Prediction of Spatiotemporal Changes in Sloping Cropland in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Region under Different Scenarios

Xiaowei Yao, Ting Luo, Yingjun Xu, Wanxu Chen and Jie Zeng ()
Additional contact information
Xiaowei Yao: School of Public Administration and Laws, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China
Ting Luo: School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China
Yingjun Xu: School of Public Administration and Laws, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China
Wanxu Chen: School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China
Jie Zeng: Key Laboratory of Legal Research of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Wuhan 430074, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 20, issue 1, 1-22

Abstract: With the rapid urban expansion and extensive occupation of cropland, sloping cropland has become an important cropland resource across China. How sloping cropland will change under different socioeconomic scenarios is poorly understood. Therefore, we modeled land-cover change using SSP-RCP multi-scenario simulations and analyzed the evolution and driving factors of sloping cropland change in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River Region (MRYRR). The results indicate the following: In the past twenty years, the cropland and sloping cropland areas in this region declined but the proportion of sloping cropland in total area has been increasing. The average slope of sloping cropland has increased from 7.95° to 8.28°. By 2035, the sloping cropland and total cropland areas will continue to decrease according to the current trend (SSP2-4.5). The average slope will increase maximally to 8.63° under the SSP4-3.4 scenario and minimally to 8.45° under the SSP4-6.0 scenario. Under SSP4-3.4, the extent of slope increase will exceed that in 2005–2010, when regional cropland slope showed the strongest increase in the past. Among 14 social, economic, and ecological factors, average annual precipitation and GDP contributed the most to the change in sloping cropland. This study provides support for decision-making in sustainable land resource allocation to balance urban expansion and cropland conservation.

Keywords: sloping cropland; slope spectrum; SSP-RCP; PLUS; driving factors; middle reaches of the Yangtze River region (MRYRR) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/182/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/182/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:182-:d:1012236

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().