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Urbanization has altered landscape patterns and ecological functions, which has caused a decline in ecosystem services (ESS) and resulted in many ecological and environmental issues, particularly in areas that are undergoing rapid urbanization. A better understanding of the relationship between urbanization and ESS is important for future regional sustainability and relevant policy development. Most previous studies focus on the interrelationship between urbanization and environment or refer to the effects of urbanization on ESS. The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between urbanization and ESS in the Jingjinji (JJJ) urban agglomeration in northern China. The results revealed that with the rapid urbanization trend during the period 1996–2014, the value of ESS in the JJJ region increased by 4.63% because the increases in the forest, orchard and water areas greatly offset the decrease in ESS caused by urban sprawl, and both urbanization and ESS showed marked spatial variability. The temporal relationship between urbanization and ESS was represented by an inverse U-shaped curve; the peak was 0.7 for the urbanization index in 2009. Noticeably, there was no unanimous variation in the value of different ecosystem services types, and food production and waste treatment showed dramatic declines. There were negative spatial correlations between different levels of urbanization and ESS and particularly significant negative correlations among land, population urbanization and ESS. The central cities focused more on urbanization development than on ecological protection, whereas the Bashang Plateau and areas in the northern mountains featured unbalanced development and low levels of urbanization, and both the urbanization level and the ecosystem services value were low in the central southern plains. This indicated that, to realize urban ecological sustainability and develop sustainable regional paradigms, it is possible to strengthen socioeconomic urbanization while at the same time controlling the amount and distribution of land and population. The integration plan and action should be put forward to facilitate all measures taken in JJJ urban agglomeration planning and ecological conservation.

Cultivated land productivity potential improvement (CLPPI) assessment is the fundamental basis to launch land consolidation, which is one of the most important way to increase the grain productive capacity. Previous studies on CLPPI assessment have focused on factors related to natural conditions of cultivated land, but they ignored the impacts of utilization conditions, including plot characteristics and agricultural infrastructure, which account for substantial CLPPI from land consolidation. Based on the crop-growth model and Agro-ecological Zoning (AEZ) methodology, this paper proposed a modified CLPPI assessment model to estimate the improvement of land productivity potential via land consolidation. Meanwhile, the contribute rates of different factors involved in determining the CLPPI were also analysed to reveal the ideal work focus and policy direction for land consolidation. Results showed that the calculated CLPPI values had obvious spatial variety in Shenyang, of which the average was 326.18. For the consolidation case, total crop production in Shenyang could be increased by as much as 149.89 × 107 kg, 20% of the current yield. CLPPI is the comprehensive outcome of both natural and utilization qualities of land use, and the current productivity potential of cultivated land in Shenyang relied much less on natural conditions such as soil than on utilization conditions such as agricultural infrastructure. In addition, medium-productivity lands were most appropriate target areas for the implication of land consolidation projects. Actually, the arrangement of land consolidation projects should not only consider CLPPI as in the past, but also add the theoretical productivity potential into consideration. Moreover, the realization of estimated CLPPI also calls for active changes of the whole land management system. An integrated institution for the full implementation of land consolidation, proper regulations and laws on the follow-up protection of cultivated land productivity potential, economic policies to stimulate the willingness of farmers, and a transfer mechanism for cultivated land are all needed policy changes.

Reducing agricultural water use is an inevitable choice to alleviate water shortage in arid and semi-arid regions, and high-efficiency irrigation technologies provide conditions for water conservation. However, without unified water resources management policy to redistribute the saved agricultural water, farmers&rsquo, behavior will lead to water rebound and large-scale expansion of cultivated areas, especially on the edge of oasis regions. To solve these issues and promote the sustainable development of water resources, it makes sense to explore the impact of unified water resources management policy from the perspective of farmers&rsquo, behavior. This study takes the typical irrigation zone in the Heihe River Basin as a case to discuss the response of farmers&rsquo, economic behavior to transferring irrigation water and restricting land reclamation, i.e., the unified water resources management policy with the technical efficiency of crop irrigation improved based on the bio-economic model. The results show that in the case of loosening land constraints, farmers will reuse all the saved water for agricultural production by reclaiming unused land or increasing the area of water-intensive crops (vegetables). Although the policy of restricting land reclamation can restrict land expansion, it cannot avoid water rebound caused by adjusting the crop-planting structure. Farmers&rsquo, land-expansion behavior can be largely restricted by transferring the saved irrigation water to non-agricultural sectors in irrigation zones with inadequate water, but to contain land-expansion behavior in irrigation zones with surplus water, the policy of restricting land reclamation must be implemented simultaneously. The study also reveals that farmers will choose to grow more cash crops (seed maize, vegetables, tomato, seed watermelon, potato, and rapeseed) and fewer food crops (wheat, maize) to increase the profit per unit of water in the scenario of loosening land constraints or transferring agricultural water. Furthermore, the study indicates that farmers&rsquo, economic income can be decreased or at least not increased with the transfer of agricultural water. Both benefit compensation from non-agricultural sectors and increased non-agricultural income can compensate farmers&rsquo, economic loss. Therefore, it is necessary to improve water rights trading systems and increase employment opportunities for surplus agricultural labor to promote economic development in rural areas.

Given China’s rapid urbanization, the continual adjustment of industrial land admittance indicators (ILAIs) to promote the optimal allocation and utilization of industrial land is critical for urban land use optimization and sustainable urban development. Unlike previous studies that have focused on qualitative analysis and traditional economic and statistical methods to modify ILAIs via sample survey data, this paper proposes a new theoretical framework for determining the optimal regulation of ILAIs to improve land use efficiency from a quality management perspective, analyses the differences in ILAIs in industrial space and types at multiple scales and sets and modifies the diverse function values of ILAIs by sub-region and sub-industrial sector via a probability model based on big data for 2007–2016 for the Beijing−Tianjin−Hebei (BTH) region. The findings were as follows: (1) The floor area ratio (FAR), greening ratio (GR), building density (BD) and fixed asset investment intensity (FAII) of industrial land in BTH were found to be low within national standards and exhibited great excavation potential. (2) The ILAIs exhibited spatial heterogeneity, with a significant multicore circular structure of peaks and fluctuations and with FAR, BD and FAII values higher in the Jing-Jin region and in the southern and northeastern regions of Hebei Province but lower in northwestern BTH, while the GR’s spatial pattern showed the opposite trend. (3) Both the five classified sub-regions and industry sub-types displayed marked variations in ILAIs, indicating that it was necessary to modify ILAIs by sub-region and sub-industrial sector. (4) Industrial land use efficiency in BTH was further revealed at the general, non-intensive and extensive levels and was found to vary considerable by sub-type. The land use mode of the service industry was the most efficient and intensive, followed by that of the high-tech industry. The land intensiveness of various light industry sectors was clearly distinct, while the chemical, metallurgy and equipment manufacturing industries were of moderate to non-intensive levels. The lowest values were found for the mining and coking industry. (5) The probability model is suggested to be an effective method for modifying the multifunctional values of ILAIs. Relative to national standards, the improved control values of ILAIs were higher at the regional level, and for different sub-regions not fully proportional to their development levels, they were higher or lower than their regional counterparts, even deviating from national standards. The revised FAR of each industry was also found to be higher and directly proportional to existing national standards; however, their improvement exhibited the opposite trend. ILAIs performance was bifurcated in terms of industry sub-types and economic-geographic regions. This study suggests establishing twofold ILAIs of “land use efficiency and industrial development”, developing gradient path guidance for ILAIs threshold values and enhancing ILAIs implementation flexibility to realize the precise matching of industry transfer and acceptance and the coordinated and balanced development of the entire region and constructing a sound “access-adjustment-exit” circulation system for applying ILAIs throughout the life cycle of industrial land.

Whereas the exploration of urban expansion only from the horizontal perspective cannot accurately reflect the real situation, vertical expansion studies can fully understand the characteristics and rules for urban expansion. Understanding how the urban built-up density based on the vertical expansion differs across cities and varies among regions over time is important for enriching the research on urban expansion, as such work can provide theoretical support for the sustainable use of urban land and urban sustainability. This research uses the floor area ratio (FAR) of newly residential land in 320 prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2016 as an urban residential built-up density index to explore the spatiotemporal characteristics, regional differences and influencing factors of vertical urban expansion. The conclusions are as follows: the FAR of urban residential land was 2.42 in 2016, and the urban residential built-up density was increasing. The spatial pattern of the urban residential built-up density in China is an inverted U-shape in the longitudinal direction and decreases from north to south in the latitudinal direction. This density roughly follows the pattern of Central China > West China > East China > Northeast China with remarkable regional differences, and the trend of spatial agglomeration is strengthening. At the national level, the urban residential built-up density is significantly positively correlated with the local government’s motives, the residential developer’s intensions and the consumption capacity of residents, and there is a significant inverse U-shaped relationship between the average wage and the FAR. Finally, the findings indicate that we should grasp the urban expansion characteristics from both horizontal and vertical expansion. The government should take the construction of a livable and resilient city as the goal in land supply and urban planning. In addition, the government should formulate reasonable land supply policies and urban development layouts to promote sustainable urban land use as well as the healthy development of cities in the future.

The inner structure of urban built-up land sprawl (UBLS) is crucial for the level and quality of urbanization. This paper attempts an in-depth analysis of the inner structure of UBLS based on site data of granted built-up land parcels within the Beijing Metropolitan Area from 2001 to 2012. Structure entropy analysis and kernel density estimation (KDE) are employed to characterize the spatial-temporal variation of different types of UBLS and to summarize their patterns. The results reveal that during the sprawl process, residential land expanded rapidly in the first half of the study period while industrial land expanded rapidly in the second half. Residential land sprawl illustrated “radial sprawl”, with a trend of “living suburbanization”; commercial land tended to follow the pattern of “ribbon sprawl along the main roads”; and industrial land sprawl was scattered in a “leapfrog sprawl” pattern. These results reveal the particular characteristics of the coexistence of market mechanisms and government macro-control of the land market in China. The land analysed in this study does not present the high-efficiency circle-layer land-use structure. Driven by top-down power allocations and the GDP-dominated views of local governments, the land supply inclined toward structural imbalance, which generated a disordered urban spatial structure. Hence, we suggest formulating a market-driven land supply mechanism to adjust the land-use supply structure, which has important implications for optimizing urban land-use structure.

Water scarcity is one of the most prominent issues worldwide in relation to sustainable development, especially in arid areas. To gain a better understanding of the trade-off between improving agricultural productivity and maintaining the stability of an oasis ecosystem in these areas, this study took the Heihe River Basin in northwestern China as a case to explore the changes in oasis dynamics and their human driving forces. The results showed that along with the 11·0% expansion of agricultural land, the total water demand for irrigation increased by 6·3% during 2000–2010. Although tremendous economic incentives for farmers spurred the oasis expansion and cropping system changes, the key driving force behind the oasis expansion in the study area was closely related to sufficient irrigation water guaranteed by new water sources (excessive consumption of groundwater and surface water) and water conservation efforts that were the results of the “water-saving society” project (cropping system adjustments and technological improvements in irrigation). This loose regulation of water resource management can be considered to be partially attributable to the ignorance of the ecological value of water resources. Sustainable land use in the study area can only be achieved through the strict regulation of the management of surface water and groundwater resources throughout the basin and the invisible water provided by the water conservation measures. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cultivated land multifunction, defined as the private and public goods and services provided by the land uses, is usually developed based on the interaction between the cultivated land system and human activities, which can satisfy human demand. Additionally, functional products can be depicted as the visible and quantitative outcomes of cultivated land multifunction. This paper assessed the cultivated land multifunction by applying the "influencing factors-functions-products-demands" integrated framework. In the assessment of the cultivated land multifunction from the product perspective at the multilevel, various results have been drawn, which refer to: there are five categories of functions, i.e., production function, economic function, ecological function, social security function, and cultural landscape function. Moreover, the unbalanced development patterns of each function caused the spatial differentiation of cultivated land multifunction at the multilevel, that is, along with the more inferior and complex physical geography and economic location comes the decline trend of multifunction intensity. Normally, in the plain areas, the multifunction has been fully realized because of the high-quality and relative abundance of cultivated land resources, whereas the small-scale and fragmentation of land parcels, as well as the environmental degradation, have restricted the multifunctionality, especially for production and ecological functions. To cope with this, strategies based on cultivated land multifunction management (including functional enhancement and functional conversion) should be adopted by planners and policy-makers in these areas. The findings of our paper may contribute to appropriate policy-making for cultivated land consolidation, as well as be an effective tool to achieve land use multifunctionality and rural sustainable development.

Coordinating urbanization and ecosystem conservation is necessary for future regional sustainability. Understanding the coupling relationship between urbanization and ecosystem conservation has great significance in ecological management and policy making. Based on a comprehensive index system of urbanization and ecosystem services (ESS), this study used the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model and spatial autocorrelation statistical model to evaluate the spatio-temporal coupling interactions of urbanization and ESS in the Jingjinji (JJJ) region at multiple scales from 1996 to 2014, aiming to coordinate development and strengthen regional sustainability. The results showed that although the JJJ region underwent accelerated urban sprawl and urbanization in 1996–2014, the growth of areas such as forests, orchards and water bodies contributed to an overall 4.63% increase in the ecosystem services value (ESV). The dynamic evolution between these two constructs displayed an inverse U-shaped curve and exhibited various characteristics at different development stages and research scales. The urbanization level and the associated changes impacted the natural ecosystems and ESS differently, causing regional differences in ESV per unit area and structural shifts in the ecosystem. During 1996–2014, the CCD between urbanization and ESS in the whole region fluctuated upward, moving from the medium–low stage to the medium–high stage and undergoing a transition from lagging urbanization to lagging ESS. The CCD varied greatly among regions: the spatial similarity between the CCD at the county scale showed that the northern part of the JJJ region presented high-high clusters, while the low-low accumulation areas were mainly distributed in the central southern plain. The overall development trend was good except for the decrease in CCD in some southern counties. The analytical results suggested that the processes that couple urbanization with ecosystems and ESS should be controlled through new urbanization planning, increased sustainable ecological network management, and mutually beneficial cooperation across administrative borders to sustain regional development.