Optimal structure and layout of urban land use can greatly contribute to the planning management and decision-making on the coordinated optimization of social and economic development, and ecological protection. Since rapid urban expansion can improve the regional social and economic levels, there were also many prominent issues, including the harsh contradiction between resource supply and demand, encroachment on farmland, ecological degradation, water and atmospheric environmental pollution. Existing studies have overlooked the trade-off analysis of land use economic, social, and ecological benefits, thus reducing the guiding role of land use patterns in the optimization scheme. Taking Hangzhou City of China as an example, the multiple objective planning (MOP) and the future land use simulation (FLUS) model were coupled to trade-off the land use economic, social, and ecological benefits for the optimal plan of land use structure. The FLUS model was used to simulate the land use pattern in 2035. The spatial optimization plan of land use was obtained to compare the different development scenarios. The results showed that: 1) The optimal configuration scenario simulation of land use structure and layout was effectively achieved from the perspective of land use eco-economic transformation efficiency using the coupled MOP and FLUS model. The decision-making suitable for cities was then made to formulate the multiple development goals. 2) A comparison was conducted on the proportion of the decrease in the unit economic benefits and the increase in the ecological benefits. The development scenario was determined with a 4:6 weight ratio between land use economic and ecological benefits. The optimal plan was obtained for the land use structure, in order to trade off the social, economic, and ecological benefits of land use. The economic benefit of land use was the highest at 3 694.2 billion yuan under this development scenario, whereas, the ecological benefit of land use was 44.7 billion yuan, indicating the high-level total benefit of land use. Meanwhile, there was the 163 450 hm² expansion scale of construction land in the optimal land use structure scheme, which was between the scenario of economic development optimization and ecological protection priority. There was a decrease in the reduction in the farmland scale, thus reducing the occupation of important ecological land. 3) The simulation accuracy of the FLUS model was 89.36% suitable for land use in this case. In terms of the land use spatial pattern, the expansion of construction land was concentrated mainly in the eastern main urban area and the surrounding areas. By contrast, the slow expansion of construction land was found in the variation in other land use types in the western region. Moreover, there was a more compact expansion pattern of construction land in this scenario, compared with the rest development scenarios, indicating the fragmented and less complex landscape patterns and high aggregation of patches. The findings can provide theoretical and practical references for regional land use planning, decision-making and sustainable development.

Production-living-ecological (PLE) functions are of great significance within urban and rural territorial spaces. It is often required to synergistically promote the urban-rural spaces. Taking Zhejiang Province as a case study, this research aims to construct a multifunctional evaluation indicator system for the urban and rural territorial spaces. The coupling coordination degree model, composite system synergy degree model, Dagum Gini coefficient, and geographical detector were employed to explore the synergistic and spatiotemporal evolution of the PLE functions from 2000 to 2020. A systematic investigation was also implemented to determine their driving mechanisms. The results indicated that: 1) An upward trend was found in the PLE functions and governing function of the urban and rural territorial spaces. The improvement rate of the PLE function levels in the urban areas was higher than that in the rural areas. While there was more balance on the PLE function levels in the rural territorial spaces. There were similar distribution patterns of the PLE functions and the comprehensive function in the urban and rural areas. The high-value areas of the production, living, and comprehensive functions were concentrated in the northern region. 2) There was an improvement in the coupling coordination level of various functions in the urban and rural territorial spaces. High-level coupling coordination areas for the urban and rural production, living, and comprehensive functions were concentrated in the core area of northern. While the coupling coordination of the ecological functions exhibited a pattern of "low in the north and high in the south." The synergistic evolution of the urban-rural production, living, and comprehensive functions was primarily characterized by the moderate and synergy types, where the high-level synergy areas were mostly concentrated in the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Ningbo and Hangjiahu Plain regions. The synergistic evolution of the urban-rural ecological functions was dominated by mild synergy, indicating a spatial distribution pattern of "low in the north and high in the south." The largest regional disparity was found in the synergistic evolution of urban-rural production functions. While the smallest was the ecological functions. Furthermore, there were consistent types in the coupling coordination and synergistic evolution of the PLE functions in different regions. Specifically, the urban-rural production and living functions in northern and coastal areas were characterized by the high coordination-good synergy types. While the mild coordination-mild synergy types predominated in the southern and western regions. Urban-rural ecological functions exhibited high-level coordination, but insignificant synergistic evolution. 3) The multiple factors were dominant in the synergistic evolution pattern of the PLE functions in the urban and rural territorial spaces. Per capita GDP, fiscal expenditure, and agricultural security were the dominant factors for the synergistic evolution of the urban-rural comprehensive function. The synergistic evolution of the urban-rural production and living functions depended on the coupled path of "natural base-economic linkage-policy regulation." There were the most complex response factors for the urban-rural living functions. The synergistic evolution of the urban-rural ecological functions was dominated by the altitude and the policy factor in the optimal development zones. Additionally, the interaction between per capita GDP and agricultural security shared the strongest interaction on the synergistic evolution of the urban-rural production and comprehensive functions. The nonlinear enhancement was found in the interaction between the urban-rural disposable income ratio and infrastructure.

Land resource has been the most important assets in rural areas. Among them, the relationship between human activities and land in rural areas has been one of the most important influencing factors for land conservation and intensive utilization, urban-rural integration, rural revitalization and common prosperity. This study aims to explore the land use and land cover remote sensing monitoring dataset (CNLUCC) and population data. Five-period monitoring data of land use was taken from Zhejiang Province, China from 2000 to 2020. Firstly, the land-use dynamics were used to characterize the change degree of rural settlements during the study period. Secondly, the land use transfer matrix between rural settlements and land types was constructed to identify the transfer direction and stage features of rural settlements using the geologic map. The intensive utilization of rural settlements per capita was taken as the baseline to evaluate the coordination between human activities and land source. Furthermore, the "differentiation + consistency" was adopted to combine with the per capita construction land area standard of villages. Finally, the decoupling model was used to analyze the evolution of the decoupling type and the human-land coupling relationship between rural settlements and population. As such, the specific development strategy of zoning was proposed to coordinate the relationship between human activities and land. The results showed that: 1) The rural settlements were concentrated mainly in the plain area of the northern, the hilly basin area of the central and the coastal area of the southeast, indicating a pattern of multi-regional concentration and global dispersion. In terms of time, the rural settlements were continued to expand from 2000 to 2015, and then was shrunk from 2015 to 2020. In order to adjust the structure of rural residential land, cultivated land was the main transfer-in source, whereas, the urban and cultivated land were the main transfer-out sources. 2) The per capita rural settlement area showed a continuous upward trend in the time series. The spatial pattern showed the significant spatial agglomeration. Specifically, the high-value areas were concentrated in the northern Plain, whereas, the low-value areas were in the southwestern mountainous areas. The per capita rural settlement area was ever rising in various regions, particularly with the economic development and urbanization. But the large base of the plain area was aggravated the imbalance between human activities and land. While the small base of the hilly and mountainous areas were relatively coordinated in the relationship between human activities and land. 3) The decoupling relationship between rural population and rural settlements at the county level was mainly dominated by strong negative decoupling, that is, the regional rural population declined, while the area of rural settlements was maintained an upward trend. The number of counties with strong negative decoupling relationship decreased from 2000 to 2020, but there was the still serious imbalance of rural human-land coupling relationship. The findings are of great significance to regulate the relationship between human activities and land, in order to promote the effective allocation and efficient utilization of rural land resources.