Carrying Capacity and Coupling Coordination of Water and Land Resources Systems in Arid and Semi-arid Areas: A Case Study of Yulin City, China

Quantitatively assessing the carrying capacity of water and land resources systems in arid and semi-arid areas is crucial for achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.In this work,taking Yulin City in China as a case study and employing the Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation(CRITIC)method,a modified model of coupling degree was developed to evaluate the car-rying capacity of water and land resources systems endowment and utilization,as well as their coupling coordination degree from 2013 to 2020.Our findings indicate that the water and land resources of Yulin are diminishing due to declines in agriculture,higher industrial water use,and wetland shrinkage.However,reallocating domestic water for ecological sustainability and reducing sloping farmland can mitigate this trend of decline.Temporally,as the coupling coordination between water and land resources system endowment in Yulin continuously improved,the coupling coordination between water and land resources system utilization first decreased and then in-creased with 2016 as the turning point.Spatially,the carrying capacity of water and land resources systems,the coupling coordination degree between water and land resources system endowment,and the coupling coordination degree between water and land resources system utilization in Yulin exhibited the same pattern of being higher in the six northern counties than in the six southern counties.Improving the water resources endowment is vital for the highly efficient use of water and land resources.

Sustainable Utilization of Arable Land Resources in Karst Area:A Case Study of Anshun City of China

Aiming at utilization status of arable land resources in Anshun City,a Karst area,quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed from the viewpoints of quality,quantity and benefits of arable land.And the benefits of arable land were analyzed with multiple linear regression.Finally,the sustainable utilization of arable land resources was discussed,and several protection measures were pointed out.

Design and Applications of Land Resources and Ecological Environment Information System: A Case Study of Zigui County in the Three Gorges Area of China

The design and applications of a land information system built upon ARC/INFO and ArcView are presented. The proposed system not only maintains all the advantages of the more conventional implementations but also enhances them in the following ways: 1) the application program interfaces (API) are used to transmit data and messages among different parts of the system; 2) the integrated system can support studies on land evaluations and ecological analyses by efficient management of attribute and spatial data and 3) correspondingly, spatial records and attributive records are linked by the same identifiers (ID). A case study application in Zigui County of the Three Gorges Area in China demonstrates that the system could employ land-use maps and land property data to predicate and analyze the land utilization changes in the past, present and future. The ecological environment analysis can be carried out with the data of land, economics and terrain map used, showing that the system can be widely applied, especially to survey land and environment resources in the countryside area.

RESEARCH ON THE POPULATION CARRYING CAPACITY OF THE LAND RESOURCES IN THE ECONOMIC AREA OF ZHUJIANG DELTA

The authors once made a preliminary research on population carrying capacity of the land in the Economic Area of Zhujiang Delta (EAZD for short) in 1995, and reckoned that the ultimate population in this region will be 23 550 thousand by year of 2000. While the population in being in EAZD was 22.62 million in 1999.This accords with the prefigured result in the rough from the point of view of development. According to the data of plow land resources from the 2000 Statistical Yearbook of EAZD and the study on the population-foodstuff-plow land relationship, this paper calculates the productive potential of plow land and the population carrying capacity of land by year of 2010, and puts forward the countermeasures for improving the population carrying capacity of land in this region.

Assessment of Comprehensive Carrying Capacity of Land Resources Based on Land Functions

Based on relevant research results,from the perspective of land use functions,an evaluation indicator system of carrying capacity of land resources composed of three second-grade indicators( production,living and ecological carrying capacity) including 24 third-grade indicators was established,and the carrying capacity of land resources in ten cities of Shaanxi Province in 2013 was assessed and analyzed by using mean square error analysis method and hierarchical clustering method. The results showed that the three types of carrying capacity in most cities of Shaanxi Province are shown as follows: ecological carrying capacity > living carrying capacity > production carrying capacity,and the differences between various regions in a single type of carrying capacity basically accorded with the actual situation of development in each city; there were obvious differences between various cities in the comprehensive carrying capacity of land resources,which was basically consistent with regional economic and social development.

Construction of Forest and Grass Industry Economic Belt Using Land Resources in Road Side Slope

The construction of expressway and high-speed rail is at the sacrifice of the soil ecological environment. It brings about much damaged land and bare slope. It is necessary to restore vegetation and rebuild landscape. In the design of target plant community and configuration plants,it is required to select as far as possible plants that can blossom and bear fruit or pods. Then seeds of these plants can be harvested,processed and sold,and applied for other projects,so as to develop into a complete forest and grass seed industry chain. This not only reasonably utilizes land resources,but also provides a new approach to the problem of insufficient fine forest seed sources in China. This paper discussed the use of land resources in road side slope and forest and grass seed selection and breeding technology,and elaborated the industrialized development paths for forest and grass seed industries in road side slope. Finally,it arrived at following recommendations.( i) The construction of forest and grass industry economic belt using land resources in road side slope can realize maximum land value. Building a road can help people there get rich,and the type of land and water cultivates its type of forest and grass.( ii) It can make up for the losses incurred from construction of expressway and high-speed rail or destroying forest land,and it can increase farmers' income.( iii) It can increase the supply of domestic seeds,reduce seed import,save foreign exchange,and partly solve the problem of insufficient supply of forest and grass seeds.( iv) It is able to form a complete forest and grass seed industry economic cycle chain,increase employment,and provide new approaches for enriching and benefiting farmers.

Regional Study on Economical Supporting Capacity of Land Resources in Shandong Province

Taking the land resources of 17 cities in Shandong Province as the basic data, the article studied on the economical supporting capacity of land resources in terms of the effect of land on economy. The author classified 17 cities of Shandong Province into four types according to the economical supporting capacity of land resources by quantitatively estimating the evaluation indices of the total amount of land resources, the potential of urban and other nonagricultural land, and the integrated economical sup- porting capacity of land resources, etc. The author proposes the questions requiring further study at the end of this article.

Analysis on the Application of Quality Classification of Cultivated Land Resources in Municipal Land Space Planning:A Case Study of Chongzuo City

Cultivated land is the most important strategic resource to ensure food security.The newly constructed quality classification system of cultivated land resources considers the cultivated land health index for the first time.How the new classification and grading index system and the quality classification results of cultivated land resources to effectively guide the preparation of municipal land space planning has become a key research direction.This paper expounds the overall design idea for quality classification of cultivated land resources and classification index system.Taking Chongzuo City as an example,through the analysis of the quality classification results of cultivated land resources in the study area,using GIS spatial analysis and factor pairwise comparison method,this paper explores the application ideas and methods of quality classification research results of cultivated land resources in the formulation of cultivated land retention target,the delineation of dominant areas of cultivated land protection,the delineation of three control lines,the comprehensive improvement of land,and ecological restoration zoning in the municipal land space planning.

Coordination of urbanization and cultivated land resources in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area:A case study of Guangzhou City

Guangzhou,a significant hub city in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,has seen fast social and economic growth as well as steady progress in the degree of urbanization.This research,taking Guangzhou city as an example,aims to provide an understanding of how land resources,urbanization,and spatial planning are coordinated in the study area.It also aims to explore how the coordination degree of land resources,urbanization,and spatial planning changes over time.It seeks to provide effective suggestions for land resource protection,national spatial planning,and urban transformation development to promote the coordinated development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area into a world-class Bay Area.

Status of China's Land Resources in 2013

On 22nd April 2014,with the approach of the 45th World Earth Day,the Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources announced the status of China＇s land resources in 2013,putting forward the implementation of strict farmland protection measures to ensure the 1.8 billion acres of arable land.This laid a solid foundation for achieving a ＂ten even increase＂ of food production and ensuring China＇s food security.

The Coordination Effect of Marine and Land Resources Carrying Capacity of Coastal Areas in China

The carrying capacity of marine and land resources is one of the indicators to measure the sustainable development level of coastal areas,reflecting the supporting capacity of the ecological environment for human activities and the impact of human activities on the regional environment.This paper establishes an evaluation index system to determine the evaluation value of the carrying capacity of marine and land resources in China’s coastal areas,the evaluation index of marine and land resources supply capacity(economic and social development demand)subsystem,and the degree of coordinated development of the subsystems in 11 coastal areas from 2006 to 2017.The results showed that the average supply and demand capacity of the two subsystems in each region is not high;the average demand level of economic and social development is higher than the supply capacity of marine and land resources;the carrying capacity of marine and land resources is slightly overloaded in most areas;the collaborative development between the supply and demand subsystems is barely coordinated with moderate imbalance;most regions need to move in the direction of green development to ensure the supply capacity of marine and land resources.

Urban Food Supply under Constrained Land Resources in Beijing:Potential and Optimization

The recent global food security crisis is garnering increasing attention and calls for innovative solutions to mitigate its negative impacts on people, especially the most economically vulnerable. In urban regions, this issue is aggravated by the fact that, on one hand, rapid urbanization and greater levels and diversity of food consumption associated with the growing affluence of urban inhabitants has led to rising urban food demand, while on the other hand, the rapid loss of farmland due to urban expansion or irrational sprawl and increasing extreme weather events for agricultural producers due to the impact of global climate change is sharply reducing the urban food production and local supply capacity. Therefore how to realize the urban food supply potential and optimize the utilization of the urban farmlands to enhance the local food supply rate and improve urban food security more generally is becoming a key issue. In this paper, we use the case of Beijing to examine the opportunities to enhance the supply of local, affordably priced food under existing land resource constraints, by restructuring farmland utilization. In this paper, we firstly calculate the changes in the food footprint needed by Beijing and its food self-sufficiency rate over the thirty year period from 1981 to 2011. We show that although Beijing’s food footprint has grown from 11 800 to 29 400 km2 over this 30-year period, its food self- sufficiency rate has dropped from 59.3%, 35.8%, 37.3% and 13.1% to about 39.0%, 27.0%, 6.7% and 2.2% for vegetable, fruit, grain and edible oil, respectively. Following this analysis, we calculate Beijing’ s potential food production under different agricultural production allocation scenarios. We conclude that with a proper shift of farmland use, full utilization of temporary idle land, and the development of rooftop farming, Beijing could increase its vegetable self-sufficiency rate to 60% without significantly reducing the production of other types of local food. Given the sensitivity of fresh vegetables to long- distance transport, and the potential to reduce transport-related carbon emissions, this is a worthwhile adjustment that will benefit the city both by meeting the growing need of its residents for fresh food, and by improving the overall regional eco-environment.

The supporting capability of Water and land resources for sustainable increase of yield in North China Plain

The potential of yield increase in the North China Plain is about 30 billion kg by ameliorating the low yield and medium low yield farmlands and 4 billion kg by reclaiming unused land. Water shortage will be the main limitation to the further increase of grain crop yield. The amount of water shortage is 8 200 million m3 at present, and will be 17 720 million m3 in 2 000. Yield increase can not be realized by using more water in the future. Other factors such as decrease of the area of cultivated land and the grain crop growing area, deterioration of environment and destruction of resources will also affect the development of grain production. Some suggestions have been proposed in the paper for attaining sustainable increase of yield in the plain.

Soil and land resources for agricultural production:General trends and future scenarios-A worldwide perspective

Based on the global distribution of land and soil quality and the world population,future trends in the agricultural use of land and soil resources are described,which will severely compromise future global food and fiber production through the increase and the spatial changes of world population,through the loss of fertile land caused by insufficient soil management and through urbanisation and industrialization Moreover,future changes in life style and the increasing demand for food and bioenergy,trough changes in world economy,through climate change and a worldwide decrease in fresh water supply,sustainable land use for the production of food and fiber will be under threat.Until 2050 global food production must be doubled for satisfying global needs.Our scenarios should help to preview future changes,to counterbalance and to mitigate possible negative impacts,thus sustaining global food security.

What are the underlying causes and dynamics of land use conflicts in metropolitan junction areas?A case study of the central Chengdu–Chongqing region in China

Land use conflicts(LUCs),as a spatial manifestation of the conflicts in the human-land relationships,have a profound impact on regional sustainable development.For China’s metropolitan junction areas(MJAs),the existence of“administrative district economies”has made the issue of LUCs more prominent.Based on a case study of the central Chengdu–Chongqing region,we conducted an exploratory spatial data analysis of the evolutionary process of regional LUCs.Furthermore,structural equation modeling was utilized to analyze the dynamic mechanism of LUCs in MJAs,with a particular emphasis on exploring the influences of administrative boundary.The results showed that from 2010 to 2020,LUCs in the central Chengdu–Chongqing region continued to worsen,and the spatial process conflict and spatial structure conflict indices increased by more than 30.0%.The intensification of LUCs in the central Chengdu–Chongqing region from 2010 to 2020 was mainly the result of the deterioration of conflicts in evaluation units with low conflict levels.LUCs in China’s metropolitan areas generally presented a circular gradient distribution,weakening from the core to the periphery,but there were some strong isolated conflict zones in the outer regions.LUCs in China’s MJAs were the result of interactions among multiple factors,e.g.,natural environment,socio-economic development,policy and institutional processes,and administrative boundary effects.Administrative boundary affected the flow of socio-economic elements,changing the supply-and-demand competition of stakeholders for land resources,consequently exerting an indirect influence on LUCs.This study advances the theory of the dynamic mechanism of LUCs,and provides theoretical support for the governance of these conflicts in transboundary areas.

Coupling of water and land resources and its application in regionalization

This paper focuses on the coupling of water and land resources based on several factors related closely to either water or land resources, which have become a topical subject due to the economic expansion and their sustainable development in recent years. A case of Qihe County in Shangdong Province, China has been used to demonstrate the methodology of the coupling and its application in regionalization with the help of geographical information system (GIS) tool. Field observation and measurement of soil salt and moisture in several profiles are used to verify the results of the coupling, which gives reasonable distribution of different areas regarding to the advantages and disadvantages for sustainable agriculture.

Evaluation method and empirical application of human activity suitability of land resources in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The current suitability evaluation methods for land resources human activity in China suffer from theoretical deficiencies related to fundamental data accuracy,elevation and slope classification,and suitability class judgment.Empirical application of these methods is also hindered by excessive evaluation indicators,data acquisition difficulties,and limited applicability to high altitude regions.To address these issues,this paper proposes a technical evaluation framework for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau(QTP) that employs selected key parameters varying with elevation and slope to establish grid-scale evaluation models for construction land suitability(CLS) and arable land suitability(ALS).A generalized algorithm is then proposed for key parameters such as air density,air temperature,slope suitability for construction,and soil erosion resistance of sloping arable land.Empirical research is conducted using Milin County in southeast Tibet as a case study,with interval measurements of 100 m in elevation and 1° in slope.The evaluation model is tested using grid accuracies of 30 m,50 m,100 m,250 m,500 m,and 1000 m.The results reveal that:Firstly,the CLS and ALS can be categorized into five classes:highly suitable,suitable,moderately suitable,marginally suitable,and unsuitable,with varying area ratios under different grid accuracies.Secondly,existing construction lands in Milin County are mainly distributed in suitable,highly suitable,and moderately suitable CLS classes,accounting for over 94% of the total area studied under different grid accuracies.While arable land is mainly distributed in suitable,highly suitable,and moderately suitable ALS classes,accounting for over 96%.Thirdly,the empirical research in Milin County indicates that the evaluation method,quantitative model,and parameters algorithm for evaluating human activity suitability of land resources on the QTP are feasible and applicable,with a recommended grid accuracy within 100 m and a maximum of 250 m.Fourthly,the paper establishes a correspondence between land suitability(including construction land and arable land) and topographic factors(elevation and slope) that can be applied to the QTP.Finally,some professional defects in the evaluation methods of available land resources in Major Function Zoning and “Double Evaluations” of Territorial Spatial Planning in China when applied to the QTP are identified.

Cooperation agreement reached between the Ministry of Land and Resources, Guangdong Province and C

On August 24, 2017, the Ministry of Land and Resources, Guangdong province and CNPC signed in Beijing a Strategic Cooperation Agreement on Promoting the Building of a Pilot Site for Exploring and Exploiting Gas Hydrate in the Shenhu Area of the South China Sea. The conclusion of this agreement will help accelerate the industrial development of gas hydrate in China, and is of great strategic significance to securing the country＇s energy security and optimizing its energy mix.

Protecting Land and Resources

LAND is a resource vital to life and production. China Today recently visited Wang Dacao, head of the Liaoning Provincial Department of Land and Resources. We asked him how the province protects and utilizes its land and resources for the purposes of sustainable development and benefit of later generations.Rich ResourcesThe land and sea within the boundaries of Liaoning Province, northeastern