Occupation of Cultivated Land for Urban–Rural Expansion in China: Evidence from National Land Survey 1996–2006

Yangbing Miao, Jiajie Liu and Raymond Yu Wang
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Yangbing Miao: China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, Beijing 100044, China
Jiajie Liu: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Raymond Yu Wang: Center for Social Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: Construction land expansion often occurs on cultivated land in developing countries during rapid urbanization and industrialization. Understanding its characteristics and driving mechanisms is of great significance for land-use policy and sustainable development. This paper depicted the spatio-temporal patterns of China’s urban–rural expansion and its occupation of cultivated land based on national land survey data from 1996 to 2006. It further explored the influencing mechanism of cultivated land occupation for urban–rural construction land. The results showed that the establishment and expansion of various economic development zones contribute to more than half of the occupation of cultivated land while the expansion of cities and towns is relatively slower, and their sources of construction land are more diverse. The empirical results showed that (1) economic growth and investment play key roles in shaping the spatio-temporal patterns of the occupation of cultivated land for urban–rural construction land, and (2) the mechanisms of cultivated land occupation in different stages of regional development are different. In particular, the establishment of national economic development zones is conducive to the intensive use of construction land and the protection of cultivated land in inland regions, whereas provincial economic development zones have led to a waste of land resources in coastal regions. Based on the results, this study suggested that the policies to the intensive use of land resources and cultivated land protection required regional disparities.

Keywords: land-use change; urban–rural construction land; cultivated land occupation; cultivated land loss; Chinese urbanization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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