Urbanization does not endanger food security: Evidence from China's Loess Plateau

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2023-05, Vol.871, p.162053-162053, Article 162053
• Main Authors: Li, Siya, Ji, Qiulei, Liang, Wei, Fu, Bojie, Lü, Yihe, Yan, Jianwu, Jin, Zhao, Wang, Zhenguo, Li, Yingjie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Change trajectory; China; Cities; Complex network; Conservation of Natural Resources; Crop yield self-sufficiency; Food Security; Humans; Loess Plateau; Urbanization
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162053

The expansion of construction land due to urbanization is the most rapid land use change in contemporary human history and has always occupied high-quality cropland, posing a severe threat to cropland and food security, it's essential to clarify the impact of urbanization on cropland and food security. This study proposed a research framework based on the regulating role of human activities, used quantifiable complex network analysis to uncover the vital role of urbanization in the evolution of land systems, and combined trajectory analysis of crop yield change to explore the impact of different urbanization modes (urban, town, and township mode) on food security through a continuous observation on 4259 township-level administrative regions of the Loess Plateau from 1990 to 2020. The findings proved that urbanization occupied the greatest land use area of cropland, and the town mode occupied 58.62 % of all urbanization modes encroaching on cropland, which has become a new pattern for advancing the urbanization development in the Loess Plateau. Construction land is more likely to be transferred in than out in the land use transfer network, while other land use types converted to construction land will be difficult to reverse. The Chinese government has implemented pragmatic policies, improved agricultural production techniques, and promoted agricultural intensification, resulting in a considerable increase in crop productivity and crop yield and the achievement of basic crop yield self-sufficiency of the Loess Plateau, so urbanization would not endanger food security. This study not only provides a more systematic research framework for related studies but also provides a theoretical basis for securing food security in other rapidly urbanizing regions of the world. [Display omitted] •We proposed a research framework for the complex interaction between urbanization and food security and proved the applicability of the framework.•We used complex network analysis to reveal the vital role of different urbanization modes in the evolution of land systems.•Construction land is a network node more easily transferred in than out, with a strong dependence on cropland, and land use types converted to construction land will be difficult to reverse and the lost cropland will be hard to recover.•The increase in cropland productivity has remarkably improved crop yield on the Loess Plateau, ensuring basic self-sufficiency in crop yield and avoiding the food crisis that mig