Abstract:Studying the spatial-temporal divergence characteristics of cultivated land use functions and spatial forms in different functional areas can provide scientific basis for sustainable management and utilization of cultivated land, as well as regional economic and social sustainable development. Taking all districts (counties) in Hubei Province as the research object, cultivated land use functions and spatial forms of different main functional areas were evaluated from 1995 to 2019 by using data from social economy, natural geography, agricultural production etc., and the spatiot-emporal evolution characteristics were analyzed. The results indicated that from 1995 to 2019, the production, social, ecological and overall functional forms of cultivated land showed characteristics of inverted “N” shaped, “W” shaped, “V” shaped, and “V” shaped changes over time respectively. In terms of spatial distribution characteristics, the production, ecological and overall functions were stronger in western Hubei than that in eastern Hubei, while the spatial differentiation of social functions was relatively small. On the main functional area, the production function was not significantly different between the key development areas and the main agricultural production areas, but it was significantly stronger than the ecological function areas;the social function was the strongest in ecological function areas and the weakest in the key development areas, while the ecological function and overall function were the strongest in the main agricultural production areas and the weakest in the ecological function areas. From 1995 to 2019, the number of cultivated land, landscape pattern, and spatial form exhibited characteristics of inverted “N” shaped, “V” shaped, and “N” shaped changes over time respectively. In terms of spatial distribution characteristics, the quantity form showed that the central Hubei region were stronger than the western and eastern Hubei regions, while there was a little difference between the western and eastern Hubei regions. The landscape pattern and spatial form showed that the central Hubei region was the highest and the western Hubei region was the lowest. The quantity form values were relatively high in the key development areas and the main agricultural production areas, and the landscape pattern and spatial form were manifested as the largest agricultural product production area, followed by key development areas, and the smallest ecological function area, and the phenomenon was very obvious. The overall form of cultivated land use showed a “V” shaped trend over time;in terms of spatial distribution characteristics, under the combined influence of cultivated land use function and spatial form, the overall form of cultivated land use showed a differentiation pattern with the highest in central Hubei and relatively lower in eastern and western Hubei. The main function were manifested as the largest agricultural product production area, followed by key development areas, and the smallest ecological function area. It was recommended that different functional zones had significant heterogeneity in social and economic conditions, functional positioning and cultivated land resource endowment, so differentiated regulatory strategies should be adopted to optimize the functional and spatial forms of cultivated land use, serving the sustainable use of cultivated land and the sustainable development of Hubei Province’s economy and society.
