How do population decline, urban sprawl and industrial transformation impact land use change in rural residential areas? A comparative regional analysis at the peri-urban interface

Accepted Manuscript How do population decline, urban sprawl and industrial transformation impact land use change in rural residential areas? A comparative regional analysis at the periurban interface

Wenqiu Ma, Guanghui Jiang, Wenqing Li, Tao Zhou PII:

S0959-6526(18)32684-2

DOI:

10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.323

Reference:

JCLP 14107

To appear in:

Journal of Cleaner Production

Received Date:

08 February 2018

Accepted Date:

30 August 2018

Please cite this article as: Wenqiu Ma, Guanghui Jiang, Wenqing Li, Tao Zhou, How do population decline, urban sprawl and industrial transformation impact land use change in rural residential areas? A comparative regional analysis at the peri-urban interface, Journal of Cleaner Production (2018), doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.323

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

How do population decline, urban sprawl and industrial transformation impact land use change in rural residential areas? A comparative regional analysis at the peri-urban interface Wenqiu Maa,b, Guanghui Jianga, b*, Wenqing Li b, Tao Zhoua,b State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Process and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; a

College of Resources Science and Technology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China b

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (W. Ma) [email protected] (G. Jiang) [email protected] (W. Li) [email protected] (T. Zhou) *Corresponding author: Guanghui Jiang Tel.: +86 13521444048; E-mail address: [email protected] Present/permanent address: College of Resources Science and Technology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, Xinjiekouwai Street, 100875 Beijing, China. Acknowledgments This work was supported by the National Natural Science Fund of China (Grant No. 41671519, 41401197, 41271535 and 41301616), and Funding Project of Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (Grant No. Z161100001116016).

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Amount of words: 7983 words

How do population decline, urban sprawl and industrial transformation impact land use change in rural residential areas? A comparative regional analysis at the peri-urban interface Abstract: By applying an integrated framework, this paper examines the impacts of population decline, urban sprawl and industrial transformation on rural residential land use change at the peri-urban interface. The examination is conducted from the perspective of the spatial structure of rural residential land based on a comparative regional analysis. The results show that the pace and pattern of spatial structure change in three regional areas are quite different: the changing process in mountainous areas is much slower, together with lowdensity development; conversely, the spatial structure in plains and semi-mountainous areas experiences considerable change, and development is more diversified. This can be explained by the differential impacts of urbanization and industrialization: rural population decline, which often occurs in exurban areas with monotonous economic structures, easily causes land and environmental degradation, as evidenced by large quantities of abandoned land. Nevertheless, suburban areas present a compact and multifunctional land use pattern, which is attributed to benign industrial transformation and the external benefits of urban sprawl (e.g., industrial transfer, infrastructure expansion, and urban-rural migration). Based on these findings, this paper also offers a critical discussion of the limitations of rural residential land use and potential adaptive strategies, arguing that the multifunctionality of rural areas and local village characteristics should be taken into account by Chinese policy-makers to achieve man-environment systems compatible with development and rural sustainability. Keywords: residential land use change; spatial structure; comparative regional analysis; urban sprawl; industrial transformation; impacts

1. Introduction Urbanization and industrialization, referring to the predominant paths to economic and social modernization, have brought unprecedented changes to rural areas, transforming demographic composition, community organizations, agricultural production, industrial structure, and environmental management (Korten, 1980; Liu et al., 2003; Holmes, 2008; Siciliano, 2012). One of the major outcomes of development under conditions of rapid urbanization and economic growth has been significant changes in rural residential land use (Kiss, 2000; Dumreicher, 2008; Lewis and Mrara, 1986; Yang et al., 2015; Tian et al., 2017). Recently, the socio-economic and environmental effects of urbanization and industrialization processes on rural areas, especially rural residential land use, have received a great deal of attention. Siciliano (2012) and Elshof (2017) note that rural–urban migration has led to a reduction in the multifunctional characteristics of rural residential land. Steiner and Atterton (2015) indicate that the contribution of rural enterprises under industrialization can be recognized as improving rural land use efficiency. Furthermore, Tania (2011), McDowell (2018) and Long (2014) observe that the environmental effects of rural land use transitions have occurred under the pressure of rapid urbanization on local ecological 1

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT systems and environments—loss of regional ecosystem services function. Similarly, other studies have been conducted examining the relationships among rural population, rural industries, and rural land use change (Park et al., 1925; Calthorpe, 1993; Ma et al., 2018a; Paul, 2009; Li et al., 2015; Woods, 2002; Tan and Li, 2013; DeMarco and Matusitz, 2011). These studies have predominantly focused on the socio-economic and environmental consequences of rapid urbanization and economic growth in rural areas or on separately estimating the impact of urban sprawl on rural livelihoods (Clark et al., 2009; Liu and Liu, 2016; Tian et al., 2012; You and Zhang, 2017). Studies analyzing the impacts of rural population change, economic growth and urban sprawl from an integrated perspective are still rare. More importantly, the impacts of rural land use have so far been examined merely in terms of morphological changes in rural residential land. Such studies fail to explain how the structure and function of land use change under conditions of rapid urbanization and industrialization. Since the adoption of economic reform and the open-door policy in 1978, Chinese rural residential areas have experienced unprecedented change involving, among other things, rural industrial transformation, rural depopulation, and land conversion, prompting call for changes in rural land use in order to sustain local livelihoods (Verburg, 2000; Jones, 2010; Mitchell, 2013; Cao and Ma, 2016). Such a dramatic transformation can be characterized as a functional shift from agricultural production activity toward functional integration (involving residential, industrial, commercial, cultural, institutional, and entertainment areas), which is inevitably linked with the spatial structure of the rural landscape (Yeh, and Li, 1999; Zhu et al., 2014; Jiang et al., 2015, Yang et al., 2016). At present, due to irrational planning as well as the incompatibility of the changes in the rural population compared with the changes in rural land use, the spatial structure of rural residential land throughout China is characterized by scattered distribution and chaotic and poor living conditions. Specially, the “hollow villages” phenomenon, a consequence of depopulation and the resulting abandonment of a significant number of buildings and significant tracts of land (Liu et al., 2009; Long et al., 2012; Jiang and Luo, 2014), has led to the creation of vast wastelands and low-density development patterns (Chen et al., 2010). It will be important to reconcile these conflicts so that more effort can be made in rural residential areas to coordinate land use patterns according to the needs of the population, industry and the environment. Thus, an acknowledgement of changes in the spatial structure of rural residential land under the impacts of urbanization and industrialization could do much to help to release inefficiently used land, design rational land use patterns, and promote rural sustainability (Ma, 2004; Marsden, 2010; Ma et al., 2018a; Zhang et al., 2015). To achieve this, this study attempts to examine the changing patterns of spatial structure of rural residential land using a comparative regional analysis. It also attempts to analyze the impacts of urbanization and industrialization — including rural population decline, urban sprawl and industrial transformation — on rural residential land use patterns. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 describes the theoretical framework used to understand the mechanisms underlying changes in rural residential land use. Section 3 details the source of the sample data and provides a descriptive statistical analysis of the spatial structure of rural residential land. Section 4 discusses the results of the study, and Section 5 concludes the study and discusses its implications. 2

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT In particular, the study area is located on the east coast of China in a peri-urban interface of the metropolis of Beijing. As a dynamic area, this region is experiencing industrial transformation, rural residential area loss, and depopulation at an accelerated pace. As a consequence, focusing on this area this makes it easier to investigate the magnitude and the rapidity of rural residential land use change under conditions of industrial transformation.

2. Conceptual framework Since China has experienced a social transformation from a traditional agricultural society to a modern industrial and urban society — as well as an economic transition from a traditional planned economy to a modern market system — reform-induced industrialization and urbanization have rapidly altered the physical and human landscapes of rural areas, as evidenced by the substantial rate of rural housing development, rural-urban migration, and agricultural to nonagricultural land conversion, as well as the widening rural-urban income gap and growing regional inequalities (Alger, 1993; Long et al., 2010; Robinson, 2003; Ottomano Palmisano et al., 2016; Tian et al., 2016). These socio-economic transformations have been accompanied by dramatic changes in the function and spatial structure of rural residential land (Skinner et al., 2001). In the preindustrialization (agricultualization) period, agricultural production and living played a crucial role in rural residential areas, and the major function of rural residential land was to provide space for agricultural production and human settlements (William, 1964; Satsangi, 2007). Rural residential land began with housing land in China. Afterward, the pace of industrialization was accelerating as the township and village enterprises (TVEs) boomtowns (Carter et al., 1996; Jefferson, 1993; Weitzman and Xu, 1994). Given their contribution to increasing rural income and making full use of local resources, TVEs were widely conceived as one of the major successes of the rural economic boom (Ge, 2009). The capacity of rural residential land to adapt to industrial production was increasingly important (Jiang et al., 2017a). Since then, the balance between human and environment in agricultural society has been broken, and significant amounts of industrial land have been separated from rural housing land as a result. Hence, Hou.-Ind. has gradually become the major spatial structure of rural residential land. Since the 1990s, the unprecedented urbanization process and urban sprawl have represented an increasing phenomenon in China (Terry, 1996), inevitably influencing the urban-rural demographic structure, socio-economic conditions, and land use structure and functions in peri-urban regions (Siciliano, 2012). The impacts of this urban sprawl are as follows: - Positive impacts. Urban growth is not merely embodied in land sprawl but also associated with the expansion of industrial production, commercial activities, lifestyle of urban residents, and infrastructure construction. More specially, there is a strong demand for workshops from many urban enterprises and factories in processing industries, and therefore urban industries moving to peri-urban regions have been supplemented modern process and support services. Meanwhile, this process has also contributed to significant industrial transformations (Linard et al., 2013; Zhu et al., 2014). 3

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Along with this process comes the increasingly commercial function of rural residential land, which alters the spatial structure of rural residential land from Hou.-Ind. to Hou.Ind.-Com. Specifically, there is a trend for suburban land use structure in residential areas to take on more urbanlike characteristics. Furthermore, rural industrial transformation has also raised the rural income of farmers. The lifestyles of rural residents, including their consumption pattern, social connections, and leisure habits, are similar to those of urban residents. The growing demands of rural residents for convenient public infrastructure and commercial services in rural residential areas to enhance their quality of life have finally resulted in the emergence of Hou.-Inf. and Hou.-Ind.-Inf. spatial structure of rural residential land. - Negative impacts. A series of socio-economic and environmental problems have occurred in rural residential areas as a result of relentless urban growth. One of these problems is the increasing socio-economic inequality between rural and urban areas. Given rural poverty and the rural–urban income gap, a growing number of migrants have moved to urban areas in search of economic and employment opportunities (Portnov and Pearlmutter, 1999; Siciliano, 2012). However, the high cost of living in urban areas has forced these migrants to build houses in the rural areas in which they were raised (Sun et al., 2008). Needless to say, this trend toward rural population decline has resulted in a large quantity of abandoned and vacant houses in villages. Furthermore, when businesses move to suburban areas seeking lower rents, they often bring with them such issues as low productivity, heavy contamination, and high resource consumption, which can lead to soil contamination and consequently exacerbate the issue of abandoned land. In the postindustrialization period, the explicit division between rural and urban functions has led to the diversification of villages and the emergence of characteristic village types such as industrial villages, agritourism villages, and suburban villages. As a result, rural residential land gradually sustains its multifunctionality (Ayres and Simonis, 1994; Sharpley and Vass, 2006; Townsend, 1992), maintaining spaces for living, production, recreation, ecological protection, cultural inheritance and entertainment (Stead and Hoppenbrouwer, 2004; Perkins, 2006). The spatial structure of rural residential land ranges from Hou.-Ind. to Ind.-Com., and from Hou.-Inf. to Hou.-Com.-Inf. and Hou.-Ind.-Com.-Inf. While simple to state, driven by the multifunction, the land use structure in rural residential areas tended to be more intensive. In general, rural residential land use, industrialization and urbanization are closely interrelated in terms of migration, employment, spatial structure and natural environments (Song and Liu, 2014), and industrialization and urbanization are two basic determinants of land use structure change within rural residential land. Industrialization mainly influences rural residential land by way of rural industrial transformation, while urbanization mainly alters rural residential land by means of urban sprawl, rural-urban migration, industrial transfer and infrastructure expansion.

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Fig. 1. Changing process of the spatial structure and functions of rural residential land. Note: Hou., Ind., Com., Inf., and Vac. are abbreviations for housing land, industrial land, commercial land, infrastructure land, and vacant land, respectively.

3. Materials and methods 3.1. Study area Pinggu District (40°02’ N -40°22’ N, 116°55’ E -117°24’ E) is located in the northeast of Beijing (the capital of China) and is positioned in the northern portion of the North China Plain (Fig. 2). In 2015, the district occupied an area of approximately 107500 ha with a population of 397517 (Pinggu Statistical Bureau, 2015). The economic structure is well-known for its agricultural production base and industrial parks (e.g., Mafang Industrial Park) (Ma et al., 2018b). Its industrial sector is based mainly on the production of metal products, garment processing, construction, and electronics. Other than that, the service industry is also well developed in both urban and exurban areas. As the peri-urban area of the Beijing metropolis, this region has experienced considerable changes in population and land: from 2005 to 2015, the total rural population decreased by 18.86%, from 2.28 million to 1.85 million, while the area of rural residential land decreased by 9.12%, from 6180.12 ha to 5713.96 ha. The rural region of the Pinggu District consists of 16 towns and 275 villages, and it can roughly be divided into three area types based on its landforms: plains areas, semimountainous areas and mountainous areas. The area of rural residential land in the plains areas is 3564.07 ha, accounting for 57.67% of the total region; the area of rural residential land in the semi-mountainous areas was 1873.81 ha, accounting for 30.32% of the total region; and the area of rural residential land in mountainous areas was 742.85 ha, accounting for 12.02% of the total region. Compared with the other area types, the level of economic development in the plains areas is much higher.

5

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Fig. 2. Study area.

3.2. Data gathering Land-use data for Pinggu in 2005 and 2015 were obtained from Google Maps. We also adopted the image interpretation and practical survey to acquire accurate land parcel information, including area, administrative region, land-use type and ownership, etc. Socioeconomic data consisted of gross output in nonagricultural industry, labor employment, and total rural population, which were collected mostly from the 2015 Statistical Yearbook of the Pinggu District and partly from the contemporaneous Statistical Yearbook of Beijing (Ma et al., 2018b). Rural residential land is defined as land on which rural residents live, including land for building houses, other construction for living needs and necessary infrastructure (Banski and Wesolowska, 2010; Zhu et al, 2014; Jiang, 2013). Internal land-use types mainly include housing land, industrial land, commercial land, infrastructure land and vacant land. Detailed descriptions of each land-use type are shown in Table 1. Table 1 Rural residential land classification system. 1st

level

Subclasses

Description

Housing land

Land used for people living and its affiliated facilities.

Rural

Industrial land

Land used for industrial production and material storage.

residential

Commercial land

Land used for commercial and service activities, and tourism industries.

land

Infrastructure

Land used for public management-services, such as organ groups, the press and

land

publishing, science education-culture-health, scenic spots, public facilities, etc.

classes

6

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Vacant land

The untapped and abandoned land inside the town or village.

3.3. Methods 3.3.1 Weaver-Tomas composite coefficient method This study adopted the Weaver-Tomas composite coefficient (WT) method (Marshall, 1892; Jiang et al., 2017a) to quantitatively analyze the spatial structure of rural residential land. Its aim is to find an approximate spatial structure of rural residential land that is the closest to the actual internal land use structure. The steps are as follows: a) sequence the landuse types in descending order by area percentage; b) hypothesize that if there is one land-use type, its area percentage is 100%, with the others at 0%; if there are two land-use types, they each have an area percentage of 50%, with the others at 0%; if there are three land-use types, they each have an area percentage of 33.33%; and so on; c) in turn, calculate and compare the square of the difference between each hypothetical percentage and actual percentage (i.e., the composite coefficient); and d) choose the spatial structure corresponding to the minimum composite coefficient as the regional spatial structure of rural residential land. The composite coefficient N is shown in formula (1):

𝑁 = ∑(𝑇𝑖𝑗 ‒ 𝑡𝑖𝑗)

2

(1)

where Tij is the hypothetical area percentage of land, and tij is the actual area percentage of land. 3.3.2 Assessment of the degree of rural development To assess the impacts of rural population change, industrial transformation and urban sprawl quantitatively and comprehensively, we introduced the “rural development degree index (RDDI)” and established an indicator system (Guo et al., 2012; Conrad et al., 2015). Accordingly, the selected indicators are shown in Table 2 and are based on (i) information collected on the field; (ii) the analysis of Chinese policy documents; and (iii) collaboration with academic experts and local residents. The indicators “rural demographic structure,” “rural industrial structure,” and “distance to downtown” were chosen to represent rural population change, industrial transformation and urban sprawl, respectively (Byrd and Li, 1990; Ayres and Simonis, 1994; Steiner and Atterton, 2015; Gude et al., 2006; Siciliano, 2012). The weights of the indicators were established by experts using Delphi’s method (Table 2). We used the normalized values to calculate the degree of rural development according to formula (2): 𝑛

(2)

𝑅𝐷𝐷𝐼 = ∑𝑖 = 𝑛𝑊𝑖𝑆𝑖

where RDDI is the rural development degree index (the higher the index value, the stronger the rural development degree); Si is the standardized value of the indicators; and Wi is the weight for indicator i. Table 2 Indicator system of rural development degree. 7

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Indicators

Definition

Explanation

Weights

Direction

NP= nonagricultural population Rural demographic structure

NP/TP

in rural areas; TP= total

0.354

-

0.327

+

0.319

-

population in rural areas GT= gross output in tertiary Rural industrial structure

GT/GS

industry; GS= gross output in secondary industry

Distance to downtowns

Drc

Drc =distance from rural residential land to downtowns

Note: “+” means that the higher the value of the indicator, the higher the RDDI; conversely, “-“ means the higher the value of the indicator, the lower the RDDI.

4. Results 4.1. Spatiotemporal dynamics of spatial structures of rural residential land Based on the survey results, we obtained the relevant statistics for the spatial structure of rural residential land in Pinggu District. Between 2005 and 2015, the total area of rural residential land shows an overall decreasing trend, from 6180.12 ha to 5713.96 ha. The total area ratio of the five internal land-use types ranged from 7.03: 1.96: 0.52: 0.21: 0.27 (housing land: industrial land: infrastructure land: commercial land: vacant land) to 6.84: 2.06: 0.55: 0.23: 0.32. Housing land and industrial land, as the two main types of rural residential land, account for 70% and 20% of the total area, respectively. During the ten-year period, except for housing land, the proportions of all other types of land use increased; in particular, industrial land grew from 19.64% to 20.66% of the total area; as a consequence, the amounts of these five land-use types tended to be balanced. The WT method was used to obtain the spatial structure of rural residential land in 275 villages between 2005 and 2015 (see Fig. 3a). The results indicated that during the period studied, the types of spatial structures used on rural residential land became more diversified. Specifically, in 2005, there were six types of spatial structures of rural residential land: Hou., Hou.-Vac., Hou.-Ind., Hou.-Inf., Hou.-Ind.-Vac. and Hou.-Ind.-Inf. The spatial structures Hou. and Hou.-Ind. accounted for 85.27% of total land use. It can be clearly seen that the interaction between housing land and industrial land suggests that rural residential land had a monotonous spatial structure in 2005.. In 2015, as shown in Fig. 3b, there were a few new spatial structure types: the driving effects of Mafang Industrial Park have stimulated industrial transformation in human settlements and generated the Ind.-Com. and Hou.-Ind.-Com. spatial structures. Moreover, with regard to rural residential land adjacent to cities, location superiority has caused an increasing proportion of industrial land and infrastructure land, resulting in the emergence of the new spatial structures Hou.-Inf.-Com. and Hou.-Ind.-Com.-Inf. Simultaneously, the prevalence of the spatial structures Hou.-Ind.-Inf. and Hou.–Inf. increased significantly in these areas, from 31 to 47 and from 11 to 23, respectively. However, it should be noted that there were more idle rural housing land and more vacant rural houses, with unoccupied land in villages, and Hou.8

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Vac. and Hou.-Ind.-Vac. became increasingly dominant. Consequently, compared with 2005, the spatial structure of rural residential land varied by regions in 2015. Multifunctionality of rural residential land has provided more land use choices for local residents, and the internal land use structures demonstrate the diversification.

Number of villages

100

2005 2015

50

. nf

.-C

om

om . H

ou

H

.-I

ou

nd

.-I

nd .-I

nf .-I ou

H

Spatial structure of rural residential land

.-C

om . .-C

d. -V .-I n

H

ou

.-I ou H

ac .

nf .-I nd

-C d. In

.-I ou H

.

om

. nf

. nd .-I ou H

H

ou

.-V

H

ac

ou

.

.

.

0

(a)

(c)

(b)

Fig. 3. Spatiotemporal dynamics of the spatial structure of rural residential land between 2005 and 2015.

4.2. A comparative regional analysis of the spatial structure change of rural residential land Regional differences in physical geography and economic location has led to different paces of industrialization, urbanization, and rural transformation in various regional areas, resulting in the different change characteristics of the internal structure of rural residential land. As shown in Fig. 2, this study identified the spatial structure of rural residential land based on a comparative regional analysis. Fig. 4 shows that from 2005 to 2015, the pace of spatial structure change of rural residential land differed in according to various regional areas, with the pace of change ranked in the following order: mountainous areas< plain areas< 9

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT semi-mountainous areas. Inferior physical geography conditions and economic location in mountainous areas has constrained economic diversification in villages located there, which still sustained the selfsufficient economic status and the lagging nonagricultural industrial development. The major function of rural residential land is to provide space for employment and living. The internal structure of rural residential consisted mainly of housing land and a small amount of industrial land. Recently, during the process of urbanization, rural–urban migration and housing land expansion has generated a mass of vacant land in villages, in which the spatial structure changed from Hou. to Hou.-Vac., and from Hou.-Ind. to Hou.-Ind.-Vac., thus presenting a single spatial structure changing patterns in mountainous areas. Nevertheless, this area can be conceived as a slow-growing rural region with relatively stable residents and low rates of land use conversion. Conversely, the spatial structure change of rural residential land in plains areas was quite different. Given their superior location relative to neighboring cities, both rural areas and rural land use were under significant influence from urban activities. Therefore, the major function of rural residential land was to provide living space for the migrant rural workers in the early period; moreover, the superior location and rural industrial foundation led to the rapid development of TVEs. As a result, Hou. and Hou.-Ind. spatial structures occurred in human settlements. In the later period, these areas were gradually transformed into urbanlike areas in which nonagricultural production functions and living service functions of the rural residential land became more prominent. This was accompanied by an increase in commercial land and the emergence of spatial structures ranging from Hou.-Ind. to Hou.-Ind.Com. and Ind.-Com., from Hou. to Hou.-Inf., and from Hou.-Ind. to Hou.-Ind.–Inf. Nonetheless, there is a dark side to this picture. The wide plains provided convenient conditions for rural build-up and land sprawl, thereby causing local residents to lack awareness of the importance of compact land use, and as a result, rural land in these areas became more fragmented. The spatial structure Hou.-Ind.-Vac. also verified this problem. As the transition zone between the plains and mountainous areas, the natural and human landscapes in semi-mountainous areas include both plains areas and mountainous areas. It has also played a critical role in linking urban and rural areas and in reducing the rural–urban gap. The dual impacts of urbanization and industrialization have led these areas to be used for various industrial activities, resulting in diversified developing patterns of rural industries and significant economic growth. Driven by the industrial booms and diversification, these areas have experienced various types of industrial transformation and improvements in human settlements (Cao et al., 2008). The most typical industrial pattern in these areas involves agritourism in northern areas, such as JHH and HSY, where the rural region is endowed with numerous historic, natural, and social qualities. Consequently, aside from the patterns of change in spatial structure noted in mountainous and plain areas, new patterns of spatial structure change — from Hou.-Inf. to Hou.-Inf.-Com., and from Hou.-Ind.-Inf. to Hou.Ind.-Inf.-Com — also appeared in semi-mountainous areas. In contrast to the first two regional areas, the changing pattern of spatial structure in this area is characterized by diversification.

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Fig. 4. Spatial structure change of rural residential land in different regional areas.

4.3. Impacts of population decline, urban sprawl, and industrial transformation on rural residential land use patterns To better identify the impacts of urbanization and rural industrialization on rural residential land use change, RDDI analysis was carried out in this study. Meanwhile, spatial structure change could be used to denote the rural residential land changing patterns. Therefore, a coupling mechanism between RDDI and spatial structure could help to reflect the impacts of urbanization and rural industrialization on rural residential land change. As illustrated in Table 2, we assessed the degree of rural development for each village in 2015. It turns out that the RDDI in Pinggu District was between 0.0870 and 0.9055. The “lowest value” was in the northeastern town of BSY, while the “highest value” was in the urban-rural fringe town of BJS. Furthermore, Fig. 5 displays a gradually increasing spatial pattern of RDDI from east to west, with significant spatial differentiation. Fig. 6 shows that along with these increasing RDDI values, the spatial structure changes from Hou. to Hou.-Ind.-Com.-Inf. Indeed, it is also acknowledged that the coupling between RDDI and spatial structure can verify the theoretical hypothesis mentioned in Section 2. We then used the Nature Breaks method to classify RDDI into four grades ranked from low to high (I-IV), describing the patterns of change in rural residential land in each grade from 2005 to 2015 (Fig. 5 and Table 3). The number of villages in grade-I (>0.39), grade-II (0.39-0.54), grade-III (0.54-0.67) and grade-IV (0.67-0.91) is 31, 93, 113, and 39, respectively; most villages are in the middle grades (II and III).

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Fig. 5. Spatial distribution of grades of RDDI.

Fig. 6. Relationship between RDDI and spatial structure of rural residential land.

In the low-grade (I) RDDI group, the spatial structure of rural residential land ranged from Hou. to Hou.-Vac. Fig. 5 shows that most of these were located in the northeastern exurban area, where the primarily agricultural economy played a critical role in rural development. Unfortunately, the loss of reliability for urbanization and inefficient economic 12

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT development patterns have caused low-density patterns of rural residential land use in these areas. In the grade-II RDDI group, the spatial structure of rural residential land ranged from Hou. to Hou.-Ind., and from Hou.-Ind. to Hou.-Ind.-Vac. On the one hand, this can be explained by booms in nonagricultural industries: various types of labor-intensive TVEs, for instance, in eastern semi-mountainous areas have increased demand for industrial production and living services, thereby resulting in the spatial structure of rural residential land ranging from Hou. to Hou.-Ind. On the other hand, the introduction of a market economy has propelled the reorganization of enterprises to guarantee the sustainable development of rural industries. As a consequence, some TVEs moved from urban areas were finally closed down due to a lack of material, energy, and capital, as well as worsening environmental quality. These abandoned enterprises and factories were then gradually transformed into vacant land, accompanied by land and environmental degradation. In the grade-III RDDI group, the spatial structure of rural residential land ranged from Hou. to Hou.-Inf. and Hou.-Com., and from Hou.-Ind. to Hou.-Ind.-Inf., which can be attributed to the effects of urban sprawl and rural industrial transformation. More specifically, under conditions of urban sprawl, the external benefits of public infrastructure and commercial activities have stimulated a relative enhancement of function in the urban hinterland. Furthermore, in some areas with a benign industrial production foundation, the appropriate allocation of residential, industrial, and infrastructural land in human settlements, resulting from the industrial transformation from primary processing and manufacturing industries into advanced commercial and service industries, as well as the equipment of sound supporting facilities, have contributed to mixed-use development. In the high-grade (IV) RDDI group, the spatial structure of rural residential land ranged from Hou.-Ind. to Hou.-Ind.-Com. and Ind.-Com., and from Hou.-Ind. to Hou.-Ind.-Com.–Inf., which seems to be in line with the analysis that multifunctionality of rural residential land can be observed in advanced stages of socio-economic development (Verburg et al., 2009). In Pinggu District, these rural areas are always accompanied by superior economic location and a superior industrial foundation (such as DXZ and MF). For instance, rural residential land in MF was shaped by driving effects both from the downtown area and the Mafang Industrial Park, where stable residents, the diversified economic structure, and the presence of convenient service facilities have improved compact land use patterns. Table 3 Rural residential land use patterns at different grades of RDDI. Grade

Range of RDDI

Number of villages

Composite structure change

Land use patterns

I

0 - 0.39

31

Hou. → Hou.-Vac.

Low-density land use

II

0.39-0.54

93

III

0.54-0.67

113

Hou. → Hou.-Ind. Hou.-Ind. → Hou.-Ind.-Vac.

Land degradation

Hou. → Hou.- Inf. Hou.-Inf. → Hou.-Inf.-Com.

Mixed Land Use

Hou.-Ind. → Hou.-Ind.-Inf. IV

0.67-0.91

39

Hou.-Ind. → Hou.-Ind.-Com. / Ind.-Com. 13

Multifunctional land use

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Hou.-Inf. → Hou.-Inf.-Com. Hou.-Ind.-Inf. → Hou.-Ind.Com. -Inf.

5. Discussion 5.1. Implications for environmental management and rural sustainability Rapid industrialization and urbanization are inextricably bound up with population growth, urban sprawl, and industrial transformation, all of which can be recognized as the impetus to changing rural land use patterns, especially in terms of structure and function. Rural residential land use change has the potential to reduce the rural–urban gap but also to affect the current state of the rural environment and the socio-economic conditions. Firstly, a large quantity of vacant and abandoned rural houses and hollow villages can be considered as a result when the rate of population urbanization far exceeds the spatial rate of land urbanization. Along with the urbanization process speeding up comes the incremental rural land price, especially in the urban fringe, where high-rent rural housing land, which could benefit some local residents as the profit function of rural residential land, becomes increasingly prominent (Yang et al., 2016；Li et al., 2015). Nonetheless, the excessive reliance on cities and the absence of industrial support tends to turn these villages into suburban villages with a single land use structure and function. In particular, most rural laborers are forced to find jobs in nearby urban areas. This widens the inequalities of employment and incomes between urban and rural areas (Liu et al., 2011; Lewis and Mrara, 1986). Secondly, rural industrialization has contributed to industrial transformation but also has some potential downsides. For instance, in most areas, traditional low-density development patterns — most industries are mixed up in a disorderly fashion with residential buildings, and the phenomenon “every village lights up a fire, and every household sets off smoke” suggests a chaotically idle land use structure in villages (Needham et al., 2013; Jiang et al., 2017b). Inappropriate land use occurs as a result of an overly rapid industrialization process and irrational planning for industrial land, together with separated residential and commercial land uses, resulting in social segregation and a lack of adequate infrastructure (Duan and Zhang, 2009). Simultaneously, as most factories in human settlements are staffed only with low-level management and have absolutely no ability to dispose of polluted water, poisonous gas, and wastes, the environmental quality in rural areas is becoming worse, which has reduced rural sustainability. Given these limitations, a number of implications can be drawn for policy-makers, which is helpful to achieve sustainable development in rural areas. Assuming the compatibility of urbanization and industrialization, adaptive strategies toward rational management and sustainable development for rural residential land should be proposed after taking into consideration local characteristics (i.e., physical geographic condition, socio-economic development levels, and environmental carrying capacity): (i) In exurban mountainous areas with low-density development patterns, the primary aim should be to reduce the vacancy rates on rural residential land and to alleviate the 14

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT phenomenon of hollow villages. Thus, some appropriate industries, such as agricultural production industries and agritourism, can be introduced according to local natural resources to increase employment opportunities. In addition, more attention should be paid to rational planning for infrastructure land and housing land, which could improve the construction of facilities and infrastructure in central villages, the reallocation of rural populations, and the restructuring of industries. (ii) For “suburban villages” with simple living function, policy-makers need to recognize the importance of the lack of any policy to guarantee the legitimacy of rural residential land property trade. Hence, it is important for the government to reduce the rural–urban gap by impelling rural housing land to enter capital the market, reforming the household registration system and establishing a unified market for the use of land in both urban and rural areas, thereby promoting compact land use patterns. (iii) Concerning the problems of land and environmental degradation resulting from industrial land disorderly mixed up with residential land, appropriate industrial and environmental planning at the village level is required in order to separate industrial land from residential areas, after which environmental management should be reinforced in order to increase the regional ecosystem services function. Coordinating the residential, production, and ecological functions of rural residential areas is crucial to achieving sustainable rural development.

5.2. Research contribution and prospects Socio-economic and environmental impacts of urbanization and industrialization processes on rural land use change have received a great deal of attention, especially in China. While there is evidence of consequences for land use change as a result of the expansion of cities, more systematic assessments and analysis are needed in order to better understand to how other aspects, such as rural population decline, urban sprawl, and industrial transformation, influence land use change in rural residential areas. Theoretically, this study could be considered an attempt to explore rural residential land changing patterns from the perspective of internal structure. In addition, the introduction of RDDI, which takes into account “rural demographic structure,” “rural industrial structure,” and “distance to downtown,” provides a quantitative and integrated method to analyze the impacts of these changes. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in the field of rural residential land change brought about by processes of urbanization and industrialization. It brings together several separate areas of literature concerning rural residential land change, urban sprawl, and industrial transformation, and it supports the findings of previous research demonstrating that urbanization and industrialization play an important role in altering rural residential land use patterns. Following the above results, this study also presents implications concerning the effectiveness and feasibility of the analyzed policies are drawn with respect to the policy goals stated by the policy-makers. However, the following aspects should be further explored in future studies. First, because of the limitation of the database, this study focuses on a small case study. To provide a significance to wider a wider scientific community, more resources should be directed toward the inclusion of a larger number of villages and rural residential areas. Second, the indicator system for RDDI assessment could be further improved by adopting indicators 15

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT reflecting the rural industrial transfer and public infrastructure expansion. This could help to improve its precision when identifying the impacts of urban sprawl. In addition, empirical study of the detailed policy implications of rural sustainability should be further examined. Such an exploration would lead to a much more holistic understanding of the impacts of urbanization and industrialization on rural residential land change and would lead, in turn, to more integrated, regionalized, and feasible rural development policies.

6. Conclusions In this paper, we showed that population decline, urban sprawl, and industrial transformation have altered the physical and human landscapes in rural residential areas and that heterogeneous changing patterns of spatial structure in rural residential land have emerged as a consequence. The process of change in mountainous areas has been much slower, together with low-density development of land use; conversely, the spatial structure in plains and semi-mountainous areas has experienced a considerable change and has become more diversified. By expanding on the impacts on rural residential land use change, we found that the rural population decline that often occurs in exurban areas with monotonous economic structure easily causes residential land and environmental degradation, as evidenced by a large number of abandoned houses and vacant land. Nevertheless, suburban areas tend to present a compact and multifunctional land use pattern that blends residential, industrial, commercial, cultural, and entertainment uses, which can be attributed to benign industrial transformation and the external benefits of urban sprawl (e.g., industrial transfer, infrastructure expansion, and urban-rural migration). Moreover, given the limitations in land use patterns and rural development, adaptive strategies based on local village characteristics should be fully taken into account by policy-makers in order to achieve human-environment systems compatible with development and rural sustainability.

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Highlights 

Rural residential land use change is always embodied in its internal structure.

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Regional differentiation of land use changing patterns existed clearly.

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Rural population decline easily causes land and environmental degradation.

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A compact and multifunctional land use pattern is attributed to benign industrial transformation and the external benefits of urban sprawl.

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Multifunctionality should be encouraged in rural environmental restructuring.