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With the rapid growth of China's economy and the supportive government policies and funds, the demand for and the expansion of rural housing in China are on the rise, which tightens requirements for rural housing. However, most of the present rural housing suffers from unplanned growth. The sprawl of rural housing adversely affects the quantity and quality of land resources, in particular, productive agricultural lands; therefore, it is necessary to regulate the growth of rural housing and protect farmlands through spatiotemporally continuous monitoring. Currently, the monitoring of rural housing in China is mainly conducted via in-situ inspection of the national land survey, which is restricted by unfavorable conditions (e.g., weather, outbreaks, and traffic) as well as impairing real-time and reliable control over information collected. To resolve this issue, this study proposed an intelligent model to recognize rural housing in underdeveloped areas based on deep learning and mathematical morphology (MobileNet-MM). The model was based on high-resolution remote sensing data, MobileNetV2 (a convolutional neural network architecture well performing on mobile devices), and mathematical morphology. First, the obtained data were segmented and manually screened and tagged to construct a training dataset. Second, the training dataset was used to train MobileNet-MM, with the expansion operation being used to compensate for identification errors of deep learning. Finally, the accuracy of MobileNet-MM to identify and monitor rural housing was tested, resulting in 84.5% accuracy. The comparison of the accuracies of MobileNet-MM and ResNet34 (a state-of-the-art image classification model) indicated that ResNet34 misclassified a large area of rural housing that was mainly distributed on the edge of the region as well as cropland and vegetation as rural housing, with its weak ability to recognize actual rural housing. The MobileNet-MM model predicted rural housing accurately and land boundary precisely, with the misclassified area being scattered, and its average accuracy, is 10.6% higher than that of ResNet34. The novelties of this study were two-fold: (1) a high-resolution training dataset of rural housing in underdeveloped areas was generated, which provides data support for the development of subsequent models; and (2) an intelligent model to recognize rural housing in underdeveloped areas (MobileNet-MM) based on deep learning and mathematical morphology was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive promotion of rural high-efficiency ecological agriculture optimization is a green engine and an important initiative of Fujian' s modern agriculture high-quality development. Based on expounding the connotation and characteristics of high-efficiency ecological agriculture, this study analyzes the potential and challenges facing the development of high efficiency ecological agriculture in Fujian Province. Based on spatial planning and agricultural green development requirements, a spatial optimization plan and development plan for efficient ecological agriculture in Fujian Province with the main structure of 'four belts, ten clusters and three systems' + 'four levels of complementary links' + 'three emerging entrepreneurial projects' are proposed. At the same time, according to local conditions, we should optimize the construction of a rural ecological economic system and an orderly and progressive development cluster with ecological security and green development based on the main riverbanks as ecological corridors, major mountains and long coastlines, and an orderly and progressive development cluster. The innovative development pattern of the new system of high-quality production and safe supply of agricultural products is based on the belt as the main body and permanent basic farmland. Combined with the situation of modern agricultural development in Fujian, six major safeguard countermeasures are proposed：policies and regulations, mechanism innovation, organization and implementation, effective service, hi-tech agriculture, talent team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reasonable arrangement of a consolidation sequence of rural housing land is an important measure to promote the homestead renovation order and realize the spatial optimization of land use for rural revitalization. Taking Suiyang District of Shangqiu City as an example, this study evaluated homestead consolidation resistance through the multi-factor comprehensive evaluation method and calculated the consolidation potential based on the certification data of rural housing land. The consolidation sequence priority was determined by combining differences in the consolidation resistance and consolidation potential of each administrative village. Results show that the consolidation resistance varies among administrative village units due to factors such as infrastructure and dilapidated housing rate. Strong, medium, and weak resistance levels are observed in 38, 101, and 158 administrative villages, respectively. The theoretical consolidation area of the study area is 23.22 km², of which the“shallow reality”consolidation potential is observed in 4.33~5.55 km², and the“deep reality”consolidation potential is observed in 19.36 km² . Based on the combination of the resistance and potential, the consolidation sequence, consisting of high priority（98 villages）, medium priority（161 villages）, and low priority（38 villages） administrative villages, was formed. This study developed a consolidation mode to compel the homestead withdrawal by charging violation fees, which is a four-dimensional pricing fee that accounts for“timing priority, object, violation of occupied area, and violation of occupied time”. Homestead consolidation should be promoted according to the consolidation sequence. Based on the variation in consolidation resistance and consolidation potential, this study, which addresses the consolidation sequence, has practical guiding significance for the formulation of homestead consolidation plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixed land use has been widely expected to realize the diversity of production and living functions, further to promote the primary land use for the housing and workplaces. It is necessary to evaluate the nature and spatial layout of land uses for a better compatible ecosystem. However, only a few studies were focused on the mixed use of rural residential land, in terms of the diversity and compatibility of land use. The purpose of this study is to determine the characteristics and driving forces of mixed land use in rural residential land, in order to synergistically improve the land use efficiency, living environment, and industrial development. Three villages (Tangwei, Guxia, and Fulong) were also taken as the examples in Shipai Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China. A measuring approach was then proposed to fully consider the variety and compatibility of mixed land use using the integrated field research, Point Of Interest (POI) data capture, Geographic Information System (GIS), and remote sensing. The results were as follows. 1) The variety degree of rural residential land was ranked in the ascending order of Guxia, Tangwei, and Fulong Village. Specifically, the diversity of land use was in the ascending order of Guxia, Fulong, and Tangwei village, whereas, the diversity of non-residential functions on residential land was Guxia, Tangwei, and Fulong village, and the variety of business functions on industrial land was Guxia, Tangwei, and Fulong Village. 2) The compatibility degree of rural residential land was Guxia, Fulong, and Tangwei village. Among them, the compatibility of land use was Fulong, Guxia, and Tangwei Village, whereas, the compatibility of activities was Guxia, Fulong, and Tangwei Village. 3) The mixed use degree of rural residential land was Guxia, Fulong, and Tangwei Village, in terms of the integrated variety and compatibility. More importantly, Tangwei Village presented the higher quality of human settlement environment, and the perfect construction of tourism supporting land facilities, indicating a high mixed use degree of rural residential land. This achievement was greatly attributed to rural tourism, as well as rich historical and cultural resources. Although excellent traffic and location conditions, the commercial land that mixed on the residential land was only distributed on both sides of the road in the Guxia village, indicating a low mixed use degree of rural residential land. Driven by the export-oriented economy of the Pearl River Delta, Fulong Village has fully utilized the land resources and policies, such as industry-city integration and renewal to develop industry, thereby promoting the industrial transformation and upgrading, the centralized layout, and transportation infrastructure, indicating a relatively high mixed use of rural residential land. Consequently, the mixed use of rural residential land can be expected to jointly determined by the diversity and compatibility. The demand for rural industrial development can also be greatly contributed to the diversity and compatibility in the rational layout of land use and business types. The findings can provide decision-making on the village planning, for the coordinated promotion of the industrial development and living environment in rural residential land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since tlie refonn and opening up, China has achieved great progress in industrialization and urbanization. However, due to tlie long-tenn implementation of the economic development model of "emphasizing cities over township" and tlie urban-rural dual system, the gap between urban and rural development is constantly increasing, and the problems of land resource allocation and contradiction between man and land in rural areas have gradually emerged. Rural homestead is the main place where fanners live, witli unique land use characteristics. The infbnuation such as tlie structure and utilization status of houses on it can clearly reflect the local rural economic situation and homestead problems. Therefore, understanding tlie characteristics and differences of rural homestead housing is of great significance to understand and grasp the situation and problems of rural development and promote the implementation of rural revitalization strategy. Based on the rural cadastral survey data of Guangdong Province and combined witli G1S spatial analysis method, this paper analyzes the characteristics of rural homestead housing. The results show that: (1) The rural housing in the study area is relatively low, mainly with one floor, supplemented by two and tliree floors, mainly brick and mixed structure, supplemented by concrete structure, and there is a certain correlation between tlie number of floors and the spatial distribution of the structure. Among them, the proportions of one storey house, brick structure and mixed structure house are 59.42%, 37.71% and 42.60% respectively. (2) There are obvious regional diflferences in tlie number of floors and structural spatial distribution of rural homestead housing in tlie study area. Low-rise, brick and mixed structure houses are mainly distributed in remote areas such as nortliem and western Guangdong, and high-rise and concrete structure houses are mostly concentrated in the Pearl River Delta. (3) The vacancy and idleness of rural homestead housing in tlie study area are common. The average vacancy rate and idle rate are 6.75% and 5.66% respectively, and tlie rate of one houseliould witli multiple houses reaches 23.88%. The phenomenon of rural hollowing is obvious, and 50.87% of the villages in districts and counties are above the moderate hollowing, mainly distributed in tlie fringe area of the Pearl River Delta and Meizhou in nortliem Guangdong. At the same time, tliere is a certain phenomenon that tlie average household homestead area exceeds tlie standard. (4) The characteristics of rural housing utilization in Guangdong Province are aflected by factors such as policies, economy, transportation, physical geographical condition and local customs. And the influencing factors in different regions are diflerent, such as tlie special folk customs have a greater impact on rural housing in eastern Guangdong, and the economic situations and urban siphon have a greater impact on the characteristics of rural housing in the edge of the Pearl River Delta. Tliere are obvious spatial differences in the utilization of rural homestead housing in Guangdong Province, and tliere are many idle homestead resources. There is great potential for tlie optimization and adjustment of rural construction land for rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural space is one of the most important parts of the territorial space, particularly for agriculture production and rural living. Agricultural spatial planning is an overall arrangement about the protection, utilization, renovation, and restoration of agricultural space during a specific period. Specifically, the territorial spatial planning aims to optimize the agricultural spatial structure for the implementation of rural development strategy. It is also necessary to improve the national food security, agricultural efficiency, and competitiveness in the construction of ecological civilization. Three categories are often divided into the plans of agricultural space: 1) protection of cultivated land, 2) utilization of regional division, 3) rural territory consolidation, such as the readjustment of farmland, and rural construct land, as well as ecological restoration. These plans have greatly contributed to the management of land space at different stages of rural development. However, most plans focused only on one activity or one element of agricultural space, leading to low efficiency of space protection, and the disorder of space utilization, even the destruction of the ecological environment system. Six development trends can also be found in the utilization of agricultural space in the era of ecological civilization, multi functions of agriculture, high-quality of consumption demand, green development mode, digitization of development means, urban-rural integration, and industrial integration of development path. In this study, seven strategies were also proposed. 1) The structure of the agricultural spatial system was optimized using the concept of life community. 2) A trade-off was coordinated between the baselines of security and social-economic development, thereby promoting the harmonious coexistence between man and nature. 3) Three systems were also necessary to be built, in response to the demands for high-quality products, life, and ecological environment. First, the classified protection was composed of various agricultural land for different products, such as the permanent basic farmland for food security, grain, and key agro-product production protection areas for stable supply, as well as the predominant areas of characteristic agricultural products for competitive advantage. Second, the efficient utilization system consisted of regional distribution, the whole industrial chain, and agricultural parks layout. Third, the consolidation and restoration system also included quantity supplement, quality improvement of farmland, and rural ecological restoration. 4) Regional distribution of agriculture was optimized, according to main functions. 5) The industrial chains were relocated suitable for the green development. 6) Agriculture parks were necessary to integrate the urban-rural and industrial communities. 7) The efficiency of planning and management was also improved using digital technology. Therefore, this finding can provide a promising insightful idea for the territorial spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the comprehensive implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, in order to effectively serve the coordinated development of urban and rural, the urban and suburban integrated villages with the characteristics of urban-rural dual mixture were selected as the research object, and their revitalization potential was evaluated. Based on the previous studies, and combining the development of the western provinces and the national strategic deployment, a comprehensive evaluation index system of rural revitalization potential of suburban integration in the western provinces from 6 dimensions of social attraction, economic vitality, ecological carrying capacity, spatial carrying capacity, geological environment stability and national strategic correlation degree is established. By selecting 22 first-level indicators and 107 second-level indicators, a comprehensive evaluation model of rural revitalization potential of urban-rural integration in the western provinces is established. Zhonghe village, Yongle town, Zhen’an county in Shaanxi province was taken as an example to carry out an empirical study. The comprehensive potential evaluation of rural revitalization of urban-rural integration in the western provinces can provide theoretical reference for governments at all levels to promote urban-rural integration and rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As long-standing goals and all-round development practices of agricultural and rural modernization of China, the rural revitalization strategy provides huge opportunities and spaces for the disciplinary innovation and development of all agricultural related disciplines. The purpose of this paper was aimed to analyze special requirements, objectives, tasks and implementation environment raised by the rural revitalization strategy, based on reviewing the references and development history of agricultural engineering, and to analyze impacts of the rural revitalization strategies on and demand for the adjustment of agricultural engineering innovation, so that to figure out the ways, means and measures for new round disciplinary adjustments and restructuring of agricultural engineering. In recent years, the disciplinary renovation and restructuring for all subjects have been encouraged and launched by the Ministry of Education, China. The new round adjustment of the discipline layout marked by the innovation and construction of new disciplines such as new engineering and new agriculture were given more attention on introducing new technological and industrial revolution achievements, and transforming and upgrading traditional engineering and agricultural science with information technology, digital technology and artificial intelligence. But it’s worth noting that insufficient attention had been paid to the expansion of agricultural and rural modernization roads and changes in development patterns caused by the rural revitalization in this important adjustment process. Agricultural engineering takes multiple and wide range responsibilities in offering scientific and technological support and talent training and cultivation, so that it plays a special and key role in the modernization of agricultural and rural areas. Information, communication, intelligent and smart technologies, and all new breaking through technologies should be introduced into agricultural engineering to equip and empower it more updated and effectively. Under such a background, more efforts should also be made in such important development consequences brought by the rural revitalization strategy. The disciplinary adjustment of agricultural engineering should be restructured and optimized according to the instructions of the national development strategies and its new application areas required by agricultural and rural modernization. The more attention should be paid to the influence of social and economic development mode and structural adjustment and upgrading on innovation and its correspondence. Great attentions should be paid to following key issues: 1) The implementation of the rural revitalization strategy has opened up some new development spaces for the disciplinary innovation of agricultural engineering and proposed new development requirements. 2) The development and extension of the agricultural engineering technology systems will extend from the agricultural production to rural multi-industrial integration, relying on all agricultural and rural resources. 3) The cultivation of agricultural engineering talents and the construction of educational scientific research systems should aim at the requirements of the whole process for all rural productions, as well for the construction of rural ecological systems. 4) The systematic construction and management of agricultural and rural industries in different regions should meet the needs of the urban-rural integration development and the modernization of new rural communities’ governance system. Currently, more reform, renovations and adjustments should be made to reshape the agricultural engineering to meet new needs of the rural revitalization, the new development fields and directions of agricultural engineering disciplinary innovation currently are more practical in rural e-commerce engineering, rural landscape construction and maintenance engineering, rural new industrial development space construction, rural ecological environment engineering, and rural social and economic management and governance system engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The land consolidation project is one of the most important approaches to ensure national food and ecological security. An academic journal “Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering” launched a column of “Land Consolidation Project” in 2002, in order to promote the research of land consolidation project. This column was renamed the “Land Resource Guarantee and National Land Ecological Security” from the 9th issue of May 2020, with the continuous expansion of research fields in the modern land consolidation project. In this study, the bibliometrics was utilized to statistically analyze the papers published in the “Land Consolidation Project” column of “Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering” from 2002 to 2020. Great research progress was highlighted in the different research directions, and then the future focus was proposed in the field of land resource and national ecological security, with emphasis on China's strategy of food and ecological security. The results showed that the research directions of land consolidation project mainly included land use, land evaluation, agricultural land consolidation, cultivated land quality and safety, 3S and land information technology, industrial and mining wasteland reclamation, rural residential area consolidation, land ecology, land restoration, basic farmland construction and protection, land saving, rural spatial pattern and development, cultivated land development, as well as urban land consolidation. Furthermore, land evaluation, agricultural land consolidation, and cultivated land quality and safety had become hot topics, where the publications accounted for 10.52%, 10.16%, and 8.51%, respectively. 5-keyword clustering was formed, such as the land evaluation, agricultural land consolidation, cultivated land quality and safety, 3S and land information technology, as well as industrial and mining wasteland reclamation. Additionally, 10 groups of cooperation networks were formed in the leading research fields using the cooperation network of research authors generated by VOSviewer. More importantly, the published papers in the “Land Consolidation Project Column” had covered all directions of the land consolidation project. Ecological land consolidation and land-use security pattern were established in recent years, where the ecological effect of land consolidation was analyzed using the theory of landscape ecology. Moreover, many efforts have been made on the ecological design and restoration technology of single land consolidation project, together with the pattern evolution and layout optimization of rural residential areas. In the future, much more attention can be paid to the land resource security and national land ecological security, particularly to the theories and mechanisms in the “systematization, ecologicalization, informationization and intelligence” for the protection and restoration of the regional ecosystem, to realize “overall protection, unified restoration and comprehensive management” of “mountain-water-forest-field-lake-grass”. Consequently, the ecological security pattern of national land can be built, once the research on the intelligent management of one map of natural resources was implemented using the state-of-the-art big data in intelligent agriculture [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To implement local policies that promote rural sustainable development, this study constructed an evaluation index system for “agricultural production-farmer life-rural ecology” in county villages, taking Shandong Province as an example, and analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics of this rural system and the coupling coordination relationship between each subsystem using spatial analysis, an analytic hierarchy process, and a coupling model. The study also divided the development functional areas of the rural regional system in Shandong Province and suggested some decisions by which to optimize rural sustainable development. The research results showed that there was an obvious northeast-southwest regional differentiation in the “agricultural production-farmer life-rural ecology” system in Shandong Province. Of these rural subsystems, 75.82% were still in the coupled running-in phase; the rural sustainability and coordination of these needed to be further strengthened. There were six types of functional zones：low-coordinated and sustainable development, medium-coordinated and low-sustainable development, low-coordinated and medium-sustainable development, medium coordinated and sustainable development, high-coordinated and medium-sustainable development, and high-level coordinated and sustainable development zones. The functional areas of Shandong Province in which the “agricultural production-farmer life-rural ecology ” system being developed was dominated by low- and medium-coordinated development zones that accounted for 72.6% of the total area. The functional areas of the “agricultural production-farmer life-rural ecology” system in the different zones should take measures based on local conditions and classifications. Low-level development zones such as the southwestern plain agricultural areas, in Shandong Province, should adjust their industrial structure and transformation thereof to increase the proportion of the secondary and tertiary industries. The medium development zones such as the Jiaodong Peninsula in Shandong Province should focus mainly on industrial agglomeration and technological innovation to build industrial brands. The high-level development zones in the northern areas of Shandong Provinces should focus on scientific development and construction of demonstration projects to develop mature rural development models. The rural “agricultural production-farmer life-rural ecology” system is based on a coupling coordination mechanism, and classifies the county′s rural development functional zones on a scientific basis. This has important implications for the implementation of the county ′s rural revitalization strategy in Shandong Province and the promotion of rural coordinated development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revitalization of rural construction land refers to that the inefficiently used and abandoned or idle rural construction land can be converted into arable land, thereby improving the quality and efficiency of intensive land use. The specific land includes the collapsed homestead land, idle public infrastructure land, the abandoned industrial and mining land, as well as other idle ones ranging from arable land, woodland, to grassland. An acute contradiction is ever-increasing between urban construction demand and insufficient land supply; due mainly to the rapid urbanization that has incurred the large influx of rural migrant laborers into cities, together with the rapid flow of technology and investment. Correspondingly, the high loss rate of population has occurred in some villages. The great migration has posed violent shocks on the spatial structure of rural communities, particularly in the presence of unbalanced homesteads and "hollow villages". Therefore, it is necessary to implement the rural revitalization and new effective urbanization, further to balance the supply and demand of urban/rural land use. However, the revitalized potential of rural land resources has become an important supplementary to urban construction land in the development of China’s long-term dual economic system. Particularly, there is a diversified demand for rural land in recent years. The continued preferential policy towards cites has also led to the prominent contradiction between the unbalanced and insufficient development of urban and rural areas. This study aims to firstly measure the utilization potential of rural construction land at the county scale in Shandong Province of China, and then to identify the types of land utilization, finally to propose a distribution or release path of revitalization potential to rural construction land. The research showed that: (1) The potential invigoration of rural construction land in study areas was about 249,000 hectares. Among them, the idle construction land accounted for 34.14%, and the others accounted for 65.86%. (2) The rural areas with high potential for construction land utilization were concentrated in the central and southern Shandong, while the areas with high demand for urban and rural development land were located in the Jiaodong Peninsula, the northern Shandong Plain, provincial capitals and the area near the central cities, where the economic level was higher and the non-agricultural industries developed rapidly. There was more unbalance between supply and demand in space in these regions. (3) Seven types of rural construction land included the rural development-priority and development-moderate invigoration, indicating the spatial differentiation in oversupply under high-potentials, while in short supply under low-potentials. (4) The potential invigoration of rural construction should be given priority for rural development, whereas, the urban construction should be properly supported. It is also an effective way to combine the local invigoration with other areas through the regional linkage and cross-regional coordination supply. The finding can provide a practical reference and policy support for the planning and management of rural construction land, further promoting regional high-quality urban-rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the fact that integration of urban and rural development in the new era is based on the theory of arable land multifunctionality, we developed a multifunctional evaluation index system for arable land using panel data from 2000 to 2018. We aimed to improve the CRITIC-entropy weighted TOPSIS evaluation model used to quantitatively evaluate and analyze the multi-functional application of arable land in Guangzhou and map the changes in time and space. Our results showed that the connotation of cultivated land in highly urbanized areas continued to be enriched. Except for the traditional agricultural production, land function for the economic contribution had become more apparent as value of agricultural land gradually increased. In addition, the arable land function for social safety, ecological safety, social stability maintenance, and landscape recreation associated with the integration of urban and rural areas would become increasingly important. There were very small changes in the overall function of cultivated land in Guangzhou between 2000 and 2018, stabilizing at around 0.442. Both agricultural production and economic contribution remained weak in this area while social security showed a downward trend. Ecological safety gradually rose and stabilized at a fairly strong level while social stability presented as "general-weak-general". Landscape recreation demonstrated a slight decline and then a sharp rise over the same time period. In terms of overall structure, ecological safety, social stability and landscape recreation were the most prevalent functions for land in Guangzhou. However at the regional level, Liwan District presented with more significant use of land for economic, ecological, and landscape recreation functions while the Haizhu, Tianhe, Huangpu and Panyu districts all prioritized ecological safety. Baiyun and Zengcheng were shown to focus on agricultural production while Nansha District prioritized land for social security, ecological safety, social stability and landscape recreation. The Huadu and Conghua districts also focused on ecological safety. When we evaluated the temporal and spatial evolution of these sub-functions, we found that the spatial distribution of agricultural production remained relatively stable between 2000 and 2018. The economic contribution, social security, social stability, and landscape recreational functions demonstrated incremental change in distribution from the central portion of the old city with these areas adopting an approximately circular structure toward the periphery. Ecological security maintenance presented with a "low-low-high" distribution in these areas. In order to improve the multi-functional use of cultivated land in the future, each district should evaluate the dominant function and local needs of each area and assign land accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives:The spatial optimization and reconstruction of rural settlement is one of the important content of promoting rural revitalization. Through livability and population flow analysis, to scientifically re-construct rural settlement and optimize spatial allocation.Methods: Starting with the basic needs of life, this paper takes Ezhou City as study area, builds a livability evaluation index system and evaluates the livability level of Ezhou City. We construct rural- urban population flow network through network analysis method and find the pattern of rural population flow,and integrate the combined characteristics of livability and the intensity of population flow to reconstruct rural settlement. Results:The experimental results show that: (1) Overall, the livability of Ezhou City is relatively high. There is a small gap in survival guarantee func- tion, while there are large gaps in life service function and life improvement function. (2) The population flows according to the priority order of the main urban area, the subordinate towns, and nearby advanta- geous towns. The radiation range of town is limited, and the existing point - axis structure cannot function well. It is urgent to develop central villages, general villages and basic villages to form a complete rural structure to drive region - wide development. (3) Based on the livability and the intensity of population flow, rural settlements are divided into the type of relocation and demolition, the type of suburban integra-tion and the type of agglomeration promotion (central village, general village and basic village). Conclu- sions:The results facilitate to reshape the core of rural and complete the rural structure to promote the opti- mal allocation of resources. This paper will provide a decision -making basis for the reconstruction of rural settlement where population flows rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land normally serves as the carrier of urban and suburban districts in the spatial planning and development strategies. There is a great impact of land use structure on the habitat quality of urban suburbs in recent years. Taking the suburb of Wuqing District, Tianjin, China, as the research area, this study aims to evaluate the sustainable development of land use and habitat quality at the metropolis suburb. The data of land use was collected from 1980-2018. An InVEST model was used to determine the measure level of the habitat quality module. A numerical analysis was made in the habitat quality module to explore the change of land use transfer and land use dynamic degree in the key timeline. An attempt was made to clarify the integrated habitat degradation degree with land use and the evolution of habitat quality structure at the Beijing-Tianjin metropolitan suburb. A relationship model was established for the habitat quality and the spatiotemporal evolution of land use. The results showed that: (1) The type of land use in Wuqing District was dominated by the cultivated land during 1980-2018. Specifically, the area of farmland and unused land decreased significantly, whereas, the area of urban land and rural settlements increased rapidly. There was a relatively small proportion of woodland and grassland. (2) In land-use type transfer, there was the largest transfer area of cultivated land, followed by that of urban and rural residential land. The woodland and grassland shifted to the urban and rural residential land, whereas, the water area to the cultivated land. The unused land changed most. (3) In comprehensive land use dynamic degree (CLUDD), there was an increase in the change rate of land use for the urban land, rural residential land, and water areas, as well as a decrease in that of cultivated land. (4) There was a trend of "urban expansion and farmland contraction", and "human advancing and grass retreating", but in some years there was also a transition of "grass and water advancing". The habitat quality in Wuqing District was in the middle grade, but the area of the middle grade tended to decrease. There was an increase in the area of the low-grade habitat quality, whereas, a downward trend in that of lower grade, while that of the higher and the highest grade tended to expand. The finding can contribute to the precise implementation of the protection strategy of habitat quality and of "ecological civilization", especially for land planning in trans-regional metropolitan areas,further promoting new urbanization in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rural system is typically characterized by the coupling subsystems of factor, function, and decision in a coordinated and unified way. Function identification of rural elements can contribute to the scientific decision-making and efficient management of the rural communities. However, some factors have posed important driving forces on the unclear main functions and homogeneous development of rural areas. The classification of the rural regions is usually limited to the functional level, but rarely to the factor level in most previous studies. This study aims to clarify the fuzzy orientation of the main function, and then to propose guiding strategies according to local conditions, using the coupling relationship of “factor and function”. 128 villages in Wannian County of Jiangxi Province, China were taken as the study area. A systematic analysis was made on the capital, labor, facilities, resources, and environment of the villages. A multifactor comprehensive method was selected to calculate the advantage index of rural factor allocation. A self-organizing competitive network and an unsupervised algorithm using competitive learning rules were utilized to divide the types of rural factors. An “element-function” linkage matrix was used to identify the types of rural function, and thereby define the differentiated strategies of rural settlements. The results showed as follows: 1) there was a significant difference in the spatial distribution of dominant degree of the comprehensive allocation of rural factors in Wannian County. Specifically, the advantage index in the northeast county was higher than that in the southwest, while that in the north county was better than that in the south. Four categories were divided into the villages with the high, middle high, middle low, and low, advantage index. 2) In the self-organizing competitive network, eight types were also divided into the combination types of rural factors in Wannian County, such as environment and labor dominant type. The same type of villages showed the distribution characteristics of “overall scattered and local agglomeration”. 3) In the “element-function” connection matrix, the types of rural function had identified the production-, life-, and ecological-oriented function villages, as well as the demolition and merger villages in Wannian county. In the villages of production-oriented function, the agglomeration strategy could be established to integrate three industries, while accelerating the industrial transformation and upgrading. In a life-oriented function, the integration strategy could be formulated with the construction of rural complex and the configuration of the health care industry. In the ecological-oriented function, the ecological economy strategy could be selected to build rural tourism and green economy for better communities. A scientific demolition and merger strategy could be utilized to protect the farmers for better agricultural production conditions. This finding can provide a new idea for rural function identification and scientific classification. The theoretical basis can also serve as the rural revitalization and targeted poverty alleviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is hot and humid during the summer in Guangzhou. Based on the difference in the urban and rural indoor environments where Guangzhou elderly live, the study seeks to explore the indoor environment of 116 urban and rural elderly in Guangzhou through a questionnaire survey. The investigation is conducted on the summer indoor environment by measuring and comparing five typical urban households and five typical rural households of 65+ elderly individuals. The temperature, relative humidity, and CO2, CO, PM2.5, VOC concentrations in the living room, bedroom, and bathroom of each house were measured. The study shows that rural households in Guangzhou mainly avoid summer heat using fans. Meanwhile, only about one-third of households use air conditioners. At the same time, all the urban residents use air conditioners, and most of them also use fans. Additionally, the average indoor air temperature in rural households in Guangzhou is 0.8 ° C lower than that of urban households. Further, the average relative humidity is 21.6% higher than that of urban households. The indoor CO2 concentration of households with poor ventilation is relatively high. The concentrations of CO and PM2.5 in all measured urban and rural households are lower than the national standards' limited values. The indoor and outdoor PM2.5 concentrations and total indoor VOCs in urban households are generally higher than those in rural households. According to the research findings, Guangzhou rural elderly housing should be strengthened to prevent excessive moisture. Further, urban elderly housing conditions should be enhanced concerning ventilation, and the elderly should be encouraged to use ecological and sustainable furniture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear projects such as roadway and pipelines, due to the geometrical layout, are characterized in that many identical units are repeated from one unit to another in horizontal direction. A major linear project has a profound impact on the regional development of traditional rural settlements in mountainous areas. Consequently, the historical process of social communities may be interrupted or accelerated. The research on this evolution process can contribute to further understand the external effects of regional major linear project and the relationship between expressway construction and economic development in rural areas. In this study, Dahaituo Town, which locates in the Southwest of Chicheng County, Hebei Province, was selected as the research area. Based on the remote sensing images captured in 1999, 2009 and 2019, the spatial evolution of rural settlements under the major linear project construction was identified by using a systematic approach combined with spatial analysis, landscape pattern index, Voronoi diagram, and logistic regression model. The results showed that: 1) The spatial pattern of rural settlements in Dahaituo Town has changed obviously, which indicated the different characteristics before and after expressway construction. Before the construction of expressway from 1999 to 2009, the characteristics of rural settlements scattered and quantity significantly increasing was showed, whereas, during the expressway construction from 2009 to 2019, the trend of agglomerating and area increasing was observed. The major linear project serving as an external force can contribute to accelerate the expansion speed of rural settlements, thereby promoting the internal agglomeration of villages. 2) Under the condition of natural evolution without external intervention, the rural settlements in Dahaituo Town were mainly dependent on natural resources. All this time, the areas with flat terrain and rich cultivated land resources were often the first choice for residential construction. The construction of major linear project was beneficial to effectively improve the level of social and economic development in rural areas particularly can provide economic support for settlements environment. After the construction of linear project, there were gradual changes in the rural population and income, agricultural output, and financial income. The evolution of rural settlements driven by Major linear project construction has transferred from natural resource dependence to economic and social dependence. 3) The rural settlements in Dahaituo Town presented a cyclic evolution of "element-structure-function". The main driving forces of evolution were the multiple modes of subject behavior under the action of internal and external factors, and the ecological-life-production system coupling relationship under the influence of natural evolution and external forces. The construction of major linear project determined the evolution trend of rural settlements by influencing social and economic factors, and thereby to promote the reconstruction of social community and village system. Under the background of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration, the construction of major projects can be expected to enhance the life style of the villagers by strengthening the circulation of urban and rural elements. In the future. It is necessary to study the impact of external intervention on the evolution of rural settlements. The local government needs to integrate urban and rural resources, further to strengthen planning guidance and remediation measures, so as to promote the reconstruction of rural system. These results can provide profound suggestions for policy making and strategic choice of Rural Revitalization in mountainous areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A set of multi energy complementary storage water loop heat pump heating system was designed for rural houses in northern China. The system is composed of low-temperature heat source, water loop pipe network and household water source heat pump. The low-temperature heat source is provided by solar collector and air source heat pump, and is regulated by phase change energy storage device at a constant temperature. The field test shows that system runs stably, and that the EER is as high as 4.7 on sunny days and 3.6 on cloudy days. It solves the problems of mismatch between air source heat pump and building load and operation fluctuation caused by defrosting. The system runs stably and has promotion value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s poverty alleviation has made great progress, as the years of large-scale development-oriented poverty relief drive since the mid-1980s. At present, the poverty in rural China has transformed into the geo-relation poverty, restrained by individual ability of peasant household, special geographic environment, and resource factors, from the surface poverty that formed by the backward economic development, and deficiency of manage agencies. The lack of resource element has become a major obstacle to poverty governance, especially on the most important livelihood capital of farmers - cultivated land resources. High quantity, quality, and utilization efficiency in cultivated land resources can contribute to poverty alleviation and increasing income of farmers. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the inner relationship between cultivated land pressure and rural poverty in the perspective of cultivated land resources. Taking 109 villages in Zhenyuan County of Yunnan Province as the research unit, this study aims to find the linkages between rural poverty and spatial patterns of cultivated land pressure in mountain area. The weighted sum approach and coupling degree model were used based on the field survey data. The results show that: 1) The indexes of rural poverty and farmland pressure in village scale were both high in Zhenyuan County. The spatial distribution was characterized by “low in the middle, high in the East and West, and secondary high in the north and South” under the ArcGIS10.2 platform; 2) The coupling level of farmland pressure and rural poverty was high, where the coupling factor C reached 0.79. The spatial pattern was characterized by: the high coupling in whole region, the coupling gradually decreased from the central area to the East and West, showing the structural characteristics of “ridge”. It infers that there was high coupling in the central region, and low at both sides. The spatial correlation pattern of coupling level showed that the high-high agglomeration area was mainly distributed in Enle Town, whereas, the low-low agglomeration area was mainly distributed in Zhentai town; 3) The main coupling types of Zhenyuan County were classified by forced, mild and moderate coordination. The spatial distribution showed the characteristics of overall coordination and local imbalance. The spatial correlation pattern showed that the high-high agglomeration area was in Zhentai town, whereas, the low-low agglomeration area was in Enle town. In order to alleviate the pressure of cultivated land and rural poverty, the government can increase the investment in cultivated land resources, further to solve the problem of “two not worry and Three Guarantees” for the farmers. Targeted strategies can vary in different regions: 1) In the central region with high coupling level of “double low” type, land improvement can be recommended to increase cultivated land area and optimize allocation of resource, particularly on strengthening the use of cultivated land. 2) In the north and south areas with high coupling level of “double high” type, returning cultivated land to forest can be selected to reduce the pressure of economic development on cultivated land, while, maintain the ecological function. 3) In the eastern and western regions with the relatively low coupling level, the function of cultivated land resources can be used to develop the typical economic industries, mainly including livestock and poultry, tea, and under-forest economy, according to the characteristic resources of mountainous areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-purpose land use has been a new concept to explore the sustainable development of diversification and multifunction in rural areas. It is necessary to make tradeoff decisions on agricultural production and biodiversity conservation in the rural modernization. The change of rural settlements can also provide a sound support to the multifunctional rural land management. Multifunctional transition and transformation of settlements pattern have become the inevitable requirements of regional development, particularly on their internal correlation and interaction. Most previous studies individually focused on the rural multifunction and settlements, but a systematic investigation on the general law and internal mechanism is still relatively lacking. In this study, the current state was summarized for the multifunctional transition and transformation of rural settlements from the time scale, and clarified their interaction mechanism, according to rural multifunction theory. The results show that: 1) The multifunctional transition in rural areas can be the process of continuous differentiation, and re-integration of rural production, life, and ecology functions. Driven by urbanization, industrialization, and marketization in modern agriculture, the multifunctional transition in rural China has experienced four stages, including low level of weak function, function differentiation and development, function conflict, and high-level multifunctional collaborative development; 2) The transformation of rural settlements showed an excellent development process from disorder to order. Driven by internal and external factors, such as physical geography, social needs, policies, and institutions, the rural settlement presented five patterns, namely, the shrinkage of overall scale, the aggregation and contraction of settlement layout, the hierarchy and networking of rural settlements system, the protection and utilization of rural settlements culture, and the diversification and functional mix of rural settlements landscape; 3) A two-way coupling effect can be found between the multifunctional transition and the transformation of rural settlements, jointly impelling the development of rural regional system. The transformation of rural settlements can provide a necessary support for rural function implantation, adjustment, and improvement, further to promote the multifunctional transition in rural areas. The multifunctional transition can facilitate the transformation of rural settlements by driving the main body intervention; 4) A recommendation can be that the optimization direction of rural settlements can be fully suitable for the development trend and stage characteristics of multifunctional rural transformation. A “smart contraction” of rural settlement has become urgent to optimize the internal spatial structure of rural settlements, in order to improve the rural settlements system and service facilities, while strengthen the protection and inheritance of native culture. A new way can be explored to remold a native landscape by integrating modernization and localization, further to establish a planning system of the rural settlement, for the multifunctional and high-level sustainable development of rural areas; 5) Against the background of rural revitalization strategy, it can be the key direction of future research to explore the optimization path and development mode of rural settlements under the function synergy guidance, based on the multifunctional value of rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-purpose land use has been a new concept to explore the sustainable development of diversification and multifunction in rural areas. It is necessary to make tradeoff decisions on agricultural production and biodiversity conservation in the rural modernization. The change of rural settlements can also provide a sound support to the multifunctional rural land management. Multifunctional transition and transformation of settlements pattern have become the inevitable requirements of regional development, particularly on their internal correlation and interaction. Most previous studies individually focused on the rural multifunction and settlements, but a systematic investigation on the general law and internal mechanism is still relatively lacking. In this study, the current state was summarized for the multifunctional transition and transformation of rural settlements from the time scale, and clarified their interaction mechanism, according to rural multifunction theory. The results show that: 1) The multifunctional transition in rural areas can be the process of continuous differentiation, and re-integration of rural production, life, and ecology functions. Driven by urbanization, industrialization, and marketization in modern agriculture, the multifunctional transition in rural China has experienced four stages, including low level of weak function, function differentiation and development, function conflict, and high-level multifunctional collaborative development; 2) The transformation of rural settlements showed an excellent development process from disorder to order. Driven by internal and external factors, such as physical geography, social needs, policies, and institutions, the rural settlement presented five patterns, namely, the shrinkage of overall scale, the aggregation and contraction of settlement layout, the hierarchy and networking of rural settlements system, the protection and utilization of rural settlements culture, and the diversification and functional mix of rural settlements landscape; 3) A two-way coupling effect can be found between the multifunctional transition and the transformation of rural settlements, jointly impelling the development of rural regional system. The transformation of rural settlements can provide a necessary support for rural function implantation, adjustment, and improvement, further to promote the multifunctional transition in rural areas. The multifunctional transition can facilitate the transformation of rural settlements by driving the main body intervention; 4) A recommendation can be that the optimization direction of rural settlements can be fully suitable for the development trend and stage characteristics of multifunctional rural transformation. A “smart contraction” of rural settlement has become urgent to optimize the internal spatial structure of rural settlements, in order to improve the rural settlements system and service facilities, while strengthen the protection and inheritance of native culture. A new way can be explored to remold a native landscape by integrating modernization and localization, further to establish a planning system of the rural settlement, for the multifunctional and high-level sustainable development of rural areas; 5) Against the background of rural revitalization strategy, it can be the key direction of future research to explore the optimization path and development mode of rural settlements under the function synergy guidance, based on the multifunctional value of rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calculating the potential of rural residential consolidation is the basis and key to the establishment of rural residential consolidation projects. However, according to the existing definition and calculation method of rural residential consolidation potential, it cannot measure the transformation potential of dangerous houses and cannot meet the current requirements of rural residential consolidation. To solve these problems, this paper summarized the definitions of rural residential land consolidation potential proposed by domestic scholars in recent years. Based on the definition of rural residential area and rural residential land consolidation, this paper redefined the definition of rural residential land consolidation potential via considering rural building safety. Then, according to the causes of the rural residential hollow in the study area, this paper proposed a method of calculating the consolidation potential based on the classification of rural residential land. The potential of residential consolidation in Xiatujing village can be calculated using this method as an example. The potential of rural residential land consolidation refers to the ability to improve the intensity of rural residential land use and the living and production conditions of rural residents by using engineering technology and adjusting land property rights and other measures, removing and consolidating existing rural residential areas. It includes two parts: The potential of land use spatial expansion and the potential of improving the living conditions of villagers. The former refers to the area of cultivated land and other land that can be increased through rural residential consolidation, while the latter refers to the area of rural residential land that can be improved through rural residential consolidation. This paper proposed the method of calculating the consolidation potential based on the classification of rural residential land. Rural residential land can be divided into three levels. The first level can be divided into five categories according to land use, including residential land, public service land, infrastructure land, industrial land and other construction land. According to the safety of construction facilities, the first four primary land use categories are divided into three secondary categories: Safety, unsafe and lack of use function. And the third level, according to the use status of construction facilities, can be classified into three categories: Use, idle and abandoned. Other construction land will not be divided into second and third levels. The calculation of consolidation potential defined the land of unsafe and lack of use function in second level, unutilized land and corner land in other construction land as the potential of consolidation. The potential that continues to be used as residential land after consolidation was defined as the potential to improve living conditions, while the remaining potential was defined as the potential of land use expansion. According to the difficulty in land consolidation, the land of unsafe and use was defined as the potential of difficult realization, and the remaining potential was defined as the potential of easy realization. With the calculation method of consolidation potential of residential land classification, the consolidation potential of Xiatujing village can be calculated. The results show that the potential of residential consolidation is 10.66 hm2, the potential of improving living conditions is 0.76 hm2, the potential of land use expansion is 9.90 hm2, the potential of easy realization is 8.19 hm2, and the potential of difficult realization is 2.47 hm2.The method of calculating the potential of rural residential consolidation can not only be used to calculate the area of increased cultivated land and other land, but also the area of land used in rural residential transformation. Based on the calculation results of consolidation potential, rural residential can be consolidated to achieve the goal of rural dangerous housing transformation and hollow village consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we took Hebei Province as an example to establish a coupling model between farmers' livelihood and rural housing land utilization, and then we analyzed the main factors affecting the average area per household of rural housing land, and determined the factors that regulated and controlled the time sequence and patterns of rural housing land consolidation in different zones. By constructing methods to measure the livelihood potential and standard potential of rural housing land consolidation, the potential and area standard of different zones were determined so that reference for rural housing land consolidation work could be provided. Our results showed were that due to irrational factors brought about by farmers’ dependence on land, the average area per household of rural housing land showed a trend of decreasing first and then increasing with the increase of farmers’ non-agricultural employment level. The inflection point of non-agricultural employment in counties was between 0.496 and 0.564. The inadequate household differentiation caused by local non-agricultural employment in the eastern region made the inflection point of non-agricultural employment higher. Because of the restriction of the circulation of rural housing land and the promotion of economic level, urbanization and per capita GDP had a promoting effect on the expansion of rural housing land area. The western inland area had a strong promoting effect because of the difficulty of farmers to settle in cities and towns. Because of the influence of the demand for productive land, the expansion of production scale had a promoting effect on the expansion of rural housing land area. The southern region is located in the main grain producing area, which had a strong promoting effect. Because of the low level of production in ecotone between agriculture and animal husbandry, the smaller scale of productive land led to the smaller scale of homestead. As the demand for non-residential land exceeded the common sense, plot ratio of rural housing land was negatively correlated with the average area per household of rural housing land, especially in the northwest region due to the diversification of livelihoods and extensive management. Our results also showed that according to farmers’ livelihood and average area per household of rural housing land, consolidation timing zone were divided into priority consolidation, moderate consolidation, moderate potential tapping and restriction consolidation. With the reference to the dominant factors affecting the change of the rural housing land area, consolidation pattern zone were divided into five types according to the reformation of rural housing land system, optimization of agricultural structure, and the deepening of the level of rural land management. In addition, the results also showed that according to the differences of farmers' livelihoods and average area per household of rural housing land, the livelihood potential and standard potential of rural housing land consolidation were divided. The consolidation potential and the average area standard per household of rural housing land in the priority consolidation zone were 45 429.70 hm2 and 401 m2, respectively, and economic conditions were the main factor that restricted rural housing land consolidation. The consolidation potential and the average area standard per household of rural housing land in the moderate consolidation zone were 446.32 hm2 and 26 m2, respectively; its rural housing land needed less. The consolidation potential and the average area standard per household of rural housing land in the moderate potential tapping zone were 33 471.92 hm2 and 407 m2, respectively, natural and economic conditions were the main factors that restrict rural housing land consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a number of surveys in rural areas, this article has discussed on the equality and efficiency of rural residential land use system in China. Studies have found that Chinese rural house site management in general, which has although met the farmers' equality requirement for the housing land occupied, is inefficient in land use, relatively negative in China's economic development. With appropriate land reclamation covered by Villages and revising the regulations about rural house site, the government would create better conditions for China's economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]