Identification of Land Use Conflicts in Shandong Province from an Ecological Security Perspective

• Published in: Land (Basel) 2022-12, Vol.11 (12), p.2196
• Main Authors: Dong, Guanglong, Liu, Zhonghao, Niu, Yuanzhao, Jiang, Wenya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural land; Agricultural production; Arable land; Biodiversity; Building; Carbon; Coastal zone; Controllability; Distribution; Ecological effects; Ecological function; ecological security pattern; ecological sensitivity; Economic aspects; ecosystem service function; Ecosystem services; Ecosystems; Environmental aspects; Environmental protection; Environmental security; Identification; Identification and classification; Industrial development; Land area; Land resources; Land use; land use conflicts; Quantitative analysis; Regional development; Rural areas; Security; Shandong Province; Social aspects; Soil erosion; Spatial analysis; Spatial data; Sustainable development; Urbanization; Water conservation
• ISSN: 2073-445X; 2073-445X
• DOI: 10.3390/land11122196

Accurate identification of land use conflicts is an important prerequisite for the rational allocation of land resources and optimizing the production–living–ecological space pattern. Previous studies used suitability assessment and landscape pattern indices to identify land use conflicts. However, research on land use conflict identification from the perspective of ecological security is insufficient and not conducive to regional ecological, environmental protection, and sustainable development. Based on ecological security, this study takes Shandong Province as an example and comprehensively evaluates the importance of ecosystem service function and environmental sensitivity. It identifies the ecological source, and extracts ecological corridors with a minimum cumulative resistance model from which ecological security patterns are constructed. It identifies land use conflicts through spatial overlay analysis of arable land and construction land. The results show that: (1) Shandong Province has formed an ecological security pattern of “two ecological barriers, two belts, and eight cores” with an area of 15,987 km2. (2) The level of arable land–ecological space conflict is low, at 39.76%. The proportions of serious and moderate conflicts are 13.44% and 26.97%, respectively, distributed primarily on the Jiaodong Peninsula and the low hill areas of Ludong. (3) Construction land–ecological space conflict is reasonably stable and controllable, at 76.39%, occurring mainly around urban construction land, with serious and moderate conflict concentrated in the eastern coastal areas, mainly between rural settlements and ecologically safe space in the region. This study has important theoretical and practical reference values for identifying land use conflicts, protecting regional ecological security, and optimizing land use patterns.