Search Results (3)

The agro-pastoral transitional zone (APTZ) in northern China is a typical ecologically vulnerable zone and a comprehensive geographical transitional zone. Its land use pattern has significant type diversity and spatial interlocking, which is always related to the play of ecological barrier functions and the sustainability of social-ecological systems. Accurately grasping the spatial competition relationship and comprehensive geographical effects of land types of APTZ in northern China is a key proposition for achieving coordinated and sustainable development between humans and land. To explore the spatial competition mechanism and comprehensive geographical effects of land use in the research area, this study focuses on revealing the evolutionary characteristics of land use patterns based on the center of gravity migration model. Based on the process of land use center of gravity migration, the spatial competition relationship of land types is explored to reveal the evolutionary trend and basic characteristics of land use in the APTZ. The results show the following: (1) Cultivated land and meadow are the main land types of the APTZ in northern China, accounting for up to 70% of the total regional area. The spatial competition between the two land types is the main contradiction in regional land use competition. (2) Drifting of the center of gravity of cultivated land towards the northwest direction is an important land use migration feature of the APTZ in northern China. Between 1980 and 2020, the center of gravity of cultivated land shifted by about 2 km to the northwest, and the center of gravity of grassland shifted by 8–10 km to the southwest. (3) The center of gravity of arable land and grassland in the entire region is constantly approaching, which has decreased from 70.95 km in 1980 to 61.38 km in 2020. The intensification of their interweaving has led to more intense land use competition. Grasping the basic characteristics and driving mechanisms of land type competition is an important means to achieve sustainable spatial governance. (4) The scale differentiation and regional differentiation characteristics of gradient effects are significant, and it is essential to prevent the risk of mismatch between land use and natural endowments in the northeast and north China sections. The research has surpassed the traditional method of analyzing land use competition, and by introducing a centroid model to analyze the spatial mechanism of land use competition, it has expanded the methodology for expanding research in the field of land science and provided basic references for regional sustainable development. Full article

Rural areas are crucial to the realization of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Rural social capital is indispensable for these areas to fulfil the SDGs. As China pursues rural revitalization, it is essential to achieve the sustainable development of rural areas within the agropastoral transition zone (APTZ) in northern China. The same applies to the SDGs’ realization in other APTZs across the globe. From the micro perspective of individual farmers and herdsmen, this article collected 732 microscopic datapoints through repeated rural surveys, and adopted the multivariate ordered probit model to empirically analyze how the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen in northern China’s APTZ was affected by the individual (person) and collective (community) layers of rural social capital. Specifically, the production mode was introduced to study the relationship between social capital and subjective well-being, and social capital was measured by a self-designed theoretical analysis framework, which covered six dimensions and two layers (person and community). It was verified that the individual social capital and collective social capital were mutually replaceable in terms of the effect on the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen. Additionally, this article examined the influence of different production modes on the social capital and subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen, and discussed how the same amount of social capital contributes differently to the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen under different production models. The results showed that: (1) Social capital significantly promoted the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen, and social network was the leading contributor among the dimensions of individual social capital, while social trust was the leading contributor among the dimensions of collective social capital. By the contribution to the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen, the six dimensions of social capital can be ranked as social network > social trust > social participation > social standard > social fame > common vision. (2) Individual social capital and collective social capital were mutually replaceable in terms of enhancing the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen; when the individual social capital was insufficient, the collective social capital would exert a much greater influence on the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen; when the individual social capital grows, the farmers and herdsmen would depend less on collective social capital. (3) The same amount of social capital contributes differently to the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen under different production models; by contribution strength, the production models can be ranked as pure herdsmen (PH) > pure farmers (PF) > non-farmers/herdsmen (NFH) > farmers + herdsmen (FH). Finally, several policy suggestions were provided to improve the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen in APTZ. The results show that collective social capital eliminates the negative effect of individual social capital shortage on the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen. Thus, it is suggested to consider not only the construction of macroscopic hardware environment, but also to roll out policies and measures to improve the subjective well-being from the micro perspective of farmers and herdsmen. These suggestions are concentrated on the implementation of China’s rural revitalization strategy, and the creation of relevant institutions and cultural environments, as well as the optimization of the internal hierarchy of farmers and herdsmen’s social capital. The research results may help to promote the subjective well-being of farmers and herdsmen in rural areas within the APTZs of China and the world, and provide a reference and a path to realize SDGs in China and similar places across the globe. Full article

The agro-pastoral transitional zone (APTZ) in Northern China is one of the most important ecological barriers of the world. The commonly-used method to identify the spatial distribution of ATPZ is to apply a threshold rule on climatic or land use indicators. This approach is highly subjective, and the quantity standards vary among the studies. In this study, we adopted the spatial continuous wavelet transform (SCWT) technique to detect the spatial fluctuation in normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) sequences, and as such identify the APTZ. To carry out this analysis, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI 1-month data (MODND1M) covering the period 2006–2015 were used. Based on the spatial variation in NDVI, we identified two sub-regions within the APTZ. The temporal change of APTZ showed that although vegetation spatial pattern changed annually, certain areas appeared to be stable, while others showed higher sensitivity to environmental variance. Through correlation analysis between the dynamics of APTZ and precipitation, we found that the mean center of the APTZ moved toward the southeast during dry years and toward the northwest during humid years. By comparing the APTZ spatial pattern obtained in the present study with the outcome following the traditional approach based on mean annual precipitation data, it can be concluded that our study provides a reliable basis to advance the methodological framework to identify accurately transitional zones. The identification framework is of high importance to support decision-making in land use management in Northern China as well as other similar regions around the world. Full article