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Land disputes have significantly disrupted legal order, production, and social harmony, and has been regarded as a quintessential challenge in public governance, attracting worldwide attentions from scholars. As an emblematic feature of China's latest reform and opening-up strategy, the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) in China has experienced rapid development after entering the new era (2012–2021) alongside substantial risks and challenges, particularly regarding land disputes. Better understanding of the manifestation and formation mechanism of new characteristics of land disputes is beneficial for contemporary public governance and for achieving a high-quality development of the YREB, whose Gross Domestic Product (GDP) accounted for 46.3% of the national GDP in 2023. A total of 325,105 land dispute cases in 11 provinces or municipalities of the YREB from 2012 to 2021 were collected and analyzed. On this basis, an evaluation index system of the new characteristics of land disputes, named the overall land dispute (OLD) index, was constructed according to measurement theory by coupling the interactions of quantity, claim amounts, duration periods, and the appeal rate of land dispute. Then, the OLD index was evaluated by descriptive statistical methods, a geographic information system (GIS) spatial analysis, a center of gravity model, kernel density estimation, and Theil index methods, to reveal the new characteristics and formation mechanisms of land disputes in the YREB from 2012 to 2021. The results indicated that: (1) The OLD index exhibited a trend of an initial increase followed by a decline, indicating that land disputes in the YREB showed signs of alleviation. (2) The government's capacity for resolving land disputes was significantly improved, as evidenced by the decline in the OLD index from 0.59 in 2018 to 0.51 in 2021. This improvement could be attributed to the effectiveness of enhanced governmental working mechanisms, regulatory standards, and the integration of digital technologies. (3) The analysis of the center of gravity model indicated that the focus of land disputes shifted westward, propelled by national policy support for upstream regions of the YREB and the need for land ecological protection. (4) The analysis of kernel density estimation indicated that regional disparities in land disputes within the YREB had declined, driven by a positive trend toward balanced regional development and rural governance. This study provides scientific insights into the new characteristics of land disputes in the YREB and guidance for policy decision making on effective land dispute management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land contracting is an important system in China. As we know, farmers and agricultural organizations acquire land management rights from collective economic organizations to carry out agricultural production. Over the past few decades, it has proved to make a huge contribution to food security and agricultural development in China. However, as land values increased, landowners, contractors, and operators were increasingly in competition over land interests and, as a result, the number of land contract disputes has rapidly increased. Land contract disputes are not only involved in social and economic issues but also related to government management and grassroots governance. Studying the temporal and spatial changes of disputes is the premise to deal with this subject. Based on the data of China Judgment Online from 2016 to 2021, this paper used descriptive statistical methods, spatial analysis tools, and Markov Chains to reveal the temporal evolution characteristics, spatial distribution trends, and grade transfer tendency of land contract disputes in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YEB). The results showed the following: (1) From 2016 to 2021, the number of land contract disputes in the YEB increased sharply and then decreased gradually; (2) In terms of spatial distribution, land contract disputes were significantly clustered, and the level of clustering has increased in volatility. Meanwhile, the agglomeration area has continuously transferred; (3) There existed the "club convergence effect" and "spatial spillover effect" in the process of dispute grade transfer, but the overall trend was to change for the better. This study attempted to comprehensively describe the changes in land contract disputes in the YEB, and the results would serve as a useful reference for relevant regions to explore the differentiated paths to deal with land contract disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecological environment is important for the survival and development of human beings, and objective and accurate monitoring of changes in the ecological environment has received extensive attention. Based on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), wetness (WET), normalized differential build-up and bare soil index (NDBSI), and land surface temperature (LST), the principal component analysis method is used to construct a comprehensive index to evaluate the ecological environment's quality. The R package "Relainpo" is used to estimate the relative importance and contribution rate of NDVI, WET, NDBSI, and LST to the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI). The optimal parameter geographic detector (OPGD) model is used to quantitatively analyze the influencing factors, degree of influence, and interaction of the RSEI. The results show that from 2001 to 2020, the area with a poor grade quality of the RSEI in Guangzhou decreased from 719.2413 km2 to 660.4146 km2, while the area with an excellent quality grade of the RSEI increased from 1778.8311 km2 to 1978.9390 km2. The NDVI (40%) and WET (35%) contributed significantly to the RSEI, while LST and NDBSI contributed less to the RSEI. The results of single factor analysis revealed that soil type have the greatest impact on the RSEI with a coefficient (Q) of 0.1360, followed by a temperature with a coefficient (Q) of 0.1341. The interaction effect of two factors is greater than that of a single factor on the RSEI, and the interaction effect of different factors on the RSEI is significant, but the degree of influence is not consistent. This research may provide new clues for the stabilization and improvement of ecological environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the survey data on famers in plain and hilly areas, this paper applies the descriptive statistics and logistic regression model to conduct a comparative study on the difference between both regions in terms of the influence of labor transfer on the sustainable development of farmland use. The study shows that the surplus agricultural labor force in plain and hilly areas is different from the perspective of regional supply and demand, with the convergent ratio of rural labor transfer and the ratio of land abandonment. The influences of labor force type, age, gender and number on the farmland sustainable development of hilly areas are at the confidence levels of 1, 1, 5 and 10% with negative significance; and the influence of labor force culture on the farmland sustainable development of plain is at the confidence level of 5% with positive significance. Consequently, the labor force transfer accelerate the farmland transfer in plain, increase the area of contracted-farmland by families and upgrade the production efficiency of farmland; besides, the reduction of labor force number and quality in the hilly areas lead to the severe phenomenon of land abandonment, decreased farmland use in large scale and the apparent trend of transforming the rice from two harvests to one harvest a year. Therefore, the ecological environmental renovation of farmland shall be speeded up to embark on the road of eco-agriculture and featured agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use planning is always officially implemented as an effective tool to control urban development and protect farmland. However, its impact on land use change remains untested in China. Using a case study of Hang-Jia-Hu region, the main objective of this paper was to investigate the influence of different land use spatial control schemes on farmland conversion and urban development. Comparisons of farmland conversion and urban development patterns between the urban planning area and the non-urban planning area were characterized by using remote sensing, geographical information systems, and landscape metrics. Results indicated that farmland conversion in the non-urban planning area was more intensive than that in the urban planning area, and that farmland patterns was more fragmented in the non-urban planning area. Built-up land patterns in the non-urban planning area showed a trend of aggregation, while those in the urban planning area had a dual trend of fragmentation and aggregation. Existing built-up areas had less influence on built-up land sprawl in the non-urban planning area than that in the urban planning area. Built-up land sprawl in the form of continuous development in the urban planning area led to farmland conversion; and in the non-urban planning area, built-up land sprawl in the form of leapfrogging development resulted in farmland areal declines and fragmentation. We argued that it is a basic requirement to integrate land use plans in urban and non-urban planning areas for land use planning and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial pollution has remained as one of the most daunting challenges for many regions around the world. Characterizing the determinants of industrial pollution should provide important management implications. Unfortunately, due to the absence of high-quality data, rather few studies have systematically examined the locational determinants using a geographical approach. This paper aimed to fill the gap by accessing the pollution source census dataset, which recorded the quantity of discharged wastes (waste water and solid waste) from 717 pollution-intensive firms within Huzhou City, China. Spatial exploratory analysis was applied to analyze the spatial dependency and local clusters of waste emissions. Results demonstrated that waste emissions presented significantly positive autocorrelation in space. The high-high hotspots generally concentrated towards the city boundary, while the low-low clusters approached the Taihu Lake. Their locational determinants were identified by spatial regression. In particular, firms near the city boundary and county road were prone to discharge more wastes. Lower waste emissions were more likely to be observed from firms with high proximity to freight transfer stations or the Taihu Lake. Dense populous districts saw more likelihood of solid waste emissions. Firms in the neighborhood of rivers exhibited higher waste water emissions. Besides, the control variables (firm size, ownership, operation time and industrial type) also exerted significant influence. The present methodology can be applicable to other areas, and further inform the industrial pollution control practices. Our study advanced the knowledge of determinants of emissions from pollution-intensive firms in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A composite index system is established to evaluate China's new-type urbanization. • The article studies new-type urbanization from the perspective of land transfer. • The SDM model is used to explore the spatial spillover effects of new-type urbanization. • The threshold panel model is used to discuss their nonlinear relationship. With the rapid development of urbanization, land transfer has become a significant part of urban development. This article builds a comprehensive evaluation system to quantify the new-type urbanization level of urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River from 2006 to 2017. To explore the relationship between the two more clearly, the spatial econometric model and the threshold panel model are used to explore how land transfer affects new-type urbanization. The results show that: the level of new-type urbanization is characterized by fluctuating increases, but that the regional differences show an expanding trend. The Moran's I of the new-type urbanization fluctuates at approximately 0.120, showing positive spatial correlation. The estimation results of the spatial Durbin model (SDM) indicate that the coefficient of land transfer and its spatial lag coefficient are 0.040 and 0.006 respectively, indicating that it has positive impacts on new-type urbanization. The results of the threshold panel model show that there is a significant nonlinear relationship between land transfer and new-type urbanization. The impacts of land transfer on the level of new urbanization will change in both positive and negative directions with changes in government intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes of land use/land cover (LULC) are important factor affecting the intensity of the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Based on Landsat image data of Wuhan, this paper uses cellular automata (CA) and artificial neural network (ANN) to predict future changes in LULC and LST. The results show that the built-up area of Wuhan has expanded, reaching 511.51 and 545.28 km2, while the area of vegetation, water bodies and bare land will decrease to varying degrees in 2030 and 2040. If the built-up area continues to expand rapidly, the proportion of 30~35 °C will rise to 52.925% and 55.219%, and the affected area with the temperature >35 °C will expand to 15.264 and 33.612 km2, respectively. The direction of the expansion range of the LST temperature range is obviously similar to the expansion of the built-up area. In order to control and alleviate UHI, the rapid expansion of impervious layers (built-up areas) should be avoided to the greatest extent, and the city's "green development" strategy should be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]