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There are urgent ecological and environmental problems in the process of the utilization of urban construction land, promoting green utilization of construction land is conducive to urban sustainable development and high-quality economic development. Based on the panel data of 108 prefecture-level and above cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China from 2003 to 2017, this paper uses the super-efficiency SBM model to measure the green efficiency of urban construction land (GEUCL), analyzes its spatial–temporal evolution characteristics, and constructs the spatial autoregressive model to study its spatial spillover effects from the perspective of urban hierarchy. It is found that, in terms of temporal variation, the average efficiency value shows a fluctuating upward trend during the study period, rising from 0.27 in 2003 to 0.39 in 2017, the cumulative growth rate is 44.44%, with an average annual growth rate of 3.14%. In terms of spatial distribution characteristics, during the study period, the number of medium-efficiency and high-efficiency cities increases significantly, while the number of low-efficiency cities decreases sharply; high-efficiency cities always present scattered distribution, while medium-efficiency cities change from scattered distribution to agglomeration distribution. In addition, GEUCL has significantly positive spatial spillover effects between neighboring cities of different grades and between neighboring cities of the same grade, among them, the increase of GEUCL in higher-grade cities has significantly positive spatial spillover effects on that in adjacent lower-grade cities; the increase of GEUCL in lower-grade cities has significantly positive spatial spillover effects on that in neighboring higher-grade cities; GEUCL has significantly positive spatial spillover effects between neighboring cities of the same grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatiotemporal variations of industrial carbon emissions (IE) must be scientifically understood, which will be helpful to formulate reasonable emission reduction strategies. Given that spatial distribution of IE is irrelevant to space agents commonly used (such as population and nighttime light), estimation and spatialization methods for total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are not entirely suitable for IE. Therefore, this paper used greenhouse gases observing satellite level 4A product to estimate IE at the city level and used industrial land density to obtain the distribution of IE within the administrative districts. Sectoral emission inventories of 182 cities and a mosaic Asian anthropogenic emission inventory named MIX were used to verify the results. Then, spatiotemporal variation characteristics of China's IE were analyzed from multiple levels. Results showed that (1) the mean relative error of estimation results was 56.11%, among which 62 cities had relative error of less than 30%. Gridded IE in this paper had high consistency with MIX. (2) Cities with high IE experienced rapid growth from 2009 to 2012, followed by slower growth from 2012 to 2017. (3) Centroid of significant cold and hot spots moved to the southeast and northwest, respectively. Most cities with high annual IE growth had relatively low emission efficiency, mainly located in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. Aggregation of medium and high IE grids may represent high emission efficiency. Significant differences still exist between cities in IE, and sustainable development strategies should be formulated according to local conditions. Regions with high annual growth or low emission efficiency are the key to achieving IE reduction targets in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, rapid urbanization has contributed to an increasingly dominant trend of people congregating around river basins. As a result, significant changes in land use structure occur, leading to alterations in ecosystem structure and gradual degradation of ecological service functions. Using the DLB (Dianchi Lake Basin) in southwestern China as the research area, this essay analyzed its land use structure in 2020 and constructed an urban eco-resilience evaluation system based on the three dimensions of "resistibility, adaptability, and recuperability" derived from the eco-resilience theory. Meanwhile, the physical coupling model was used to calculate the coupling coordination degree of land use and eco-resilience in the area. Research shows: (1) the DLB is a complete and relatively independent ecosystem, with diverse land use types in the watershed, and the land use structure of the watershed is related to altitude and economic development; (2) the overall eco-resilience of the area has significant spatial differences in distribution. The eco-resilience of the lakeside built-up area is the lowest eco-resilience, and the regions with higher resilience are primarily those surrounding the lake or hills. (3) According to the coupling coordination degree model, the calculated coupling degree of land use and eco-resilience is 0.49, and the coordination degree is 0.38, indicating early stages of the coupling coordination progress. This paper developed a comprehensive evaluation model of land use and river basin eco-resilience, and studied the coupling relationship between the two. This holds theoretical and practical significance for ecological protection and sustainable development of DLB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land intensive use is important for sustainable land use while carbon emission is a constraint to achieve carbon neutrality; they are closely related and committed to sustainable socioeconomic development. The spatial interactions and complex mechanisms between them make it difficult to clarify their relationship precisely. This paper combines the spatial Durbin model and mediating effect model to describe the effects of urban land intensive use (ULIU) on carbon emissions (CEs) for 30 provinces in China during 1995–2018. An inverse U-shaped relationship between ULIU and CEs is proved while considering the spatial interaction. All the provincial observed values of ULIU are less than the inflection point of the curve, which means that the improvement of the ULIU will cause more CEs. Meanwhile, ULIU has multi-indirect effects on CEs, with urbanization and industrial structure upgrading playing mediating roles in the mechanism. The spatial spillover effects of CEs per unit area on the neighboring provinces are negative, indicating that the interregional influence cannot be ignored. These findings have theoretical and practical significance as they reveal the multi-effects of ULIU on CEs. To realize carbon emission reduction effectively, more attention should be paid to improving the intensity of the urban land and strengthening the regional cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Oases in China are experiencing large-scale land use/cover change (LUCC), which profoundly affects regional sustainability. To improve sustainability, a series of land-use policies has been implemented. Can these policies effectively promote the sustainable development of oases in China? To answer this question, comprehensively examining the effects of the land-use policies on future LUCC and oasis landscape sustainability is urgently needed; however, such research is currently lacking. Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the impacts of major land-use policies on future LUCC and the environmental sustainability of oasis landscapes. Method: Taking the Zhangye Oasis as an example, we first developed 56 scenarios with different combinations of six land-use policies. Then, we simulated the LUCC between 2017 and 2050 under the 56 scenarios. Finally, we assessed the impacts of future LUCC on three key ecosystem services (ESs) and the water stress index. Results: We found that the examined land-use policies could effectively control the sprawl of built-up areas, maintain croplands, and promote increases in forest and marsh, improving regional ESs. However, these policies will lead to an increase in water consumption, which will exacerbate regional water stress. Thus, these land-use policies cannot comprehensively improve oasis landscape sustainability. Conclusions: This paper systematically examines the impacts of six land-use policies on the environmental sustainability of oasis landscapes and reveals that these policies will increase ESs but cause further water shortages. Therefore, strengthening the integrated management of water and land resources is urgently needed to improve current land-use policies and oasis landscape sustainability in a more comprehensive manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the 20 century, tideland reclamation as a huge project has continuously extended from inland to the sea for the socioeconomic development, like Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other coastal regions in China. The increase of land area alleviated the contradiction of supply and demand between human and land, which provided the guarantee for agricultural production and industrial development. However, marine ecological environment has been seriously damaged due to the increasing scale of tideland reclamation. This paper took the Hangzhou Bay in the Yangtze River Delta as a study area to explore the evolution law, socioeconomic effect and eco-environmental effect of reclaimed land from 1985 to 2015. The result showed that as follows: (1) The area of tideland reclamation was 460.67 km with 16.57% cultivated land and 15.93% construction land, and its land use was inefficient; (2) Land use change has spatial and temporal difference, the speed of tideland reclamation had been increasing from 1985 to 2015 in time and the scale of reclaimed land in the southern (84.07%) of Hangzhou Bay was larger than the northern region (15.93%) in space; (3) The evolution law of land use was from tideland to swampland and coastal waters to agricultural facility land, to cultivated land to industrial-mining land to idle land, rural-urban construction land, and formed obviously hierarchical structure; (4) Effect analysis of land use change found that the socio-economic effect had increased but the eco-environmental effect had decreased from 1985 to 2015, it reflected socioeconomic effect was acquired through sacrificing ecoenvironmental effect; (5) It pointed out the existing problems on land extensive inefficient, environmental degradation and economy excessive growth without scientific planning, and offered some suggestions in land comprehensive improvement project, industrial transformation and upgrading and scientific planning and legal safeguard to promote sustainable development in the Hangzhou Bay in the new period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use change has become a new field in global change research, and it is closely related to land resource security and sustainable development. The environmental simulation model was mostly used to study the land-use change before. In this paper, we use the Economic Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient of economic model to study the land use structure changes in the western plain of Jilin Province, China. The results showed that the Lorenz curve has the phenomenon of “two near and two far” and Gini coefficient “two increased and two decreased”. That is to say, during the 15 years from 1989 to 2004, the areas of cultivated land and unused land had increased, Lorenz curves were near to the perfect equality line, and the distribution tended to be uniform; the areas of grassland and water body were reduced, the Lorenz curves were away from the perfect equality line, and the distribution tended to be increasingly uneven, which reflects the main process of the land use structure changes. Studying on the land use changes based on Economic model is simpler and more intuitionistic, and had the generalization values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Evaluating the impacts of future urban expansion on natural habitats in China is important for achieving sustainable development goals. However, existing models cannot reliably and effectively simulate future urban expansion in China, which causes great uncertainties in evaluating the impacts of future urban expansion on natural habitats. Objectives: The objective of this study was to simulate future urban expansion and evaluate its impacts on natural habitats in China. Methods: First, the Land Use Scenario Dynamics-urban (LUSD-urban) model was improved by coupling localized Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and a convolutional neural network (CNN). Then, urban expansion in China was simulated from 2020 to 2050 by using the improved LUSD-urban model. Finally, we evaluated the potential impacts of future urban expansion on natural habitats. Results: The localized SSPs could more reliably represent future socioeconomic development trends in China, and the CNN could fully extract the multiscale neighborhood information of nonurban pixels. By combining the advantages of the localized SSPs and the CNN, the simulation accuracy of the improved LUSD-urban model increased by 15–32% compared with that of other models. From 2020 to 2050, urban land is projected to increase by 6.84 (3.94–9.03) × 104 km2 and cause a 2.21 (1.23–2.95) × 104 km2 loss of natural habitat. Compared with the 1990–2020 period, the impacts of future urban expansion on natural habitats will intensify. Natural habitat loss during 2020–2050 will be 1.23 (1.22 to 1.64) times greater than that during 1990–2020. In addition, grasslands will experience the most serious losses under the influence of future urban expansion. Conclusions: We suggest that relevant policies be issued to protect important natural habitats during urbanization to achieve Sustainable Development Goals and biodiversity conservation targets in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil erosion becomes a serious environmental problem in the world, especially in western China. An effective management practice called the Grain for Green Program (GGP), which was launched in 1999, aims to reduce soil and water loss and alleviate the ecological environment problem in western China. Two typical counties in western China, the Zhongxian (in Chongqing Municipality) and Ansai (in Shaanxi Province) were chosen to evaluate the dynamic changes of land use and agricultural production structure before and after the implementation of the Program in this paper. The results showed that the cultivated land area was reduced by 7.08% from 1989 to 2003. The cultivated land per person was decreased by 8.42% during 1999-2003. Moreover, the stability index of the secondary sector of the economy was increased from 0.91 in the period 1990-1999 to 0.94 in the following ten years. In addition, the stability index of tertiary economic sector increased from 0.88 to 0.92 in Zhongxian county. Meanwhile, the cultivated land area was reduced by 15.48% from 1990 to 1999. The soil erosion modulus was decreased by 33.33% from 1999 to 2006. Also, the stability index of secondary and tertiary economic sectors was 0.86 in the period 1998-2002. However, it decreased by 77% during 2002 to 2007 in Ansai County. These results imply that the Grain for Green Program had different impact on the two regions. Several effective strategies of soil and water conservation have been carried out to ameliorate the sustainable development of ecological environment and economy in these two counties of western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land degradation is a severe ecological environmental issue in arid and semiarid areas. Evaluating land degradation exactly is essential for maintaining the security of the ecological environment. This study evaluated land restoration in terms of land cover changes in the Horqin Sandy Land from 2000 to 2018 and analyzed the related influencing factors. The results showed that land restoration and land degradation accounted for 37.55% and 4.47% of the total area, respectively. Land restoration has improved substantially, and desertification control has achieved remarkable effects. NPP trends should be analyzed in combination with land cover types. When the land cover has changed, the type of land cover change and the period need to be clarified before analyzing the corresponding NPP trend to depict the land productivity accurately. The vegetation NPP changes following land cover conversions were more essential than land cover change types. Changes in precipitation and temperature had positive effects on the growth of vegetation and land restoration. In general, human activities promoted land restoration, including grazing policies, cropland utilization activities, and ecological restoration projects. Current land restoration, however, essentially sacrifices the groundwater resources, which challenges the sustainability of land restoration. Appropriate land use strategies were proposed to promote sustainable land use, including preventing vegetation degradation following land cover conversions, improving grassland construction, and coordinating the usage of cropland and water resources. Such results are meaningful for promoting land restoration and realizing sustainable land development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mountainous areas account for approximately 69% of the land area in China, and these areas are prone to poverty. Thus, analyzing the land use characteristics and conducting simulations and prediction studies of poor cities in mountainous areas are important research topics. The land use change processes and characteristics in Chengde County, Hebei Province, China were analyzed in this paper based on the spatial distributions and temporal changes of land use types. Fourteen driving factors and five land use types were used in performing binary logistic regression analysis. The dynamic conversion of land use and its effects model was used to simulate the land use distributions, which were further simulated under three scenarios in 2021: natural growth, ecological conservation and accelerated development. The results show that the ecological conservation scenario optimized the land use distribution and effectively protected the environment, thereby increasing the suitability of future development. Based on the research results, this paper concludes that the correct development directions in the future should include preparing accurate and effective policies, promoting industrial structure reform, driving economic transformations and improvements, and improving the land use efficiency. The experimental results provide significant technical support for preparing and revising land use plans in poor mountainous cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the spatiotemporal dynamics in land use and ecosystem service value (ESV) and understanding the trade-offs/synergy relationships between ecosystem services (ESs) are crucial for ecosystem management and achieving sustainable development in mining areas. However, existing research on ESV and ESs has not paid sufficient attention to the special coalfield in arid/semiarid areas. In this study, we investigated the Pingshuo mining area and used the standard equivalent factor to evaluate ESV variations resulting from the spatiotemporal changes of land use based on remote sensing and land use data (2000, 2010, and 2020). Simultaneously, the trade-offs/synergies between ESs were further explored using the ESs trade-offs/synergies degree (ESTD) model. We found that (1) the land use changed considerably in this area, which was mainly reflected in farmland decrease and built-up land increase by 3580.60 hm2 and by 5103.44 hm2, respectively, from 2000 to 2020. (2) ESV in our study area declined by 7116.53 × 104 RMB yuan over the investigated period. High ESV mainly appeared in the north/south of the study area, while the low ESV was concentrated in the middle and northeast/southeast of the mining area. (3) The interactions between paired ESs were mainly the synergies that generally appeared among eight ESs except soil conservation, while trade-offs mainly existed between soil conservation and other paired ESs in the study region. To achieve socio-economic and ecological benefits, the local government should take effective measures to improve the environment of the coalfield and reverse the falling tendency of ESV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-quality utilization of land resources (HULR) is critical to the security of land ecosystem and sustainable socioeconomic development. To promote HULR, we explored the spatiotemporal differences and influencing factors of HULR in the Yellow River Basin (an important ecological barrier in China) by using entropy method, spatial panel regression model, and geographically and temporally weighted regression model. We found that the HULR values were 0.22 to 0.28 from 2008 to 2019, showing an increasing trend with obvious spatiotemporal differences. The spatial connectivity, technological innovation, industrialization, industrial upgrading, and marketization are important factors influencing HULR, and different factors have different spatial effects in different regions. Therefore, the important principle of HULR is to pursue the sustainable land utilization within the ecological environment carrying capacity, taking into account the unique ecological and socioeconomic conditions of each region. We hope that our study can provide references for HULR around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how ecosystem services (ES) and ecosystem disservices (EDS) are affected by human-induced landscape changes is important to minimise trade-offs and maximise synergies between Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets, and for equitable development across governance scales. However, limited research investigates how ES and EDS can change under past, current, and future land uses. This study, conducted in the Luanhe River Basin (LRB), demonstrates the interaction between humans and the environment under past, current, and future land uses at the river basin scale in China, using a stakeholders' participatory capacity matrix to characterise both ES and EDS. Results indicate that forests and water bodies provided the highest overall ES capacity, while the lowest scores were reached in built-up and unused land areas. Built-up land and cropland provided the highest overall EDS, while the lowest EDS scores were for water bodies. By applying the ecosystem services potential index (ESPI) and ecosystem disservices potential index (EDSPI), we found that the ESPI of all the ES declined from 1980 to 2018 and would continue to decline until 2030 without sustainable and conservation development strategies in the LRB. The EDSPI under all future scenarios in 2030 was projected to increase compared to the baseline in 1980. This study recommends establishing and implementing sustainable environmental protection policies and cross-regional and trans-provincial eco-compensation schemes for minimising trade-offs in ES. The study proposes an integrated research framework that could be useful for understanding the effect of historical and future human–environment interactions on ES and EDS, and SDGs achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the current global goal of carbon neutrality, the relationship between cultivated land intensive use (CLIU) and carbon emission efficiency (CEE) should be explored to address the global climate crisis and move toward a low-carbon future. However, previous work in this has been conducted at provincial/regional scales and few have identified the spatial correlation between CLIU and CEE at the scale of large river basins. Therefore, this study explored the spatiotemporal characteristics of CLIU, cultivated land carbon emissions (CLCE), and CEE, as well as the spatial correlation between CLIU and CEE in the Yellow River Basin (YRB), China. A comprehensive evaluation model, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) coefficient methodology, existing data envelopment analysis model, and bivariate spatial autocorrelation models were used to analyze statistical data from 2005 to 2017. We found that the overall CLIU and CLCE values in the YRB exhibited a continuous increase; the average carbon emission total efficiency and carbon emission scale efficiency first decreased and then increased, and the average carbon emission pure technical efficiency gradually decreased. Areas of high CLCE were concentrated in eastern areas of the YRB, whereas those of high CLIU, carbon emission total efficiency, carbon emission scale efficiency, and carbon emission pure technical efficiency predominantly appeared in the eastern areas, followed by central and western areas of the YRB. Spatial analysis revealed a significant spatial dependence of CLIU on CEE. From a global perspective, the spatial correlations between CLIU and CEE changed from positive to negative with time. Moreover, the aggregation degree between CLIU and CEE gradually decreases with time, while the dispersion degree increases with time, and the spatial correlation gradually weakens. The local spatial autocorrelation further demonstrates that the number of high–low and low–high clusters between CLIU and CEE gradually increases over time, while the number of high–high and low–low clusters gradually decreased over time. Collectively, these findings can help policymakers formulate feasible low-carbon and efficient CLIU policies to promote win–win cooperation among regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study has indicated that there is close relationship between development density and environmental quality; therefore, it is necessary to decide the form of development carefully beforehand. The form of development is shaped either by new development or urban renewal which is a major tactic nowadays adopted by the Hong Kong Government to improve the living condition of the citizens and the quality of the built environment. This study is limited to urban renewal and aims to find out the major urban design considerations for sustaining the environment. Through a questionnaire survey carried out in Hong Kong, the opinions of architects, planners, property development managers, and local citizens were sought and evaluated, and critical design factors for enhancing environmental sustainability of urban renewal projects are highlighted. The results derived from factor analysis indicated that certain design considerations should be incorporated for sustaining the urban environment. “Land Use Planning”, “Quality of Life”, “Conservation & Preservation”, “Integrated Design”, “Provision of Welfare Facilities”, and “Conservation of Existing Properties” were believed to be the significant underlying factors for achieving environmental sustainability of local urban renewal projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial perspectives were applied to examine the processes of growth and development in rural settlements affected by tourism. Based on field surveys and GIS spatial analysis methods, we studied the spatial evolution of two villages (Jiaojiekou and Gougezhuang) in the Yesanpo tourist area over the last 25 years. The results revealed a polarization trend, with Jiaojiekou becoming a 'hollowed' village and Gougezhuang developing into a 'new-type' tourist town. This polarization indicates the unsustainability of rural development in tourist destinations, which is manifested by the following features: only some villages benefit from the development of tourism; there is simultaneously a shortage of land in tourist villages and a wastage of land in traditional villages; and the function of the villages is deficient. Nevertheless, the spillover of the effects of tourism may provide an opportunity for the development of traditional villages. To better utilize this opportunity, we propose that: (1) integrated rural tourism management should be developed to explore effective methods of promoting tourism as part of a rural development strategy; (2) different land use policies are required for different villages; and (3) the balance between government regulation and community participation should be emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land scarcity has become the prominent obstacle on the way to sustainable development for China. Under the constraints of land shortage, how to allocate the finite land resources to the multiple land users in China considering various political, environmental, ecological and economic conditions have become research topics with great significance. In this study, an interval fuzzy national-scale land-use model (IFNLM) was developed for optimizing land systems of China. IFNLM is based on an integration of existing interval linear programming (ILP), and fuzzy flexible programming (FFP) techniques. IFNLM allows uncertainties expressed as discrete interval values and fuzzy sets to be incorporated within a general optimization framework. It can also facilitate national-scale land-use planning under various environmental, ecological, social conditions within a multi-period and multi-option context. Then, IFNLM was applied to a real case study of land-use planning in China. The satisfaction degree of environmental constraints is between 0.69 and 0.97, the system benefit will between 198.25 × 10 USD and 229.67 × 10 USD. The results indicated that the hybrid model can help generate desired policies for land-use allocation with a maximized economic benefit and minimized environmental violation risk. Optimized land-use allocation patterns can be generated from the proposed IFNLM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-use change is intertwined with tourism because land is used as a resource for human activities. Land-use change also provides an opportunity to evaluate the status of the eco-environment. Understanding the relationship between tourism and land use change would help to predict the effect of tourism on land use and encourage sustainable tourism development. Using the Li River Basin as a case study, a hybrid approach using multilevel modeling and logistic regressions was employed to analyze the distribution of land-use-change between 1989 and 2010 to examine potential driving factors. Results reveal that rapid tourism development and construction expansion expose this area to risk of deforestation and forest degradation. Construction increased by 141% between 1989 and 2000 and by 195% between 2000 and 2010. The primary driving force for construction expansion shifted from population growth between 1989 and 2000 to investment growth after 2000. New construction primarily occurred on crop and woodlands areas, with shares of 81.25% and 6.38%, respectively, between 1989 and 2000, and with shares of 57.79% and 15.29%, respectively, between 2000 and 2010. Moreover, these drastic increases in construction also led to frequent transitions between croplands, woodlands, and grasslands. Traits including distances to urban areas and roads and scenic locations exerted significant effects on land-use change. Woodland regrowth in the areas that surround scenic locations consisted of fluctuating woodlands, whereas stable woodland regrowth was often absent in these areas. Likewise, permanent woodland clearing tended to be closed to near scenic locations. That is, construction at scenic locations negatively affected forest conservation in the Li River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land supports the survival and development of humans. To safeguard the land use security of continental river watersheds in arid regions, the oasis of the Manas River Watershed was investigated using 15 evaluation indexes from three subsystems, including land use suitability, land use vulnerability and water security to provide a comprehensive evaluation based on the methods of analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy synthetic evaluation model, social economy and land use/cover data from remote sensing images for 1976, 1987, 1998 and 2010. The above-mentioned indexes were classified into four levels, which were regarded as security ( v), relative security ( v), security threshold ( v) and insecurity ( v). The results showed that land use securities of oasis in the Manas River Watershed were at the insecure level of v, and that the synthetic graded values were 0.6150, 0.5772, 0.5617 and 0.5640, respectively. For the three subsystems, indexes of land use suitability were all at the security level of v, and the indexes of land use vulnerability were at the levels of v, v, v and v in the 4 years investigated, respectively. Furthermore, indexes of water security in the 4 years were all classified as insecure levels. Ultimately, it is important to determine the leading factors that restrict land use security and then put forward corresponding solutions. The objects of this study were to achieve sustainable land use in the Manas River Watershed, as well as provide scientific references for evaluation of land use security in the continental river watershed of arid regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important component of sustainable development in mountain areas, evaluation for sustainable land use is always one of the hotpots of researches on sustainable development. Traditional evaluation for sustainable land use mainly focuses on the sustainability of land use model and biological production on temporal scale, and overlooks the effects of land use patterns on the sustainability, while landscape ecology can be a good help to realize the spatial analysis of sustainable land use. In this study, a synthetic evaluation indexes system for sustainable land use was constructed through the application of landscape metrics. Taking Yongsheng County of Yunnan Province, China as a case study, a series of quantitative evaluation were conducted in 1996, 1999 and 2001, to monitor the temporal dynamics of regional land use sustainability. Two indicators, contributing amount of indexes, and obstacle amount of indexes, were also set up to ascertain the significance of all the evaluation indexes to the evaluation results. The results showed that, in the study phases, the land use sustainability of the whole county had been low with a stable but great spatial difference, and great changes took place in regional land use system in 1999 with the deviation from the aim of sustainable land use. It also showed that, the most important indexes contributing for the land use sustainability in the study period, were the indexes of population density and land use degree, followed by the index of landscape diversity and cropping index. And the most important indexes counteracting the land use sustainability were the indexes of per unit area total production value of industry and agriculture, per unit area yield of cereal crops, landscape fragmentation, followed by the indexes of per unit area yield of economic crops and fertilizer consume per unit area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]