Thematic maps for land consolidation planning in Hubei Province, China

Journal of Maps ISSN: (Print) 1744-5647 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tjom20 Thematic maps for land consolidation planning in Hubei Province, China Xuesong Kong, Yaolin Liu, Xingjian Liu, Yiyun Chen & Dianfeng Liu To cite this article: Xuesong Kong, Yaolin Liu, Xingjian Liu, Yiyun Chen & Dianfeng Liu (2014) Thematic maps for land consolidation planning in Hubei Province, China, Journal of Maps, 10:1, 26-34, DOI: 10.1080/17445647.2013.847388 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2013.847388 2013 Yaolin Liu View supplementary material Published online: 03 Oct 2013. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 454 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 5 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalinformation?journalcode=tjom20 Download by: [46.3.196.199] Date: 04 January 2018, At: 06:02

Journal of Maps, 2014 Vol. 10, No. 1, 26 34, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2013.847388 SOCIAL SCIENCE Thematic maps for land consolidation planning in Hubei Province, China Xuesong Kong a,b, Yaolin Liu a,b, Xingjian Liu c, Yiyun Chen a,b and Dianfeng Liu a,b a School of Resource and Environment Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; b Key Laboratory of Geographic Information System, Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; c Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA (Received 12 August 2012; resubmitted 17 July 2013; accepted 26 August 2013) Land consolidation is the most effective land management approach to optimize land-use structure and improve the natural environment. This study aims to shed light on land consolidation planning processes in China, and to highlight the characteristics and contents of thematic maps in provincial-level planning. The study area, Hubei Province, has an area of 1,85,900 km 2 and is located in Central China. The land consolidation potential, that is, the net increase area of arable land was calculated according to the land consolidation types in each county. The spatial characteristics of land consolidation potential, key areas, and key engineering and projects were presented on a scale of 1: 5,00,000 utilizing counties as evaluation units. The thematic maps can provide important information for policymakers and planning workers, and guide any subsequent land consolidation planning at the county level in China. Keywords: mapping; land consolidation; land use; provincial level; China 1. Introduction Land-use problems associated with accelerating urbanization in China include the sharp reduction in the amount of arable land, existence of vacant villages, and continued ecological deterioration. The Chinese government initiated a statewide land consolidation project over a decade ago to address these problems. The first round of land consolidation planning (2001 2010) was already completed and had a significant role in arable land protection (Huang, Li, Chen, & Li, 2010; Yu et al., 2010). Land consolidation is effective in increasing land-use capability and productivity and in improving the ecological environment (Demetriou, Stillwell, & See, 2012; Miranda, Crecente, & Alvarez, 2006). Compared with the case in Western countries, land consolidation in China has special characteristics in terms of aims and contents (Pašakarnis & Maliene, 2010). Inadequate arable land resource is a result of having the largest population in the world. The per capita arable land area is 0.092 ha in 2010, which is less than one half of that in the rest of the world. Thus, the Chinese government must enforce large-scale and long-term land consolidation project. China s land consolidation is a complex readjustment of land tenure, including comprehensive rearrangement of land utilization pattern, structure, and distribution; improvement of Corresponding author. Email: yaolin610@163.com # 2013 Yaolin Liu

Journal of Maps 27 agricultural production condition and ecological environment; enhancement of land productivity and realization of intensive land utilization (Yu et al., 2010). Land consolidation can be classified into four major types, namely, agricultural land consolidation, rural construction consolidation, unused land exploitation, and waste land reclamation. Land fragmentation is the main problem preventing agricultural production (Demetriou et al., 2012). The initial aim of land consolidation was to bring about newly increased arable land and improve the quality of production by amalgamating small land parcels into large units. Agricultural land consolidation, unused land exploitation and waste land reclamation were widely implemented to realize this goal. However, rural construction consolidation was ignored in practice because of the complexity of the issues related to changes of land ownership. For instance, when an existing rural settlement is transferred into a farmland, a new rural settlement should be built first to settle the farmers removed. Additionally, the rearrangement of their farmland may be involved. The ownership of farmers rural settlements and farmland may both be changed in the process of rural construction consolidation. Rural construction consolidation has gradually progressed to improve the living conditions of farmers with the implementation of China s building of a new countryside in 2005 (Long, Liu, Li, & Chen, 2010). The process of land consolidation planning in China generally includes three main sequential stages (Cay, Ayten, & Iscan, 2010; Cay & Uyanb, 2013): (a) Preliminary study. Collection of existing land-use and statistical data related to the plan.. Preparation for the interview with farmers to determine the ownership state and their land consolidation demands.. Preparation of the field survey on land consolidation conditions in typical areas, including plain, hilly, and mountainous areas.. Conversation with the land supervisors to identify the intentions of land consolidation. (b) Analysis of land consolidation conditions. Analysis of the present land utilization pattern, structure, and distribution.. Evaluation of the agricultural production state.. Evaluation of the farmers living conditions.. Evaluation of the complete implemented projects.. Calculation of land consolidation potential (net increase area of arable land) for different land consolidation types. (c) Planning. Arrangement of the key areas of land consolidation.. Arrangement of the key engineering and projects of land consolidation.. Announcement of land consolidation aims.. Formation of thematic maps for land consolidation planning.. Creation of the planning report. Thematic mapping is an indispensable part of land consolidation planning (Di Lisio & Russo, 2010; Huang et al., 2012; Ray, Pijanowski, Kendall, & Hyndman, 2012). The forms and contents of thematic maps vary depending on the scale of planning areas. Land consolidation planning at the provincial level focuses more on guiding the development directions of land use, whereas that at the county-level concentrates on the operability of specific projects. Four different types of land consolidation should be integrated and presented to include significant information in the thematic maps. In this study, the process and characteristics of producing thematic maps for land consolidation planning in Hubei Province, which is one of the 13 major provinces that produce grain and is a national demonstration zone for land consolidation in China, is elaborated. Thematic maps for

28 X. Kong et al. land consolidation can provide important information for policymakers and planning workers in formulating appropriate development plans. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Study area Hubei Province (Figure 1) is located in Central China (298 05 338 20 S, 1088 21 1168 07 E) and extends across the Yangtze River. Hubei Province covers an area of 1,85,900 km 2. The proportions of various landforms to the total area of the province are as follows: mountains, 55.5%; hills and hillocks, 24.5%; and plains and lake areas, 20%. Consisting of 17 cities or districts (including 103 counties), Hubei Province has a population of 61.76 million. From 2001 to 2010, an area of 866.67 thousand ha had been consolidated in Hubei Province. By 2030, the consolidated land area will increase to 3.33 million ha, according to the long-term planning of Hubei Province. 2.2. Data sources and processing The basic data utilized in this study include land-use, field survey, statistical, and questionnaire data. Land-use data (scale of 1: 10,000) of the 103 counties in 2010 were obtained from the Hubei Provincial Bureau of Land and Resources. Field survey data include information gathered from the measurement of the area and the composition of land consolidation potential in typical counties. Statistical data, which include the agricultural population and the statistics of completed projects, were obtained from the Statistical Yearbooks of Hubei Province and the Hubei Territory Figure 1. Location of the study area and the existing land-use map.

Journal of Maps 29 Resource Bulletin (2001 2010). The questionnaire was designed for farmers living in the land consolidation areas. The contents of the questionnaires include the land consolidation demands of farmers, evaluation of completed projects, and construction criteria for new rural settlements. The land consolidation potential in the 103 counties was calculated based on data analysis. Different mathematical models were built to calculate the land consolidation potential according to the land consolidation types. For agricultural land consolidation, unused land exploitation, and waste land reclamation, the corresponding land consolidation potential can be expressed as follows: DS j = n i=1 (a ij S ij ) (1) where DS j is the net increase area of arable land for j land consolidation types; a ij is the output rate of arable land from j types in i county, which can be acquired from field survey and statistical data; S ij is the area of land consolidation for j types in i county; and n represents the number of counties. For rural construction consolidation, the land consolidation potential is calculated according to the following formula: DS = n i=1 {S i B i [Q i (1 + r i ) t + DQ i ]} a i (2) where DS is the net increase area of arable land; S i is the area of the existing rural construction in i county; B i is the planned criteria of per capita rural construction of i county, which is acquired from questionnaire data; Q i is the present rural population of i county; r i is the natural growth rate of the rural population in i county, which is usually a negative value because of the urbanization of rural areas; t is the planned period (t ¼ 10 in the case); DQ i is the population of mechanical change in i county; and a i is the output rate of arable land from rural construction consolidation of i county. Figure 2 presents the flowchart of the mapping process. First, a basic geographic information database, including information of agricultural land, rural construction, unused land, and waste land, was constructed based on the 1:10,000 scale land-use maps. The possible areas for different types of land consolidation were identified based on the analysis of landscape pattern for the four land-use types. Second, the land consolidation potential of agricultural land, rural construction, unused land, and waste land was calculated according to the aforementioned models. The output rate of arable land in different types of land consolidation is related to the terrain. The land-use structure and composition are different in plain, hilly, and mountainous areas, which can be acquired from the field survey. Additionally, the completed projects of land consolidation can provide references for the output rate of arable land. The land consolidation potential was divided into four grades using Natural Breaks Classification in ArcGIS 10.0, and the corresponding areas were plotted out in the maps. Third, the land consolidation conditions were analyzed with respect to the analysis of the present land utilization pattern, structure, and distribution, as well as the farmer s land consolidation demands acquired from the questionnaire data. Combined with the distribution of land consolidation potential, the key areas of the four types of land consolidation were summarized. The planned key area maps were then produced. Finally, the key engineering and land consolidation projects were proposed to implement the plan under the guidance of the China Land Consolidation Plan (2011 2015) and the Hubei

30 X. Kong et al. Figure 2. Flowchart illustrating thematic maps production. Land-Use Plan (2006 2020). Combined with the distribution of the planned key area, two levels of planned key engineering and land consolidation project maps were generated on the map. A 1: 5,00,000 scale was generalized based on the 1: 10,000 scale land-use map (Liu, Jiao, & Y., 2011) for better visualization at the provincial level. The planned information was presented in county units (see Main Map). 3. Thematic maps and their context The thematic maps show the spatial distributions and planning directions of all land consolidation projects in the 103 counties of Hubei Province. All maps were produced based on land-use parcel analysis, although presented in county units. The potential classification maps indicate the distribution of land consolidation potential in the 103 counties (Figure 3). The value of land consolidation potential for each county, measured by ha, is marked in the map. Four potential grades (I, II, III, and IV) are identified through different color gradients for each land consolidation type. I represents the lowest level, and IV represents the highest potential level. Table 1 displays the distribution of potential classification of different land consolidation types. For different land consolidation types, the spatial distribution and quantitative characteristics of land consolidation potential are obviously different. Most counties are found to belong to grades I and II. The corresponding number of county accounts for 79.61%, 73.79%, 66.99%, and 98.06% of the 103 counties for agricultural land consolidation, rural construction

Journal of Maps 31 Figure 3. Classification maps of land consolidation potential. consolidation, unused land exploitation, and waste land reclamation, respectively. The land consolidation potential of grades III and IV is higher than that of grades I and II, and the corresponding land consolidation potential accounts for 60.98%, 71.26%, 75.29%, and 53.76% of the total land consolidation potential for agricultural land consolidation, rural construction consolidation, unused land exploitation, and waste land reclamation, respectively. The agricultural land consolidation potential in Central Hubei is higher than that in other regions, which is because of Central Hubei s location in plains with better agricultural production conditions. However, the waste land reclamation potential in Central Hubei is lower. Huangshi City, with abundant mineral resources, is the only area with a grade IV for waste land reclamation potential. The distribution of land consolidation potential implies the differences in terrain and resource endowment. Table 1. Distribution of potential classification of different land consolidation types. LCT I II III IV NC LCP NC LCP NC LCP NC LCP ALC 60 29,227.21 22 51,923.86 20 1,00,892.44 1 25,938.38 RCC 49 1958.73 27 5307.58 18 8757.18 9 9260.25 ULE 37 4475.21 32 20,184.15 22 32,665.79 12 42,469.47 WLR 96 5961.27 5 3668.25 1 2545.41 1 8651.83 Note: LCT, Land Consolidation Types; NC, Number of County; LCP, Land Consolidation Potential (ha); ALC, Agricultural Land consolidation; RCC, Rural Construction Consolidation; ULE, Unused Land Exploitation; and WLR, Waste Land Reclamation.

32 X. Kong et al. Figure 4. Planned key areas maps of land consolidation. The planned key areas maps, which indicate the counties that should be prioritized to arrange land consolidation projects, were generated based on the potential classification maps. One of the basic principles of mapping key areas is to maintain the integrity of administrative region boundaries. Therefore, the planned key areas are presented in county units (Figure 4). A comparative analysis reveals that the spatial distribution of planned key areas is closely related to the distribution of potential classification (Table 2). The key areas almost cover the counties in grade IVof potential classification for each land consolidation type. Two counties in rural construction consolidation and one county in unused land exploitation are not included. The percentages in Table 2 are diminishing from IV to I in each key area type. Thus the key areas are first selected from the higher grades in the potential classification maps. Hubei Province is a major food production province in China. The key areas of agricultural land consolidation are therefore broadly distributed throughout the province, and 58 counties have been incorporated into the key areas. Table 2. Distribution of the planned key areas in the four potential grades. KAT I II III IV NC P NC P NC P NC P Key areas of ALC 24 40.00 17 77.27 16 80.00 1 100.00 Key areas of RCC 5 10.20 10 37.04 12 66.67 7 77.78 Key areas of ULE 2 5.41 1 3.13 11 50.00 11 91.67 Key areas of WLR 13 13.54 4 80.00 1 100.00 1 100.00 Note: KAT, Key Areas Types; NC, Number of County; and P¼ Percentage of NC in Key Areas to NC in Potential Classification for Each Grade (%).

Journal of Maps 33 Figure 5. Planned key engineering and project maps of land consolidation. The planned key engineering and project maps (Figure 5) further clarify the consolidation directions and the distribution of projects. Two maps are created: one for national and another for provincial key engineering and consolidation projects. The planned key engineering and projects must be located in the key areas, unless they are included in the China Land Consolidation Plan (2011 2015) or in the Hubei Land-Use Plan (2006 2020). Three national key engineering and eight provincial key engineering are proposed and are indicated by different colors in the map. The key engineering projects are arranged without the restriction of administrative region boundaries to reflect the practical engineering implementation and range control. Additionally, 208 national key projects and 84 provincial key projects have been proposed to implement the corresponding key engineering. The key projects are presented by different colors and symbols according to land consolidation type. The minimum area of land consolidation must be larger than 1000 ha for each key project, which is the standard at the provincial level. Areas with ideal natural conditions and large arable land are prioritized in planning key projects. The distribution and relationship between different key engineering and land consolidation projects are presented in the maps. 4. Conclusions In this study, thematic maps are produced to demonstrate the spatial disparity of land consolidation potential and the distribution of key areas, engineering projects, and consolidation projects in Hubei Province. The land consolidation potential is closely related to terrain and resource endowment, particularly for agricultural land consolidation and waste land reclamation. Mapping demonstrates that the analysis of land consolidation potential is the foundation of land consolidation planning. Agricultural land consolidation, which comprises the largest consolidation area, is the most significant type of land consolidation. Different regions should implement land consolidation projects in accordance with the local conditions. Agricultural land consolidation and unused land exploitation should be implemented as priority measures in Central Hubei, whereas rural construction consolidation and waste land reclamation should be emphasized in the eastern and western Hubei regions. The visualization of land consolidation planning indicates the distribution and the characteristics of land consolidation in Hubei Province. Spatial information that is easy to understand and useful to policymakers and planning workers can be provided. Although key projects have been planned at the provincial level, a large number of general land consolidation projects have to be planned at the county level. The maps presented in this study are expected to serve as a guide for the subsequent county-level planning, thus promoting future studies on land consolidation.

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