandong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major changes have taken place in agricultural production and operation with the continuous increase in the scale and intensification of rural land transfer. The original farming depends mainly on these impacts of land circulation. However, few studies focused on land transfer to explore the changes in farming systems. It is necessary to figure out the cropping behavior of farmland under the land transfer. The purpose of this research is to investigate the restrictive factors for the multiple cropping index of arable land. Taking the field survey data of farmers in Hubei in 2018, propensity score matching (PSM) and generalized propensity score matching (GPSM) were used to analyze the impact of land transfer on the multiple cropping index of farmers. The results showed that: 1) There were positive impacts of land transfer on the farmland multiple cropping index, according to PSM estimation. The land transfer, paddy field transfer, and dry land transfer significantly increased the farmland multiple crop index by 24.4%, 29.9%, and 20.4%, respectively. 2) There was a significant positive impact of the arable land and the area transferred from dry land on the farmland multiple cropping index, according to the estimation from GPSM. There was an increasing return to scale effect in three simultaneous transfers. Specifically, the increase in the multiple crop index of arable land was greater than that of the circulation area and the paddy field. There was a more obvious effect of increasing returns to scale. Land transfer helped to increase the index of multiple cropping in cultivated land. The effect of paddy fields was more obvious, meaning that the highly intensive use of cultivated land for better food security. 3) In mechanism, the land transfer increased the degree of multiple cropping in farmland via the counter-effect path of average transfer cost per mu and the promotion path of factor intensive. The average transfer cost per mu played a regulating role, and the factor intensive rate played an intermediary role. The size of the effect was 8.9%. In proper scale operation of agriculture, priority was given to the concentration of paddy fields in agricultural enterprises, specialized farmer cooperatives, big business operators, and planting experts, in order to enhance the effect of increasing returns to scale of land transfer, further to promote multiple cropping and intensive management of cultivated land. A potential market of land transfer needed to be established for the allocation of land resources. Intermediary service organizations, information disclosure, and asset evaluation can contribute to the news release and policy consulting for the better resolution of land transfer disputes in the dispute mediation and arbitration system. The finding can provide a theoretical and empirical basis for the intensive use of land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] The present paper aimed to reveal the landscape pattern evolution and driving factors of karst rocky desertification area, and provide a reference for optimizing the land landscape pattern, rocky desertification control and regional sustainable development in the demonstration area. [Method] Taking the typical Karst Plateau Bijie Salaxi demonstration area as the research object, the remote sensing images of three key time periods were selected, including ETM in 2005, 2010 and OLI in 2015. 3 S technology and landscape index analysis method were employed to study landscape pattern and the driving factors. [Result] The main landscape of the study area was cultivated land, followed by shrub forest. The changes of landscape transfer were mainly manifested in the transformation from cultivated land to forest, grassland and construction land, which accounted for 73. 31 % and 24. 75 % of the cultivated land transfer respectively in 2010; By 2015, they accounted for 79. 80 % and 19. 99 % respectively. At the landscape type level, the fragmentation degree of cultivated land, forestland and shrub land was increasing, and the fragmentation degree of grassland and construction land increased first and then decreased. Except for the unused land, the landscape patch shape tended to be complicated. In the overall level of the landscape, the landscape of demonstration area had developed in the direction of fragmentation, complexity, discretization and homogenization in the last 10 years. [Conclusion] The implementation of rocky desertification control project, urbanization construction and land abandonment were the main factors leading to the change of landscape pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of land transfer contract stability on fertilization intensity and environmental efficiency of the farmer who tranfers in land, and the theoretical analysis result is tested empirically by using survey data of 414 big grain farmers from Anhui province. The research methods are concluded of DEA-SBM model, Multiple Regression model and Tobit model. Main results are shown as follows. (1) The marginal effects of land tenancy on the fertilization intensity of wheat, rice and maize planted by big grain farmers are -0.5551, -0.4313 and -1.0832, respectively, and the results pass the statistical test at the significance level of 5%, 10% and 5%, respectively. The marginal effects of land rent on the fertilization intensity of wheat, rice and maize planted by big grain farmers are 0.0071, 0.0073 and 0.0235, respectively, and the results pass the T test at the significance level of 10%, 10% and 1%, respectively. (2) Average environmental efficiency of wheat, rice and maize cultivated by big grain farmers are 0.54, 0.58 and 0.59, respectively, which shows that there is a serious environmental efficiency loss. The results of Tobit model show that the regression coefficients of land tenancy on the environmental efficiency of wheat, rice and maize planted by big grain farmers are 0.0122, 0.0209 and 0.0139, respectively, and the results all pass the T test at 5% significance level; The regression coefficients of land rent on the environmental efficiency of wheat, rice and maize planted by big grain farmers are -0.0156, -0.038 and -0.0239, respectively. Moreover the results pass the T test at the significance level of 5%, 5% and 1%, respectively. Main conclusion of this paper is that improving land transfer contract stability can help reduce fertilization intensity of the farmer who transfers in land, which can further increase environmental efficiency of farmland scale management. Moreover, risk preference of farmer and land scale expanding can help to reduce the fertilization intensity and improve the environmental efficiency of the farmer who transfers in land, while, the asymmetric information of the fertilizer market is not conducive to reduce the fertilization intensity and improve the environmental efficiency of the farmer who transfers in land; farmers tend to increase fertilization intensity on fertile land, making the fertile land has a lower environmental efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural resettlement, an effective measure to eliminate poverty and improve the ecological environment, develops rapidly in China. Since farmland abandonment closely relates to the stability of migration as well as the national food security, the research regarding whether resettlement accelerates farmland abandonment in mountainous areas is of great importance in China. We used panel Logit and panel Tobit models to analyze the influencing mechanism of resettlement on farmland abandonment with data of 1578 households in 8 counties in prefectures of Shangluo, Ankang, and Hanzhong, the southern part of Shaanxi province. The results show that farmers' resettlement behavior had a significant positive effect on farmland abandonment behavior. The coefficient of migration period was significant at 1% in all regressions, and farmers were more likely to abandon farmland when migration distance was larger than 0.5 kilometer. All types of migration can accelerate farmland abandonment, among which engineering resettlement had the largest effects on farmers' land abandonment behavior, while disaster avoidance resettlement had the least effects. In addition, householder characteristics, household characteristics, resource endowment characteristics, and land rental market are all important influencing factors of farmers' land abandonment behavior. We thus conclude that farmers' enthusiasm of agricultural production decreases after migration, and the phenomenon for land abandonment becomes more obvious with the implementation of resettlement and relocation project in Southern Shaanxi. The transformation to town life and increased time opportunity cost of farming are the main reasons for resettled farmers' land abandonment behavior. The government is suggested to reallocate farmland to engineering resettled farmers, and encourage resettled farmers to participate in the slopping land conversion program with more supporting policies, as well as solve the livelihood problem by developing characteristic industries. In addition, land rental market should be promoted by establishing the information platform of land transfer in all resettlement areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strategic value of farmland usufruct abandonment is becoming more and more prominent, which makes the practice of exploring farmland usufruct abandonment come into being. It is not only the government’s guidance but also the farmers participation and decision-making that are needed to invigorate the farmland usufruct. In order to investigate the factors that affect the decision of the farmer’s farmland usufruct abandonment, we obtain 607 questionnaire survey and interview data of rural households in 33 villages in Zhengzhou and Zhoukou of Henan Province in April ,2018.This paper uses Logistic regression model to explore influence mechanisms of influencing factors on the individual and family characteristics of farmers, resource endowment, ability of abandoning the farmland usufruct, risk estimation of abandoning the farmland usufruct, and cognitive level, which influence the willingness of farmers to abandon the farmland usufruct from different sample areas (taking total sample as a whole, typical rural and urban-rural interface). The possible endogenous problems are also discussed. At the same time, in order to examine the applicability of the farmland usufruct abandonment in various places, This paper systematically analyzes the intention and mode selection orientation of farmers in the study area under the four simulated scenarios of “Pingluo mode”, “Liangping mode”, “Neijiang mode” and “Chengdu mode”. The results show that: 1) The intention of the farmer's farmland usufruct abandonment is markedly influenced by the farmer’s own situation, resource endowment, ability to abandon the farmland usufruct, risk expectation, and cognitive level. Variables like respondents’ gender, skill status, village cadre experience, land transfer status, distance between the nearest county, perennial place of residence, urban settlement plan, income source differentiation, whether has pension insurance or not ,land importance perception and legal cognition are significantly affecting the willingness of rural households to abandon farmland usufruct. Variables such as the level of education, the total number of families, the degree of expected risk, and the willingness to plant land have a significant negative impact on the willingness of farmers to abandon farmland usufruct. Farmers with better family conditions, poor resource endowment, high ability to abandon farmland usufruct, low expected risk, high level of cognition have a strong willingness to abandon farmland usufruct which may be the main groups of farmland usufruct abandonment. 2) Under the unbalanced development of the region, the factors affecting the withdrawal of the farmland usufruct of rural households in typical rural and urban-rural areas are not the same. 3) After using the CMP method to control possible endogenous problems, the influence of variable risk level estimation on the willingness of farmers to abandon farmland usufruct is still significant. However, the absolute value of the coefficient has decreased. This shows that if the endogenous problems are not considered, the impact of risk level estimation on the willingness of farmers to abandon farmland usufruct may be overestimated. 4) Farmers in the research area have higher acceptance of farmland usufruct abandonment mode of Neijiang and Liangping, and lower acceptance of the mode in Pingluo and Chengdu. Farmers are most concerned about compensation, matching social security and forms of abandonment. Based on the research conclusions, the paper proposes policy recommendations for optimizing the system of farmland usufruct abandonment from multiple angles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is of significance to analyze the temporal and spatial evolution of karst valley of farmland so as to reveal the law of human-environmental relationship in the karst valley rural area, with Yinjiang county as an example, which was divided into trough valley region, low mountain valley region, Fanjing mountain region and hilly valley region. Based on the landform, multi-source data are used to discuss the change of cultivated land quantity and its distribution evolution at different elevations and on different slope scopes from 1958 to 2016 in the county. The results show: (1) Farmland increased first and then declined; woodland increased after decreases. Before 1990, woodland was transferred to farmland, but after 1990, cultivated land was transferred to forest, and the degree of transfer of each subregion was different. (2) The fluctuation elevation level of cultivated land is 700 m. When it is lower than 700 m, it expanded before 1990 and then shrank, the range of change decreased as the elevation increased. Above 700 m, the fluctuation was not obvious. (3) Taking 1990 as the boundary, the cultivated land expanded before 1990 and shrank after 1990 on all slopes. If the slope is less than 25° slope, the farmland increased with the increase of slope. Within the slope greater than 25°, the cultivated land decreased with the increase of slope. (4) The fluctuation of cultivated land in the study area was closely with the land dependence of local farmers. Cultivated land will expand, if farmers are highly dependent on land. On the contrary, the cultivated land will shrink. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the efficiency of agricultural production and developing moderate scale management are the directions of China’s agricultural development at present, and land transfer is the main way to realize the scale management of land in China in the system of collective ownership. Based on detailed analysis of spatial-temporal variation characteristics of land transfer in China, this paper used factor analysis method to explore the factors affecting land transfer at the provincial scale. The results showed that: 1) At present, China’s land transfer is developing rapidly, but the regional differences are obvious. The land transfer rate increased rapidly from 5.2% in 2007 to 33.3% in 2015. In 2007, only 4 million hectares of cultivated land were transferred. In 2015, 30 million hectares of cultivated land were involved in land transfer. The scale of land transfer increased by 6 times in 8 years, and 3 million hectares of cultivated land were added to the land transfer process every year. The southern and western regions have slower transfer speed and smaller transfer scale, while the transfer speed is much faster and the scale is much larger in plains. 2) The promotion effect of land transfer on scale management (management scale > 3.33 hm2) is not obvious yet. The ratio of scale management is still at a low level that only 1.42% famers have management scale bigger than 3.33 hm2, and the management scale of cultivated land of 80% farmers is below 0.67 hm2. The fragmentation of land has a great hindrance to the realization of the land transfer effects. 3) Land resource endowment, economic development level, transfer transaction cost, land ownership stability, peasant households’ willingness of land transfer and traffic accessibility are the most important factors that affect the development of land transfer. Land resource endowment, economic development level and land ownership stability are positively related to land transfer, and transaction cost is negatively related to land transfer. 4) There exist regional differences of the maturity of land transfer conditions in China. Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia and Jilin have the highest maturity of land transfer conditions, and the maturity of land transfer conditions in Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi are the lowest. There are policy implications that the high transaction cost in China hinders the realization of land transfer effect and land fragmentation is an important cause of the increase of transaction costs. Carrying out the reform of the rural land system and promoting the farmland contracting rights in a certain area can promote the concentration of small plots, effectively reduce the transaction costs of land transfer and increase the scale of farmers’land management. At the same time, the regional differences of the maturity of land transfer conditions and the major limiting factors of land transfer should be paid attention in the formulation of policies that promote land transfer. Policies should be formulated by regions to solve the land transfer barriers, and moderate scale management fit for local condition should be encouraged. [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]

Based on the nature and characteristics of space construction land use rights, this study examines the status quo and existing problems of the registration of the right to use space for the construction of urban land in China. This is accomplished using the deductive method and the law interpretation method. The results show that the existence of the right to use the land use right is not clear, the ownership is not clear, the registration is difficult, the registration mode is backward, the registration matters are incomplete, and the registration department and the form are not unified. Therefore, China’s space construction land use rights registration system needs improvement, from the aspects of “registration rules” and “achieve the path,” among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the reform and opening up, China’s rural homestead system has somewhat restricted the development of the rural economy. At the same time, there are a series of problems during the process of the using the homestead. Thus, reformation of the rural homestead system has become increasingly urgent. Based on an analysis of existing problems, from the perspective of the homestead circulation life cycle, this study optimally designed the rural homestead circulation system, including land resource consolidation, land ownership, land transfer mechanisms, and the formulation of land transfer protection measures that provide a reference for homestead system reformation in China and that protect the rational use of rural land resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically tested the existence of the waiting option of the local government under the institutional background of urban land supply and management in China. Under the analysis frame of duration model, the paper constructed a Weibull-distribution based maximum likelihood empirical model, according to the exercise principle of the waiting option and the general testing methodology. Based on the sample of residential-used land transfer and housing market movement in Beijing, the empirical results reveal that every unit marginal increase of the standard deviation of the housing risk will significantly reduce the hazard rate of land transfer of local government by at least 20%, which strongly supports the hypothesis that the local government owns the waiting option in the land transfer process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]