Comprehensive zoning of cultivated land consolidation potential integrating "quality-pattern-function" in China

Abstract: The process of cultivated land consolidation is related to regional natural resources, rural areas and agriculture. Land consolidation plans are the fundamentals to improve the quality of cultivated land resources, and to optimize the spatial distribution pattern for the economic, social and environmental contribution. To meet new requirements of multifunctional comprehensive protection for cultivated land resources in current days, the evaluation of cultivated land consolidation potential to determine consolidation zones is a powerful starting point for the comprehensive land consolidation and the schemes of "new agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" in China. In this study, an attempt is made to establish an evaluation index system for cultivated land consolidation potential by integrating "quality-pattern-function mode based on the contribution of natural resources, spatial distribution pattern and functional factor of cultivated lands. The k-means clustering method was used to set the boundaries for the comprehensive division of the cultivated lands in the evaluation. The results showed that: 1) the integrated "quality-pattern-function" mode in the evaluation frameworks is beneficial to balance the quality, output, and utilization of cultivated lands. Compared with previous evaluations, the proposed framework can link various levels of quantified indicators to comprehensively present the distribution patterns and functional characteristics of cultivated land resources, indicating the improvement of land use on agricultural production. A positive effect can be gained to lay out distribution patterns for agricultural productions according to local topographical conditions in order to comprehensively manage of the different land use in the new era. 2) There were significant spatial differences in the quality, pattern, and function of the cultivated land resources for the consolidation potentials in China. In quality improvement, the potential areas of cultivated land consolidation were mainly distributed in the Yangtze River Basin, Haihe River Basin, and Huaihe River Basin. In pattern optimization, the potential areas of cultivated land-consolidation were mainly concentrated in the Yellow River Basin, Southeast River Basin, Inland River Basin, and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In function promotion, the potential areas of cultivated lands were mainly distributed in the Yangtze River Basin, Pearl River Basin, and Inland River Basin. 3) Using the k-means spatial clustering analysis, the potential areas of cultivated land consolidation in China were divided into 7 the first-level zonings, 38 the second-level zonings, and 409 the third-level zonings. The findings can provide the full-scale approaches to conserve mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands according to local conditions, and thereby to enhance the service capacity of cultivated lands and the efficiency of resources allocation in regional agriculture in China.