中国省域耕地集约利用态势与驱动力分析(英文)

The aim of this study is to establish several important factors representing land use intensification in cultivated land(denoted by CII), using a multi-dimensional approach to achieve realistic and practical cultivated land use policies in China. For this reason, the theoretical framework was first built to explain the changes of land use intensification in the cultivated land, and then the variables and index were further developed for the purpose of characterizing the dynamic trends and driving forces of the land use intensification in the cultivated land at the provincial level. The study results indicate that the extent of CII significantly increased during the period of 1996 to 2008, due to the extensive use of fertilizers, machinery and pesticide, increased labor and capital input, and intensified land use. Moreover, the principal component regression results show that the productivity of cultivated land, economic benefits of cultivated land, labor productivity, and land use conversion are the main factors affecting the village development. The first three factors play a positive role, while the last one has a negative effect on the land use intensification in the cultivated land. According to these results, the main policies for sustainable intensification in cultivated land are proposed. First, the sustainable pathways for intensification should be adopted to reduce the unsustainable uses of chemical fertilizer, agricultural chemicals, etc. Second, the conditions for agricultural production should be further improved to increase the cultivated land productivity. Third, it is very necessary and helpful for improving labor productivity and land use efficiency from the viewpoint of accelerated the cultivated land circulation. The last step is to positively affect the production activities of peasants by means of reforming the subsidy standards.     

1999-2007年中国耕地利用变化——政策演进视角(英文)

Cultivated land protection (CLP) entered the new era of macro administration in 1999 in China. This paper presents a holistic analysis of cultivated land use change concerning the three goals of the CLP, i.e., grain security, ecological security and harmonizing regional development. Farmers’ willingness to grow grain has been the key factor in safeguarding grain security. Grain-for-green policy has contributed to improving ecological state especially in the western provinces. Effects of the land macro-control of the CLP on harmonizing regional development were significant. Moreover, cultivated land use change in 1999-2007 points out the way of the evolving policy in the future. From the viewpoint of normative concept of multifunctionality, we discuss development of the three land functions, i.e., production function, environmental function and carrier function. Finally, we propose to emphasize multifunctional land management based on regional differences to promote transition of the CLP.     

中全新世黄河流域耕地格局重建及对原生植被的影响(英文)

Yangshao culture is the most important mid-Holocene Neolithic culture in the Yellow River catchment,and thus,a study on the impact of human activities on the environment is important.In the current study,the distribution pattern of the cultivated land in late Yangshao culture is reconstructed using GIS tool and site domain analysis(SDA).The results show that the cultivated land during 5.5-5.0 ka BP was mainly distributed in the Weihe River valley,Luohe River valley,northwestern Henan Plain,Fenhe River valley and eastern Gansu region,especially concentrated in the Xi’an-Baoji line of the Weihe River valley.At that time,at least 37,000 km 2 of lands were reclaimed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River,and 132,000 km 2 of lands were affected by agricultural activities.Human activities had become the driving force of land use/land coverage.Charcoal records indicate that the ancestors of Yangshao culture burnt forests for reclamation,leading to the decrease of arbor pollen at 5 ka BP in core areas of the Yangshao culture.The areas that were significantly affected by human activities accounted for 3.2% of the Yangshao culture influenced area,while the moderately affected areas accounted for 20.1% of Yangshao culture influenced area.Meanwhile,92% of the land areas on the edge and outside of the Yangshao culture influenced area were not affected by human activities.The arbor pollen in these areas did not decrease until 4.0 ka BP.     

1990–2010年中国耕地变化对粮食生产潜力的影响分析(英文)

The quantity and spatial pattern of farmland has changed in China, which has led to a major change in the production potential under the influence of the national project of ecological environmental protection and rapid economic growth during 1990–2010. In this study, the production potential in China was calculated based on meteorological, terrain elevation, soil and land-use data from 1990, 2000 and 2010 using the Global Agro-ecological Zones model. Then, changes in the production potential in response to farmland changes from 1990 to 2010 were subsequently analyzed. The main conclusions were the following. First, the total production potential was 1.055 billion tons in China in 2010. Moreover, the average production potential was 7614 kg/ha and showed tremendous heterogeneity in spatial pattern. Total production in eastern China was high, whereas that in northwestern China was low. The regions with high per unit production potential were mainly distributed over southern China and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Second, the obvious spatiotemporal heterogeneity in farmland changes from 1990 to 2010 had a significant influence on the production potential in China. The total production potential decreased in southern China and increased in northern China. Furthermore, the center of growth of the production potential moved gradually from northeastern China to northwestern China. The net decrease in the production potential was 2.97 million tons, which occupied 0.29% of the national total actual production in 2010. Third, obvious differences in the production potential in response to farmland changes from 1990 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2010 were detected. The net increase in the production potential during the first decade was 10.11 million tons and mainly distributed in the Northeast China Plain and the arid and semi-arid regions of northern China. The net decrease in the production potential during the next decade was 13.08 million tons and primarily distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River region and the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain. In general, the reason for the increase in the production potential during the past two decades might be due to the reclamation of grasslands, woodlands and unused land, and the reason for the decrease in the production potential might be urbanization that occupied the farmland and Green for Grain Project, which returned farmland to forests and grasslands.     

中国耕地和农村宅基地利用转型耦合特征与机制(英文)

Land use transition refers to the changes in land use morphology (both dominant morphology and recessive morphology) of a certain region over a certain period of time driven by socio-economic change and innovation, and it usually corresponds to the transition of socio-economic development phase. In China, farmland and rural housing land are the two major sources of land use transition. This paper analyzes the spatio-temporal coupling characteristics of farmland and rural housing land transition in China, using high-resolution Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) data in 2000 and 2008, and the data from the Ministry of Land and Resources of China. The outcomes indicated that: (1) during 2000-2008, the cor-relation coefficient of farmland vs. rural housing land change is -0.921, and it shows that the change pattern of farmland and rural housing land is uncoordinated; (2) the result of Spear-man rank correlation analysis shows that rural housing land change has played a major role in the mutual transformation of farmland and rural housing land; and (3) it shows a high-degree spatial coupling between farmland and rural housing land change in southeast China during 2000-2008. In general, farmland and rural housing land transition in China is driven by socio-economic, bio-physical and managerial three-dimensional driving factors through the interactions among rural population, farmland and rural housing land. However, the spatio-temporal coupling phenomenon and mechanism of farmland and rural housing land transition in China are largely due to the "dual-track" structure of rural-urban develop-ment.     

2001-2010年中国地表比辐射率的时空变化(英文)

Land surface emissivity is one of the important parameters in temperature inversion from thermal infrared remote sensing. Using MOD11C3 of Terra-MODIS L3 level products, spatio-temporal data sets of land surface emissivity in China for 10 years from 2001 to 2010 are obtained. The results show that the land surface emissivity in the northwest desert region is the lowest in China, with little seasonal variations. In contrast, there are significant seasonal variations in land surface emissivity in northeast China and northern Xinjiang, the Qing-hai-Tibet Plateau, the Yangtze River Valley and the eastern and southern China. In winter, the land surface emissivity in the northeast China and northern Xinjiang is relatively high. The land surface emissivity of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region is maintained at low value from November to March, while it becomes higher in other months. The land surface emissivity of the Yangtze River Valley, eastern and southern China, and Sichuan Basin varies from July to October, and peaks in August. Land surface emissivity values could be divided into five levels: low emissivity (0.6163-0.9638), moderate-low emissivity (0.9639-0.9709), moderate emis-sivity (0.9710-0.9724), moderate-high emissivity (0.9725-0.9738), and high emissivity (0.9739-0.9999). The percentages of areas with low emissivity, moderate-low emissivity and moderate emissivity are, respectively, about 20%, 10% and 20%. The moderate-high emis-sivity region makes up 40%-50% of China’s land surface area. The inter-annual variation of moderate-high emissivity region is also very clear, with two peaks (in spring and autumn) and two troughs (in summer and winter). The inter-annual variation of the high emissivity region is very significant, with a peak in winter (10%), while only 1% or 2% in other seasons. There is a clear association between the spatio-temporal distribution of China’s land surface emissivity and temperature: the higher the emissivity, the lower the temperature, and vice versa. Emis-sivity is an inherent property of any object, but the precise value of its emissivity depends very much on its surrounding environmental factors.     

中国近期主要农业自然灾害的时空变化分析(英文)

China is a disaster prone country, and a comprehensive understanding of change of disasters is very important for China’s agricultural development. In this study, statistical techniques and geographic information system tools are employed to quantify the main agriculture disasters changes and effects on grain production in China during the period of 1990–2011. The results show that China’s grain production was severely affected by disasters including drought, flood, hail, frost and typhoon. The annual area covered by these disasters reached up to 48.7×106 ha during the study period, which accounted for 44.8% of the total sown area, and about 55.1% of the per unit area grain yield change was caused by disasters. In addition, all of the disasters showed high variability, different changing trends, and spatial distribution. Drought, flood, and hail showed significantly decreasing trends, while frost and typhoon showed increasing trends. Drought and flood showed gradual changes and were distributed across the country, and disasters became more diversified from north to south. Drought was the dominated disaster type in northern China, while flood was the most important disaster type in the southern part. Hail was mainly observed in central and northern China, and frost was mainly distributed in southern China. Typhoon was greatly limited to the southeast coast. Furthermore, the resilience of grain production of each province was quite different, especially in several major grain producing areas, such as Shandong, Liaoning, Jilin and Jiangsu, where grain production was seriously affected by disasters. One reason for the difference of resilience of grain production was that grain production was marginalized in developed provinces when the economy underwent rapid development. For China’s agricultural development and grain security, we suggest that governments should place more emphasis on grain production, and invest more money in disaster prevention and mitigation, especially in the major grain producing provinces.     

背景气候和城市化对中国东南部增温的联合效应(英文)

Based on China homogenized land surface air temperature and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/Department of Energy (NCEP/DOE) Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP)-Ⅱ Reanalysis data (R-2), the main contributors to surface air temperature increase in Southeast China were investigated by comparing trends of urban and rural temperature series, as well as observed and R-2 data, covering two periods of 1954-2005 and 1979-2005. Results from urban-rural comparison indicate that urban heat island (UHI) effects on regional annual and autumn minimum temperature increases account for 10.5% and 12.0% since 1954, but with smaller warming attribution of 6.2% and 10.6% since 1979. The results by comparing observations with R-2 surface temperature data suggest that land use change accounts for 32.9% and 28.8% in regional annual and autumn minimum temperature increases since 1979. Accordingly, the influence of land use change on regional temperature increase in Southeast China is much more noticeable during the last 30 years. However, it indicates that UHI effect, overwhelmed by the warming change of background climate, does not play a significant role in regional warming over Southeast China during the last 50 years.     

中国沿海地区农户对新农村建设响应的区域差异(英文)

To tackle the issues concerning agriculture,farmers,and rural areas,the central government of China initiated a new strategy called ’new countryside construction’ in 2005.For better understanding its actual effect,this paper analyzes the regional diversity of peasant household response to this new countryside construction strategy based on Kruskal-Wallis H test and sampling survey data from 586 households in the Bohai Rim Region (BRR),Yangtze River Delta Region (YDR),and Pan Pearl River Delta Region (PPR).The result indicates that regional diversity in eastern coastal China (ECC) does exist in the form of recognized priority sequence,policy requirements,expected policy effects,and behavior response.As a result of the deviation between local policy practice and households’ inherent demand,peasants fulfill their de facto demand via individual effort instead of government aid,and therefore the new countryside construction fails to carry out the expected target.It thus needs to shift the current policy priority,ensure the peasants’ mainstay role,and formulate scientific ’Rules for new countryside construction’.     

1998-2008年中国农作物化肥消费的时空分异(英文)

The agricultural and land policies in China are always focused on protecting its food supply and security because of the country’s large population and improved diets.The crop production guide ’Take Grain as the Key Link’ prompted peasants to plant grain on most of the agricultural land,leading to the majority of fertilizer being used in grain crops for many years in China.This situation has changed dramatically in recent years.Based on data pertaining to provincial crops sown area and fertilizer use per unit area in 1998 and 2008,the temporal and spatial variations of China’s fertilizer consumption by crops were analyzed at the provincial level,and the results are presented here.(1) Fertilizer consumption in China grew strongly in the last decade,while the growth was mainly attributable to the increase of fertilizer con-sumption by horticultural crops.The fertilizer consumption of grain crops dropped from 71.0% in 1998 to 57.8% in 2008.Thus,it is concluded that the emphasis of fertilizer consumption is shifting toward horticultural crops.(2) There were marked differences in the growth rates of fertilizer consumption from the regional point of view.The national average growth rate of fertilizer consumption was 31.9% during 1998-2008.The western and northeastern parts of the country came close to the national average,while the eastern part was lower,with an average of 13.0%,and central China was much higher(50.8%).The increase of fertilizer consumption in central and west China was higher than the other zones,which already ac-counted for 77.9% of the national total.Thus,it is concluded that the consumption emphasis of chemical fertilizer shifts toward the central and western regions.(3) The decline of fertilizer consumption by grain crops was largely due to the decrease in sown area compared with the increase by vegetable crops attributable to the enlarging sown area;the increase by orchard crops was affected by both expanding the sown area and fertilizer use per unit area.     

长沙市人居环境与经济协调发展的不确定性评价(英文)

The coordinated development of human settlement environment and economy is of vital significance to urban sustainable development and urban ecosystem health. Urban human settlement and economic systems exist in urban ecosystems, which are a structural complexity. Therefore the research is being challenged by some uncertain factors between human settlements and economic systems. However most of the researches were focused on its determinate objective aspects and qualitative analyses while less concern on the quantitative evaluation of coordinated development of urban human settlement environment and economy, especially little on its uncertain aspect. At present, the urgent task is to study the coordinated development of urban settlement environment and economy in terms of the effect of uncertainty. This study analyzed the uncertain characteristics, which would be confronted at different stages, such as confirming the index categories, their bound values, and their construction rate, etc. According to the actual urban conditions, many construction principles based on uncertainties are put forward and an indicating system for human settlement and economic evaluation is established. Moreover, the application of fuzzy mathematics presents a new method and a calculation model for the comprehensive assessment of the coordinated development of urban human settlement environment and economy. The application of the method and model in Changsha city of China showed that the assessment results can reflect not only the overall coordination degree of the city, but also the mode of interactive mechanism between urban economic system and human settlement environment.     

中国东北耕地物候期对气候变化的响应(英文)

We investigated the responses of cropland phenophases to changes of agricultural thermal conditions in Northeast China using the SPOT-VGT Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) ten-day-composed time-series data, observed crop phenophases and the climate data collected from 1990 to 2010. First, the phenological parameters, such as the dates of onset-of-growth, peak-of-growth and end-of-growth as well as the length of the growing season, were extracted from the smoothed NVDI time-series dataset and showed an obvious correlation with the observed crop phenophases, including the stages of seedling, heading, maturity and the length of the growth period. Secondly, the spatio-temporal trends of the major thermal conditions (the first date of ≥10℃, the first frost date, the length of the temperature-allowing growth period and the accumulated temperature (AT) of ≥10℃) in Northeast China were illustrated and analyzed over the past 20 years. Thirdly, we focused on the responses of cropland phenophases to the thermal conditions changes. The results showed that the onset-of-growth date had an obvious positive correlation with the first date of ≥10℃ (P < 0.01), especially in the northern part of the Songnen Plain, the eastern part of the Sanjiang Plain and the middle and eastern parts of Jilin Province. For the extracted length of growing season and the observed growth period, notable correlations were found in almost same regions (P < 0.05). However, there was no obvious correlation between the end-of-growth date and the first frost date in the study area. Opposite correlations were observed between the length of the growing season and the AT of ≥10℃. In the northern part of the Songnen Plain, the eastern part of the Sanjiang Plain and the middle part of Jilin and Liaoning Provinces, the positive correlation coefficients were higher than the critical value of 0.05, whereas the negative correlation coefficients reached a level of 0.55 (P < 0.05) in the middle and southern parts of Heilongjiang Province and some parts of the Sanjiang Plain. This finding indicated that the crop growth periods were shortened because of the elevated temperature; in contrast, the extended growth period usually meant a crop transformation from early- or middle-maturing varieties into middle or late ones.     

近30年中国东北地区玉米种植体系的时空动态分析(英文)

Understanding crop patterns and their changes on regional scale is a critical requirement for projecting agro-ecosystem dynamics. However, tools and methods for mapping the distribution of crop area and yield are still lacking. Based on the cross-entropy theory, a spatial production allocation model(SPAM) has been developed for presenting spatio-temporal dynamics of maize cropping system in Northeast China during 1980–2010. The simulated results indicated that(1) maize sown area expanded northwards to 48°N before 2000, after that the increased sown area mainly occurred in the central and southern parts of Northeast China. Meanwhile, maize also expanded eastwards to 127°E and lower elevation(less than 100 m) as well as higher elevation(mainly distributed between 200 m and 350 m);(2) maize yield has been greatly promoted for most planted area of Northeast China, especially in the planted zone between 42°N and 48°N, while the yield increase was relatively homogeneous without obvious longitudinal variations for whole region;(3) maize planting density increased gradually to a moderately high level over the investigated period, which reflected the trend of aggregation of maize cultivation driven by market demand.     

中国典型土地覆盖类型地表反照率的年内变化特征(英文)

Surface albedo is a primary causative variable associated with the process of surface energy exchange. Numerous studies have examined diurnal variation of surface albedo at a regional scale; however, few studies have analyzed the intra-annual variations of surface albedo in concurrence with different land cover types. In this study, we amalgamated surface albedo product data(MCD43) from 2001 to 2008, land-use data(in 2000 and 2008) and land cover data(in 2000); quantitative analyses of surface albedo variation pertaining to diverse land cover types and the effect of the presence/absence of ground snow were undertaken. Results indicate that intra-annual surface albedo values exhibit flat Gaussian or triangular distributions depending upon land cover types. During snow-free periods, satellite observed surface albedo associated with the non-growing season was lower than that associated with the growing season. Satellite observed surface albedo during the presence of ground snow period was 2–4 times higher than that observed during snow-free periods. Surface albedo reference values in typical land cover types have been calculated; notably, grassland, cropland and built-up land were associated with higher surface albedo reference values than barren while ground snow was present. Irrespective of land cover types, the lowest surface albedo reference values were associated with forested areas. Proposed reference values may prove extremely useful in diverse research areas, including ecological modeling, land surface process modeling and radiation energy balance applications.     

基于空间分析与实证的中国农业土地边际收益与全要素生产率研究(英文)

This paper attempts to explore the temporal and spatial nature of the marginal revenue of land, total factor productivity (TFP) change and its three components: technical change (TC), technical efficiency change (TEC) and scale efficiency change (SEC) as seen in Chinese agricultural production from 1995 to 1999. Based on county-level data, the study utilized both stochastic frontier and mapping analyses methods. The results show that growth in the marginal revenue of land was diverse across various regions, where most gain occurred in eastern coastal zone, while loss was in Northwest and North China. China has experienced moderate decreases in annual TFP change (-0.26%) with considerable regional variations. Specifically, the administrative intervention in grain production and the deterioration of the agricultural technology diffusion system led to a moderate drop in annual TFP change. County-level mapping analyses took into account interregional variances in TFP and its components. Regarding components of TFP, TEC differences explain the majority of regional dispersions in TFP. As developed areas in China, the Huang-Huai-Hai region and the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan economic zone face the challenges of land conversion and grain security amidst the process of urbanization.     

皇甫川流域降水量和人类活动对径流量变化影响的定量评估(英文)

The runoff of some rivers in the world especially in the arid and semi-arid areas has decreased remarkably with global or regional climate change and enhanced human activities.The runoff decrease in the arid and semi-arid areas of northern China has brought severe problems in livelihoods and ecology.To reveal the variation characteristics,trends of runoff and their influencing factors have been important scientific issues for drainage basin management.The objective of this study was to analyze the variation trends of the runoff and quantitatively assess the contributions of precipitation and human activities to the runoff change in the Huangfuchuan River Basin based on the measured data in 1960-2008.Two inflection points(turning years) of 1979 and 1998 for the accumulative runoff change,and one inflection point of 1979 for the accumulative precipitation change were identified using the methods of accumulative anomaly analysis.The linear relationships between year and accumulative runoff in 1960-1979,1980-1997 and 1998-2008 and between year and accumulative precipitation in 1960-1979 and 1980-2008 were fitted.A new method of slope change ratio of accumulative quantity(SCRAQ) was put forward and used in this study to calculate the contributions of different factors to the runoff change.Taking 1960-1979 as the base period,the contribution rate of the precipitation and human activities to the decreased runoff was 36.43% and 63.57% in 1980-1997,and 16.81% and 83.19% in 1998-2008,respectively.The results will play an important role in the drainage basin management.Moreover,the new method of SCRAQ can be applied in the quantitative evaluation of runoff change and impacts by different factors in the river basin of arid and semi-arid areas.     

新疆公路交通基础设施建设对经济增长的贡献分析

投入产出分析与ESDA结合可能对拓宽投入产出分析的发展领域具有重要意义。试将投入产出分析与ESDA相结合,就1997-2008 年新疆公路交通基础设施建设(以下简称新疆交通建设) 对经济增长的贡献进行分析,主要结论为：① 新疆交通建设促进经济增长的机理主要在于：以相对较小的劳动力消耗实现较大的后向波及部门商品价值转移,并由此产生更大比重的前向波及作用、消费波及作用,乘数效应是新疆交通建设促进经济增长、拉动内需的重要枢纽;② 在新疆区域经济极化-扩散过程的大背景下、大尺度中,各地州市域交通建设对经济增长贡献空间相关性逐步增强,呈明显的扩散效应,各地州市域交通建设经济贡献率呈空间正相关性,空间上的反极化效应显著;③ 新疆交通建设对经济增长贡献既满足了中心区域的极化需要,也通过三级垂直波及作用模式的横向扩散促进了外围区域经济社会发展,使外围区域各族群众通过直接或间接参与交通建设活动而首先分享到了改革与发展的部分成果。研究表明,将投入产出分析与ESDA相结合,对初步揭示交通建设促进经济增长的作用机理及空间分异、空间相互作用具有一定作用。     

中国城镇化与经济增长及用水变化的时空耦合关系

中国的快速城镇化进程伴随着经济总量与用水总量的持续增长以及严重的城市缺水危机,然而三者之间的定量关系及内在机理尚不完全清楚。本文构建了城镇化驱动经济与用水增长的完全分解模型,定量测度了中国以及31个省级行政区1997-2011年城镇化过程对经济增长与用水变化的驱动效应。结果表明：① 中国城镇化对经济增长的综合贡献率长期稳定在30%左右,经济增长60%以上依赖于生产效率的提高,因此应适当弱化“城镇化是经济增长主要动力”的理念;② 中国城镇化虽然通过拉动经济增长增加用水2352×10⁸ m³,但通过优化产业结构和提高用水经济效率减少用水4530×10⁸ m³,中国用水增长的原因是由于人口和经济规模效应而不是城镇化效应;③ 中国东中部的人口和经济大省且处于城镇化加速阶段的,城镇化拉动经济并造成用水增长的作用大,但减量效应也大,而且均呈逐年增长趋势,最终城镇化对用水的综合驱动以减量效应为主,而且在时空变化上的差异相对缩小;④ 城镇化虽有助于减少全国或较大范围区域的用水总量,但会导致城镇建成区或城市群地区的缺水危机,因此应尽快建立并完善城乡之间 (或城镇化水平较高与较低地区之间) 的水资源流转机制与补偿机制。     

毛乌素沙地休耕期砒砂岩的固沙效应研究(英文)

Depended on the analysis of ground snow situation, soil moisture loss speed and soil structure after planting crops of Mu Us Sandy Land remedied with feldspathic sandstone in the fallow period, it is concluded that feldspathic sandstone mixed with sand improved the sand stabilization in the governance of Mu Us Sandy Land in the fallow period. The sandy land remedied with feldspathic sandstone had big snow coverage, 25%–75% higher than normal sand; soil moisture losses slowed down, and moisture content rose by over 3 times; soil structure had been improved, and water stable aggregate content increased by 6.52%–18.04%; survival rate of protection forest increased to 85%; and ground flatness is less than 1%. The above conditions weakened sand rising conditions of Mu Us Sandy Land in the fallow period and formed two protective layers of snow cover and soil frozen layer under cold weather so as to prevent against wind erosion.     

环渤海地区城乡发展转型的过程及成因研究(英文)

China's reform and opening-up policy has brought the country a great development opportunity. The high-speed growth of the economy not only led China to a period of industrialization, urbanization, informatization and agricultural modernization, but also exacerbated the situation of the urban–rural dual structure. Based on the review of current studies, we first used the analytic hierarchy process(AHP) method to evaluate the urban–rural development and transformation level by population transformation index, land transformation index, industrial transformation index and social transformation index between 1996 and 2012 around the Bohai Rim Region. Then, based on the results of each index, we used the exploratory spatial data analysis(ESDA) method to investigate the spatial autocorrelation of the change in the urban–rural development transformation index during the 16-year period using Global Moran's I index and Local Moran's I index. Finally, we investigated the mechanism of change of the urban–rural development transformation index at county level, summarizing five main factors:(1) the radiation from the surrounding big cities,(2) the acceleration of the urbanization process,(3) the upgrading of the industrial structure,(4) the publishing and implementation of a macro development strategy and regional policy, and(5) natural factors such as topology.