Measuring the evolutionary game process among three functional space types at the county scale in Henan Province, China

Conflicts among various spatial planning policies have created a spatial game over land function and utilization due to the limitation of land resources. We quantitatively assess the evolutionary game process among three functional space types (agricultural production, urban–rural living, and blue–green ecological) using the concept of game theory during the period of 1980–2020 in Henan Province, China, as a case study. A research framework for assessing the spatial game process was established, and a measurement method based on spatial game type (SGT) and spatial game intensity (SGI) is proposed. The results demonstrate that the evolutionary game process among three functional space types exhibited significant spatiotemporal variation and spatial agglomeration. SGI increased from low to high values and then decreased again, and exhibited spatial autocorrelation. SGT supported classification into positive-sum and zero-sum games. The period of 1990–2000 had the largest SGI and the most counties with high-intensity zero-sum games. A highly urbanized urban center showed a high-intensity zero-sum game at the expense of agricultural production spaces. Balancing the areas devoted to various uses, enhancing spatial connectivity and improving functional mixing degree of land use may be effective ways to alleviate noncooperative games and spatial conflicts among these three functional space types.