A Comparative Analysis of Farmland Occupation by Urban Sprawl and Rural Settlement Expansion in China

Congmou Zhu, Lixia Yang, Qiuyu Xu, Jinwei Fu, Yue Lin, Le Sun, Shan He and Shaofeng Yuan ()
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Congmou Zhu: Department of Land Resources Management, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Lixia Yang: School of Public Administration, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou 310018, China
Qiuyu Xu: Department of Land Resources Management, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Jinwei Fu: Department of Land Resources Management, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Yue Lin: Institute of Applied Remote Sensing and Information Technology, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Le Sun: School of Humanities and Art Design, Zhejiang Gongshang University Hangzhou College of Commerce, Hangzhou 310018, China
Shan He: College of Economics and Management, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Shaofeng Yuan: Department of Land Resources Management, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: The farmland loss caused by urban–rural land development has exacerbated China’s challenges of using limited farmland to feed more than 1.4 billion people. Earlier studies shed light on the impacts of urban sprawl and rural settlement expansion, separately. However, there is little quantitative understanding of which one has more severe impacts on farmland and its net primary productivity (NPP). Thus, this study used spatially explicit satellite data including land-use maps and estimated NPP data, as well as spatiotemporal analysis methods to conduct a comparative analysis of farmland loss due to urban sprawl and rural settlement expansion at different scales from 2000 to 2020 in China. The results show that during the study period, urban sprawl resulted in a loss of 49,086.6 km 2 of farmland area and 8.34 TgC of farmland NPP, while the loss of farmland area and farmland NPP due to rural settlement expansion reached 18,006.8 km 2 and 3.88 TgC. The largest gap between the total area of farmland loss due to urban sprawl and the total loss area due to rural settlement expansion was 12,983.3 km 2 in Eastern China, while the smallest gap was 1291.1 km 2 in Northeastern China. The largest gap between the loss of farmland NPP due to urban sprawl and the total loss due to rural settlement expansion occurred in Eastern China at 1.97 TgC. Spatially, the total loss of farmland and its NPP due to urban sprawl and rural settlement expansion occurred mainly in the eastern and central regions of China; the areas of farmland loss by urban sprawl were more concentrated than that by rural settlement expansion. The negative impacts of urban sprawl on farmland area and its NPP were greater in southern China than that of rural settlement expansion. Noticeably, the loss of NPP per unit of farmland due to rural settlement expansion was higher than that by urban sprawl, especially in the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. The results highlight the non-negligible impacts of rural settlement expansion on farmland in China. It is necessary to improve farmland protection policies by optimizing the spatial allocation of urban and rural construction land.

Keywords: farmland occupation; urban sprawl; rural settlement expansion; farmland NPP; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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