Ecologically oriented spatial configuration of basic farmlands in Lulong County, Hebei Province

The basic farmlands are the essences of cultivated land, and support the functions of production, social security and ecological protection. Driven by market economy and afforestation of farmlands in recent years, the production space of basic farmlands has reduced continuously. Thus basic farmland protection and configuration has become a hotly debated issue at national and international levels. However, there is little integrated and comprehensive research on correlation among food security, economic development and ecological protection. To coordinate the relationship among food security, economic development and ecological protection, the appropriate planning of ecosystem and establishment of safe regional landscape pattern are necessary. Based on the ecological infrastructure construction and basic farmland demand, this paper predicted basic farmland area and allocation in the target year of Lulong County, Hebei Province by comprehensively adopting the ideas of "anti-planning" and ecological infrastructure. The study established a network of ecological infrastructure as the constraint framework of the basic farmland demarcation in Lulong County. The northern, southeast and southwest parts presented low-level of security where the natural conditions required strict protection and non-construction of farmlands. The area from the south to north presented medium-level security serving as a transition zone of the low-level security. The high-level security areas embedded among the low and medium security area had severe ecological conditions. Based on evaluation of the suitability of land for construction, the paper adopted a "matrix" to divide the county development grid unit space suitability into degrees. The higher degrees were used as reserved lands for future development and construction. The development potential was high in the southwest of Lulong County and medium in the central region development, which constituted the key areas for basic farmland management in the study area. The northern part of the county was constrained in the low development zone. It was not fit for the delineation and layout of basic farmlands. This paper allocated the areas with both medium-high security and low suitability for construction as the key configurations of basic farmlands in the region by using GIS. Based on this allocation, 36 800.27 hm² basic farmlands were allocated into different towns of the county. Among the zones, the farmland with both medium-high security and low suitability for construction were in Yanheying, Lulong, Yinzhuangxiang and Panzhuang townships with total land area of 15 570.45 hm², which was 42.31% of total basic farmlands in the study area. The results showed that the spatial configuration of basic farmlands from ecological orientation was sufficiently protective for ecological environment and reserved the construction lands for future development. The method and new perspective were good for evaluation of ecosystems in terms of quantity, quality, ecology and construction suitability.