Neglected idle rural residential land (IRRL) in metropolitan suburbs: Spatial differentiation and influencing factors.

Idle rural residential land (IRRL) is an important manifestation of changes in the human-land relationship during rural development. Studies on this topic form an important field in the study of sustainable land use, but quantitative analyses of IRRL in the academic community are still lacking. In this paper, we take Pinggu District, a metropolitan suburb that has experienced rapid urbanization, to analyze the spatial differentiation of IRRL and explore the spatial differentiation in the impact of different factors on IRRL. Our findings showed that IRRL was a common phenomenon in Pinggu. There was a spatial pattern of "one belt, three cores" in Pinggu District, and its scale decreased from the southeast to the northwest. Industrial areas, semimountainous ecotourism areas and urban fringe areas were the high-incidence areas of IRRL, while the idle rate of rural residential land in mountainous areas and agricultural areas on the plain was relatively low. The IRRL was the result of a combination of different factors, and there were differences among the factors and regions. The transfer of rural labor, nonagriculturalization of the industrial structure and the mode of production and lifestyle caused by urbanization and industrialization were the major driving forces, and the lagging village planning and imperfect land use system increased the risk of IRRL at the management level. Our study contributes to filling the gap in quantitative research on IRRL to enrich the research regarding the land use system by exploring the interaction between humans and land in rural areas and thus has significance for the rural restructuring and sustainable use of land in China. • The transfer of rural labour, non-agriculturalization of the industrial structure and mode of production and lifestyle caused by urbanization and industrialization were the major driving forces. • Influence of different driving factors on idle rural residential land varies in different regions, and the leading factors in different regions are also different. • The government should enhance the positive interaction of industry, population and land to promote the coordinated development of urban and rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]