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Understanding the dynamics of farmland loss in a rapidly urbanizing region: a problem-driven, diagnostic approach to landscape sustainability

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Abstract

Context

Existing landscape sustainability studies mostly follow design-based, practical approaches, emphasizing “linking knowledge to action;” while the problem-driven, diagnostic approach that emphasizes “understanding human–environment interactions” remains underused.

Objectives

To apply the problem-driven, diagnostic approach to a widespread and controversial landscape-relevant problem: farmland loss associated with the long-term, global trend of urbanization.

Methods

We comparatively analyzed the farmland loss and landscape dynamics in the core and peripheral areas of rapidly urbanizing Tongling City in China, by using 30 m-grid land use/cover data in 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. To understand the temporal trends and abnormalities of farmland loss, we identified probable regime shifts of socioeconomic and agrifood dynamics by changepoint detection using relevant data from 2000 to 2015.

Results

Changes of the whole landscape were dominated by persistent aggressive land gains of developed lands and increasing land losses of farmland and densely/moderately vegetated land. The ratio of farmland loss to total land conversion (8–77%) decreased in general during 2000–2015, with urban encroachment of farmland accounting for 14.72–74.36% of total farmland loss. Farmland had become smaller in patch size, less regular in patch shape, and more isolated between patches since 2005, indicating farmland deintensification. Three temporal abnormalities of farmland change were identified, which were associated with abrupt socioeconomic and agrifood dynamics affecting farmland demand–supply.

Conclusions

Farmland loss is more of an economic issue than a resource issue, and focusing on urban expansion is often inadequate. Policy efforts are needed to address the real problem of social injustice in mandatory farmland preservation practices.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [41801169] and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China [BK20180819].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Bing-Bing Zhou

  2. School of Public Administration, Nanjing University of Finance & Economics, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Ligang Lv

  3. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Ligang Lv

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  1. Bing-Bing Zhou
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BBZ: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data acquisition, Formal analysis, Writing—Original Draft, Writing—Review & Editing. LL: Funding acquisition, Data acquisition, Writing—Review & Editing.

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Correspondence to Bing-Bing Zhou.

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Zhou, BB., Lv, L. Understanding the dynamics of farmland loss in a rapidly urbanizing region: a problem-driven, diagnostic approach to landscape sustainability. Landscape Ecol 35, 2471–2486 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01074-w

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