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Definition of Management Zones for Enhancing Cultivated Land Conservation Using Combined Spatial Data

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Abstract

The loss of cultivated land has increasingly become an issue of regional and national concern in China. Definition of management zones is an important measure to protect limited cultivated land resource. In this study, combined spatial data were applied to define management zones in Fuyang city, China. The yield of cultivated land was first calculated and evaluated and the spatial distribution pattern mapped; the limiting factors affecting the yield were then explored; and their maps of the spatial variability were presented using geostatistics analysis. Data were jointly analyzed for management zone definition using a combination of principal component analysis with a fuzzy clustering method, two cluster validity functions were used to determine the optimal number of cluster. Finally one-way variance analysis was performed on 3,620 soil sampling points to assess how well the defined management zones reflected the soil properties and productivity level. It was shown that there existed great potential for increasing grain production, and the amount of cultivated land played a key role in maintaining security in grain production. Organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, elevation, thickness of the plow layer, and probability of irrigation guarantee were the main limiting factors affecting the yield. The optimal number of management zones was three, and there existed significantly statistical differences between the crop yield and field parameters in each defined management zone. Management zone I presented the highest potential crop yield, fertility level, and best agricultural production condition, whereas management zone III lowest. The study showed that the procedures used may be effective in automatically defining management zones; by the development of different management zones, different strategies of cultivated land management and practice in each zone could be determined, which is of great importance to enhance cultivated land conservation, stabilize agricultural production, promote sustainable use of cultivated land and guarantee food security.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the following organizations for their financial support for this work: the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program, Grant No. 2013AA102301), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 30700098 and 40701007), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. Y3090198 and Y507207), and the Key Project of Zhejiang Provincial Education Department (Grant No. Z201121260). We are grateful for the constructive comments of the anonymous reviewers provided on an early version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Land Science and Property Management, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Yan Li & Hao-Xiang Wu

  2. Institute of Agricultural Remote Sensing and Information Technology Application, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Zhou Shi

  3. College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, China

    Feng Li

  4. School of Tourism and Urban Management, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang, 330013, China

    Hong-Yi Li

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  1. Yan Li
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Correspondence to Yan Li.

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Li, Y., Shi, Z., Wu, HX. et al. Definition of Management Zones for Enhancing Cultivated Land Conservation Using Combined Spatial Data. Environmental Management 52, 792–806 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-013-0124-7

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