Farmland protection is important for ensuring national food security and promoting sustainable socioeconomic development. China has a far lower amount of farmland area per capita than the global average. To improve farmland productivity, the Chinese government has implemented a basic farmland protection system (BFPS). A comprehensive and systematic analysis of the evolution mechanism of the BFPS, the failures of the BFPS and the key measures of the modern BFPS reform is lacking in the current literature. Based on a systematic review of the history of China’s BFPS, this study first summarizes the evolutionary mechanism of the BFPS, then analyzes the current conflicts faced by the BFPS on this basis, proposes several main breakthrough strategies for improving the BFPS and finally provides key ideas for further strengthening the development of the BFPS in the future. The results of this study show that China’s BFPS has gone through three development stages since 1963 and that there are differences in the main factors hindering the improvement in basic farmland productivity in the different stages. Correspondingly, the systems adopted to meet the demands for basic farmland protection are also different. The evolution of the BFPS is similar to a “scale” that constantly seeks balance between “system demand” and “system supply”. In the present stage, the main conflicts faced by China’s BFPS are between basic farmland quality and requirements for supplementary delimitation and production patterns; between basic farmland quantity, urban development and food security; and between basic farmland-use regulation and modern agriculture and the market economy. The Chinese government should further optimize the BFPS through improving the delimitation system, establishing a classified protection system and strengthening the basic farmland protection compensation system. To accelerate the establishment of a territorial spatial planning system in the future, the BFPS should also be fully integrated with the concept of an ecological civilization, be applied to resolve the contradiction between development and protection and be used to help improve the land-space-utilization control system, thus creating a unified development guide for national land.

The spatial zoning of cultivated land is a core aspect of territorial spatial planning and an important basis for implementing differentiated cultivated land protection policies. To provide theoretical guidance for the future direction of the protection and utilization of cultivated land in Shandong Province, this paper built a theoretical framework for the spatial zoning of cultivated land based on the trinity of quantity, quality, and ecology and formed an indicator system for the spatial zoning of cultivated land based on these three elements. Based on the analysis and grading results of spatial zoning indicators of cultivated land, hierarchical clustering analysis was performed on 133 county-level administrative units, and then the cultivated land resources of Shandong Province were divided into four types of zones: Key protection zones, comprehensive promotion zones, multifunctional utilization zones, and ecological utilization zones. Future development directions in relation to the protection and utilization of cultivated land in each type of zone were proposed. The results showed that the spatial zoning of cultivated land based on the trinity of quantity, quality, and ecology has important theoretical and practical significance for guiding the protection and utilization of cultivated land in Shandong Province and other regions.

Under the context of rapid urbanization, how to use construction land resources under the dual pressure of socioeconomic growth and cultivated land protection is critical to resource utilization and sustainable development. Thus, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to study the relationship between socioeconomic change and construction land expansion. Based on decoupling theory, this study constructed a two-dimensional model to analyze the population-construction land and economy (non-agricultural GDP)-construction land decoupling status and characteristics in Hebei Province at the county level. Then, a decoupling-based construction land-use zoning model was built to explore construction land saving and intensive utilization strategies in different construction land-use zones. The results show that (1) the construction land area, population and non-agricultural GDP in Hebei Province increased in the study period, but there were spatial differences in the hot areas of growth. (2) In the population-construction land dimension, the growth of the population and construction land in Hebei Province was generally in an uncoordinated state. According to the results of the calculation, the samples of counties whose relationships between population and construction land were uncoordinated accounted for 75.76% of all counties, and 68.94% of all counties demonstrated weak decoupling. (3) In the economy-construction land dimension, 89.39% of all counties in Hebei Province had coordinated relationships between economy and construction land change. The expansion negative decoupling was the main decoupling state in Hebei Province in this dimension. (4) On the basis of two-dimensional decoupling type results, the construction land-use in Hebei was divided into four zones: “Population–economy dual coordinated”, “population unilateral coordinated”, “economy unilateral coordinated” and “population–economy dual uncoordinated”. The results showed that the “economy unilateral coordinated” zone included 68.18% of all counties. According to the characteristics of different construction land-use zones, this study provided various regulatory and control countermeasures and suggestions to improve the efficiency of construction land-use and to promote sustainable development in Hebei Province.

The sustainable and stable population support capacity of a country or region is of great concern. This study proposes a new method for evaluating the land carrying capacity (LCC) based on food nutrition demand and establishes a clear link between nutritional health and land. We delved into the evolving dynamics of food consumption and production structures in China between 1990 and 2020, with a focus on the spatial variations among its 31 provinces. The objectives of this study were to assess the status of LCC, identify the critical nutritional factors constraining LCC enhancement, and propose differentiated pathways for improving LCC. The results showed that: (1) There has been a steady increase in the annual consumption of animal-based products, while plant-based product consumption has declined. (2) Overall, food supply capacity has expanded, displaying an “east high, west low” trend, resulting in an imbalanced food supply level. (3) The LCC for energy and carbohydrates exhibited continuous fluctuating growth but displayed a declining trend after 2018. (4) The pressure on land carrying capacity has shifted from a state of “surplus” to “abundant surplus,” signifying a safe food system level. However, significant spatial variations persist, leading to shortages and surpluses. Therefore, this work suggests that addressing these disparities requires the optimization of food consumption structures and increasing the supply of animal-based foods. This approach leverages regional advantages and reduces disparities in regional LCCs. This study provides a valuable reference for ensuring food security in response to unprecedented global changes in sustainable development.

Rural settlement is the main vehicle for the existence and development of the countryside. The functions of rural settlements vary across different regions, influencing land use patterns. This study conducted multi-function evaluations of rural settlements by selecting three representative villages from different locations in Hebei Province, China. This was achieved through the establishment of an evaluation indicator system and the adoption of methods such as coordination degree, dominance degree, and obstacle factor diagnosis. This paper also used the Markov and CLUE-S models to predict future changes in land use within these settlements. The results showed that the closer the relationship between rural settlements and towns, the more obvious the settlement’s overall function becomes. Suburban settlements showed the highest multi-function coordination degree, with a prominent living function, but lagged in production and ecological functions. These villages should prioritize areas for commercial, landscape, and greening land to better serve the urban areas. Exurban villages excel in production but fall short in ecological and residential aspects. These areas should allocate land for environmental and infrastructure development to support a larger peasant population. Remote villages showed good multi-functionality, with a strong focus on eco-friendliness. However, they lacked in production and living function. Future plans should include converting residential areas to commercial use and enhancing public services and infrastructure to raise the living standards of villagers.