Spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of cultivated land structure transition: a case study of Hubei Province, Central China

The transition of internal structure of cultivated land has important influence on grain production and farming environment, thereby affecting regional sustainable development. This study took Hubei Province, an important grain producing area in central China, as the research area to explore the spatiotemporal evolution of cultivated land structure transition (CLST) based on the changes in in the internal structural types of cultivated land by dynamic models and geo information Tupu method. The main results are: (1) The dominant subcategories of cultivated land in Hubei Province were paddy fields and dry lands, whose areas have a significant decrease from 2009 to 2019. (2) Structurally, the proportion of paddy fields decreased while that of irrigated and dry lands increased, this structural transition feature was more prominent in the central grain producing areas. (3) The proportion of dry land in added cultivated land was significantly greater than that in reduced cultivated land, while the opposite was true for paddy land, the problem of “paddy field occupation and dry land compensation” was prominent in the process of CLST. (4) The geographic units of CLST were dominated by the mutual transition between cultivated land structures and various ecological land, abandonment of cultivated land due to lack of rural farming labor may be the main driving force for CLST. The results can deepen the understanding of cultivated land evolution and provide support for formulating cultivated land protection measures.