Uphill or downhill? Cropland use change and its drivers from the perspective of slope spectrum.

The continuous decrease of low-slope cropland resources caused by construction land crowding poses huge threat to regional sustainable development and food security. Slope spectrum analysis of topographic and geomorphic features is considered as a digital terrain analysis method which reflects the macro-topographic features by using micro-topographic factors. However, pieces of studies have extended the concept of slope spectrum in the field of geoscience to construction land to explore its expansion law, while research on the slope trend of cropland from that perspective remains rare. To address the gap, in virtue of spatial analysis and geographically weighted regression (GWR) model, the cropland use change in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) from 2000 to 2020 was analyzed and the driving factors were explored from the perspective of slope spectrum. Results showed that the slope spectrum curves of cropland area-frequency in the YRB showed a first upward then a downward trend. The change curve of the slope spectrum of cropland in each province (municipality) exhibited various distribution patterns. Quantitative analysis of morphological parameters of cropland slope spectrum revealed that the further down the YRB, the stronger the flattening characteristics, the more obvious the concentration. The province experienced the greatest downhill cropland climbing (CLC) was Shannxi, while province experienced the highest uphill CLC was Zhejiang. The most common cropland use change type in the YRB was horizontal expansion type. The factors affecting average cropland climbing index (ACCI) were quite stable in different periods, while population density (POP) changed from negative to positive during the study period. This research is of practical significance for the rational utilization of cropland at the watershed scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]