Lihua Kuang

Owing to climate change and increasing resource competition, elucidating the control mechanism of cultivated land productivity stability is essential. Previous research has focused on anthropogenic or climatic factors individually, overlooking their combined effects; therefore, the “climate–anthropogenic” framework was constructed. Net primary productivity (NPP) was employed to measure the cultivated land productivity and investigate the impact of climate change and anthropogenic factors on cultivated land productivity stability in Poyang Lake from 2001 to 2022. Results revealed that NPP increased but fluctuated significantly and was higher in southern Poyang Lake than in the north. The low spatial stability distribution fluctuation area was concentrated in the periphery of Poyang Lake, the periphery and riverbank comprised the middle and high fluctuation areas, and the Ganjiang River Delta exhibited high fluctuation. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that the stability of cultivated land productivity was positively impacted by farmland and river proximity and average patch area and that fractal dimension was positively affected and negatively impacted by low farmland proximity and average annual precipitation. Stable cultivated land production and improved utilization efficiency requires irrigation and drainage system optimization and improved adaptability to climate change. Moreover, cultivated land fragmentation should be reduced, and the resilience of cultivated land to external disturbances should be enhanced.

Cultivated land is an important material carrier providing multiple supplies for production, living, and ecological benefits. As an area of cultivated land subject to high levels of human activity during urbanization, the functional level and structure of suburban cultivated land have been strongly impacted. In this study, we took the suburban cultivated land in Nanchang City as the research subject and constructed a multi-functional indicator system for cultivated land in the context of production, ecology, and landscape culture. Using the improved CRITIC-entropy weight method and the optimal parameter geographical detector model, we examined the multi-functional evolution of suburban cultivated land from 2012 to 2022 and its response mechanisms to urbanization. The results showed that (1) the multifunctionality of cultivated land in the peri-urban area of Nanchang City shows a general decreasing trend, with the decline gradually decreasing with an increase in distance from the central urban area. (2) In contrast, the multifunctionality level of a few cultivated land areas away from the central area of the city showed a small to medium increase. The function of cultivated land in the peri-urban area showed a decreasing trend in 2012–2022 due to the urbanization level. However, the production and ecological functions increased slightly, whereas the cultural function decreased significantly. (3) The impact of urbanization on the multifunctional transformation of peri-urban cultivated land is a complex process that is largely shaped by economic urbanization and is influenced by a multitude of factors. Therefore, cultivated land management policies must fully mobilize the socioeconomic resources of each region.

Delimiting basic farmland is essential to ensure food security and maintain social stability. Determining the quantity and spatial layout of the basic farmland is the main aspect of delimitation. For a long time, superiors in local governments have mainly assigned the basic farmland quantity, which is prone to regional imbalance. The determination of the spatial layout is mainly based on the quality and contiguity of the cultivated land; however, spatial stability is not considered. Therefore, in this study, Yingtan City was used as an example to determine the scale of basic farmland based on the food security and multi-source data, construct a Land Evaluation and Site Assessment System model, evaluate the quality of cultivated land, and integrate the degree of agglomeration and compatibility of cultivated land to characterize its spatial stability. The quality and spatial stability of the cultivated land were combined to construct a matrix. The cultivated land patches must be selected according to the “scale limitation, stability priority, and quality superiority” principle. Finally, basic farmland covering an area of 75,946.34 hm² was delineated, whose average quality index and spatial stability increased by 0.02 and 0.04, respectively. The landscape structure is more stable than the originally planned structure, which is conducive to the sustainable development of the cultivated land ecosystem. That is, a good delimitation effect was achieved, providing a reference for actual delimitation work.

Maintaining an adequate security level of cultivated land is essential for the healthy and sustainable survival of China's large and growing population. We constructed a cultivated land security evaluation index system, combined with an improved TOPSIS method by taking into account the balance and stability of quantitative, qualitative, and ecological security. We applied this improved method to an evaluation of the state of cultivated land security and analyzed its spatiotemporal variation in Yingtan City (Jiangxi Province, China) from 1995 to 2015. The drivers of the changes in cultivated land security were investigated via a spatial regression model, which can eliminate the effect of spatial autocorrelation. The results showed that cultivated land security decreased rapidly from 1995 to 2005, although it tended to rise slowly in the subsequent period from 2005 to 2015. Areas deemed to be in a highly dangerous state were mainly distributed in the Yuehu District, while those that were secure appeared primarily in the southern mountainous area, with the area in a generally dangerous state extending to the west in the same direction as urban development. Among the examined drivers, social-economic factors and policy factors significantly influenced the cultivated land security. Our work suggests that government managers should take appropriate measures to improve cultivated land security according to its spatiotemporal variations and the underpinning drivers in this region.