Resumen de Land-use changes and land policies evolution in China’s urbanization processes375-387
Jing Wang, Yifan Lin, Anthony Glendinning, Yueqing Xu
Ensuring food security and sustainable development in China has been threatened by the dilemma of the rapidly growing consumption of the country’s land resources. Research on the linkage between land-use changes and land policies in the process of industrialization and urbanization has received increased attention in recent years. The present study was conducted to analyze the undergoing dynamics for Chinese land policies and land-use changes based on reliable land-use data and to develop a thorough understanding of the historical drivers and pathways of land-use changes and China’s deep-seated land issues, as well as the social, political and economic factors involved. The results showed that land-use changes were linked closely to shifts in government land policies and socio-economic development in China. The evolution of land policies in China was the result of a path-dependent process, which included the reform of land use system, the economic development environment as well as a policy-making process that responded to short-term land development. The results also indicated that there have been considerable achievements regarding the land use system and land management in China. However, Chinese economic growth overly depended on investments as well as land finance, which were uncoordinated and unsustainable. The changes in land use were also the outcomes of the land policy failure. There is still a pressing need to reform land policies for more efficient and effective utilization of limited land resources; develop a trade-off and synergy among urban development, agricultural production and ecosystem preservation; differentiate land-use policies; allocate market-oriented land resource; and establish a national macro-control mechanism in collaboration with a coordinated land-use policy and basic legislation.
