Research Progress in Land Consolidation and Rural Revitalization: Current Status, Characteristics, Regional Differences, and Evolution Laws

Abstract

As an invaluable tool to manage land use, land consolidation has been widely used globally, promoting rural revitalization in the context of the current global rural decline. A comprehensive analysis of land consolidation and rural revitalization will help to promote rural development and poverty alleviation and achieve the goals of rural revitalization and regional sustainable development. Based on publications on land consolidation and rural revitalization from 1950 to 2021 in the Web of Science database, this study analyzes the research status, characteristics, regional divides, and evolution laws in land consolidation and rural revitalization using the Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny software packages. The results are as follows: (1) The number of publications per year on land consolidation and rural revitalization increased. According to the publication number, this period can be divided into three stages: the initial stage from 1950 to 2000, the growth stage from 2001 to 2012, and the high-production stage from 2013 to 2021. (2) From 1950 to 2021, 1715 authors published papers on land consolidation and rural revitalization. (3) Respective studies were published by authors in 89 countries or regions, mainly China, the United States, and Poland. Of these, China and the United States played an important role in international cooperation. (4) The keywords in land consolidation and rural revitalization were related to (i) technical efficiency and agricultural production, (ii) the impacts of policy management and systems, and land fragmentation; (iii) the impacts of land consolidation on land use transition against the background of urbanization; (iv) the evaluation of land consolidation. (5) Research on land consolidation has evolved from management over methods and models to land consolidation and regional consolidation.