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Cropland-grassland use conversion analysis constitutes crucial research on regional land and global change science, having important implications for regional ecology, food security and the well-being of farmers and herders. However, relevant research is rare, and limited attention has been given to the Tibetan Plateau. Therefore, based on land use raster data, this study utilized the land use conversion matrix method to investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of cropland-grassland conversions during 1990–2020 in the agro-pastoral areas of the Tibetan Plateau.Then this research further identified the key natural geographical and socioeconomic driving forces of cropland-grassland conversions, and examined the mechanisms and spatial heterogeneity of their driving effects by using the geographically weighted regression model. The results showed that cropland-grassland conversions temporally presented the “slow-slow-rapid” changes in 1990–2020 and were spatially clustered in the eastern semipastoral areas. Through mechanisms of ecological equilibrium, resource carrying, population mobility, interest-driven and macroregulation, natural geographical and socioeconomic factors within the cropland-grassland conversion system interacted differently in direction and extent with obvious spatial heterogeneity. Regional increasing rainfall, temperature and topographic relief expanded the extent of cropland use, coupled with the effects of distance to transportation and water sources and increased rural employment, causing widespread and profound land reclamation of grassland-to-cropland, further encouraged by cropland balance policy, while climate change and distance from inhabited settlement and transportation promoted cropland-to-grassland conversion, exacerbated by policies on nature reserve designation and cropland balance, and the fact that rapidly increasing urbanisation in the east accelerated cropland abandonment by diversifying nonfarm employment livelihood strategies. Value added in agriculture and livestock and agricultural machinery inputs tended to restrict cropland-grassland conversions by promoting their internal tapping into intensive and potential use. “Key place-based” and differentiated management policies were proposed to promote sustainable cropland-grassland use conversions and regional development.

The construction of infrastructure and public services is the core of countryside planning. As the carrier of rural public services, the evolutionary pattern and efficiency of rural public service land (RPSL) can directly reflect the development of rural public services. However, existing studies have mainly characterized public service space through the number of public service facilities rather than the area of land occupied. Furthermore, research on public service land in rural settlements is lacking. Taking 273 villages in the Pinggu District of Beijing as an example, this article integrated multi-dimensional data, including geospatial data, big data, and socio-economic data, to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of RPSL from 2004 to 2019. The bi-dimensional allocation efficiency index addressing qualitative and quantitative development was introduced to measure the allocation efficiency of RPSL. The results show that the area of RPSL in Pinggu District has increased by 57.28 ha, and the internal land use structure of RPSL has become balanced. The evolution pattern of RPSL was characterized by both agglomeration and dispersion, as well as by a significant tendency to expand along main roads. The uneven distribution of public service facilities and the significant differences in accessibility reflected the non-equalization of public services. The allocation efficiency of RPSL in 79.23% of the villages was at a low level, which is mainly due to the mismatch between the rural public service land area and the population, the non-differentiated allocation of public service facilities, the uneven public service quality, and the low accessibility of RPSL. In the future, policymakers should plan rural public service land rationally from the perspective of the actual situation, such as setting flexible indicators, building a living circle of rural settlements, and so on. This research will not only enrich the research perspective of rural public services but also provide a reference for the study on the utilization and optimization of rural settlements.

Affected by rapid urbanization, the spatial layout of rural residential land (RRL) is facing urgent reconstruction and adjustment. The study of spatial change patterns of RRL can provide a basis for optimization and adjustment. The Pinggu of Beijing was chosen as the study area. Taking into account the layout characteristics of RRL from 2005 to 2015, a combination matrix method was developed to identify the spatial change patterns. The distribution characteristics of the change patterns under different environmental gradients were further analyzed. The study shows that the layout types of RRL in Pinggu in 2015 were dominated by the dispersion-regular-large scale cluster type and concentration-regular-large scale cluster type. The area of RRL patches in Pinggu increased by 686.89 hm2 from 2005 to 2015, which was approximately 12%. The main spatial change patterns of the RRL are the cluster leapfrog dispersion change pattern and cluster edge-expansion concentration change pattern. The distribution of the pattern of RRL shows a decreasing trend under the topography and location gradients set in this paper. And the spatial patterns of RRL are changing at an accelerated rate due to the advanced production environment represented. Our study analyzes the changing pattern of RRL from multiple environmental gradients and provides a basis for the formulation of RRL layout optimization strategies.

Simulating the future evolution of the internal land use structure of rural settlements (RSILUS) is vital for rural land management. However, previous simulation studies have mostly regarded rural settlements as a whole, thereby ignoring their internal structural variations. In this paper, as an example, we select Pinggu District, which has experienced the impact of rapid urbanization and has an unstable rural land use structure (LUS); then, we examine the driving factors of the changes in the RSILUS, construct a cellular automata (CA)–Markov simulation model specifying the RSILUS, and simulate its changes in 2025. The results indicate the following. (1) The influencing factors of various land use changes in rural settlements in Pinggu District differ significantly. Basic land, such as living functional land, is greatly influenced by natural resources, whereas production functional land is subject to socioeconomic factors. (2) The simulation results demonstrate that from 2015 to 2025, the production and living functional land areas of rural settlements will decrease as a whole. Accordingly, the distribution of rural public service land (RPSL) will tend to remain stable, and the trends of land use abandonment and functional degradation will continue as rural areas continue to recede. Our study enriches the research on rural land use systems by refining the simulation of rural settlements to focus on their internal structure. The differentiation and complexity of the changes in rural LUS types further suggests that rural planning and renewal should adapt to the changing conditions of the RSILUS, and the LUS should be adjusted to improve the constructed environment in human settlements and equalize urban and rural areas.

The balance between population and water and land resources is an important part of regional sustainable development. It is also significant for the ecological civilization in China and can help solve the Three Rural Issues (agriculture, countryside and farmers) in China. The Silk Road Economic Belt and Maritime Silk Road in twenty-first Century Strategy have brought new opportunities for the Hexi Corridor, which is facing challenges in the sustainable development of rural settlements. In this paper, we analyzed the temporal-spatial differentiation of rural settlement patterns in Shandan County of Hexi Corridor and studied the spatial association between rural settlements and water-land resources. Results show that the total area of rural settlement patches (CA), the number of rural settlement patches (NP), the mean patch area (MPS), the maximum patch areas (MAXP), the minimum patch areas (MINP) and the density of rural settlement patches (PD) changed more rapidly from 1998 to 2008 than from 2008 to 2015. In the second period, the indices mentioned before did not change significantly. The kernel density of rural settlements is basically consistent in three periods. Rural settlements mainly distribute along major roads and the hydrographic network and the kernel density of rural settlements decreases in the direction away from these roads and the hydrographic network. In addition, rural settlements in Shandan County are densely distributed in some regions and sparsely distributed in other regions. The dispersion degree of rural settlements increased from 1998 to 2008 and tended to be stable after 2008. These lead to the dispersion, hollowing and chaos of rural settlements in Shandan County. The spatial distribution of rural settlements in Shandan County is closely related to that of cultivated land and the hydrographic network. Our results might provide a theoretical basis for the reasonable utilization of water and land resources in Shandan County. Ultimately, a balance between population and water and land resources and regional sustainable development can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]