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Land consolidation is of significance in the construction of ecological civilization put forward by Chinese Government and to be carried out in the future development. So studying spatial-temporal change and future development of land consolidation's newly increased cultivated land is important to investigate the role of land consolidation in ecological construction of China. This paper analyzed spatial-temporal changes of newly increased cultivated land from land arrangement, land exploitation, and land reclamation from 2001 to 2011, using the method of weighted gravity center model, which displayed moved direction and moved distance of land consolidation's newly increased cultivated land. The results showed that the newly increased cultivated land of land consolidation was 3.2×106 hm2 from 2001 to 2011. The majority of newly increased cultivated land, accounting for 63.2% was derived from land exploitation. The newly increased cultivated land area from land arrangement and land reclamation accounted for 21.8% and 15.0% of the total newly increased cultivated land, respectively. The zone analysis of newly increased cultivated land of land consolidation was conducted based on the classification of China into 4 regions of East zone, West zone, Middle zone and North-east zone. The newly increased cultivated land from land arrangement was mainly distributed in East zone with 53.8% of the total from 2001 to 2008. East zone and west zone were the main distribution zones of newly increased cultivated land from land exploitation. They were 37.9% and 33.0% of the total from 2001 to 2008. Land discarded by factories and damaged mines, which was the object of land reclamation, had uncertainty in distribution and happening, so the proportion of newly increased cultivated land from land reclamation changed significantly among inter-zones and inter-annuals. The weighted gravity center of newly increased cultivated land area from land arrangement moved to west from 2001 to 2011. Comparing with 2001-2006 and 2007-2009, the moved average distance of 2010-2011 to the west were 769.59 and 603.44 km, respectively. The weighted gravity centers of newly increased cultivated land area from land exploitation during 2001 to 2006 were located in north and west of our country's geographic gravity center, with the tendency of moving to north from west, and it showed a trend of moving to west from east from 2007 to 2011. There were uncertainties in the moved direction of weighted gravity center of newly increased cultivated land area from land reclamation from 2001 to 2011. Based on the analysis above, we reckon that, at the background of ecological construction and relatively stable cultivated land quantity in China, the proportion of newly increased cultivated land from land exploitation should be decreased by the means of reducing land exploitation projects in land consolidation plan, and the related actions, for example, the reasonable layouts of land exploitation projects should be considered to prevent that weighted gravity center of newly increased cultivated land from land exploitation moves to west of China; the improvement of land quality and construction of fertilized farmland should be strengthened through land arrangement, which will be the main direction of land consolidation; and, land reclamation should play a more important role in repairing the damaged ecological environment with increasing cultivated land area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversity and differentiation have become the hallmarks of contemporary Chinese rural settlements. Spatial differentiation of rural settlements' multi-function is important to fully understand characteristics of rural society under rapid social and economic changes in China. Few studies have systematically evaluated the impact of such change on the rural settlements' functions. Based on the "Distance attenuation" principle, and using the county as the regional center, we classified 112 rural settlements of Changzhi city, Shanxi province into four types: urban villages, suburban villages, outer suburban villages and remote villages. Then we recognized multifunctional of the rural settlements as daily life function, agricultural production function, and non-agricultural production function based on different social-economic factors that were carried by corresponding land use types. Finally, we chose indicators from the attributes of the rural settlements to study regional differentiation of rural settlements' functions. Methods of participatory rural appraisal, combined with GIS technology and remote sensing image were used. The results showed that attributes of rural settlements' multi-function changed regularly. With approaching to the county, rural houses and households were improved more frequently along with the improvement of service facilities of the rural settlements. As approaching to the county, the household income from agricultural production decreased, and the households tended to gradually give up agricultural production function. Also when approaching to the county, areas for non-agricultural production were expanded and the contributions of income from non-agricultural production for rural households increased. Finally, we constructed a multi-functional quantitative mathematical equation of rural settlements to measure multi-function dominance of rural settlements based on the index of rural settlements' functions. Comparative advantage function of different types of the rural settlements was remarkable difference. The comparative advantage functions of the urban villages were daily life function and agricultural production function, and these two functions had the location quotient of 1.09 and 1.92, respectively. Similar results were found with the suburban villages (1.04 and 1.11). The comparative advantage function of the outer suburban villages and the remote villages was agricultural production function. Their location quotient reached 1.47 and 1.72, respectively. We suggested that based on this research it was necessary to implement rural residential consolidation considering the multifunctions and their attributes of rural settlements. The proportion of land use within the rural settlements bearing economic activities, especially non-agricultural activities increased in urban villages and suburban villages. The household income was dependent on economic activities of the residences. While in the outer suburban villages and the remote villages, many residences moved out to work in non-agricultural sectors. However, there were still many people engaged in farming in those areas. Based on this study, we suggested that on the one hand, governments at all levels should strengthen the non-agricultural production function of urban villages and suburban villages in order to attract more elements gathering, such as more labor force who came from other areas. On the other hand, governments should strengthen agricultural production of outer suburban villages and remote villages. For the outer suburban and remote villages, daily life function was relatively weak and had no comparative advantage for improvement. Governments should help to repair houses and improve service facilities of these two types of rural settlements so that an evenly developed and harmonious rural society can be built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the material basis for the development of modern agriculture, well-facilitated capital farmland is the key to ensuring food safety in China By improving the comprehensive productivity of cultivated land and agricultural production conditions, the construction of well-facilitated capital farmland and its effective management and efficient utilization has great significance for food security and the development of modern agriculture. Taking Fujin city of Heilongjiang Province as an example, the paper conducted a study on the well-facilitated capital farmland construction sequence. The main conclusions of the study were as follows: It introduces the Four Quadrant model by a feasibility and spatial stability analysis on a well-facilitated capital farmland construction sequence. It comprehensively determined a well-facilitated capital farmland construction sequence combined with the construction scale and goal orientation. Evaluation of the construction feasibility is mainly used to reflect the feasibility of a well-facilitated capital farmland construction sequence. The evaluation index was selected from three aspects including natural quality, engineering construction, and economic society. It mainly included thickness of effective soil, field area, and the later maintenance funding levels. Spatial stability evaluation is mainly used to reflect the spatial stability after well-facilitated capital farmland is constructed. It selected the distance to the county seat, the distance to the township, the distance to the main roads, the distance to potential geological hazards, population density, local finance income, and other indicators from three aspects including location, ecology, and the construction land expansion force. The cultivated land to be evaluated was divided into three levels including high feasibility, medium feasibility, and low-grade feasibility based on the well-facilitated capital farmland construction feasibility evaluation model. The area of the highly feasible region was 13.18×104hm2 (22.69% of the total evaluation area), it was mainly in the state farms especially in the Qixing Farm and the Daxing Farm. The moderate feasible area was 22.72×104 hm2 (39.13% of the total evaluation area). It was distributed in the state farm and local government areas and the area was equal. It was mainly distributed in the Daxing Farm and the Qixing Farm of the state farms and Jinshan town of the local government; The low feasible area was 22.18×104hm2 (38.18% of the total evaluation area), all are located in the local government's area except for a little distribution in Qianjin Farm. On the issue of space stability, the area of highly stability, area of moderate stability, and area of low stability of well-facilitated capital farmland construction in Fujin City was 7.58×104hm2, 27.73×104hm2 and 22.77×104 hm2. It occupied respectively 13.06%, 47.73%, and 39.21% of the evaluation area. Highly stable areas were mainly distributed in the farm on the east of Fujin city; moderate stability areas were mainly distributed in the local towns in the south and west of Fujin city; and low stability areas were mainly distributed in the township in the western northern and central areas of Fujin city. The unstable areas were mainly distributed in the Songhua River, Sanhuanpao Nature Reserve, and some important areas of the rivers and city construction expansion area. It was coupled to the feasibility and spatial stability of well-facilitated capital farmland construction by the Four Quadrant model. It determined the well-facilitated capital farmland construction sequence based on the goal orientation of spatial stability priority. Qixing Farm, Hongwei Farm, Qianjin Farm, and Qinglongshan Farm are priority areas of well-facilitated capital farmland construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the cultivated land quality comprehensive evaluation there have been relatively abundant research results at present, but most of them tend to judge the suitability of spatial distribution of cultivated land and prime farmland without taking sufficient attention to the ecological security. The cultivated land quality comprehensive evaluation plays an important part as prerequisites and groundwork in demarcating of prime farmland and high-standard prime farmland construction. On the basis of dissecting the concept and method of cultivated land quality evaluation, the paper constructed a cultivated quality comprehensive evaluation system by way of selecting relevant indicators from the natural quality, site conditions, spatial pattern and ecological security of cultivated land through referring to agricultural land classification, agricultural land gradation, cultivated land scale operation and its ecological security. The study aimed at meeting the inner demands for demarcating of prime farmland and made up for the deficiency in the present related researches, then achieved quantitative analysis of various indexes and calculation on the cultivated land quality comprehensive index with the help of GIS. On the above basis, the study divided 5 916 cultivated land parcels into 4 different types according to the similarity theory in Pinggu district: 1) The first one, named as the prior planning type, was up to 4 325.29 hm2 and accounted for 35.06% of regional total cultivated land area, distributed mainly in the western, southern and southwest plains of Pinggu district, mainly in the town of Donggaocun, followed by the towns of Yukou and Mafang, which showed comprehensive optimum in the natural quality, site conditions, ecological security and spatial pattern of cultivated land as the preferred object to be prime farmland or high-standard prime farmland. This type became the core part of cultivated land protected in Pinggu district. 2) The second one, named as the suitable addition type, was 3511.84 hm2 and accounted for 28.47% of regional total cultivated land area, distributed in the west, south and southwest plains of Pinggu district, especially in the towns of Donggaocun, Mafang and Machangying, which showed a sign of cultivated land landscape fragmentation without any restriction in the other three aspects. This kind of cultivated land's quality comprehensive index decreased mainly due to the spatial fragmentation caused by carving up and occupation from the construction land, which weakened the scale effect of modern agriculture. It was effectual to take action of land consolidation or parcel spatial adjustments to promote the concentration and connectivity for the cultivated land of suitable additional type as the object of the prime farmland or high-standard prime farmland. 3) The third one, named as the main regulation type, was 2 606.45 hm2 and accounted for 21.13% of regional total cultivated land area, whose spatial distribution presented shifting trend from plains to semi-mountainous regions and their restrictive factors were complicated. The changing slope, weakening location advantage and fragmentation were the main reasons for the decrease of some cultivated land's quality comprehensive indices, which could improve the quality to be prime farmland by diversified means such as land leveling project, soil improvement, spatial adjustment of cultivated land parcel and so on. As for the other one that the quality comprehensive index decreased caused by restriction of ecological security pattern, to improve the comprehensive quality was harder than the former one and whether or not to become the prime farmland depended on the coordinated control between the productive and ecological function of cultivated land. 4) The last one, named as the removal quitting type, was 1 892.12 hm2 and accounted for 15.34% of regional total cultivated land area. This kind of cultivated land was not suitable as the prime farmland because of the intense restriction from the natural quality, site conditions, spatial pattern and ecological security of cultivated land. Those ones in mountainous area should bring about the ecological restoration; meanwhile, the other ones in plains should act as the urban greening function with other prime farmlands. The study results reflect the comprehensive quality of regional cultivated land, which have practical and guidance roles in planning method of the county prime farmland protection zone and high-standard prime farmland construction. Simultaneously, the classification of cultivated land can provide a reference for the functional zoning and regulation of cultivated land, the differential construction and management of prime farmland and the transformation of agricultural modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]