Work

Revealing geo-spatial disparity responses of cropland area dynamics to regional population size and economic development in China

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Increasingly geo-spatial mismatches among croplands, population and economy, induced by rapid urbanization, were perceived as greatly affecting regional sustainable developments, but their quantification interrelationships were not clearly clarified. To enhance the understanding, this study used the validated satellite-derived proxy data in 2000-2022 to investigate spatial responses of cropland area (CA) dynamics to regional population size (PS) and economic development (ED) at agricultural region and county scales. Results showed, (1) most counties of traditional agricultural regions usually displayed cropland density decrease, but CA increase focused on counties with low-density croplands. PS and ED changes were greatly responsible for the phenomena. (2) Responses of CA dynamics to PS and ED, however, performed various geospatial scale effects. In most agricultural regions, CA dynamics directly and negatively affected by PS (p<0.05) and indirectly by ED (p>0.05). Unusually, positive correlations between CA and PS were also observed in Northeastern (partial r=0.284, p>0.05) and Northwestern China (partial r=0.838, p<0.01). At the county scale, significantly negative responses of CA to ED were more observed in Mid-eastern counties. Even so, (3) national coupling coordination degree (CCD) among CA, PS and ED increased from 0.63±0.18 to 0.69±0.17. Counties with CCD values being lower than 0.5 (i.e., disorder developments) decreased from 337 to 242. ED played crucial roles in prompting national and county coordination developments, but CA made sacrifice. This study highlights that regional coordination developments should pay more attention to the nexus tradeoffs among CA, PS and ED in the future.

Source: Ecological Indicators

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.114394

Authors: Zhengjia Liu, Jiaqi Yang

Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China University of Geosciences

Language: English

Topic: Land Use and Ecosystem Services

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Zero hunger

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,650