Expanded Residential Lands and Reduced Populations in China, 2000–2020: Patch-Scale Observations of Rural Settlements

Abstract

The spatiotemporal transformations of rural residential lands and populations reflect changes in rural human–land relations. This study uses high-precision rural residential land patches and population distribution data to detect the area, population density, and spatial heterogeneity of newly added rural residential land (NARRL) in China from 2000 to 2020 through spatial local clustering and geographically weighted regression. The patch results were summarized into county-level units for regional comparison, spatial clustering identification, and policy recommendations. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The total rural residential area increased by 13.86% between 2000 and 2020. The average population density of NARRL (APDNARRL) at patch scale is 701.64 person/km2, significantly exceeding the 507.23 person/km2 of the remaining patches. (2) There are obvious spatial differences in the distribution of APDNARRL as per county-level statistics. There are significant differences in APDNARRL on both sides of the Hu Huanyong Line; the APDNARRL on the left is significantly lower than that on the right. (3) Spatial heterogeneity was found to be among the driving factors of APDNARRL. This study also detected the number and location of hollowing counties; it is significant for monitoring dynamic changes in rural residential lands, revealing their spatial distribution patterns and driving factors, thus improving the optimization of rural land resources.