Urban Expansion and Farmland Loss in Beijing during 1980–2015

Yingjie Hu, Xiangbin Kong, Ji Zheng, Jin Sun, Linlin Wang and Mingzhe Min
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Yingjie Hu: College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Xiangbin Kong: College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Ji Zheng: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Jin Sun: College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Linlin Wang: College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Mingzhe Min: Real Estate Management Office of Nanchang Economic and Technological Development Zone, Nanchang 330013, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-20

Abstract: The analysis of urban land expansion and farmland loss is essential to adequately understand the land use change in a rapidly urbanizing China. We found that both urban expansion and farmland loss in Beijing experienced high- and low-speed stages and their spatial patterns were consistent during the past 35 years as most of the newly expanded urban land was converted from farmland. The area of farmland loss by urban expansion in Beijing is 12.6 km 2 /year, 39.86 km 2 /year, 23.38 km 2 /year, and 41.11 km 2 /year during the period of 1980–1990, 1990–2000, 2000–2010, and 2010–2015, respectively. The urban expansion in Beijing continuously preferred to consume “above average” quality farmland during 1980–2015. Meanwhile, although the urban expansion in Beijing was highly dependent on occupying farmland, the dependence of urban expansion on farmland consumption has declined over time. However, the contribution of urban expansion on farmland loss increased during 1980–2010 and decreased afterward. In order to protect the farmland from urban expansion, we call for more effort to improve the urban land use efficiency with rigid controls over areas of urban expansion.

Keywords: urban expansion; farmland loss; spatiotemporal pattern; quality evaluation; Beijing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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