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Trade-off and Synergy of Rural Functions Under County Depopulation in the Typical Black Soil Region of Northeast China

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Abstract

As the population continues to shrink in the black soil region of Northeast China since 2000, it is critical to master the impact of population shrinkage on rural functions to realize rural revitalization and sustainable development. In this study, we focused on the impacts of depopulation on the evolution and interrelationship of rural subfunctions. Based on the rural function indexes system, the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) method, spatial analysis method, and mathematical statistics analysis method were used to summarize the spatial and temporal characteristics of rural function development, as well as the effect of population shrinkage in the typical black soil region of Northeast China. The results showed that depopulation varied in the extent and duration between the forested region and plain areas, which both impacted the trajectories of rural subfunctions evolution. For the economic development function and ecological conservation function, the effect of continuous slight depopulation was beneficial, while the effect of rapid depopulation was adverse, which was exactly opposite to the agricultural production function. All forms of population shrinkage were conducive to the development of the social security function. With the deepening population shrinkage, depopulation mainly promoted the collaborative development between subfunctions in this study, except the relationship between agricultural production and social security function. But effects of depopulation on the interrelationship of rural subfunctions varied between the forested region and plain areas in some cases. The results provided evidence for the cognition that population shrinkage had complicated effects on rural subfunctions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northeast Regional Development Research Center, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China

    Dongmei Li & Pingyu Zhang

  2. School of Public Administration and Law, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150038, China

    Dongmei Li, Qing Wen & Yue Qi

  3. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Pingyu Zhang

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  1. Dongmei Li
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  2. Qing Wen
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Correspondence to Pingyu Zhang.

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Foundation item: Under the auspices of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2022M713130), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42101212), Strategic Pilot Science and Technology Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA28020403)

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Li, D., Wen, Q., Qi, Y. et al. Trade-off and Synergy of Rural Functions Under County Depopulation in the Typical Black Soil Region of Northeast China. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 33, 616–633 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-023-1363-z

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