Cultivated land loss and construction land expansion in China: Evidence from national land surveys in 1996, 2009 and 2019

Knowledge of cultivated land conservation and construction land expansion in China and its provincial scale is still insufficient due to the lack of accurate and reliable data. Based on the dataset of three nationwide land surveys in China, this study used the statistical analysis and two-way fixed effect model to explore the spatio-temporal patterns and driving forces of cultivated land and construction land change in China at the provincial and regional levels during the period 1996–2019. Results show that over the past 20 years, China's cultivated land increased first and then decreased. Distinct regional land use change characteristics were also detected, showing a continual increase in Northeast China, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, and a continuous decrease in eastern coastal and southwestern provinces. The center of gravity of China's cultivated land area had a trend of moving northward as a whole. Between 1996 and 2019, the area of high-quality cultivated land with slope of 2° and below in eastern China decreased by 23.33 %, while that in the three northeastern provinces and the 13 major grain producing provinces increased by 41.66 % and 11.1 %, respectively. Construction land across the country and all provinces continued to expand, and township land was expanding faster than city and village construction land. In rapidly urbanizing China, rural settlement land did not shrink but expanded rapidly, especially in the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Henan and Sichuan where the rural population continued to decrease substantially. The mismatch between urban expansion and population growth scale was prominent. The problem of extensive and inefficient use of rural construction land is still widespread and has become more serious. Road construction has also contributed to the expansion of construction land in China. About 80 % of cultivated land loss in China was occupied by construction purposes, while the increase of construction land was driven by the expansion of built-up areas and population growth. China's land policy to control the expansion of construction land and the loss of cultivated land appears to be a double failure. The adjustment of land use planning and land policy needs to fully consider the characteristics of regional land use change, socioeconomic level and land use demand.