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.

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.

Relationship between Rural Industry Revitalization and Land Resource Utilization and Its Practice in Ganning Town, Wanzhou District of Chongqing

[Objectives]To explore the relationship between rural industry revitalization and land resource utilization.[Methods]Starting from the connotation of rural industry revitalization and land resource utilization,this study explores the relationship between rural industry revitalization and land resource utilization,Taking Ganning Town with typical mountain industry as the research area,this paper analyzed the relationship between rural industry revitalization and land resource utilization through a combination of field research and literature analysis,found out the existing problems and came up with pertinent recommendations.[Results](i)Rural industry revitalization is both mutually reinforcing and mutually restrictive.(ii)In this study,the land use types of Ganning Town were divided into nine categories,including farmland,garden land,forest land and grassland,and their industrial functions and development models were identified,and the corresponding framework of land resource utilization and rural industry revitalization in Ganning Town was constructed.(iii)In view of the problems existing in Ganning Town,this paper proposed to change the ideological concept and enhance understanding,improve the utilization rate of idle land and promote rural industry revitalization,and accelerate land consolidation and restoration,and promote sustainable development.[Conclusions]It is necessary to correctly understand the two-way role and dynamic change relationship between rural industry revitalization and land resource utilization,solve the problem from the perspective of development,adopt development strategies according to local conditions,and take the road of sustainable development.

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.

Construction of Land Resource Security System for Core Grain Production Region in Henan Province

To solve the contradiction between supply and demand of land, the con- struction of land resource security guarantee system is an important part to coordi- nate the economic development and cultivated land protection in the core grain pro- duction region. Based on the deep analysis on the land resources characteristics and problems using the combined method of literature review method with qualita- tive and quantitative analysis, we constructed the land resource security system for different categories according to the land use principles of optimization, intensivism, improvement, and overall planning, and proposed the corresponding supporting mea- sures. The results showed that controlling the new increase, promoting the reclama- tion and improvement of land are the basis for land resource security, clearing the idle, improving the utilization rate of stock are the core of the efficient use of land resources, and establishing a unified urban and rural construction land market is the key to promoting the economical and intensive utilization of land resources, provid- ing scientific basis for the sustainable utilization of land resources in the core grain production regions.

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.

Improving Land Resource Evaluation Using Fuzzy Neural Network Ensembles

Land evaluation factors often contain continuous-, discrete- and nominal-valued attributes. In traditional land evaluation, these different attributes are usually graded into categorical indexes by land resource experts, and the evaluation results rely heavily on experts＇ experiences. In order to overcome the shortcoming, we presented a fuzzy neural network ensemble method that did not require grading the evaluation factors into categorical indexes and could evaluate land resources by using the three kinds of attribute values directly. A fuzzy back propagation neural network （BPNN）, a fuzzy radial basis function neural network （RBFNN）, a fuzzy BPNN ensemble, and a fuzzy RBFNN ensemble were used to evaluate the land resources in Guangdong Province. The evaluation results by using the fuzzy BPNN ensemble and the fuzzy RBFNN ensemble were much better than those by using the single fuzzy BPNN and the single fuzzy RBFNN, and the error rate of the single fuzzy RBFNN or fuzzy RBFNN ensemble was lower than that of the single fuzzy BPNN or fuzzy BPNN ensemble, respectively. By using the fuzzy neural network ensembles, the validity of land resource evaluation was improved and reliance on land evaluators＇ experiences was considerably reduced.

Evaluation of Sustainable Land Management and Diagnosis of Obstacle at County Scale in Sichuan Basin:Taking Lezhi County as Example

This paper established sustainable land resources evaluating indicators fit for hilly area in Sichuan Basin, Southwest of China, and evaluated the case of sustainable land management of Lezhi County from 1990 to 2001. The result showed that the land resource sustainable utilization ability in Lezhi County is belong to Second level （better sustainable）. Secondly, this paper diagnosed some years obstacles of sustainable land management of Lezhi County from base period to goal period and compared the obstacles factors in the indicators system. There were 16 indexes orderly become major affect factor to land sustainable utilization of Lezhi county in indicator system, of which there are 8 obstacles indexes exist both in 1990 and 2001. The value of obstacles degree of five indicators exceeded 5 in 1990, but in 2001, only two indicators＇ values were more than 5.

Analysis of Cultivated Land Change in Hubei Province for the Last 60 Years

[Objective] The aim was to study the characteristics of land resources changes in Hubei Province in recent 60 years. [Method] By dint of historical documents,statistics and prevailed data in Hubei Province from 1949 to 2009,the temporal and spatial changes of arable land resources in Hubei Province in recent 60 years were discussed in terms of human-land relation. [Result] The amount of arable land resources in Hubei Province in recent 60 years had gone through the dynamic changes of increasing first for a short time and then continuing to decrease and then increasing stably again. Because of different natural condition and social economy,the regional differences of arable land changes were distinct. The reduction of arable resources and population worsened the relation of human being and the land,intensified the contradiction and resulted in large impact on the sustainable development of agricultural production and social economy. [Conclusion] It provided theoretical basis for the sustainable development of Hubei Province.

Study of Chinese Economic "Growth Drag" Caused by Land Resource in the Perspective of the Modified Two-Level CES Production Function

The purpose of the study is to measure the "growth drag" according to the characteristic of Chinese land resource.Romer model (2001) holds that every country is inevitably affected by the "growth drag" due to the limitation of land resource.So it's of profound strategic significance to measure the "growth drag" according to the character of Chinese land resource.Modified two-level CES production function was employed,and this paper modified the hypothesis of the model.The result indicates that the limitation of Chinese land resource casts shadow over the economic development of China,and the growth rate is 0.4618% lower than that without the limitation of land resource.Through implementing the land resource protection policy along with the technology improvement and the substitute effect of other factors to the land resource,China will keep a steady and balanced economic growth.

SUSTAINABLE USE OF LAND RESOURCE AND ITS EVALUATION IN COUNTY AREA—A Case of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Sustainable use of natural resources is different from sustainable development. As the most important natural resource, sustainable use of land resource is the essential guarantee of sustainable development. The nature of sustainable use of land resource is to retain the quantity and productivity of land resource from generation to generation.The evaluation of sustainable use of land resource is an important method to ensure land use to get onto the sustainable track. Furthermore, building index system is the key of the evaluation. In view of tendency of the evaluation indexes chosen so widely, the evaluation indexes should include only three kinds in the researches on the evaluation of sustainable use of land resource. The first is the stock and structure index of land resource, viz. Areas quantity structure of land resources. In China, it is especially paid attention to the per person index of land quantity and rate between cultivated land and farmland. The second is the productive index of land, which includes the productivity, potentiality, stability and renewal situation of land. The third is the sustained index of land environment. On the evaluation research of area level, we should lay particular emphasis on statistic indexes. With a case of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in China, the evaluation index system of sustainable land use in county area has been built in this thesis. Using the weighted average method to calculate the means of sustainable land use in each county, according to the land using situation, all counties in the autonomous region have been divided into three types. (1) Sustainable Pattern contains 18 counties, which have higher land resource productivity, stronger sustained abilities of land environment .The economic benefits of land using in these counties are obviously higher. These counties have gotten highly intensive farming, and they are all in the good circumstance. (2) Basically Sustained Pattern contains 48 counties, which productivity of land resource is of middle level. In part of counties and cities, the stock of land resource inclines to lower level, but their land using potentialities are still greater. Through changing land using pattern, these counties can rapidly enter in a good circumstance. (3) Critically Sustained Pattern contains 14 counties, which are mostly in the karst mountain areas. They have less stock of land resource, lower productivity and more extensive cultivation. The productivity of land renewing has been hindered, so it urgently need to be renovated. At last, the writers have explored the basic ways of sustainable use of land resource in Guangxi, China — (1) Retain the stock of land resource and strictly manage farmland uses. (2) Strengthen the value accounting of land resource, and control the farmland occupation of non agricultural construction. (3) Depend on technology advanced, optimize the land using structure, and promote the productive level. (4) Carry out land management all round, and improve the ecological environment of land resource. (5) Enhance evaluation researche and land monitoring, and promote the sustainable utilization level of land resource.

Arable land increase in northern China: facts and findings

Based on investigations between 1986 and 1996 in the four provinces of northern China, major problems on land reclamation were discovered. The increase of arable land was mainly low quality fields from barren land and was susceptible to disertification and water-induced soil erosion. In the meantime, large area of grassland and forestland was lost or degraded, and original fertile arable land was occupied for residential and industrial use. As a result the environment deteriorated. This change was mainly caused by economic development, population growth, inferior natural conditions, and irrational management strategies. Finally some positive measures were suggested to stop this negative cycle.

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.

Evaluation of Potential Land Productivity in Wulushan, West China

The general situation of the total land resources in Wulushan, West China was studied by field investigations with the aid of a GIS software, called Region Manager. The current status of land use in Wulushan is described. The potential land productivity was evaluated by a fuzzy comprehensive method, We take each plot as a basic unit of evaluation on the basis of an index system of land resources in Wulushan which was developed from the investigation data. Evaluation of potential land productivity is the key part of land management. A guideline is presented in this paper for a proper utilization of the land resources and to develop the productive capacity of the land.

Dynamic Change of Arable Land Ecological Security: A Case Study of Panyu District, Guangzhou City

Ecological security of arable land is closely related to grain security and social stability. This paper took 12 typical indexes from the aspects of ecological pressure, state and response of arable land considering natural, social and economic conditions to construct the ecological index system of arable land in Panyu District, Guangzhou City, and adopted objective weighting method and comprehensive analysis method to analyze the dynamic change of ecological security and security level of arable land in the study area. The results showed that ecological security pressure value and response value of arable land in Panyu District from 2008 to 2013 increased and the overall ecological security level was low, manifesting the level of "sensitive–risky–sensitive". Specifi cally, ecological security of arable land in 2008 was sensitive, risky from 2009 to 2011, and the security level rose to the sensitive level again in 2012 and 2013. Ecological restoration and rebuilding of arable land should be enhanced, and ecological security early warning system should be established by protecting quantity and quality of arable land, so as to protect arable land resources effectively, and promote sustainable development of arable land.

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.

Sustainable Development and Restoring the Landscape after Coal Mining in the Northern Part of the Czech Republic

Coal mining has an impact on the countryside and landscape where the exploitation of the mineral occurs, particularly with regard to the way it is mined, the technology used, the surface area, and the shape of the coalfield and extent of mining. The impact of mining, which is predominantly negative, is gradually being eliminated today in accordance with applicable laws by applying knowledge and experience and with the help of a variety of reclamation and revitalization activities. The newly created landscape gives the area new value and opportunity for use. The process of restoring a landscape after coal mining should be primarily guided by the principle of sustainable development to ensure that a balance of the social, economic and environmental aspects is achieved. This article discusses the theoretical basis of the individual possibilities for restoring the landscape in such a way that the anthropogenic formations caused by coal mining are best incorporated into the surrounding landscape and likewise meet the social and economic needs of society. A model area can be found in the northern part of the Czech Republic that has been scarred by coal strip mining for nearly 200 years, but the adverse effects on the landscape have been successfully smoothed over by reclamation methods.

Assessing the Real Value of Farmland in China

The preservation of farmland is a growing concern in China because the fact that China possesses limited land resources and the world's largest population presents a clear contradiction. Only when the value of farmland is fully appreciated in commercial markets can farmland preservation be effectively achieved. The current study constructed a model to evaluate the economic, social, and ecological value of farmland in China according to the connotation of values. As a case study, the value of Chinese farmland was estimated in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, and 2011 using the established model. Although the amount of farmland was greatly reduced from 1999 to 2011 due to constructive occupation, agricultural restructuring, ecological restoration, and disaster destruction, the value of this farmland increased from 220.71×1012 to 736.26×1012 RMB Yuan as a result of the multifunctional nature and scarcity of farmland during the same period. The potential value of farmland in China was huge, but the value in the market was greatly underestimated, especially in regard to its social and ecological value. This study proposes a new method that integrates the discounted value of all future services provided by a natural resource(for the society and individuals) to evaluate the resource assets, provides a scientific foundation for the preservation and operation of farmland assets, and explores ways to increase farmers' property income.