Spatial restructuring and land consolidation of urban-rural settlement in mountainous areas based on ecological niche perspective

Abstract

With the socioeconomic development associated with urbanization, the urban-rural relationship has changed across the world. In China, due to the urban-rural dual structure, these changes turn out to be more complicated. Spatial restructuring are suggested as the main strategies and spatial supporting platforms for urban-rural development. However, the theory still lacks solid methodology and support from systematic empirical studies. This study seeks an adequate scientific methodology and discusses the difference of urban-rural transformation in plains and mountainous areas. A case in Shanghang County, China, demonstrates: 1) The compound ecological niche model can be a suitable approach in urban-rural restructuring, especially in mountainous areas. 2) The urban-rural development area with highly inappropriate, slightly appropriate, moderately appropriate, and highly appropriate areas are 1273.2 km 2 (44.69%); 906.1 km 2 (31.80%); 509.4 km 2 (17.88%); and 160.1 km 2 (5.62%), respectively. 3) The "deserting villages" in mountainous areas play positive synergistic roles in urbanization, in contrast to the "hollowing villages" common in plain areas. 4) The central town-village will become the most important settlement in mountainous areas. Therefore, we suggest more attention should be paid to environmental capacity in the construction of central town-villages. This study significantly extends the understanding of "hollowing village" theory and regional planning.

Rural vitalization in China: A perspective of land consolidation

“…Since 2000, China has added 64.5 million mu (1 mu=1/15 ha) of cultivated land and built 600 million mu of farmland with high yields and stability through land consolidation, thereby effectively promoting the vitalization and intensive use of land resources in rural areas (Jiang et al, 2017). In recent years, research on land consolidation has focused on the aspects such as the related theory (Long, 2014;Yan et al, 2015), potential and performance evaluations (Tu et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2017), planning and designing model (Yan et al, 2016), project types and measures (Liu, 2011), landscape ecological benefits (Wang and Zhong, 2017), and operational supervision mechanisms (Liu et al, 2012), while barely addressing the multi-functionality of land consolidation (Zhang et al, 2018) and its relationship with rural transformation development (Long, 2012;Yu et al, 2018). Based on the key elements affecting rural development, this paper illustrates the essence of and reciprocity between rural vitalization and land consolidation in the new era, analyzes the regional implementation of land consolidation within the context of rural vitalization, and renders vital suggestions towards land consolidation in the future in order to provide a solid theoretical basis for the comprehensive vitalization of the rural population, land, and industry.…”

Agricultural labor changes and agricultural economic development in China and their implications for rural vitalization

“…However, relatively few studies have focused on the coupling relationship between agricultural labor transfer and agricultural economy (Li and Fang, 2018), and analyses focusing on both theoretical and empirical levels are relatively scarce. At present, most current research areas are based on provinces and cities, and there is limited research at the county level although the importance of the county economy in China's economic development is becoming increasingly prominent (Yu et al, 2018). To address these data deficiencies, this study uses data for 1991, 2000, and 2010 at the county level to analyze the interactions between the agricultural labor force and agricultural economic development in different regions of the country and their spatio-temporal coupling patterns.…”

Rural-Spatial Restructuring Promoted by Land-Use Transitions: A Case Study of Zhulin Town in Central China

“…The change in rural housing area per capita is a direct way to reflect the restructuring of rural life, which is influenced by both changes in total residential area and population migration [29]. There is substantial empirical evidence for the spatial distribution of rural living space in China, involving multiple scales and national/regional, municipal, county and village levels [30,31]. Spatial restructuring strategies for different types of village have been proposed to promote different models of rural-spatial restructuring [32,33], and empirical studies on the spatial restructuring of rural settlements in different regions have been conducted [34][35][36].…”