The analysis of urban land expansion and farmland loss is essential to adequately understand the land use change in a rapidly urbanizing China. We found that both urban expansion and farmland loss in Beijing experienced high- and low-speed stages and their spatial patterns were consistent during the past 35 years as most of the newly expanded urban land was converted from farmland. The area of farmland loss by urban expansion in Beijing is 12.6 km²/year, 39.86 km²/year, 23.38 km²/year, and 41.11 km²/year during the period of 1980–1990, 1990–2000, 2000–2010, and 2010–2015, respectively. The urban expansion in Beijing continuously preferred to consume “above average” quality farmland during 1980–2015. Meanwhile, although the urban expansion in Beijing was highly dependent on occupying farmland, the dependence of urban expansion on farmland consumption has declined over time. However, the contribution of urban expansion on farmland loss increased during 1980–2010 and decreased afterward. In order to protect the farmland from urban expansion, we call for more effort to improve the urban land use efficiency with rigid controls over areas of urban expansion.

Landscape services are inevitably interlinked with human wellbeing. It is essential to assess landscape services and multifunctionality from both supply and demand points of view toward sustainable landscape management. This study focused on the spatiotemporal variations of the supply, demand, and budget of landscape services in suburban Shanghai, China, including crop production, nutrient regulation, air-quality regulation, soil-erosion regulation, water purification, and recreation and aesthetical value. A new index landscape multifunctionality budget (B_MFI) was developed, integrating the budget status of surplus and deficit with landscape management. Spatial autocorrelation analysis and regression analysis were conducted to identify spatial agglomeration and influencing factors of B_MFI. Pronounced spatiotemporal heterogeneity of landscape services was observed. B_MFI was in surplus status in 2005 and 2010, but turned to deficit in 2015. Landscape service budgets generally followed the spatial pattern of positive in the west and negative in the east. Budget deficits covered half of the villages in 2015, which were mainly situated near central Shanghai with high population density, high average income, and a fragmented and less diverse landscape pattern. Rapid urban sprawl and the following land-cover changes are the main drivers for the spatiotemporal variations. Landscape function zoning with effective economic development and ecological conservation policies can comprehensively improve the competitiveness achieving sustainable future.