The Imprint of Built-Up Land Expansion on Cropland Distribution and Productivity in Shandong Province

Abstract

Grain self-sufficiency is a national food security target of China. The way that built-up land expansion impacts upon cropland loss and food provision needs to be explored in the major grain producing areas. Shandong Province is an important agricultural food production region, which is also experiencing rapidly urbanizing. Here we assessed the spatiotemporal distribution of cropland loss due to built-up land expansion and landscape dynamics of cropland during 2000–2020, by using 30 m resolution land cover data. We also analyzed the potential yield change influenced by cropland loss. The results showed that the area of built-up land expanded by 5199 km2 from 2000–2010, and 11,949 km2 from 2010–2020. Approximately 95% of the new built-up land was from cropland during the two stages, and the primary mode of built-up land expansion was the edge expansion. The patch density and the patch size of cropland kept increasing and decreasing, respectively, and the aggregation index kept decreasing from 2000 to 2020, indicating increased cropland fragmentation. The proportion of occupied cropland with potential yield greater than 7500 kg/ha was 25% and 37% during the former and the latter period. Thus, higher quality cropland was encroached in the recent period. The findings could provide meaningful implications for making sustainable land use development strategies in the study area and other similar regions.

Modelling vegetation land fragmentation in urban areas of Western Province, Sri Lanka using an Artificial Intelligence-based simulation technique

“…In addition, studies point to population density and growth [ 5 , 33 , 34 ], building density [ 14 , 34 ], decentralization of economic policy [ 3 ], infrastructure development, distance to urban centers and specifically transportation development as major causes of vegetation land fragmentation [ 35 , 36 ]. Land is a limited resource, and when there is a greater need for urbanization, people divide or infringe on vegetative areas for urbanization objectives [ 37 , 38 ]. Biodiversity, ecosystem service deterioration, and habitat isolation are all affected by the fragmented structure of vegetation [ 39 , 40 ].…”

Farmland change and its implications in the Three River Region of Tibet during recent 20 years

“…These have raised great concerns on its protection and sustainable utilization [ 7 – 9 ], and thus promoted a large number of relevant researches. The studies addressed the spatiotemporal change [ 10 – 16 ], driving factors [ 9 , 12 , 13 , 17 ], and its impact on grain production [ 1 , 5 , 10 ], mainly in the areas of rapid economic development, such as the Yangtze River Delta [ 10 ], the Pearl River Delta [ 11 ], and the Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin region [ 12 ], and the main grain producing areas of Henan [ 13 ], Hebei [ 14 ], and Shandong provinces [ 15 ]. The data used in the studies were mainly collected from yearbooks [ 16 , 17 ] or land use remote sensing data products [ 5 , 10 – 15 ] at a coarse spatial resolution ranging from 10 m to 8 km [ 18 ], and thus often involved uncertainties, particularly for the areas of fragmented landscape.…”

Farmland Changes and Their Ecological Impact in the Huangshui River Basin

“…At present, research on farmland changes mainly focuses on rapid economic development and major grain production areas [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], mostly based on statistical data and land use remote sensing data products, and very few studies have been conducted for the HRB region. The resolution of existing land use data products is low, ranging from 10 m to 8 km [20].…”