China’s Land Uses in the Multi-Region Input–Output Framework
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Land Use Accounting in a Multi-Region Input–Output Framework
2.2. Bivariate Map of Net Land Use Transfers and Possible Influencing Factors
2.3. Data Sources
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Direct and Total Land Use Intensities
3.2. Production and Consumption-Based Land Uses
3.3. Land Use Transfers in Inter-Provincial Trades
3.4. Influencing Factors for Land Uses Transfers
4. Conclusions and Policy Implications
- (1)
- The land use intensities presented large heterogeneity in varying industrial sectors and different provinces. The land use efficiencies in affluent provinces were generally higher than poor provinces. Agriculture was the most direct land use intensive sector. Differences in land use intensities in different provinces indicated high potential of efficiency improvement in a number of provinces. Sustainable agricultural management, including farmland circulation and nutrient recycling, should be encouraged, in order to increase the land productivity and reduce adverse environmental impacts. High efficiency agricultural technologies should be shared between provinces. Given that agricultural production in western China is dominated by decentralized household-based, small-scale crop and animal productions are encouraged to be managed on larger scales, to gain scale effect for more efficient uses of agricultural infrastructure and other resources. Industrial and tertiary sectors are also in the core of land use efficiency improvement, because they are generally located in urban areas where the land resources are precious due to limited availability. Circular economy, cleaner production and eco-design should be promoted to improve the overall resource efficiency.
- (2)
- Agricultural land uses represented a major proportion of the production- and consumption-based land uses as well as inter-provincial land use transfers. For most provinces, agricultural land uses constituted over 99% of the total land uses. However, per capita agricultural land of China was only one third of the world average in 2012 [40]. Overall, agricultural land uses were transferred from western China to eastern China, whereas land uses embodied in non-agricultural products flowed from eastern China to western China. With the projection of the increasing population and rapid urbanization in the future, the conflicts between urban expansion and agricultural land conservation will become increasingly prominent. In this context, arable land protection is essential for assuring food security in China. Measures including strictly following the “red line” restriction of cultivated land and delimiting permanent basic farmland protective zone are necessary for this need. Economic instruments can be applied to prevent the value of precious land resources embedded in agricultural products being underestimated.
- (3)
- A highly-interacting network of land use transfers between different provinces has been formed in China. Products and services involved in inter-provincial trades in China contained 2.3 million km2 land uses, which constituted approximately 40% of the total national land uses that were finally consumed in China. At the provincial level, main suppliers of lands were Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Heilongjiang, and Gansu, whereas Shandong, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Henan received the most land uses embodied in trades. Per capita production-based land uses presented a larger variability than consumption-based land uses in China, implying that inter-provincial trades have reduced inequlaity of per capita land uses in China. Land resource scarce provinces with low per capita land availability have outsouced parts of their land uses by net importing lands from other provinces. Therefore, outsourcing land uses can be considered as a potential solution for mitigating land resource shortages in resource scarce regions. However, the dependence of food security in land use importing regions on other regions should not be neglected.
- (4)
- The net land use transfers embodied in inter-provincial trades in China were closely related to socio-economic conditions, including the land use per capita, economic density, population density, and land use intensity. The impact of annual precipitation on net land outflow was relatively minor. Land uses embodied in trades inclined to flow from regions with less developed economy, sparse population, high land availability, and low land use efficiency to regions with advanced economy, dense population, low land availability, and high land use efficiency. This land grabbing may lead to land quality deterioration, environment disruption, and biodiversity decrease in deprived land exporting areas. Because deprived provinces are usually less capable of addressing these adverse impacts due to a lack of financial and technological means, an ecological compensation system needs to be established to provide these provinces with essential financial and technological aids to better cope with associated problems caused by land grabbing.
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Variable Dimension | Possible Influencing Factor | Unit | Range | Mean/Standard Deviation | Data Sources |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Natural endowment | land use per capita | thousand m2/person | [0.26, 283.73] | 16.69/50.92 | [32,34] |
annual precipitation | mm | [188, 2028] | 966/515 | [31] | |
Socio-economic conditions | economic density | million yuan/km2 | [0.06, 360.8] | 29.2/66.4 | [34] |
population density | People/km2 | [2.5, 3754.0] | 439.4/679.9 | [34] | |
land use intensity | km2/billion yuan | [3.1, 12,465.7] | 615.9/2205.2 | [32,34,35] |
Province | Agriculture | Industry | Tertiary | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Direct Land Use Intensity | Total Land Use Intensity | Direct Land Use Intensity | Total Land Use Intensity | Direct Land Use Intensity | Total Land Use Intensity | |
Beijing | 283.5 | 410.3 | 0.13 | 3896.6 | 0.14 | 16.5 |
Tianjin | 184.9 | 244.2 | 0.07 | 3229.1 | 0.17 | 19.3 |
Hebei | 245.0 | 311.0 | 0.08 | 4264.5 | 0.39 | 17.4 |
Shanxi | 773.3 | 938.9 | 0.11 | 4303.1 | 0.26 | 22.6 |
Inner Mongolia | 3636.2 | 4271.4 | 0.12 | 30,637.8 | 0.34 | 125.1 |
Liaoning | 280.9 | 380.9 | 0.10 | 6092.7 | 0.25 | 27.7 |
Jilin | 659.5 | 829.0 | 0.13 | 9539.8 | 0.33 | 50.3 |
Heilongjiang | 984.8 | 1152.6 | 0.19 | 12,570.2 | 0.46 | 44.1 |
Shanghai | 105.9 | 169.8 | 0.20 | 2997.0 | 0.21 | 13.9 |
Jiangsu | 114.7 | 148.4 | 0.08 | 3654.9 | 0.21 | 12.8 |
Zhejiang | 325.1 | 369.5 | 0.10 | 4890.6 | 0.22 | 23.6 |
Anhui | 299.7 | 376.5 | 0.14 | 5494.7 | 0.41 | 31.4 |
Fujian | 359.3 | 419.2 | 0.09 | 4839.5 | 0.20 | 25.8 |
Jiangxi | 596.0 | 688.4 | 0.12 | 6729.2 | 0.41 | 30.5 |
Shandong | 145.3 | 246.0 | 0.09 | 6825.1 | 0.29 | 20.1 |
Henan | 186.9 | 274.1 | 0.08 | 5818.0 | 0.43 | 20.3 |
Hubei | 321.4 | 393.5 | 0.16 | 6045.2 | 0.32 | 20.4 |
Hunan | 368.0 | 449.2 | 0.10 | 5652.7 | 0.26 | 22.0 |
Guangdong | 320.6 | 381.1 | 0.09 | 2718.8 | 0.21 | 16.9 |
Guangxi | 536.0 | 639.5 | 0.13 | 7121.4 | 0.40 | 26.6 |
Hainan | 267.8 | 330.5 | 0.11 | 4807.3 | 0.25 | 21.5 |
Chongqing | 499.3 | 632.9 | 0.11 | 5753.0 | 0.28 | 22.3 |
Sichuan | 778.4 | 940.2 | 0.12 | 11,090.7 | 0.32 | 52.3 |
Guizhou | 1044.3 | 1266.6 | 0.16 | 6863.6 | 0.33 | 33.1 |
Yunnan | 1206.7 | 1487.5 | 0.07 | 8329.1 | 0.31 | 46.4 |
Tibet | 71,087.4 | 87,495.9 | 0.16 | 97,939.0 | 0.50 | 1239.2 |
Shaanxi | 805.2 | 995.0 | 0.06 | 5996.5 | 0.29 | 33.8 |
Gansu | 1594.2 | 1880.7 | 0.13 | 9342.3 | 0.41 | 52.4 |
Qinghai | 16,831.9 | 18,697.1 | 0.08 | 41,623.7 | 0.31 | 189.6 |
Ningxia | 1034.9 | 1199.6 | 0.09 | 6356.2 | 0.43 | 33.5 |
Xinjiang | 2521.8 | 3061.7 | 0.22 | 12,112.2 | 0.61 | 94.2 |
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Bao, C.; Xu, M.; Sun, S. China’s Land Uses in the Multi-Region Input–Output Framework. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 2940. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph16162940
Bao C, Xu M, Sun S. China’s Land Uses in the Multi-Region Input–Output Framework. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16(16):2940. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph16162940
Chicago/Turabian StyleBao, Chao, Mutian Xu, and Siao Sun. 2019. "China’s Land Uses in the Multi-Region Input–Output Framework" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 16: 2940. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph16162940