The Impact of Household Dynamics on Land-Use Change in China: Past Experiences and Future Implications

Yaxue Luo, Ruishan Chen (), Bo Xiong, Nan Jia, Xiaona Guo, Chenglong Yin and Wen Song
Additional contact information
Yaxue Luo: School of Geographical Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 201100, China
Ruishan Chen: School of Geographical Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 201100, China
Bo Xiong: School of Geography and Tourism, Huizhou University, Huizhou 516007, China
Nan Jia: Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA
Xiaona Guo: School of Design, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200040, China
Chenglong Yin: School of Geographical Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 201100, China
Wen Song: School of Design, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200040, China

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: Population is the main driver of land-system and environmental change. However, population is usually treated as a variable that only considers the population number, and multi-dimensional population structure is largely ignored. There has been a systematic transition of population structure in the past several decades, including changes in household structure, increasing aging populations, increasing divorce rates, and increasing human migration. All of these changes have direct or indirect impacts on land use and environmental issues. Here, taking China as an example and using statistical analysis, namely the Mann–Kendall trend test and a land-use-transition matrix, we examine the relationship between household dynamics and land-use change in China by examining changes in household structure and land-use changes in China between 1980 and 2020. The results show the following three groups of findings. (1) The number of households increased by 130.95% from 1980 to 2020, while the population only increased by 42.83%; the size of households decreased from 4.41 to 2.62 in China from 1982 to 2020; and the household dynamics varied from province to province, which is affected by urbanization rate and economic development. (2) Birth rates, divorce rates, population aging, and migration all affect household structure, which directly or indirectly affect changes in land-use systems. (3) The changes in China’s land use are interlinked and interact with changes in household structure, which is evident in the increase in Residential land use and the abandonment of arable land. The rising household number increased the area of urban and rural settlement, leading to the fragmentation of cultivated land and the reduction of ecological land. To regulate land-use change for sustainable development, future land-use planning should take into account the effect of household dynamics and should reduce the negative effects of household dynamics on land systems and environmental change.

Keywords: population structure; household structure; housing demands; land-use change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/2/124/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/2/124/ (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:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:2:p:124-:d:1324604

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

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