Land use and land cover changes (LULCC) are the result of the combined action of many influencing factors such as nature, society, economy and politics. Taking Chongqing as an example, the driving factors of urban land expansion in Chongqing from 1999 to 2019 are analyzed using a geographic detection (GD) method. Based on this analysis, a land use scenario of Chongqing in 2029 is simulated by an Artificial Neural Network-Cellular Automata model. The results of the analysis of factors affecting land use change show that five factors have a significance >0.05: population, distance from central city, school density, GDP and the distance from railway, showing that these factors have a high impact on LULCC in Chongqing. In addition, the results of risk detection analysis show that areas with a population >50/km²; the areas with a distance 5/km²; areas with a high GDP; and areas with a distance <25 km from the railway have a greater impact on urban land use change than other areas. The land use scenario in 2029 also is simulated based on the land use situation in 2019. The predicted results clearly reflect a land use change trend of increasing urban land and decreasing agricultural land in the region. These land use changes are especially related to the expansion of the population, economy, roads, and schools in the process of urbanization. This analysis also shows that the GD-ANN-CA model developed in this paper is well suited to urban land use simulation.

To investigate the heavy metal and metalloid contamination of soil around a Huanan uranium tailings pond, abandoned in 1998, we defined a study area of 41.25 km² by a natural boundary and targeted 5 elements’ (U, Mn, As, Pb, Cr) single contamination and comprehensive pollution as the assessment contents. First, we collected 205 samples and evaluated them with the contamination factor (CF) method aiming at judging whether the single target element concentration exceeded the local background value and environmental quality standard. We obtained CF₁ (the background value of a certain target element as the baseline value) and CF₂ (the environmental quality standard for soils as the baseline value). Second, we evaluated the ecological risk of the key pollutant U with the risk assessment code (RAC) method, taking the 27 samples whose CF₂ > 1 as examples and concluded that the environmental risk of U was relatively high and should arouse concern. Third, we selected comprehensive pollution index (CPI) to assess the compound pollution degree of five target elements. Fourth, we constructed the U contamination and CPI’s continuous distribution maps with spatial interpolation, from which we worked out the sizes and positions of slightly, moderately and strongly polluted zones. Finally, we analyzed the spatial variability of U and CPI with the aid of a geostatistical variogram. We deduced that the spatial variation of uranium was in close relationship with local topography, and probably precipitation was the driving force of U contamination diffusion, whereas CPI exhibited weak spatial dependence with random characteristics. The above work showed that 3.14 km² soil near the pond was fairly seriously polluted, and the other 4 elements’ single contaminations were less serious, but the 5 target elements’ cumulative pollution could not be ignored; there were other potential pollution sources besides the uranium tailings pond. Some emergency measures should be taken to treat U pollution, and bioremediation is recommended, taking account into U’s high bioavailability. Further, special alerts should be implemented to identify the other pollution sources.

Cultivated land is a fundamental factor related to the social stability and sustainable development of the whole country. However, the safety of quantity and quality of cultivated land has decreased year by year, resulting in great challenges to the sustainable development of cultivated land. Cultivated land productivity, site conditions, and soil health jointly determine the sustainable development potential of cultivated land. Analyzing and calculating the coupling and cooperative relationship between these three subsystems can provide a theoretical and methodological reference for protecting and zoning cultivated land resources. Using Jiangyou City as a case study, this paper constructs a coupling coordination degree model of cultivated land productivity, site conditions, and soil health assessment systems in different geomorphic regions, and comprehensively analyzes the level of sustainable development of cultivated land in the study area. The results show that there are differences in the development potential of cultivated land resources in the mountainous regions in the north, the hilly regions in the center, and the plain regions in the south of Jiangyou City. The coupling coordination index of the three regions were calculated as 0.34, 0.51, and 0.63, respectively, for which the overall average coupling coordination index is 0.57; notably, it only reaches the “barely coordination” level. Based on our analysis results, the cultivated lands in Jiangyou City are classified into the following zones: core protection zone, dominant remediation zone, and key regulation zone. The cultivated land located in the core protection zone has a high coupling coordination index, which can be used as the preferred area for the delimitation of high standard basic farmland and permanent basic farmland. For the cultivated land located in the dominant remediation zone, the development of its subsystems is unbalanced. Comprehensive land improvement projects can be carried out in this zone to improve the overall quality. For the cultivated land located in the key regulation zone, it is recommended to implement projects such as returning farmland to forests to improve land use efficiency. In particular, the evaluation index system constructed in this paper is sufficiently representative, as it can support the classification, quality improvement, and sustainable use of cultivated land. Thus, other similar countries and regions can learn from the evaluation system constructed in this paper.

As a core element of comprehensive land consolidation, cultivated land serves as both a fundamental resource and strategic platform for driving rural revitalization and advancing ecological civilization development. Based on the five periods of remote sensing monitoring data of land use from the 1980 to 2020 in Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County, this study systematically examines cultivated land transfer dynamics and quantitatively assesses fragmentation levels through landscape metrics analysis, with the ultimate objective of informing strategic land consolidation planning at the county scale. The results indicate that (1) the cultivated land transformation in Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County exhibited distinct temporal patterns demarcated by 2010. During the initial phase, limited land transfers predominantly involved woodland transfers, characterized by cross-regional occupation–compensation dynamics and a northwest-oriented spatial shift. The subsequent phase witnessed substantial transfer intensification, incorporating grassland and construction land transfers alongside woodland. This period demonstrated balanced intra-township occupation–compensation mechanisms and a marked southeastward migration of transfer concentration; (2) cultivated land transfer dynamics demonstrated greater intensity in topographically moderate townships, whereas northwestern mountainous townships characterized by elevated altitudes and pronounced gradients maintained comparative spatial stability in transfer patterns; (3) cultivated land fragmentation exhibited topographic modulation, with reduced spatial disaggregation in low-lying plains contrasting elevated indices across northwestern highland terrains; and (4) the cultivated land area showed a predominant reduction in low-elevation and gentle-slope regions, accompanied by a decrease in landscape fragmentation. Conversely, in areas with higher elevations and steeper slopes, expansions in both cultivated land area and fragmentation were observed.

Mianyang, Sichuan is the so-called only City of Science and Technology in China, and it is also the first science & technology (industry) tourism demonstration base named by the National Tourism Administration. In this paper, the authors introduce the major science & technology tourism resources of this city, and evaluates them quantitatively using Geographic Information System technology.