Characteristics and Driving Forces of Symbiosis between Production Land and Living Land in Rural Settlement: Evidence from Shanxi Province, China

Abstract

Rural settlements are the carrier of farmers’ life and rural industries. This paper introduces symbiosis theory to construct an analytical framework for the symbiosis between production land and living land in rural settlements, taking three villages in Shanxi, China as examples (secondary industry-led: Tian Village, tourism-led: Shuiyukou Village, multi-industry integration: Jiling Village). The results show that: (1) From 2010 to 2020, the compatibility and coupling coordination degree between production land and living land in Tian Village increased; the compatibility degree between production land and living land in Shuiyukou Village decreased slightly, and the coupling coordination increased significantly. In Jiling Village, the compatibility between production land and living land decreased, and the coupling coordination showed an increasing trend. (2) From 2010 to 2020, the degree of symbiosis between production land and living land in the three Villages both showed an increasing trend, and the growth of symbiosis degree was mainly caused by the growth of coupling coordination. (3) In 2010–2015 and 2015–2020, the symbiotic growth between production land and living land in Tian Village was driven by farmers’ demand and social economy, respectively. The dominant driving factor for Shuiyukou Village in these two periods was resource endowment. Jiling Village was driven by social economy and regional policies, respectively. This work can provide scientific support for the practical adjustment of land use structure and the reconstruction of rural settlements in China.

1. Introduction

Rural settlements have historically been the centers of human activity. The proportion of global rural populations in 2020 was still as high as 43.8% [1]. In China, even if the urbanization rate reaches 70% by 2030, more than 400 million people will still live in rural areas [2]. As the carrier of farmers’ life and rural industries, a rural settlement is a community of living land and production land [3]. With the significant changes in the internal and external development environment of rural areas, the types of rural industries, labor force structure, production and lifestyle have changed significantly. The constantly upgrading concept of farmers increases the demand for diversification, and a variety of modes of production and life gradually emerges, such as commerce, work, entertainment, and communication, which promotes the diversification of land use types in rural settlements. At the same time, developing secondary and tertiary industries, such as agricultural product processing and rural tourism on the basis of agriculture, is the focus of the Chinese government’s rural development policies and is also considered to be an important way to achieve the revitalization of rural industries. The development of rural industry inevitably requires the diversity and compound utilization of rural settlements. In this context, rural settlements have become the carriers of rural industrial development. The land use types in rural settlements have changed from single to diverse and from diverse to complex, and have multiple functions, such as residential, industrial, business services, and tourism reception [4].

In fact, rural settlement consists of multifunctional land uses such as residential, industrial, and commercial services that are interconnected, interacting and dependent on each other to form an organic life form, which is called symbiosis in the biological field. Symbiosis refers to the relationship formed by each biological organism in a specific environment according to a certain pattern [5]. Currently, symbiosis theory has been applied to agriculture [6], economy [7], society [8], management [9], and other fields, showing strong adaptability. With the deepening of understanding, scholars believe that any two things that interact and have a relationship can be regarded as being in a symbiotic relationship [10]. The interactive integration between production land and living land in a rural settlement has significant symbiotic characteristics and evolution trends. For a long time, the construction of rural settlements in China has been spontaneous and disordered [11], causing a low degree of symbiosis between production land and living land [12]. Since the beginning of the 21st century, China has extensively renovated rural settlements. New rural settlements have mostly been built by the government in quarters with a single type of land use; the production land is insufficient, which is far different from the characteristic of the community of production land and living land in a rural settlement [13]. Achieving symbiosis between production land and living land in rural settlements has become an important way to promote the coordinated improvement of villagers’ living conditions and rural industrial development.

Scholars have mostly regarded each rural settlement as a land plot to discuss the distribution [14], evolution [15], driving force [16], and reconstruction [17] of rural settlements at the macroscale. Although some scholars have refined their research to the interior of rural settlements [18] and calculated the proportion of land use types, there is still a lack of discussion on the relationship and interaction mechanism between them [19]. In recent years, some scholars have analyzed the symbiotic characteristics of rural settlement in terms of farmers’ symbiosis perceptions and the production-life-ecological functions of rural settlements [20]. The remediation path and reconstruction strategy of production, living and ecological space in the village domain were proposed based on the symbiosis perspective [21]. These studies provided ideas and directions for this paper. However, in general, there are few studies that quantitatively measure the symbiosis characteristics and driving forces between production land and living land in rural settlement from an empirical perspective. Therefore, the introduction of symbiosis theory to study the relationship between production land and living land in rural settlement is an important breakthrough in theoretical research and practical applications.

This paper constructs an analytical framework for the symbiosis between production land and living land in rural settlement, taking three villages in Shanxi Province, China as an example. The goals are: (1) To investigate the characteristics of symbiosis between production land and living land in rural settlements. (2) To outline the factors that affect the symbiosis between production land and living land in rural settlements. Through this research, we hope to fill in the gaps in the macroscale research on the interrelationships of land use in rural settlements in theory and provide scientific support for the adjustment of land use structure and the reconstruction of rural settlements in practice.

2. Analytical Framework

Symbiosis theory originated from biology. Anton de Barry pointed out that symbiosis referred to different species and genera living together, which was an interactive living and nutritional connection [22]. In a broad sense, symbiosis is explained as the phenomenon whereby two organisms living together cannot survive independently, so they benefit from each other because of their mutual connection and interdependence [23]. Accordingly, the symbiosis between production land and living land in a rural settlement is the relationship or achieved state formed by the independent and related actions of production land and living land, which carry out the circulation and transmission of materials, energy, and information, and are interdependent and mutually beneficial. The premise for the symbiosis between production land and living land in a rural settlement is the correlation (complementarity) between the two land use types, which can be expressed by compatibility and coupling coordination. Compatibility focuses on the spatial relationship, which is considered the level or standard of integration of different land use types. The compatibility between production land and living land in a rural settlement refers to the degree of functional complementarity and the coordination and stability of the two land use types, which is the standard to guide the construction of rural settlements. Coupling coordination focuses on the coordination and synchronism of the evolution of land use types. The coupling coordination between production land and living land in a rural settlement refers to the extent to which these two land use functions interact and synergistically enhance each other in development. The subsystem of production land and living land in a rural settlement has strong correlation, interaction and influence, and this relationship is basically consistent with the idea of the coupling coordination model, so the coupling coordination can reflect the coexistence between production land and living land in rural settlements.

In different periods, due to the different levels of rural economic development, the mutual relationships between production land and living land in rural settlements are different, which leads to differences in the compatibility and coupling coordination and, thus, to differences in the symbiotic characteristics and degree between the two land use types. When the agricultural economy was the mainstay, the development of the rural economy was relatively slow, and the production functions of rural settlement were insufficient. The proportion of production land was insufficient, and living land was the mainstay. The symbiotic relationship between production land and living land in rural settlement was not obvious. After the Reform and Opening-up, the rural economy developed rapidly. The industrial and commercial land in rural settlements increased, which has promoted the development of rural nonagricultural industries and the income level of farmers. The symbiosis degree between production land and living land has increased. With the further advancement of industrialization and urbanization, the construction of rural settlements is disordered and scattered due to the lack of village planning. The compatibility and coupling coordination between production land and living land decreases. The degree of symbiosis between the two land use types also decreases. Under the guidance of ecological civilization and rural revitalization strategies in China, the construction of rural settlements by means of rural settlement improvement and rural reconstruction has been vigorously promoted; thus, the compatibility and coupling coordination between production land and living land began to improve. The symbiosis between the two land use types in rural settlements also showed an improving trend (Figure 1).

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Study Area

The study area is in Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province, China. Yuncheng City is located between 110°15′–112°04′ E and 34°35′–35°49′ N, in southern Shanxi Province, adjacent to Henan Province in the southeast and Shanxi Province in the west (Figure 2). Yuncheng is an important node for China to implement the “Belt and Road” strategy. The symbiotic differences between production land and living land in rural settlements mainly depend on the differences of rural industry types and their production land. It is necessary to understand the land use characteristics and socio-economic development of rural settlements from the micro-scale. Therefore, the case analysis method is suitable for this paper. Based on this, we selected villages dominated by different industries in order to reveal the types and characteristics of the symbiosis between production land and living land in rural settlements as comprehensively as possible. Research shows that location and resource endowment are important forces for the differences of industrial development levels. According to this principle, this paper uses a combination of stratified and random sampling methods to select three villages (Tian Village, Shuiyukou Village and Jiling Village) as the study areas.

In 2020, Tian Village had a total population of 800 and cultivated land of 200 ha. The per capita net income of farmers was about 20,000 yuan. It is close to the center of the county and has convenient transportation. The economy of the village is dominated by the secondary industry. In 2020, Shuiyukou Village had a total population of 900 and cultivated land of 53.33 ha. The per capita net income of farmers was about 30,000 yuan. The village is close to Yuncheng City and the mountainous areas and is rich in tourism resources. Most villagers are engaged in rural tourism. The economy of the village is mainly focused on tourism industries such as leisure homestays, catering, and agricultural sightseeing experiences. In 2020, Jiling Village had a total population of 1667 and cultivated land of 362.2 ha. The per capita net income of farmers is about 25,000 yuan. The economy is characterized by planting and related agricultural product sales, logistics, preservation, and agricultural tourism, forming a multi-industry integrated development model. The functions and properties of production land in the three rural settlements are different and the compatibility, coupling coordination, and symbiotic relationships with living land are also different, which provided a good sample for this study.

3.2. Data Acquisition and Processing

Since 2010, the rural nonagricultural economy of Yuncheng City has developed rapidly because of its superior location. In this context, the production land of the three villages has expanded rapidly, and its interaction with the living land has become more and more intense. In 2015, China’s “No. 1 Central Document” proposed the integrated development of rural industries. According to the national policy, Yuncheng has formulated a series of policies to support the development of rural industries, such as providing rural construction land. In this context, combined with their respective resource advantages, the industrial development of the three villages began to accelerate, and the types of production land and living land in rural settlements accelerated the differentiation, as well as the types and degrees of symbiosis. Based on this, this paper divides the symbiotic evolution of the three rural settlements into two time periods (2010–2015, 2015–2020).

In China, official statistics on socio-economic data generally go to the township level administrative units, and there are few yearbooks or other statistical data specifically on the scale for rural areas. Therefore, case studies in rural areas require field research and interviews. Based on this, in April 2021, a combination of participatory rural assessment and questionnaire survey was employed by the research group to obtain land use and socioeconomic data of the three villages. Remote sensing images (acquired in 2010, 2015, and 2020) were download using LocaSpace Viewer software and Hydrographic micrograph software. The scope of the three villages was identified by referring to the village administrative boundaries in the “Atlas of Yuncheng Administrative Divisions.” The administrative division boundary data came from the Shanxi Provincial Geographic Information Public Service Platform. The data of the paper was obtained through in-depth interviews with villagers, business service operators, factory builders, and village cadres via a questionnaire survey performed by those familiar with the situation of the villages (

Table 1. Content of the questionnaire.

Respondents	Questionnaire Content	Number of Questionnaires
Village cadres	Land use types in rural settlements, socio-economic data, industry development, the structure of village labor force, village collective income and the history of socio-economic development of villages	1 questionnaire per village
Business service operators, Factory builders	Enterprise operation, enterprise floor space, building utilization change status	Tian Village 9; Shuiyukou Village 12; Jiling Village 8
Villagers	Family situation, income status, utilization of housing land, livelihood status, labor force structure	10 questionnaires per village

).

The extraction process of production land and living land is as follows: we used ArcGIS to vectorize the internal land plots of rural settlements. On the basis of the field investigation and the questionnaire survey, we input the attribute information such as the land use type, function, and use status of the land plots and restored the attribute information of the production land and living land of Tian Village, Shuiyukou Village, and Jiling Village at the three time points of 2010, 2015, and 2020.

3.3. Classification of Land Use Types

The classification of land use types in rural settlements is based on the research of Ma et al. [24], and the Classification of Land Use Status (GB/T 21010-2017) [25]. Production land is divided into three first-class categories and six second-class categories; living land is divided into three first-class categories and nine second-class categories (

Table 2. Classification system of land use in rural settlement.

Land Use Structure	First-Class Land Type	Second-Class Land Type	Explanation
Production land	Industrial storage land	Industrial land	Refers to the land used for industrial production, agricultural products processing, and manufacturing in rural residential lands
		Storage land	Refers to the storage and transit land for industrial materials
	Commercial land	Small commercial land	Refers to the land used for small restaurants, small shops, pesticide sales points, etc., in residential areas
		Land for market facilities	Land for regular gathering places for commodity trading
		Other land for commercial use	Refers to the land for barber shops, pharmacies, etc.
	Tourism land	Land for tourism and its facilities	Land for the management of scenic spots and scenic spots in rural settlements and the construction of tourism service facilities
Living land	Housing land	Rural homestead	Homestead for living in rural areas
	Public management and public service land	Administrative land	Refers to the land used by the village committee and other management institutions
		Land for educational institutions	Refers to the land used for kindergartens and primary schools in the village
		Healthcare land	Refers to the land used for community health centers, etc.
		Public space land	Refers to the square and other land within the village
		Environmental facility land	Refers to land used for garbage dumps, public toilets, etc.
	Transportation land	Main road land	Main roads in rural residential lands
		Other road land	Roads other than main roads in rural residential lands
		Transportation facilities land	Land for parking lot, waiting hall, bus station, etc.

).

3.4. Calculation of Symbiosis Degree

Based on the analysis framework, the degree of symbiosis between production land and living land in rural settlements is measured from the two aspects of compatibility and coupling coordination.

3.4.1. Compatibility

Compatibility represents the relationship between the two land plots due to their proximity in space within a certain period of time. The higher the compatibility, the higher the positive externality and the higher the degree of symbiosis. This work uses the area-weighted vectorized mix degree index (WVMDI) to measure the compatibility between production land and living land in rural settlements. The calculation formula is as follows:

$$WVMDI=1-\frac{{\displaystyle {\sum }_j^n\left(C_{ij}·A_i/B_j\right)}}{{\displaystyle {\sum }_j^n\left(A_i/B_j\right)}}$$

(1)

where C_ij represents the compatibility value. The value range is [0, 1]; A_i/B_j represents the area ratio of production land i and living land j. The compatibility values between production land and living land are listed in

Table 3. Compatibility values between production land and living land in a rural settlement.

Land Type		Production Land				Living Land
		Industrial Storage Land	Commercial Land	Tourism Land	Housing Land	Public Management and Public Service Land	Transportation Land
Production land	Industrial storage land		0.5	0.5	0.5/1	0.5	0
	Commercial land			0	0	0	0.5
	Tourism land				0	0	0
Living land	Housing land					0	0
	Public management and public service land						0.5
	Transportation land

Note: 0 indicates full compatible; 0.5 indicates conditional compatible; 1 indicates incompatible.

.

3.4.2. Coupling Coordination

The coupling coordination degree model is used to measure the coevolution relationship between production land and the living land and to verify whether the development of production land and living land is coordinated and synchronized. The higher the coupling coordination, the higher the degree of symbiosis.

(1)

Evaluation index

We established the evaluation index of the production land and living land (Table 3). Five index layers are selected to measure the status of the production land system in terms of two factor layers: the scale of industrial development and the effect of industrial development. Another five index layers are selected to measure the living land system in terms of three factor layers: living conditions, quality of life, and life experience. Since the dimensions of each index selected in the study are different, it is necessary to conduct dimensionless processing on the raw data before calculation in order to eliminate the influence of the dimensional inconsistency of multiple types of indicators on the model analysis. In this paper, the method of mean normalization is used for data standardization, and the entropy method is used to assign weights (

Table 4. Evaluation index and its weight of production land and living land in a rural settlement.

System	Factor Layer	Index Layer	Unit	Weight in 2010	Weight in 2015	Weight in 2020
Production land system U1	Industrial development scale X1	Number of commercial services (X11)	unit	0.0835	0.0023	0.0996
		Proportion of industrial storage land (X12)	%	0.3485	0.5257	0.5793
		Gross industrial product (X13)	million yuan	0.0055	0.1692	0.1199
	Industrial development effect X2	Number of people engaged in non-agricultural production in rural residential lands (X21)	unit	0.0554	0.0239	0.1033
		Business income of commercial service industry (X22)	million yuan	0.5070	0.2789	0.0978
Living land system U2	Living conditions Y1	Per capita net income of farmers (Y11)	yuan/person	0.7062	0.6056	0.2110
	Quality of life Y2	Proportion of consumption expenditure (Y21)	%	0.0440	0.3020	0.1616
		Per capita residential land area of farmers (Y22)	m²/person	0.0004	0.0016	0.1057
	Life feeling Y3	Road area per capita (Y31)	m²/person	0.0082	0.0563	0.0171
		Number of squares (Y32)	unit	0.2412	0.0344	0.5046

).

(2)

Score calculation

According to the standardized values of indicators and their weights, the evaluation values of the production land and living land are calculated. The calculation formulas are as follows:

$$f\left(x\right)={\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^m{\omega }_i{x}_{ij}}$$

(2)

$$g\left(x\right)={\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^m{\omega }_j{y}_{ij}}$$

(3)

where f(x) and g(x) represent the comprehensive evaluation values of production land and living land, respectively; m represents the number of indicators for the production land, and n represents the number of indicators for the living land; ${\omega }_i$ is the weight of the ith index of the production land, and ${\omega }_j$ is the weight of the jth index of the living land; and $x_{ij}$ and $y_{ij}$ are the values obtained by standardizing the measurement indicators of production land and living land, respectively. The data standardization was performed using the mean value method.

(3)

Coupling coordination degree

The coupling coordination degree is described by the following expressions:

$$C=\sqrt{f\left(x\right)·g\left(x\right)}/\left[f\left(x\right)+g\left(x\right)\right]$$

(4)

$$D=\sqrt{C·T}, T=\alpha f\left(x\right)+\beta g\left(x\right)$$

(5)

where C represents the coupling degree between production land and living land and D represents the coupling coordination degree, T is the comprehensive coordinated development value, and α and β are undetermined coefficients. In the symbiotic system between production land and living land in a rural settlement, industrial development plays a greater role in improving the living standards of villagers; the values $\alpha =0.58$ and $\beta =0.42$ were determined by the expert consultation method. D, C ∈ [0, 1]; the greater the value, the higher the coupling degree and coupling coordination degree and the higher the degree of symbiosis between production land and living land (

Table 5. Division standard for coupling coordination degree between production land and living land in rural settlements.

Serial Number	Coupling/Coordination Level	Coupling Degree	Coupling Coordination Degree
1	Severe disorder	0.00–0.09	0.00–0.09
2	Moderate disorder	0.10–0.29	0.10–0.29
3	Mild disorder	0.30–0.49	0.30–0.49
4	Elementary coupling coordination	0.50–0.69	0.50–0.69
5	Good coupling coordination	0.70–0.89	0.70–0.89
6	High coupling coordination	0.90–1.00	0.90–1.00

).

3.4.3. Symbiosis Degree

Based on the comprehensive compatibility and coordination coupling, the symbiosis degree measurement model is established:

$$\theta =WVNDI\times 0.44+D\times 0.56$$

(6)

where $\theta$ represents the value of the symbiosis degree; the higher the value, the higher the symbiosis degree. The coefficient of WVMDI is 0.44 and the coefficient of D is 0.56 by Analytical Hierarchy Process.

3.5. Identification of Driving Factors

We used the grey relational analysis (GRA) method, according to the influencing factors of the symbiosis between production land and living land and the geometric similarity of the symbiosis degree curve to calculate the degree of correlation between the two land use types and the influence degree of each factor on the symbiosis between production land and living land in rural settlements.

3.5.1. Influencing Factors

In this work, ten secondary index factors are selected as the criterion layer of the index system from four first-level index aspects: resource endowment, social economy, farmers’ demand, and regional policy (

Table 6. Influencing factors of symbiosis between production land and living land in rural settlements.

First-Level Index	Secondary Index	Unit
Resource endowment E1	Per capita cultivated land area E11	hm2/person
	Tourism land area E12	hm2
	Number of labor force E13	person
Social economy E2	Per capita net income of farmers E21	million yuan/person
	Business income of commercial service industry E22	million yuan
	Gross industrial product E23	million yuan
Farmers’ demand E3	Completed area of farmers’ houses E31	hm2
	Garbage disposal rate E32	%
	Proportion of commercial land E33	%
Regional policy E4	Fixed asset investment of rural non-farm households E41	million yuan

).

3.5.2. Reference Sequence and Comparison Sequence

We set the symbiosis index value between production land and living land as the reference series ${\theta }_0$:

$${\theta }_0=\left\{{\theta }_0\left(1\right),{\theta }_0\left(2\right),\cdots ,{\theta }_0\left(n\right)\right\}$$

(7)

where n refers to each village.

And then set the sequence data of each influencing factor as the comparison sequence $E_q\left(k\right)$:

$$E_q\left(k\right)=\left\{E_q\left(k\right)|q=1,2,3\cdots m;k=1,2,3\cdots n\right\}$$

(8)

where q refers to each village and k refers to each influencing factor.

3.5.3. Mean Dimensionless Processing of the Original Data

The GRA method needs to use the same units to analyze the data. To unify the data units, the mean method is used to process the data, and obtain the results ${\theta }_0^{\prime }\left(k\right)$ and $E_q^{\prime }\left(k\right)$ for the dimensionless means of the original data of the reference sequence ${\theta }_0$ and the comparison sequence $E_q\left(k\right)$.

3.5.4. Calculate the Correlation Coefficient $\delta$

• First, we calculate the two-level maximum difference Z and the two-level minimum difference N, for which the calculation formulas are as follows:

  $$Z=\underset{q}{\max } \underset{k}{\max }\left|{\theta }_0^{\prime }\left(k\right)-E_q^{\prime }\left(k\right)\right|$$

  (9)

  $$N=\underset{q}{\min } \underset{k}{\min }\left|{\theta }_0^{\prime }\left(k\right)-E_q^{\prime }\left(k\right)\right|$$

  (10)
• Then, we substitute Z and N into the correlation coefficient formula:

  $${\delta }_q\left(k\right)=\frac{N+\rho \times Z}{\left|{\theta }_0\left(k\right)-E_q\left(k\right)\right|+\rho \times Z}$$

  (11)

  where $\rho$ is the resolution coefficient, generally between 0 and 1, usually taken as 0.5. The closer the value of ${\delta }_q\left(k\right)$ is to 1, the better the correlation.

4. Results

4.1. The Symbiosis Characteristics

4.1.1. Compatibility

From 2010 to 2020, the compatibility between the production land and living land of Tian Village increased slightly by 5.94%. It rose from 0.56 in 2010 to 0.58 in 2015 and to 0.59 in 2020. With the rapid development of the agricultural product processing industry, production land increased substantially. Meanwhile, some farmers around factories used their housing land to run stores, barber shops, and so on (Figure 3). The land use types gradually increased, which resulted in slight increases of the compatibility between production land and living land. However, the compatibility degree was still the lowest of the three rural settlements (

Table 7. The compatibility degree between production land and living land in rural settlements.

Year	Tian Village		Shuiyukou Village		Jiling Village
	Compatibility Degree	Growth Rate	Compatibility Degree	Growth Rate	Compatibility Degree	Growth Rate
2010	0.56	-	0.93	-	0.70	-
2015	0.58	3.08%	0.91	−2.25%	0.71	0.91%
2020	0.59	2.78%	0.88	−3.04%	0.69	−2.08%

).

From 2010 to 2020, the compatibility of Shuiyukou Village fell by 5.21%, which was the largest decrease among the three villages. The compatibility dropped from 0.93 in 2010 to 0.91 in 2015 and to 0.88 in 2020, but it was still the highest. In recent years, the villagers have worked to develop tourism through several tourist programs such as leisure homestays, rural culture, and agricultural sightseeing experiences. The catering industry has also gradually developed (Figure 4). However, rural tourism development leads to destruction of the ecological environment. The catering industry development increased plastic waste and wastewater emission, which led to the decline of the compatibility degree between production land and living land.

From 2010 to 2020, the compatibility of Jiling Village fell by 1.19%. It rose from 0.70 in 2010 to 0.71 in 2015 and dropped to 0.69 in 2020. Since 2010, the food processing industry based on planting winter jujube has been developed. Production land increased substantially from 11.89% to 18.35%. Supermarkets, restaurants, dental clinics, and other commercial land appeared (Figure 5). The compatibility degree between production land and living land increased. After 2015, new logistics storage land had disordered compatibility and its compatibility degree with housing land was low. Therefore, the compatibility degree between production land and living land dropped slightly.

4.1.2. Coupling Coordination

The coupling coordination between production land and living land of Tian Village rose from 0.53 in 2010 to 0.73 in 2015 and to 0.76 in 2020 (

Table 8. Coupling coordination between production land and living land in rural settlements.

Year	Tian Village			Shuiyukou Village			Jiling Village
	2010	2015	2020	2010	2015	2020	2010	2015	2020
f(x)	0.47	1.08	1.25	0.80	0.81	1.51	0.43	0.81	1.80
g(x)	0.72	1.01	1.06	0.25	0.87	1.52	0.65	0.92	1.10
C	0.49	0.50	0.50	0.43	0.50	0.50	0.49	0.50	0.49
D	0.53	0.73	0.76	0.49	0.65	0.87	0.50	0.65	0.78

). It increased by 43.40%, gradually evolving from elementary coupling coordination to good coupling coordination. Since 2010, the development of industry has significantly increased farmers’ income and improved their living standards, which further promoted the development of industries. These continuously improved the coupling coordination between production land and living land.

The coupling coordination of Shuiyukou Village rose from 0.49 in 2010 to 0.65 in 2015 and to 0.87 in 2020. It increased by 77.55%, evolving from mild disorder to elementary coupling coordination and further evolving into good coupling coordination. The coordination between production land and living land tended to be stable and optimized. The development of rural tourism not only drove the development of businesses such as homestays and catering firms, but also provided more employment opportunities for farmers and improved infrastructure such as roads and village cultural activity centers. These improvements promoted the coordinated development between production land and living land.

The coupling coordination of Jiling Village rose from 0.50 in 2010 to 0.65 in 2015 and to 0.78 in 2020. It increased by 56%, evolving from elementary coupling coordination to good coupling coordination. With the transition of traditional agriculture to multi-industry integration development, villagers set up a labor service company and developed e-commerce, thereby increasing farmers’ income. The production and living functions of rural settlement were continuously coordinated and optimized.

4.1.3. Symbiosis Degree

The symbiosis degree between production land and living land of Tian Village rose from 0.54 in 2010 to 0.67 in 2015 and to 0.69 in 2020 (

Table 9. Symbiosis degree between production land and living land in rural settlements.

Year	Tian Village		Shuiyukou Village		Jiling Village
	Symbiosis Degree	Growth Rate	Symbiosis Degree	Growth Rate	Symbiosis Degree	Growth Rate
2010	0.54	-	0.67	-	0.58	-
2015	0.67	23.62%	0.75	13.21%	0.67	16.21%
2020	0.69	3.28%	0.87	15.92%	0.74	10.39%

). The symbiosis degree increased by 27.28%, but it is still the lowest among the three villages. The economy of Tian Village is dominated by the secondary industry, some of which are chemical industries. The compatibility between industrial storage land and living land is poor.

The symbiosis degree of Shuiyukou Village rose from 0.67 in 2010 to 0.75 in 2015 and to 0.87 in 2020. It increased by 29.85% and is the highest among the three villages. The development of tourism promoted the continuous functional optimization of production land. Although the compatibility between production land and living land decreased slightly, the development of tourism rapidly improved the coupling coordination between production land and living land.

The symbiosis degree of Jiling Village rose from 0.58 in 2010 to 0.67 in 2015 and to 0.74 in 2020, an increase of 27.59%. Agricultural product processing, logistics, and other industries based on agriculture developed vastly, creating a multi-industry integrated development village. The compatibility, coupling coordination, and symbiosis degree of production land and living land are relatively high.

4.2. The Symbiosis Drivers

The results showed that from 2010–2015, the factors that significantly affected the symbiosis degree of Tian Village were, in descending order, per capita net income of farmers (0.97), per capita cultivated land area (0.95), and garbage disposal rate (0.94). The factors that significantly affected Shuiyukou Village were the proportion of commercial land (0.99), per capita cultivated land area (0.96), and the tourism land area (0.96). The factors that significantly affected Jiling Village were per capita cultivated land area (0.96), proportion of commercial land (0.94), and the per capita net income of farmers (0.94). According to the influence of each indicator, we calculated the average influences of four dimensions: resource endowment, social economy, farmers’ demand, and regional policy. The results showed that, from 2010 to 2015, farmers’ demand (0.74), resource endowment (0.79), and social economy (0.72) were the most significant factors affecting the symbiosis degree of Tian Village, Shuiyukou Village, and Jiling Village, respectively. Factors that significantly affected the symbiosis degree of Tian Village from 2015 to 2020 were garbage disposal rate (0.98), per capita cultivated land area (0.96), and gross industrial product (0.94), in descending order. The factors that significantly affected Shuiyukou Village were the per capita net income of farmers (1.00), garbage disposal rate (0.99), and the tourism land area (0.96). The factors that significantly affected Jiling Village were the garbage disposal rate (1.00) and the proportion of commercial land (0.84). Social economy (0.74), resource endowment (0.73), and regional policy (0.69) were the most significant factors affecting the symbiosis of Tian Village, Shuiyukou Village, and Jiling Village, respectively (Figure 6).

5. Discussion

5.1. Theoretical Innovation

Currently, scholars have mostly regarded each rural settlement as a land plot. Under the background of the land use diversification in rural settlements and the increasingly obvious attributes of the community of production land and living land, some scholars have extended the research scale to the interior of rural settlements. Zhu et al. [26] classified land use types of rural settlements when evaluating the renovation potential of hollow villages. Jiang et al. [27], Xi et al. [28], and Li et al. [29] performed statistical analyses of the land use types within rural settlements. Zhu et al. [30] and Qu et al. [31] evaluated the multiple functions of rural settlements. In general, these studies discuss the quantity and proportion of land use types in rural settlements but ignore the interactions among them. Some scholars pointed out that the simplification of the quantitative system does not match the complexity of land use issues and cannot reflect the relationships among the same quantities of land types [32]. Therefore, in addition to considering the quantitative structure, we should also pay attention to the spatial relationship dimension of land uses in rural settlements.

Symbiosis theory focuses on the relationships among different land use types. In this study, symbiosis theory was introduced to explore the symbiotic characteristics between the production land and living land of rural settlements, which addressed the shortage of research on the interactions between land use types of rural settlements at the macroscale and innovated the perspective of research on rural land use transition [33]. Meanwhile, this work constructed a symbiosis system between production land and living land of rural settlements from the two aspects of compatibility and coupling coordination, which also enriched the measurement method system of symbiosis.

5.2. Driving Mechanism

From 2010 to 2020, the degree of symbiosis between the production land and living land of Tian Village first increased rapidly and then stabilized. From 2010 to 2015, the compatibility and coupling coordination increased while the symbiosis degree increased rapidly, which was caused by the rapid development of nonagricultural industries. Meanwhile, the per capita cultivated land area was relatively high, mainly planted with jujube and cherry; and the agricultural income increased steadily. The increase in income led to the upgrade of farmers’ demands, and the constant optimization of their living and production spaces. The production and living functions of the rural settlement were continuously strengthened, and the symbiosis degree continuously improved. From 2015 to 2020, the symbiosis degree increased slightly because industrial development in the village further increased the farmers’ income. Meanwhile, the effective treatment of household garbage continuously improved the quality of the living environment, which further improved the living standard of the farmers. These optimized the allocation of production and living land in the rural settlement (Figure 7).

From 2010 to 2020, the growth rate of symbiosis of Shuiyukou Village was first slow and then fast. The increase in the degree of symbiosis from 2010 to 2015 was because the village has more than 20 historical sites, such as Neolithic sites and cliff stone carvings from the Northern Song Dynasty, and the endowment of tourism resources was outstanding. The villagers have developed rural tourism. The areas of commercial land and tourism land have increased rapidly. The homestay and catering businesses have developed rapidly, which promoted the coordinated development between production land and living land. From 2015 to 2020, the symbiosis degree grew rapidly. The villagers continued to develop new tourism projects. The area of tourism land continued to increase, and the operation of rural tourism modes gradually matured. Villagers operated farmhouses, or engaged in livelihoods such as cleaning, security, or construction in scenic spots, which increased the per capita net income. The tourism development inevitably required a high quality of living environment and a high rate of garbage disposal in the village. These factors have led to the increasing symbiosis between production land and living land.

From 2010 to 2020, the growth rate of symbiosis of Jiling Village was first fast and then slow. The increase of symbiosis from 2010 to 2015 was due to the continuous increase of economic benefits from the modern agricultural and fruit planting industries with the development of agricultural industrialization and marketization. The per capita net income of farmers has increased, and they have invested in e-commerce, storage, and cold chain industries derived from agriculture. The production function of rural settlement has gradually increased. The symbiosis continued to increase from 2015 to 2020, which was driven by the development of agricultural product processing, sales, and other industries. The construction of logistics storage areas and related facilities increased the production land in the rural settlement. With the improvement of farmers’ income and living standards, nursing homes and garbage disposal stations have been built, and the quality of the living environment has been continuously improved. The optimization of the living functions of the rural settlement has improved the symbiosis between production land and living land.

5.3. Policy Significance

To achieve rural revitalization, an integrated development strategy for primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas has been introduced by the Chinese government, which encouraged the arrangement of industrial land in rural settlements to facilitate the revitalization of rural industries. For example, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the “Notice on Strengthening Village Planning and Promoting Rural Revitalization” [34] and “Notice on Guaranteeing and Regulating Land for Integrated Development of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Industries in Rural Areas” [35]. The government is required to arrange a certain proportion of construction land to ensure the integrated development of rural industries, advocate for the diversity of land types within rural settlements, and ensure the symbiosis between production land and living land to achieve the win–win goal of villagers’ production and life.

Symbiosis theory emphasizes the relevance and spatial distribution of production land and living land, aiming to promote the benign roles of production land and living land, which provides a new perspective for ensuring industrial land and optimizing the land structure in rural settlements. The symbiosis degree between production land and living land in this paper showed an increasing trend, but the compatibility did not increase significantly and decreased slightly in Shuiyukou Village and Jiling Village. Therefore, the increase in symbiosis degree is mainly due to the increase in coupling coordination. The three villages are in a transition period from the rapid advancement of industrialization and urbanization to rural revitalization according to the analysis of this work. Therefore, in the future, differentiated measures based on improving the compatibility between production land and living land should be implemented according to differences in the influencing factors of the symbiosis of different types of villages to promote increased symbiosis between production land and living land.

6. Conclusions

By establishing the symbiosis analysis framework and measurement model, this work studies the compatibility, coupling coordination, and symbiosis degree between production land and living land in rural settlements of Shanxi, China in 2010, 2015, and 2020. The study reveals the differences in symbiotic characteristics and driving forces between production land and living land of different types of villages (industry-led, tourism-led, multi-industry integration). With the advancement of industrialization and urbanization, the symbiosis between production land and living land in the rural settlements of the three case villages was growing. Among them, the coupling coordination between production land and living land continued to improve, but the compatibility in Shuiyukou Village and Jiling Village decreased. The growth of symbiosis degree in Tian Village from 2010–2015 and 2015–2020 was driven by the farmers’ demands and socio-economics, respectively; the dominant driving factor of Shuiyukou Village in both periods was resource endowment, and Jiling Village was driven by socio-economics and regional policies, respectively.

The symbiotic development between production land and living land in rural settlements is a process of continuous improvement of its internal structures and functions. It is scientific and in line with the evolution of the land use transition to analyze the symbiotic relationship between production land and living land in rural settlements and to understand its optimization mechanism using symbiosis theory.