Cultivated land use has been one of the major challenges to national food security and ecological stability in sustainable agriculture, especially in rapid urbanization and industrialization in recent decades. Current cultivated land is often required to balance between the supply and demand of multiple functions, rather than a single production. This study aims to clarify the impact of urbanization on the supply-demand matching multiple for cultivated land functions (CLFs). Land resource allocation was also optimized for sustainable utilization and coordinated development of modern agriculture. The study area was taken from the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), one of the most economically developed and urbanized regions in China. There were drastic variations in the land use, especially in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui, due to rapid urban expansion, indicating the supply and demand of various CLFs. The supply and demand levels of five CLFs (grain production, water conservation, carbon sequestration, habitat quality, and landscape culture) were quantitatively measured from 2000 to 2023 using remote sensing data, statistical yearbooks, and field surveys. The spatial-temporal patterns of supply-demand matching were finally obtained to evaluate the different types of urbanization, such as population, economic, spatial, and social urbanization. The results showed that: 1) Grain supply shared a “higher in the north, lower in the south” pattern in the south in the study period, which was closely related to superior natural conditions in northern Jiangsu and Anhui. While the water supply presented the opposite trend, due to more abundant precipitation. Carbon sequestration showed significant overall growth, which was attributed to ecological and agricultural policies. High-value areas of habitat quality supply were in the YRD’s southwest. Landscape culture high-value areas were in eastern coastal Jiangsu. All CLFs increased with the expansion of city size in Shanghai, southern Jiangsu, and eastern Zhejiang. 2) City size significantly dominated CLF supply-demand matching. Small cities generally shared the surplus supply of various CLFs, while megacities and supercities presented a shortage of supply for various CLFs, as the urban expansion occupied cultivated land for the demand of populations/industries. Shanghai and southern Jiangsu significantly enhanced the urbanization pressure on sustainable cultivated land. 3) Different types of urbanization varied in the heterogeneous impacts. Social urbanization also dominated the supply and demand matching for grain production. There was a tradeoff between the urban population and the rural labor transfer. Economic urbanization shared the greater impact on carbon sequestration and landscape culture than the rest. Spatial and economic urbanization strongly dominated the supply and demand matching for the habitat quality. Importantly, the interactions between urbanization types also dominated the supply-demand matching for the multiple CLFs more than the rest of the single urbanization. This finding can provide the decision-making basis to promote high-quality urbanization and sustainable cultivated land in the YRD region.

Spatiotemporal evolution is often required to balance between the ecological efficiency of cultivated land use (ECLU) and high-quality urbanization in the rapidly developing sustainable land of China. In this study, the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region was selected as the most economically vibrant and highly urbanized area. A comprehensive framework was employed to analyze 41 prefecture-level cities from 2000 to 2023, in the critical period of the accelerated urbanization. A multi-analytical approach was adopted to integrate the several advanced techniques: 1) The entropy method was utilized to measure the comprehensive urbanization levels over five key dimensions - economic, spatial, social, population, and ecological urbanization; 2) The super-efficiency SBM model was applied with the undesirable outputs. Both input and output factors were also considered to more accurately evaluate ECLU; 3) Kernel density estimation and advanced spatial visualization were employed to conduct the spatiotemporal pattern analysis; and 4) Spatial autocorrelation models, including both global Moran's I and local indicators of spatial association (LISA), were implemented to identify the complex response mechanisms and spatial association types at different geographical scales. The empirical analysis revealed that there were four patterns: 1) A clear fluctuating upward trend was found with the distinct spatial heterogeneity in the study period. The spatial distribution exhibited the "east-hot, west-cold" pattern along the east-west axis, while a "center-hot, periphery-cold" pattern along the north-south axis, indicating the uneven development of the region. Concurrently, the urbanization levels shared the consistent and rapid growth over the entire region. There were the substantial regional disparities to gradually narrow over time, indicating a convergence trend in the urban development. 2) The relationship between urbanization and ECLU was marked as the heterogeneity over different cities. The Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou were maintained on the significant efficiency. These metropolitan areas were benefit from the advanced agricultural technologies, environmental regulations, and more efficient resource allocation. In contrast, the peripheral cities exhibited the relatively lower ECLU levels, indicating the presence of the urban-rural dual structures in the land use efficiency. 3) Decomposition analysis showed that the different dimensions of the urbanization shared the varying impacts on the ECLU. Economic, spatial, social and ecological urbanization demonstrated the statistically significant positive influences on the ECLU. However, the population urbanization exerted the notable negative pressure, due mainly to the increase demand for the construction land and ecological pressures. 4) Spatial autocorrelation was utilized to identify the strong positive spatial dependence in the urbanization-ECLU relationship. High-high clusters were predominantly concentrated in the central Jiangsu province, including some cities like Yangzhou and Taizhou, where the rapid urbanization was integrated with the high agricultural efficiency. Conversely, the low-low clusters were found in southern Zhejiang province, particularly in the mountainous areas. Terrain constraints and lower economic levels were limited to the urbanization and agricultural efficiency. Three substantial contributions were gained to integrate the evaluation framework for the urbanization-ECLU interactions; There were the multidimensional, nonlinear, and spatially heterogeneous features of their relationship after comprehensive empirical analysis. The finding can provide the empirical evidence to support the differentiated land decision-making at the regional scale. It is very necessary to tailor the strategies, according to the different types of the spatial clusters: In the high-high cluster regions, the technological innovation can be enhanced in the sustainable intensive land use. Transitional zones can be required to implement the farmland protection and ecological red lines. Low-low cluster areas can be benefit the most from the ecological compensation and targeted regional assistance programs. These differentiated approaches can be expected for the coordinated development of the urbanization and cultivated land protection in the YRD region.