Regional land use transitions driven by the adaptive reconciliation of existing land use conflict with socioeconomic development can lead to positive economic effects as well as new land use conflict. Although research on land use transition has progressed considerably, limited studies have explored the spatiotemporal dynamic pattern of land use conflict during the land use transition period. Previous evaluation approaches on land use conflict that mainly focus on status or potential conflict lack conflict intensity evaluation during the land use transition process. A new spatially explicit evaluation framework of land use conflict that directly examines three aspects of conflict, namely, ecological and agricultural (EAC), agricultural and construction (ACC), and ecological and construction (ECC) land conflicts based on ecological quality and agricultural suitability, is proposed in this study. The spatiotemporal dynamic pattern and driving factors of land use conflict in the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China in the period of 2000–2018 are evaluated. The results indicated that comprehensive land use conflict (CLUC) intensity slightly decreased by 9.91% and its barycenter showed a trend toward the west during 2000–2018. ACC is the most drastic conflict among the three aspects of conflict. The mean intensity of ACC reduced remarkably by 38.26%, while EAC increased by 33.15% and ECC increased by 28.28% during the research periods. The barycenter of EAC moved toward the east while the barycenter of ACC and ECC moved toward the west. The changes in the intensity and spreading pattern of land use conflict indices demonstrated the changes in the pattern of territorial space development. Total population, population density, per capita GDP, number of mobile phone users, and road density were strong drivers that influenced the land use conflict of territorial space. Multiple policy recommendations including improving territorial space planning and governance ability, and improving land use efficiency, were proposed to manage and resolve the land use conflict of territorial space. The results and conclusions of this study will help improve future regional land use policies and reduce land use conflict.

Conventional wisdom indicates that economic specialization can promote growth, whereas economic stability is associated with diversified economies. This conflicting relationship between specialization and diversity has been questioned, as regional scientists have suggested that specialization and diversity can coexist in a regional economy and proposed the concept of diversified specializations. To test this proposition empirically, two Herfindahl–Hirschman Indices were used to examine the relationship between economic diversity and economic performance among 359 metropolitan statistical areas in the contiguous United States. The first index measures industry diversity across 87 three-digit North American Industry Classification Systems sectors, and the second index quantifies cluster diversity among 51 economic specializations. This analysis confirms that cluster diversity contributes to both stability and growth, and regions can simultaneously pursue both high and stable economic growth.

Cultivated land resources are an important component of natural resources and significant in stabilizing economic and social order and ensuring national food security. Although the research on resource curse has progressed considerably, only a few studies have explored the existence and influencing factors of the resource curse of non-traditional mineral resources. The current study introduced resource curse theory to the cultivated land resources research and directly investigated the county-level relationship between cultivated land resource abundance and economic development. Meanwhile, the spatiotemporal dynamic pattern and driving factors of the cultivated land curse were evaluated on the cultivated land curse coefficient in China’s Jianghan Plain from 2001 to 2017. The results indicated that the curse coefficient of cultivated land resources in Jianghan Plain generally shows a downward trend. That is, the curse phenomenon of the cultivated land resources in large regions did not improve significantly in 2001–2017. The influencing factors of the cultivated land resource curse in different cursed degree areas varied and the spatial interaction of the cursed degree areas differed as well. This study proposed a transmission mechanism of the cultivated land resource curse in Jianghan Plain. Policies from throughout the entire and within the main agricultural producing areas were proposed to adjust the cultivated land resource curse. The results and conclusions of this study will be beneficial in improving future land-use policies in major agricultural areas and reducing lag in economic development caused by the strict protection of cultivated land resources.