Identifying the Static and Dynamic Relationships Between Rural Population and Settlements in Jiangsu Province, China

Abstract

Rapid urbanization has triggered large rural population floating into cities, which in turn affects rural human-land relationships. The actual human-land relationship involves the coupling level of a time point and dynamic change of a time interval. However, few studies have identified the rural human-land relationship from these two perspectives. This study combined static coupling analysis with a dynamic decoupling model to analyze the relationships between rural population and settlements from 2009 to 2018 in Jiangsu Province, China. Although the static coupling degree in Jiangsu Province was relatively high, the decoupling analysis found that the rural human-land relationship in most counties was uncoordinated. There were 11 combination types based on the coupling and decoupling relationships. The most common two types (accounting for 76.74%) were recession decoupling with high-level coupling and strong decoupling with high-level coupling. Although the majority of counties had a high-level coupling degree, an uncoordinated change in rural population and rural settlements was observed in these counties. Counties with relatively reasonable human-land relationships accounted for only 12.79% of the total. The combination features for each type were identified and differential policies were proposed for optimizing human-land relationship in rural areas. This study would contribute to our understanding of the multiple relationships between rural population and settlements involved in different patterns and processes, and expect to provide theoretical and methodological support for promoting rural revitalization and sustainable development in practice.

Multi-Dimensional Feature Recognition and Policy Implications of Rural Human–Land Relationships in China

“…The results of Tapio's decoupling model demonstrate that the human-land changes are incongruous and exacerbate the extensive utilization of rural settlements. Compared with the results of previous relevant studies [10][11][12], our findings suggest that the extensive utilization of rural settlements has worsened. Therefore, quantitative identification of the rural human-land relationship according to the three dimensions provides a more accurate and comprehensive grasp of the characteristics of the rural human-land relationship, so as to timely adopt targeted strategies.…”

“…The Tapio's decoupling model was mainly used in previous studies investigating the rural human-land relationship, to focus upon the change process and discuss the coordinated relationship between changes to the rural population and rural settlement area [10,11]. That model, however, calculates the ratio between the rate of change of rural population and rural settlements, which cannot reflect the current state of rural human-land relations [12,48]. Therefore, this paper's research work broadens the study of the rural human-land relationship in several aspects.…”

“…This reduction in the rural population has led to the loss of a rural labor force, the shortage of rural governance talent, and a diminished endogenous impetus for pursuing rural development, all of which further intensifies rural decline. Still, rural settlement areas have not decreased along with the decrease in the rural population, instead showing a trend of continuous increase over time [10][11][12]. Spatially, rural settlements and cultivated land are often situated near each other; therefore, the disorderly expansion of rural settlements not only causes a waste of land resources and the deterioration of rural living quality [13,14], but also inevitably occupies a large amount of high-quality cultivated land [15][16][17], thereby threatening food security.…”

“…During the period 1996-2005, the decoupling of the rural population and its rural settlements increased [10]. At the scale of prefecture-level city, the rural human-land relationship is discordant, in that there is a rapid decrease in population size alongside an increase in rural settlement area [11], and the rural human-land relationship in most counties of Jiangsu Province is evidently uncoordinated [12]. These studies mainly used Tapio's decoupling model to analyze the relationship between the spatiotemporal rate of changes in rural population sizes and rural settlement area, which is helpful for understanding the rural human-land relationship from the perspective of human-land coordination.…”

Spatial differentiation and hierarchical collaborative zoning of rural homestead withdrawal potential:A case study of Yicheng City, Hubei Province

“…(1) [31] ， 对于测度本文中 3 类潜力的协 同关系具有很好的适用性， 其评价模型为： [32,33] Abstract: The potential of rural homestead withdrawal, with typical characteristics of regional differentiation and spatial association, is the basis for the stratified implementation of rural homestead system reform. This study analyzed the logical relationship of rural homestead withdrawal based on the theoretical potential, willingness potential, and real potential.…”