Mapping the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Cropland Abandonment and Recultivation across the Yangtze River Basin

• Published in: Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 16; no. 6; p. 1052
• Main Authors: Long, Yuqiao, Sun, Jing, Wellens, Joost, Colinet, Gilles, Wu, Wenbin, Meersmans, Jeroen
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.03.2024
• Subjects: Abandonment; Accuracy; Agricultural industry; Agricultural land; Agriculture; Carbon sequestration; China; Classification; Crop rotation; cropland; cropland abandonment; Earth sciences & physical geography; Environmental aspects; Environmental sciences & ecology; Farming systems; Food security; General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Land abandonment; Land cover; Land use; land use change; Life sciences; Mapping; Mountain regions; Mountainous areas; mountains; Multiple land use; Physical, chemical, mathematical & earth Sciences; Physique, chimie, mathématiques & sciences de la terre; recultivation; Regions; remote sensing; River basins; Rivers; Sciences de la terre & géographie physique; Sciences de l’environnement & écologie; Sciences du vivant; Sustainable development; Time series; time series analysis; watersheds; Yangtze River; Yangtze River basin; China; Europe; Yangtze River
• DOI: 10.3390/rs16061052
• ISSN: 2072-4292

Whether China can achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) largely depends on the ability of main food-producing areas to cope with multiple land use change challenges. Despite the fact that the Yangtze River basin is one of the key regions for China’s food security, the spatiotemporal dynamics of cropland abandonment and recultivation remain largely unexplored in this region. The present study assesses the evolution of the agricultural system within the Yangtze River basin between 2000 and 2020 by mapping cropland abandonment and recultivation using MODIS time series and multiple land cover products. The results highlight a widespread cropland abandonment process (i.e., 10.5% of the total study area between 2000 and 2020), predominantly in Western Sichuan, Eastern Yunnan, and Central Jiangxi. Although 70% of abandoned cropland is situated in areas with slopes less than 5°, the highest rates of abandonment are in mountainous regions. However, by 2020, 74% of this abandoned cropland had been recultivated at least once, whereas half of the abandoned croplands got recultivated within three years of their initial abandonment. Hence, as this is one of the first studies that unravels the complex interaction between cropland abandonment and recultivation in a spatiotemporal explicit context, it offers (i) scientists a novel methodological framework to assess agricultural land use issues across large geographical entities, and (ii) policy-makers new insights to support the sustainable transition of the agricultural sector.