Cropland use sustainability in Cheng-Yu Urban Agglomeration, China: Evaluation framework, driving factors and development paths

Cropland and its production toward sustainable pattern play an indispensable role in supporting a virtuous circle of economy-society-ecology and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Taking Cheng-Yu Urban Agglomeration, China as a study area, this study developed an evaluation framework to conceptualize cropland use into the economy-society-ecology context with an improved Ecological Footprint analysis and triangle model. Stepwise linear regression model and GeoDetector were then introduced to identify the spatiotemporal driving factors and mechanism of cropland use sustainability. Results reveal the following. (1) From 2003 to 2017, cropland use sustainability temporally presents a downward trend of inverse S-shape fluctuation with sustainability status transitioning from weak unsustainability to strong unsustainability at the turning point in 2008. Cropland use sustainability spatially presents the spatial correlation with a significant agglomeration effect. The spatial distribution of sustainability status in the east is higher than that in the west. (2) Factors of cropland use sustainability, including cropland areas, sown area of farm crops, pesticides consumption, urbanization rate, city impacteforce and runoff depth interactionally form the multi-dimensional driving mechanism. (3) Sixteen cities across the province boundaries can be grouped into three zones, namely, intensive utilization zone, protection priority zone and ecological restoration zone with the targeted and differentiated development paths accordingly. These findings can contribute to simply understanding and visualizing the status and trends of cropland use sustainability and decision-making for national-level urban agglomeration construction. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.