Land Use Transitions: Progress, Challenges and Prospects

Hualou Long, Yingnan Zhang, Li Ma and Shuangshuang Tu
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Hualou Long: School of Public Administration, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Yingnan Zhang: School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Li Ma: School of Public Affairs, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Shuangshuang Tu: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-20

Abstract: The study of land use transition has generally become an important breakthrough point to deeply understand the human-land interaction and reveal major socio-economic development issues and related environmental effects. Attempting to provide scientific support for sustainable land use and environmental management, this review systematically analyzes the overall picture, development trends, key fields and hot topics of land use transition research in the past two decades from a comprehensive perspective, which incorporates two complementary parts including the systematic quantitative literature review (based on CiteSpace) and the traditional literature review. The results reveal that: a. current research presents three characteristics, i.e., focusing on complex social issues, driven by realistic demand, and research branches becoming clearer and more systematic; b. there are four key fields and hot topics in land use transition research, i.e., i. theories and hypothesis of land use transition; ii. measuring land use transition; iii. the impacts of land use transition on “social-economic-ecological” system; iv. drivers and regulation of land use transition. However, challenges remain, current land use transition research is still to some extent fragmented, and it should be enriched by integrating with land system science. The dominant morphology biased should be redressed by underlining the recessive morphology transition process. Meanwhile, new techniques and methods are necessary to observe, track, monitor and model the recessive attributes. Finally, distant drivers of land use transition should not be ignored in this rapidly globalizing world.

Keywords: land use transition; land use morphology; land system science; literature review; CiteSpace; progress and prospects (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 (49)

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