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[Objective]The aim of this study is to investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics, mitigation strate-gies and the evolving characteristics of the cultivated land function loss under rapid urbanization, which is pivotal for enhancing regional farmland conservation and guaranteeing food security. [Methods]This study developed a comprehensive evaluation framework from the tri-dimensional perspective of'use-capacity-reserve'. This was built upon a functional loss typology analysis for cultivated lands in swiftly urbanizing areas. This framework gauged the extent of functional loss and anticipates associated risks. Specific control measures tailored to each loss level were also suggested. Jiangyin, a county-level city in Jiangsu Province, was used as a case study. [Results](1)Recognizing the evolving nature of cultivated land's functional loss, we classified its primary types and derived quantitative tools for measuring its extent and associated risks during rapid urbanization, offering vital theoretical underpinnings to harmonize farmland conservation with economic progress. (2)In Jiangyin City, a significant portion of non-food crops is cultivated on lands that have lost their original function, spanning 267 villages. Production capacity loss is limited to 59 villages. With respect to reserve loss, medium and low-risk categories impact 104 and 115 villages, respectively. (3)According to our evaluation framework, Jiangyin experienced a predominant secondary level function loss, affecting 71. 17％of its villages. Forward-looking strategies, including agricultural infrastructure enhancement, agricultural spatial layout optimization, and risk monitoring augmentation, must be tailored to varying loss degrees. [Conclusion]The phenomenon of functional loss in arable land exhibits stage-specific characteristics in terms of occurrence time, influencing factors, and manifestations. Its spatiotemporal patterns vary in both separate and integrated dimensions. The tailored strategies can provide decision-making support for promoting regional cultivated land protection and utilization, improving monitoring and early warning systems for functional risks, and optimizing space layout of national territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strategic optimization of cultivated land's spatial structure is essential for enhancing agricultural production's efficiency and sustainability. Consolidating contiguous cultivated land areas can increase economies of scale, reduce costs, and minimize ecological edge effects. Additionally, upgrading infrastructure and enhancing connectivity among these areas promote the efficient distribution and marketization of agricultural resources. This study adopted a "pixel-neighborhood-patch" approach to comprehensively evaluate the area, shape, structure, and connectivity of cultivated lands. It established a framework for assessing cultivated land agglomeration and connectivity. The research explored the spatial and temporal dynamics and optimization strategies for the cultivated land layout in Jiangsu Province from 2000 to 2020.The results indicated that the degree of cultivated land agglomeration in Jiangsu Province generally exhibited a downward trend, particularly in areas that experienced rapid economic development and urbanization. The province decreases from the central to the north and south, and 98.94% of the counties decrease to varying degrees. The connectivity of cultivated land showed significant regional differences. The connectivity in the southern region was significantly weakened, while the central to northern regions formed a connectivity advantage belt with Baoying County and Suyu District as the core. Considering the current status and trends, Jiangsu Province was divided into six regional types. The proposed optimization strategies for cultivated land, tailored to regional characteristics, included regional management, infrastructure improvement, ecological edge effect management, and technical information support. These strategies aimed to enhance the utilization efficiency and ecological stability of cultivated land, thereby promoting the healthy and sustainable development of the agricultural ecosystem. This study established a novel framework to assess the degree of agglomeration and connectivity in cultivated land, covering aspects from area, shape, and structure, to the geographical obstacles, transportation network, and agricultural management intensity that affect the connectivity of cultivated land. This framework provided a comprehensive and precise perspective on optimizing cultivated land management. Through this framework, key cultivated land protection and utilization areas can be effectively identified and targeted management strategies can be implemented. Furthermore, the research framework offers significant reference and applicability for other regions, supporting the adoption of more scientific and systematic approaches to farmland management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscape ecological risk can be attributed to the cumulative effect of long-term disturbance in the regional landscapes by various risk sources. Fortunately, zoning control strategy can be expected to optimize the regional ecological risk using the dynamic perspective of the "history-present-trend" of risk occurrence. This study aims to scientifically understand the spatial differentiation pattern of landscape ecological risks, and then formulate spatial zoning management and control strategies. A systematic investigation was also made on the dynamic risk management and control needs of rapidly urbanized areas. The new framework was established for the landscape ecological risk assessment and management zoning from the spatiotemporal dynamic perspective of "history-present-trend". Taking the Jiangyin City of Jiangsu Province as the research area, the differentiated management and control strategy of risks was proposed to explore the spatiotemporal process, evolution characteristics, and future trends of landscape ecological risk. The combination characteristics of landscape risk levels were obtained from the coupling perspective of "history-current period and trend". The results showed that: 1) The cultivated land decreased by 12.76% from 2005 to 2020, whereas the construction land increased by 13.53% with the evolution of urbanization. There was a drastic transformation of landscape types, where the landscape fragmentation continued to increase. Among them, there was the more serious conversion of cultivated and ecological land into construction land. The fragmentation and uneven distribution were found in the landscape of cultivated and ecological land, with a significant trend in the agglomeration distribution of construction land. 2) The ecological risk presented a spatial distribution pattern of "low in the north and high in the south". The low-risk areas were distributed in the northern waters and the core area of township construction land, whereas, the high-risk areas were distributed in the southern waters, along the river, and the marginal area of township construction land expansion. Therefore, Jiangyin City was focused mainly on the expansion of construction land in the process of rapid urbanization. The high intensity and scattered construction caused the fragmentation landscape of cultivated and forest land, indicating the high risk. 3) The landscape ecological risks were categorized as the maintenance, upgrading, mitigation, and fluctuation types, according to the dynamic process of risks. The proportion of risk maintenance type was the highest, followed by upgrading and easing types, while the fluctuation type shared the lowest proportion. Furthermore, the control needs and trends of risks were further analyzed in the different regions to determine the specific prevention areas, according to the current situation and future trends of risks. There were also significant variations in the urgency of risk prevention for the management and control in different regions. Among them, much attention should be paid to the high-risk areas with serious out-of-control or a basic level of control. In summary, the risk assessment and management framework with the perspective of a "history-present-trend" landscape is beneficial to understanding the complex interaction between landscape and external disturbances in the urbanized areas from the dynamic process of time and space. The findings can also provide the decision support for the urban ecological risk management for the optimization of regional territorial spatial layout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple goals are often required to balance the agricultural productivity for the food supply and the minimum resource input into the environmental damage in the ecological system services. Agricultural eco-efficiency has been used to evaluate the economic and ecological benefits for the better production performance. In this study, an assessment system was established to explore the spatial and temporal development of agricultural eco-efficiency. The panel data was collected from 678 towns in northern Jiangsu Province of China from 2000 to 2020. A data envelopment model was also used to assess the agricultural eco-efficiency using relaxation value measurement. In addition, the spatiotemporal evolution and regional differences of agricultural eco-efficiency were systematically investigated using global- and local-spatial autocorrelation analysis. Finally, the geographical detector model was selected to identify the influence of the component indicators on the spatial pattern of agricultural eco-efficiency. The results showed that: 1) The agricultural eco-efficiency shared a wave-like trend of "rise, fall, and rise". There was the great variation in the agricultural eco-efficiency in each urban area over the time. The descending order was ranked in Huai'an City>Yancheng City>northern Jiangsu Province>Lianyungang City>Suqian City>Xuzhou City. Among them, the maximum increase of agricultural eco-efficiency was found in Yancheng City, with an increase of 22.77%. By contrast, Suqian City decreased from 0.46 in 2000 to 0.35 in 2020, whereas, Huai'an City was basically the same from 2000 to 2020. The number of townships was 78, 98, 67, 57, and 88, respectively, with the high agricultural ecoefficiency (>0.81-1.0) in the study area. The townships with the high agricultural eco-efficiency were accounted for only 12.98% of the total in 2020, indicating the great potential to the improvement. 2) The overall agricultural eco-efficiency showed a spatial pattern of "high in the south and low in the north". The high-quality areas were small and scattered with a tendency to expand along the south-west to the north-east. By contrast, the low-quality areas were concentrated in Xuzhou, Suqian, and Lianyungang City. A clear pattern of agglomeration was observed with the low-low clustering region (23.89%- 25.22%) in Xuzhou City, Ganyu County in the northern area of Lianyungang City, and Shuyang County in the northern of Suqian City, indicating the high spatial aggregation. The high-high clustering region (14.9%-24.34%) was shifted from the areas, such as Xuyi County in the north and south-west of Huai'an City to Yancheng City. 3) Energy inputs, pesticide inputs, and agricultural carbon emissions were the dominant factors in the spatial differentiation of agricultural eco-efficiency. The second most important factors were determined as the fertilizer inputs, agricultural film inputs, agricultural non-point source pollution, machinery inputs, and labor inputs in the spatial pattern of agricultural eco-efficiency. There was the different increase in the q-values for the interactions of each indicator. Two factors were also combined to strengthen the influence on the agricultural eco-efficiency. The type of interaction was also the non-linear strengthening (73%). Therefore, the agricultural carbon emissions, energy and machinery inputs were the common dominant factors using the factor detector. The weaker influence was found from the grain yield and ecosystem service function using factor detector. Anyway, the synergistic effects of various factors can be expected to achieved the optimal output on the spatial pattern of agricultural eco-efficiency. The finding can also provide a better guidance for the decision-making on the agricultural eco-efficiency in the environmentally friendly development of regional agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The cropland can often be converted into non-grain agricultural production, or cropland conversion to non-grain unitization. However, some damage also occurs in the physical and chemical properties of soil, leading to a reduction of the cropland quantity, even threatening the security of the national food supply. Therefore, the consolidation of non-grain cropland for farming can be an important measure to realize the continuing farming of cropland. The consolidation zoning of non-grain cropland for farming is also of great significance to rapidly supplement the farmland resource, and then to improve the quality of farmland fertility and then restore grain production capacity. Taking the administrative village as the evaluation unit, this study aims to improve the scientific and rational zoning of the spatial layout for non-grain field consolidation. A zoning system was also constructed for the non-grain field consolidation integrating the land remediation suitability and urgency. Firstly, nine indicators were selected from the three dimensions of utilization status, site conditions, and tillage conditions. The suitability evaluation model was then constructed for the non-grain field consolidation. Secondly, the urgency evaluation model of non-grain field remediation was constructed using the non-grain ratio of permanent basic farmland, major grain-producing areas, and ecological red line areas. Finally, the suitability and urgency were evaluated on the field consolidation for the four-quadrant spatial zoning. Lingshui County was taken as a case area to carry out the zoning and remediation strategy of non-grain farmland consolidation. The results show that: 1) The core target of non-grain farmland consolidation was determined to restore the land for grain crop cultivation. The scale and quality of stable farmland were also improved to fully meet the regional farmland protection tasks and food supply. 2) It was much more instructive and reasonable for the four-quadrant remediation zoning scheme to integrate land suitability and urgency. The high-quality cultivated land was screened out after the suitability and urgency evaluation of consolidation, further clearing the priority of remediation. As such, the direction of re-cultivation was effectively clarified in the study area. 3) The non-grain farmland consolidation was divided into four types of areas, namely, the priority, the key, the reserve, and the restricted consolidation area. The proportions of non-grain farmland in those areas were 25.44%, 42.39%, 25.70%, and 6.47%, respectively. Differential non-grain field consolidation strategies can be utilized to recover the farming using the different combinations of tillage state, physical environment, and land utilization conditions. The findings can provide a strong reference for the decision-making on cropland protection and the spatial layout of the cultivated land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated territory consolidation has been used to alleviate the contradiction between resources and environment in the new era. It is a high demand to define the connotation and then determine the work tasks for the land rectification. In this research, a theoretical system of integrated territory consolidation was proposed for the “problem-approach-goal”, together with the comprehensive remediation program of “elements transformation, boundary control, and global remediation” under the guidance of “point-line-plane” all-round remediation using the analytical perspective of land “spatial conflict-functional obstacles”. An implementation mechanism of integrated territory consolidation was constructed for the explicit contradictions and hidden obstacles, particularly for the requirements. After that, the relevant policies and standards were selected to identify the conflicts in the territorial space, including five conflict manifestations: ecological protection, basic farmland, construction land management, reserve cultivated land resources, as well as abandoned industrial and mining land. An evaluation system of land functions was established in terms of the “production-living-ecological” function and the connotation. The land functional obstacles were identified, according to the obstacle degree model. The conflicts and obstacles were regarded as the focus of short-term and long-term remediation tasks, respectively. A “partitions + type” model of integrated territory consolidation was formulated with the naming principle of “significant conflict + first obstacle”. A case study was carried out in Sichuan Province, China. The empirical analysis greatly contributed to solving the real contradictions and short boards for the land potential and the theoretical mechanism. The results were as follows. 1) There were significant spatial differences in the land conflicts in the study area. The areas with intense conflicts were mainly distributed in the eastern and southern parts of the province. 2) The “production-living-ecological” functional level distribution presented spatial agglomeration characteristics. The production function exhibited a distribution trend of “high in the middle-low in the east and west”. The living function showed a significant distribution of the east high and west low. The high-level areas were mainly distributed in the eastern plains and hilly areas. The ecological function was generally presented in the low distribution of the east or high west, whereas, the high levels were mainly located in the mountains around the Sichuan Basin. The most significant obstacle factors that hinder the “production-living-ecological” function in the province were cultivated land layout, living security, and ecological security. 3) According to the land-space conflict identification and functional impairment evaluation, Sichuan Province can be divided into four partitions of remediation areas: key remediation, urgent tidy, prior digging and moderate optimization areas, with the eight types including “layout optimization-facilities improvement-ecological protection”. 16 integrated territory consolidation modes can be obtained for the coupling types and partitions, corresponding to the short-term, long-term remediation strategies. Each county can take the remediation measures, according to local conditions and zoning classification. The research can be conducive to the theoretical research and practical cognition of integrated territory consolidation. The finding can also provide a strong reference for the consolidation and planning at the provincial (city) scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cropland Conversion to Forest or Fruit Production (CCFFP) can be that the land often farming crops is converted to grow the non-grain agricultural product, such as the fruit tree, and tea garden. The roots of shrubs or fruit trees normally penetrate deep into the soil, and seriously damage the physical and chemical properties of soil, further reducing the fertility of the soil, which is a serious land use behavior in the non-grain cultivated land. Since the comparative benefits of grain production decreased in recent years, the number of migrant laborers to cities and the economic benefits of planting fruit have increased, while the area of CCFFP continues to increase. It is of great significance to reveal the spatial-temporal differentiation and driving factors of cropland conversion to fruit production for land utilization and stable grain production. In this study, the land use dataset was collected from GlobeLand30 in Hainan Province in 2000, 2010, and 2020. The transfer matrix, geographical detector, and multiple linear regression models were comprehensively selected to systematically analyze the overall situation, spatial and temporal differentiation characteristics, and driving factors of cropland conversion to fruit production from the perspective of land cover change. The results showed that the area of cropland conversion to fruit production decreased from 1 314.35 km2 in 2000-2010 to 472.45 km2 in 2010-2020, indicating a significant decrease in the scale. The conversion of cropland to forest land was the main flow of cropland conversion to fruit production utilization, where 397.61 km2 of cropland conversion to fruit production in the previous period (2000-2010) was converted to cultivated land in the later period (2010-2020) and was replanted the crops. There was an outstanding spatial difference in cropland conversion to fruit production utilization at the level of city and county, indicating the higher areas in Wenchang and Danzhou. There was basically a similar spatial distribution pattern of cropland conversion to fruit production at the grid scale, but the proportion presented significant indigenous differences. There was a different explanatory power of driving factors in each period. The GDP growth rate, topography, and location factors were the main driving factors with strong explanatory power. In addition, the driving factors for the cropland conversion to fruit production were the interaction between factors, indicating the double factor of nonlinear enhancement. Some recommendations were also proposed to optimize the pattern of tropical fruit planting for the grain unitization of cropland. 1) To strengthen the tropical agriculture planting in different regions; 2) To develop differentiated guiding fruit planting and forest fostering; 3) To utilize the high temporal and spatial resolution remote sensing satellite to monitor the crop type; 4) To forbid wasting arable land, digging soil for building material or fishpond for fish farm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permanent prime farmland reserve areas have served as the direct supplementary sources of capital cultivated land. This type of high-quality cultivated land can widely be expected to extend for the ecological protection, and the sustainable “balance of occupation and supplement”. Meanwhile, the reserve resources of cultivated land have been posed a great challenge on the occupation of new construction land, particularly with the recent acceleration of industrialization and urbanization. Therefore, it is very necessary to launch the spatial zoning of permanent prime farmland reserve areas, further to ensure national food security, quantity and quality stability of an optimal land pattern under an ecological protection for the high-quality cultivated lands. In this study, an evaluation system of permanent prime farmland reserve area was established from three dimensions of suitability, cluster and stability. Taking 2030 as the target year, a risk index of cultivated land conversion was also introduced to maximize the land use benefits. The policy requirements were firstly sorted to clarify the connotation of permanent prime farmland reserve areas. A FLUS model was then selected to estimate the land use structure under the multiple objectives of food security, economic development, and ecological protection. A conversion probability of cultivated land was also combined to predict the possibility of conversion of cultivated land to other land types, in order to achieve the stability of permanent prime farmland reserve areas during the conversion of cultivated land. A weighted superposition was conducted to evaluate the comprehensive quality of general cultivated land, where the permanent prime farmland reserve areas were classified, according to the evaluation. A three-dimensional Rubik's cube spatial classification was also selected to divide into some consolidation zones. As such, the Jintan District of Changzhou City of Jiangsu Province was taken as a case study. The results showed as follows. 1) Two types of delimitation criteria (constraint and evaluation) were conducive to the rational decision-making on the permanent prime farmlands. 2) The comprehensive quality score of general cultivated land in the study area ranged from 35.52-100, with an average score of 67.76, which was generally at a relatively high level. A large number of cultivated lands with high comprehensive quality cannot be classified into the permanent prime farmland, where there was no protection. Therefore, it is highly urgent to protect the high-quality cultivated land by designating the permanent prime farmland reserve area. 3) A total of 7 465.58 hm² permanent prime farmland reserve area was designated in the study area using the index evaluation of cultivated land suitability, cluster, and stability. 4) Four types of potential areas can also be divided into the comprehensive utilization, production improvement, development ascension, and the production improvement-development ascension, particularly with the comprehensive quality of cultivated land. Anyway, the finding can be beneficial to implement the regulatory measures for different types, further to improve the suitability, cluster and stability of permanent prime farmland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassland is an important vegetation type in Xinjiang of western China, particularly on the coordinated development of ecological protection and animal husbandry. It is of great significance to rapidly and accurately evaluate the productivity of regional grasslands, thereby revealing the carrying capacity of herbivores in the warm season of high-altitude grasslands, especially for the balanced management of regional grasslands and herbivorous livestock. However, there are only a few reports on the temporal and spatial changes of grassland Aboveground Biomass (AGB) in high-altitude regions using long-term series. It is necessary to effectively evaluate the carrying capacity considering some limiting factors. Taking the Hejing County of Xinjiang as the research area, this study aims to explore the spatiotemporal dynamics and carrying capacity of the grassland AGB using MODIS 17A3H/NPP (Net Primary Productivity, NPP) data products. An estimation model was also proposed to improve the traditional field sampling, in terms of data availability, multi-year monitoring continuity, and regional coverage. The natural and management factors were considered to further modify the model, according to the grassland type, landform, and township. The results showed that: 1) The Aboveground Net Primary Productivity (ANPP) of grassland presented a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) value of 3.23-11.89 g/m2, indicating a higher accuracy. 2) The AGB average value was 1 252.34 kg/ hm2 during the study period (2000—2018), indicating a fluctuating upward trend. Specifically, the linear growth rate was 7.78 kg/(hm2·a) (P<0.01), and the overall AGB of grassland was a slight upward trend, where the proportion of grassland with the AGB growth reached 74.90%. The degradation was distributed mostly in the areas with a slope of more than 30%. 3) The annual average aboveground hay was 150 100 t. Among them, the alpine grassland and meadow over 2 500 m produced the largest hay, accounting for 24.20% and 57.46%, respectively. The available hay was reduced to 86 200 t after revision. 4) The average theoretical carrying capacity of grassland in the study area was 242 600 to 319 400 heads. The theoretical carrying capacity of standard sheep without considering natural and management factors was 319 400 heads, the underload of grassland is 2.99%; after revised the carrying capacity was 242 600 heads, and the grass was overloaded by 27.82%, it further illustrated that there was a certain overload risk in the development of grassland animal husbandry in the study area. The research results could provide references for the formulation of regional land management and animal husbandry planning policies, and played a positive role in promoting the sustainable economic development of regional natural resources. The average theoretical carrying capacity of grassland was 242 600 to 319 400 heads. The theoretical carrying capacity of standard sheep was 319 400 heads without considering the natural and management factors, where the underload of grassland was 2.99%. After that, the carrying capacity was 242 600 heads, and the grass was overloaded by 27.82%. Consequently, there was a certain overload risk in the development of grassland and animal husbandry in the study area. The findings can provide a strong reference for the decision-making on the land and animal husbandry, thereby promoting the sustainable development of regional natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southern Xinjiang is one of the most important cotton-producing areas in China. It is necessary to fully understand the spatial distribution of cotton and variation characteristics for national grain and cotton supply, particularly on the development of the cotton textile industry in China. Therefore, this study followed the research idea of "reconstructing growth curve - extracting planting information - analyzing changing characteristics". Firstly, TIMESAT software was used to generate the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) growth curve of cotton in Southern Xinjiang. Subsequently, a Double-Logistic filter was selected to rebuild the growth curve. Secondly, the specific characteristics of the cotton growth curve were analyzed further to obtain the cotton growth threshold. Thirdly, a Band Math tool in ENVI5.3 was selected to extract the cotton planting areas. The spatial distribution accuracy of extracted datasets was then verified using Google Earth high-resolution image. Finally, a systematic analysis was made on the temporal and spatial variation characteristics of cotton planting from multiple perspectives. The results showed that: 1) The spatial distribution pattern of cotton was basically consistent with the soil and water conditions, where mainly distributed in the south of Tianshan Mountains and clustered in the northeast of southern Xinjiang, indicating a "core-edge" structure with Aksu region as the core, while Kashgar and Northern Bazhou as the margin. 2) There were significant differences between type I cultivated land and other types in different years, indicating the pretty obvious spatial differentiation. The active regions of cotton planting variation were mainly distributed in Aksu, Kashgar, and northern Bazhou, indicating the main cotton-growing regions in southern Xinjiang. There was the most significant correlation in the flow conversion between type I and type II cultivated land, grassland, and artificial land surface, indicating that the flow increased sharply. 3) The spatial distribution of cotton showed the "northeast to southwest" trend. The cotton planting center basically kept stable in Aksu City after a major migration in recent 20 years, with a total migration distance of 91.5 km and an annual migration rate of 4.58 km/a. 4) In detecting "hot spots" of cotton planting areas, the cold spots were mainly distributed in Kezhou and Hetian in southern Xinjiang, indicating a gradual concentration to the southwest after 2005. Correspondingly, the distribution pattern of hot spots changed significantly from year to year. Furthermore, the hot spots were mainly distributed in Aksu prefecture before 2005. The hot spots gradually extended to the northeast of southern Xinjiang after 2005, where mainly concentrated in Aksu prefecture and the north of Bazhou. Consequently, the temporal and spatial variation characteristics of cotton planting using EVI data can widely be expected for large-scale, long-term information monitoring. The yield estimation model can also be further constructed using the cotton growth curve, as well as the relationship with cotton actual output. Finally, quantitative remote sensing can be realized on cotton yield prediction. The findings can provide sound support to optimize the cotton structure distribution for the decision-making and formulation of regional land management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Productivity of cultivated land needs to be greatly improved for the ever-growing demand for food security in China. Monitoring the productivity of cultivated land can contribute to figuring out the background of food security for the decision-making on protection policies of targeted farmland. In this study, a Savitzky-Golay filter was selected to rebuild the smoothing enhanced vegetation index (EVI) curve of crop growth using the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS)-EVI data. The moving window method was utilized to eliminate the possible impact of climate factors on crop yield and extract the multiple crop index (MCI) of cultivated land from the EVI growth curve by the quadratic difference method. The threshold method was used to calculate the optimal growth time (Most Active Day, MAD) and characterize the change of farmland productivity. Taking Sichuan Province of China from 2001 to 2017 as a research object, an attempt was made to analyze the spatial distribution and potential characteristics of cultivated land productivity. The results were obtained: 1) The multiple cropping index (MCI) of 93.5% of cultivated land in Sichuan Province remained unchanged from 2001 to 2017. The areas with changed MCI were mainly concentrated in Chengdu city and all around, such as Meishan and Deyang. The cropping system in the MCI constant zone was dominated by a single-cropping system (accounting for 88.3% of the total arable land) and a double-cropping system (2.7% of that); 2) There was a great variation in the productivity of cultivated land in Sichuan Province from 2001 to 2017. The area that single-season crop productivity significantly reduced and increased accounted for 24.0% and 33.2% of the total cultivated land. The decreased areas were distributed mainly in the northeastern (Nanchong, Guangyuan) and southern (Neijiang, Zigong, Yibin) Sichuan. In the double-season crop, the areas with the changing productivity of the first and second crops were 62.1% and 49.4% of cultivated land, respectively, indicating a trend of first decreasing and then rising and fluctuating declining. 3) There was much potential growth for the double-season crops, but not for the single-season crops. The cultivated land, whose productivity improvement potential of single-season crops was less than 40%, accounted for 83.8% and 71.4% in the productivity upgrading and declining areas, respectively. Those in productivity improvement potential of greater than 40% for the first and second crops in a double-cropping system were 89.5% and 67.7%, in productivity decreased areas, respectively. Over 50% of the areas indicated productivity improvement potential greater than 80% in the cultivated land of declining productivity. The areas of high productivity improvement potential were located mainly in the Chengdu Plain and surroundings, which were dominated by the double cropping system. The proposed method can be expected to monitor the large-scale and long-term sequence of productivity change, thereby identifying the productivity improvement potential of farmland. The finding can provide a sound reference to optimize farmland productivity in the protection policy and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comprehensive land consolidation is an important channel to enhance the efficiency of rural land use for the implementing the strategy of rural revitalization. Therefore, the type optimization of land use and land management can be focused, in order to guide the specific methods of land plan. In this study, a Constrained Multi-objective Optimization of Land-use Allocation (CoMOLA) model was constructed from the aspects of transformation conditions, area constraints, benefit calculation, with the advantage of non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II in evolution simulation, global search and other multi-objective decision. Law of the primate city was introduced to strengthen the model, while the typical research areas were selected for case analysis. The improved CoMOLA model and the different development scenarios were proposed to simulate the land use and management allocation, and the intermediate results can also be used to identify possible land conflicts in future. The results showed that: 1) Under the economic priority scenario, the economic benefits of study area increased by 12.33% over the base period, but it would come at the cost of certain ecological benefits and production output, which reduced by 11.41% and 3.73%, respectively. Under the ecological priority scenario and production priority scenario, the ecological benefit and production output increased by 51.68% and 11.63% respectively. The economic benefits decreased by 8.34% and 10.18% under these two scenarios, respectively. Each benefit can be improved in the given scenario. 2) The quantity and spatial structure of land use showed a certain polarization trend in all three scenarios, and the absolute conflict plot area was 1.98%, 3.12% and 1.71%, respectively. In practical application, it is necessary to combine multiple factors, such as development goal, and conflict identification, further to make development plans according to local conditions. The improved CoMOLA model can be suitable to optimize land use allocation, and meet the spatiotemporal characteristics of land use. The intermediate result, including Pareto optimal solution set, can be used as the basic data for the conflict identification of land development. A rational optimization plan for land use and land management can be expected to achieved, when combining simulation and conflict identification. This research can provide a new method for multi-objective optimization under the guidance of comprehensive land consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial layout and development trend of villages are the main objects and important contents of the comprehensive improvement of land. In order to strengthen the guarantee of land use for rural revitalization and improve the policy system for integration and development of urban and rural by promoting rural development in a classified manner and revitalizing rural land stock for construction, the strategic plan for rural revitalization (2018-2020) is proposed. Based on the new connotation of village and town layout optimization, the index system covering the characteristics of “urban radiation”, “resource endowment” and “ecological security” is constructed, taking Suining county of Jiangsu province as the research area. The identification of village type is carried out. The method of Pajek complex network analysis is used to construct the village hierarchy “central village-secondary central village-general village”. On the basis of the village type identification and grade system classification results, the development function of villages are defined, then the target value is determined, the scale potential, pattern potential, quality potential and comprehensive potential of the village are explored. The potential of the village is determined according to the method of natural fault point. The results show that: 1) Rural development is heterogeneous. In the process of rapid urbanization, the geographical location, spatial structure and scale form of villages are undergoing great changes, and the differences within the system are increasingly expanding. The results of village type identification and grade system classification can provide effective support for the evaluation of the potential of the village, the priority selection of the remediation area and the arrangement of the remediation time sequence. 2) The study area can be divided into 9 types of single and compound village, including suburban integration, activation optimization, characteristic development, ecological protection, suburban integration-ecological protection, suburban integration-feature upgrade, feature upgrade-ecological protection, suburban integration-characteristic increases ecological protection, demolition and relocation. Finally according to the “scale-pattern-quality” as well as the comprehensive renovation potential is calculated as a result, lower, low, medium, high, higher 5 level. 3) The dominant village type is the activation optimization type in the study area. The potential area of reclamation in the county is 627.51 hm², and the potential area of recovery is 17 299.91 hm². This research on the development function, potential and comprehensive countermeasures of villages can provide references for the optimization and reconstruction of village, the regulation of policy regulation linking the increase and decrease of urban and rural construction land and the implementation of comprehensive land improvement in the whole region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of cultivated land consolidation is related to regional natural resources, rural areas and agriculture. Land consolidation plans are the fundamentals to improve the quality of cultivated land resources, and to optimize the spatial distribution pattern for the economic, social and environmental contribution. To meet new requirements of multifunctional comprehensive protection for cultivated land resources in current days, the evaluation of cultivated land consolidation potential to determine consolidation zones is a powerful starting point for the comprehensive land consolidation and the schemes of “new agriculture, rural areas, and farmers” in China. In this study, an attempt is made to establish an evaluation index system for cultivated land consolidation potential by integrating “quality-pattern-function mode based on the contribution of natural resources, spatial distribution pattern and functional factor of cultivated lands. The k-means clustering method was used to set the boundaries for the comprehensive division of the cultivated lands in the evaluation. The results showed that: 1) the integrated “quality-pattern-function” mode in the evaluation frameworks is beneficial to balance the quality, output, and utilization of cultivated lands. Compared with previous evaluations, the proposed framework can link various levels of quantified indicators to comprehensively present the distribution patterns and functional characteristics of cultivated land resources, indicating the improvement of land use on agricultural production. A positive effect can be gained to lay out distribution patterns for agricultural productions according to local topographical conditions in order to comprehensively manage of the different land use in the new era. 2) There were significant spatial differences in the quality, pattern, and function of the cultivated land resources for the consolidation potentials in China. In quality improvement, the potential areas of cultivated land consolidation were mainly distributed in the Yangtze River Basin, Haihe River Basin, and Huaihe River Basin. In pattern optimization, the potential areas of cultivated land-consolidation were mainly concentrated in the Yellow River Basin, Southeast River Basin, Inland River Basin, and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In function promotion, the potential areas of cultivated lands were mainly distributed in the Yangtze River Basin, Pearl River Basin, and Inland River Basin. 3) Using the k-means spatial clustering analysis, the potential areas of cultivated land consolidation in China were divided into 7 the first-level zonings, 38 the second-level zonings, and 409 the third-level zonings. The findings can provide the full-scale approaches to conserve mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands according to local conditions, and thereby to enhance the service capacity of cultivated lands and the efficiency of resources allocation in regional agriculture in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective ecological network construction can guarantee regional ecological security, which is an important path to achieve regional sustainable development. Based on the analysis of the connotation of ecological nodes, this paper establishes a multi- level ecological node identification system based on "resource- based strategic point - structural strategic point - structural weak point", and uses remote sensing images, land use data, POI data, etc. of Jintan district in 2015. This paper also employs multi- target genetic algorithm, minimum resistance model and so on. The hierarchical ecological network in the ideal state of Jintan district was constructed, and the ecological network was quantitatively evaluated by using indexes such as the network topology and nodes utility. Based on the above, the following main conclusions were obtained: (1) Multi- level ecological network is significantly better than the general network in terms of nodes utility and overall network performance. And the water network area has a strong applicability. (2) As the current situation of the ecological network distribution is uneven, the ecological nodes' layout needs to be optimized. The optimized node coverage increased by 17.70%, the uniformity of node distribution decreased by 45.45%, and the average clustering coefficient increased by 87.36%. (3) Multi-level ecological node system has practical application, and different management strategies should be adopted for different types of ecological nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a global issue, ecological restoration demands for urgent practice and research in the way of Ecological Civilization construction and green development in China. In a narrow sense, ecological restoration mainly refers to ecological engineering and environmental protection measures. In the face of increasingly complex, systematic and regional ecological problems, it has become a consensus to implement multi-scale, multi-path and multi-element systematic ecological restoration. Aiming at the area along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu province, which is the most contradictory area between ecological protection and economic development, this paper used the methods of qualitative and quantitative to identify ecological problems, and used the relevant theories and methods of land use science, landscape ecology and human- land system to construct the evaluation system of ecological restoration potential from the perspective of "element-landscape-system". Based on Getis-Ord Gi * hot spot analysis and K-means cluster methods, this paper identified ecological restoration zones and hot spots, so as to build an ecological restoration pattern structure composed of points, lines (belts) and areas, and put forward corresponding countermeasures. The results show that: (1) Ecological restoration has multi- scale character, complex- objects character and multi- approaches character. Different scales of ecological restoration have different objects, approaches and objectives, which are connected by different levels and types of planning; (2) The average value of ecological restoration potential at the factor level of the study area is 0.460, and the spatial distribution is characterized by "large scale dispersion and small scale agglomeration". The hot spots of ecological restoration potential at the landscape level are distributed around the Yangtze River Estuary, and the cold spots are distributed in the Yang-Tai plain. According to the evaluation indexes of social economy, ecological function and planning response, the study area can be divided into five clusters; (3) According to the evaluation results, the ecological restoration structure of "five areas, three belts and two cores" can be constructed, and the countermeasures can be put forward in the aspects of development orientation, spatial control strategy, restoration object, engineering measures and so on. This study can provide reference for the compilation of ecological restoration planning of the area along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu province, the exploration of connotation and implementation paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with the background of natural resources integration and the more complex land use structure, it is difficult to effectively meet the demand for rational land use planning with a single land use structure optimization method. Considering the objectives of sustainable utilization of land use, ecological civilization, rural development, and urban- rural integration, we constructed an integrated system for land use structure and layout optimization, which will play a positive role in improving the applicability of planning. This study first sets three scenarios of natural evolution, economic priority, and ecological priority, and then uses the MOP model (multi-objective planning model) to calculate the optimal land use structure under different scenarios. Finally, it can carry on land use layout optimization based on the GeoSOSFLUS model in 2030, Jintan district, Jiangsu province, China. Results show that, by integrating the MOP and GeoSOS- FLUS models and adopting the "Structure + Constraint + Layout + Criterion" approach to optimize the land use structure and layout in the county, it is conducive to optimize the quantitative land use structure and improve the land use spatial distribution; from the results of the case analysis, the area of industrial and mining land in cities and towns has increased by 39% and 95% under the natural evolution and economic efficiency priority scenarios; the forest land has increased by 40% under the eco-efficiency priority scenario; rural settlements decreased by 33%, 66% and 66%, respectively in the three scenarios. Under the three development scenarios, the spatial pattern will face the two-level differentiation of urban space and ecological space. In the later period of regional development, it is necessary to strengthen the coordinated development of urban and rural land use and ecological protection, and promote a balanced spatial distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fragmentation of cultivated land will lead to the reduction of agricultural production efficiency, the decline of land use sustainability and the shortage of cultivated land. Land consolidation is one of the important ways to improve the fragmentation of cultivated land in China. In order to explore suitable land consolidation model to solve the problem of optimal allocation of cultivated land resources, this study constructs a model of optimal allocation of cultivated land resources based on multi-objective linear programming model from three aspects: engineering design, ownership adjustment and plots allocation, and selects a typical land consolidation project for case analysis. Then it compares the model optimization and actual land consolidation results with the pre-consolidation from the aspects of agricultural production consumption, improvement of arable land morphology and location, and ownership status. The results show that: (1) Through the optimization of the model, the agricultural cost in the project area, the average number of plots per farmer, and the average cultivation distance decreased by 20.41%, 34.92%, and 68.17%, respectively, while the average size of the plot increased by 53.72%. The fragmentation of cultivated land is reduced and the agricultural production efficiency is improved. However, compared with the typical foreign land consolidation project, there is still much room for improvement in the allocation of cultivated land. (2) The current land consolidation methods have played a positive role in increasing the average size of plots and improving the shape of plots. However, there are still deficiencies in reducing the farming distance of farmers, increasing the adjacency of cultivated roads, and promoting the concentration of cultivated land property rights. (3) Combining land consolidation with land ownership adjustment plays an important role in reducing the agricultural production consumption caused by land fragmentation and inconvenient farming and improving agricultural production efficiency. The research is of significance for enriching planning and designing methods of land consolidation and promoting the solution to the issue of fragmentation of cultivated land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The land use function transition is an important measure to promote the coordination of land use functions and achieve sustainable regional development. This paper constructs an analysis framework for land use function transition based on sustainable development from the perspective of functional coordination, and uses the five phases of remote sensing images of Jiangsu province in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, as well as related resource utilization and socio-economic data to construct the three level evaluation system of land use function. Taking the county as an evaluation unit, through triangle model and spatial correlation analysis, the spatial- temporal evolution characteristics of land use functions are quantitatively analyzed, and the coordination status of land use functions is proposed for sustainable land use in Jiangsu province. This paper has obtained the following main findings: (1) During the research period, the overall level of land use function in Jiangsu province has increased at a slower pace. The production and living functions have enhanced in different degrees, and the ecological function has significantly been reduced. (2) The spatial aggregation of production and living functions of land use in this province has not been obvious, and the areas of ecological functional hot spots and cold spots have a "Y"-shaped pattern of agglomeration distribution. (3) The sustainable development of different functional areas has not been the same. The sustainable development of key development zones and restricted development zones has been generally good. The sustainable development of optimizing development zones has been weak and continued to deteriorate. In the process of implementing development plans and space planning, we suggest that priority should be given to construct the modern demonstrative region in Southern Jiangsu, the key development zones should be focused on the living function transition, the restricted development zones (I type) should be focused on the production function transition, and the forbidden development zones should be implemented strictly to protect the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientifically and rationally delimiting the permanent basic farmland in the whole county region is an important strategic measure for China to ensure the national food security capacity, guarantee farmers’ real benefits and implement the food crop production strategy based on farmland management and technological application. The contradiction among urban master planning, land use planning, ecological protection planning of water sources and wild life conservation areas greatly affect the stability and longevity of permanent basic farmland such as term mismatch, the different technical standards, the land type border clash and the confused management regulations of the current planning. It is difficult for the policy makers, planner and farmers to plan, manage and build the protection zone of permanent basic farmland in practice. So, this study put forward a method for the delimitation of permanent basic farmland in the whole region based on multi-planning integration. First, on the basis of verifying the state of land use and coordinating the conflict of various planning, the farmland around the towns and cities with higher utilization index than the regional average is prior defined as the permanent basic farmland. Then, a comprehensive evaluation index system is constructed from the aspects of the quality of the cultivated land, the conditions of traffic location, the conditions of agricultural production and the space form of the land. This system is applied to delimit the protection area of the permanent basic farmland in other cultivated land zone by using the comprehensive score optimization method. The results show that: 1) stability and rationality of the delimiting basic farmland is further improved by deducting the reserved development land for construction projects, the cultivated land that is not consistent with the criteria for the delimitation of basic farmland and land parcels with the rules of utilization control unsuitable for farming. 2) delimiting the permanent basic farmland around the town and other cultivated areas step by step, which is beneficial to the rational control of town’s spatial scale, shape and landscape, also to construct the green ecological space in cities and towns.3) Lingshui county has delimited 22 224.36 hm2 of the permanent basic farmland in the whole region, which mainly located on Benhao - Timeng - Guangpo region, Longguang - Yingzhou region, Wenluo - Sancai region and the Nanfan breeding bases. The plan scheme has carried out the delimitation principles that the spatial pattern of permanent basic farmland should keep overall stability and can fine improve local parcels, prior it to protect the high quality cropland, and the quantity and quality of permanent basic farmland should be equally important. The constraint index of the plan meet the related policy requirements, and the quality control index of the plan is better than the index before adjustment. The delimitation scheme of the permanent basic farmland is basically reasonable. The method proposed in this research can not only implement the national territory utilization control regulation by means of the multi planning integration, but also provide a new reference for improving and deeply developing the prime farmland delimitation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land consolidation is one of the important means to safeguard national food security, support rural revitalization strategy, optimize the allocation of land resources, and promote the construction of ecological civilization. Ecological transformation is the inevitable trend for the development of land consolidation. It is quite important to carry out scientific and reasonable, objective and direct, and long-term comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of ecological environmental quality at project area scale. Based on remote sensing technology, RSEI (remote sensing ecological index) model can quickly, objectively and quantitatively evaluate regional ecological environment quality, and realize visual representation, time-space analysis, simulation and prediction of regional ecological environment quality changes. Applying multi-source remote sensing data and taking 6 years before and after land consolidation as study period, this research constructed the RSEI model with principal component analysis, and retrieved values of the wetness, greenness, heat, and dryness indicators and RSEI index to monitor and analyze ecological environmental quality in a typical land consolidation project. The standard values in the research are: 1) RSEI ranges from 0 to 1, and the closer to 1 the value, the better the ecological environment quality. 2) The RSEI basic level is divided into 5 levels from small to large, i.e. “poor, inferior, medium, good, and excellent”. 3) Based on the RSEI basic level, the RSEI level is divided into 9 subdivision levels (from -4 to 4) and 3 classes (worse, unchanged and better). All negative subdivision levels are classified as "worse", 0-value is classified as "unchanged", and all positive subdivision levels are classified as "better". The result shows: 1) The wetness and greenness indicators have a positive effect on promoting the ecological environment quality of the region, while the heat and dryness indicators have a restraining effect on the regional ecological environment quality, and the dryness indicator is more significant than the other 3 indicators. 2) Before, during, and after the land consolidation, the mean values of RSEI are 0.652, 0.572, and 0.605, respectively, and the proportion of excellent plus good RSEI class accounts for 78.73%, 39.55%, and 63.29% respectively in 3 periods. Meanwhile, the degenerated, unchanged, and improved RSEI classes are 42.55%, 46.25%, and 11.20% of the total area, respectively. 3) In this project area, the ecological environment quality presents a trend of decreasing firstly and increasing later, with an overall trend of decreasing, which are the characteristics of “turning worse during the consolidation period, getting better during the recovery period, and becoming worse in the overall process”. Land consolidation causes persistent disturbance to the ecological environment, and there is a lag to restore and improve regional ecological environment. Five years after the project completion, the ecological environment quality level is still lower than before. The project area is the direct target of land consolidation and the carrier of benefit manifestation. This study can provide certain theoretical guidance and method reference for the continuous monitoring and dynamic assessment of ecological environment quality at the project area scale. Furthermore, it can provide certain method reference and data support to improve the local ecological environment, ensure the quality of cultivated land, improve agricultural production conditions, and promote regional sustainable development in some degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest is a major carbon pool for terrestrial ecosystems, and it plays a very important role in global carbon cycle. Forest biomass is a key factor in estimating forest carbon storage, and its magnitude and spatial distribution are important parameters for assessing carbon sequestration potential of forest ecosystems. Scholars in the field have used different methods to study many aspects of forest biomass in China. Due to the spatial heterogeneity of forest biomass and differences in research methods and data, different scholars got different results. Three traditional methods have been used in biomass research: on- the- spot sampling, model method and remote sensing. Currently, statistical downscaling technique is a statistical method widely used in the study of ecosystem carbon cycle which transforms large- scale, lowresolution information into regional-scale, high-resolution information. This paper is based on the eighth China forest inventory data set, along with the impact factors of forest biomass, including the vegetation factor (NDVI), climatic factors (temperature, precipitation), and terrain factors (elevation, slope). We quantitatively estimate the forest biomass (1 km resolution) using the spatial downscaling technique, and the results of the study are verified on multiple scales. The results of this study are as follows: 1) The total stock of forest biomass is 13.56 Pg in China, with an average biomass of 65.3 t/hm2. The total amount of forest biomass is quite different in different provinces. The provinces with higher volume are concentrated in the southwest and the northeast, and the maximum biomass is 4.5 Pg in the southwest, accounting for 33% of the total biomass in China. The forest biomass is 3.58 Pg in the northeast, accounting for 26% of the total biomass in China. 2) The regression relationship between forest biomass and related factors at the provincial scale can be used for the estimation of forest biomass at the grid scale by downscaling technique, and the multi- scale verification analysis shows that the estimation results are reasonable. 3) The spatial pattern of forest biomass is consistent with the spatial distribution of hydrothermal condition. Taking the line from the northeast to the southwest as the boundary, China's biomass is primarily in the Da Xing'an Mountains, Xiao Xing'an Mountains and Changbai Mountain in the Northeast China, the Hengduan Mountains in the Southwest China, the Qinling Mountains, and the Wuyi Mountains in the Southeast China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land consolidation is an important measure for solving land use problems in the process of socio-economic development in many countries (regions) in the world. But cultivated land fragmentation has a negative effect on raising agricultural productivity, promoting agricultural mechanization and developing agricultural modernization for many years. Land consolidation is regarded as an effective mode to control the fragmentation of cultivated land, which has achieved remarkable results. As for the applicability of the index in the impact assessment of land consolidation on cultivated land fragmentation, the integrated existing research results found that landscape index is a quantitative research method that can highly concentrate landscape pattern information, and reflect some aspects of its structure composition and spatial configuration. And using landscape index to evaluate the impact of land fragmentation by land consolidation is helpful to highlight the improvement of land consolidation on land fragmentation in the scale of time and space. Landscape index is the main source for selecting evaluation index of cultivated land fragmentation. This paper adopted the general idea of “integrating index system, quantitatively evaluating index, statistical analysis and extracting index”. This study used land use data and village land ownership information, selected 27 evaluation indices based on the view of landscape index, and analyzed the fine fragmentation of cultivated land before and after land consolidation under different data sources, data types and granularity levels. By using ArcGIS and FRAGSTATS software, all alternative indices under different grid granularity levels were calculated. A statistical analysis was made on the significance, sensitivity, and difference of the calculation results of the indicators. Finally, according to the characteristics of the results, the evaluation indicators that can effectively represent the fragmentation status of the cultivated land were screened from the aspects of index connotation, method, and granularity. The results are as follows: 1) Evaluation results of cultivated land fragmentation under the project area scale are quite different from each other, which are affected by the basis data, the selected analysis methods and different grid granularity levels. If the land use data are directly used for evaluation like this, it is difficult to fully reflect the changes in the fragmentation of cultivated land, and at the same time, the impact of land consolidation on improving the fragmentation of cultivated land will also be underestimated. 2) In the terms of data types and grid granularity levels, vector landscape indices have a strong ability to characterize the cultivated land fragmentation. However, considering the comprehensiveness of evaluation indices, it is still necessary to calculate with grid data. No matter which data type is taken, the analysis results show that in the project area the suitable grain size is 10 m. 3) The common landscape indices are applied to the problems of cultivated land fragmentation evaluation, such as connotation repetition, method dependence, granularity sensitivity and result ambiguity, and the indicators which can effectively represent the fragmentation of cultivated land include the number of patches, mean patch size, edge density, patch density, patch size’s coefficient of variation, Shannon evenness index, and so on. 4) Land consolidation has obvious effect on improving the fragmentation of cultivated land. The number of patches and the degree of shape irregularity indices were decreased, NP, PD and ED were respectively decreased by 997, 0.16 and 141.73. While the indices representing patch scale and spatial distribution equilibrium were increased, MPS, PSCOV and SHEI were respectively increased by 0.118, 23.56 and 0.004. These results provide an important guide for deeply understanding the impact of land consolidation on the cultivated land fragmentation, and effectively analyzing and evaluating the status and problems of cultivated land fragmentation in project area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Railway is one of the important infrastructures for national economic and social development. With the rapid development of railway construction, the railway land is constantly expanding. There exist a certain number of inefficient/idle railway lands, which are induced by the industrial characteristics, railway route planning & functional design, land resource management and other factors. There are certain characteristics of railway lands including public welfare, free transfer, and unlimited duration of usage. Under the circumstances of increasingly prominent bottleneck of land resources, the comprehensive development and utilization of inefficient and idle railway land resource is of great significance, which will enhance the efficiency of resource utilization, improve the value of land resource, promote the regional development and improve the quality of environment. In order to promote the healthy development of railway industry and speed up the reform of railway enterprises, currently, several policies were proposed to revitalize the existing railway land and raise the efficiency of land use. It is of great significance to fully exploit the inefficient /idle railway land resources on the basis of ensuring the safety of railway transportation. The efficient use of the stock of railway land not only performs in the utilization benefit, but also reflects in the dynamic temporal changes. According to current situation of railway land use and the utilization efficiency, the stock of railway land can be divided into three categories, including normal use, inefficient use and idle state. There is a certain number of reserved land for development in practice because of the particularity of railway planning. In order to bring the inefficient and idle railway land resources into full play, a reasonable approach of comprehensive development and utilization should be adopted. Combining with the type of land use, land-use efficiency, city planning and other factors, this paper proposed a utilization strategy based on the potential evaluation of inefficient/idle railway lands. Meanwhile, the reform of inefficient/idle railway land into construction land can be divided into several categories, such as commercial service industry, urban landscape transformation, urban rail transportation, industrial warehousing services, etc. The selections of the corresponding comprehensive utilization types are based on the location, the traffic convenience, the completeness of service facilities, and other aspects of site conditions. Four cases of inefficient and idle railway land in Nanjing city were selected as study cases. By using the comprehensive evaluation framework and multi-source data, the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]