Urban expansion and its consumption of high-quality farmland in Beijing, China

Abstract

a b s t r a c tChina faces the challenge of using limited farmland to feed more than 1.3 billion people. Accelerated urbanization has exacerbated this challenge by consuming a large quantity of high-quality farmland (HQF). It is therefore essential to assess the degree to which urban expansion has preferentially consumed HQF, and discern the mechanism behind this. We found urban areas in Beijing to expand at speeds of 48.97 km 2 /year, 21.89 km 2 /year, 62.30 km 2 /year and 20.32 km 2 /year during the periods 1986-1995, 1995-2000, 2000-2005 and 2005-2020, respectively. We developed an indicator of HQF consumption due to urban expansion, representing the ratio of HQF consumed to its proportion of overall farmland, and found its values were 2.21, 1.57, 1.99 and 1.10 for 1986-1995, 1995-2000, 2000-2005 and 2005-2020, respectively. Thus, although HQF has been overrepresented in the farmland consumed by Beijing's urbanization, this phenomenon has decreased over time. Centralized expansion has contributed greatly to consumption of HQF. Topography and distances to urban and water bodies determine the relative consumption of HQF in urbanization.

Satellite Monitoring of Urban Land Change in the Middle Yangtze River Basin Urban Agglomeration, China between 2000 and 2016

“…As reported in many previous studies, spatiotemporal urban land cover change is a serious concern both in megacities, such as Beijing [8,9], Shanghai [10][11][12], Hangzhou [13,14], and Guangzhou [15,16], and in developed coastal urban agglomerations, especially the three largest urban agglomerations, i.e., the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) [17,18], the Pearl River Delta (PRD) [19,20] and the Jing-Jin-Ji (JJJ) [21][22][23]. However, urban expansion in less developed cities and urban agglomerations has received little attention even though rapid urbanization has also occurred in these areas.…”

“…As the results show above, outlying and edge-expansion are the dominant expansion types in the MYRB urban agglomeration. It is commonly admitted that urbanization introduces much convenience; meanwhile, many problems caused by unplanned urban expansion have been witnessed and studied [8,70]. In this context, intensive land-use should be advocated and rigorous policies should be imposed to make room for our natural resources to build a society where people can live in harmony with nature.…”

Spatiotemporal Patterns of Crop Irrigation Water Requirements in the Heihe River Basin, China

“…In light of the comprehensive effects of various factors, including the natural environment, social economy, and technology, more than 40 countries worldwide (about 40% of the global population) currently face critical water shortages, severely restricting their sustainable social and ecological development [1,5,6]. Imbalances in water supply and demand lead to shortages; specifically, global climate change, population growth, rapid urbanization, and agricultural expansion have all caused the water demands of different sectors to increase rapidly [7][8][9][10][11]. Global warming leads to increased evapotranspiration, which aggravates water cycling processes and causes increased rainfall [12][13][14][15].…”

Quality Perspective on the Dynamic Balance of Cultivated Land in Wenzhou, China

“…As a result of the long history of cultivation, the fertile soils produced high quality lands [33]. These factors also contributed to early settlements, and these areas were preferred for urban development, consequently reducing the amount of surrounding high quality cultivated lands as population growth and urban expansion continued [34][35][36].…”