Research progress and prospects of land use conflicts

Land use conflict has been ever-increasing in the field of land science in recent years, particularly for the sustainable use of land resources. It also has significant implications for national security and stability. It is still lacking a recognized agreement on the precise conceptual connotation of land use conflict, leading to various interpretations, due mainly to the complexity and multi-dimensionality of land use conflict. These divergent interpretations have naturally given rise to different research perspectives, each of which is attributed to the distinct theoretical fundamentals. A rich but fragmented knowledge has resulted to offer unique insights into the causes, dynamics, and governance of land use conflicts. However, there is still a significant research gap, in order to systematically classify and summarize these varied perspectives and theories. It is also lacking in a cohesive framework of land use conflict for interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration. To fill the gap, this study first examined the connotation of land use conflict in previous research, and then identified a consensus implied across the diverse definitions: the subjects of land use conflict were stakeholders, while the objects were various interests related to land, including land space, ownership, resources, assets, and functions. Next, the foundational theories were reviewed on land use conflict, including different disciplines, such as sociology, management, economics, psychology, geography, and ecology. According to the conceptual connotation and theoretical foundations of land use conflict, a universal conceptual framework was developed to highlight the key elements, such as conflict subjects, conflict objects, driving factors, conflict outcomes, and the broader social-ecological systems. The subjects and objects of land use conflict were utilized to categorize and summarize research findings in the areas of identification and evaluation, driving mechanism analysis, and governance. The conflicts were identified and evaluated to focus on the conflict subjects primarily participatory. While the conflict objects were often utilized in the multi-objective superposition, comprehensive index evaluation, and ecological risk assessment. Specific conflict events were commonly applied via news media content analysis. There were relatively complex driving mechanisms behind conflicts. The influencing factors were categorized into three groups: conflict subjects, conflict objects, and the policy and institutional environment. Conflict governance was related to the coordination and negotiation between conflict subjects, the trade-offs among conflict objects, and the improvement of policies and institutions. According to the summary of existing achievements, some suggestions were proposed for future research on land use conflicts. Several key areas should be further strengthened: a multi-perspective theoretical framework, in-depth exploration of land use conflicts from the perspective of land use functions, comprehensive analysis of driving mechanisms, and the investigation of integrated governance approaches.