The Redundancy of Residential Land in Rural China: The evolution process, current status and policy implications

China’s dual land system has restricted the efficient use of its land, particularly in the rural areas. Recently, rural China has been experiencing rapid change of man-land relationship when depopulation and large amount of abandoned residential land coexist. At present, the researches on rural settlements are mainly focused on micro-scale remediation model, reclamation technology and other fields. At the macro level, the factors, driving forces and classification of rural settlements are mostly concentrated. Most of these studies at the micro level neglected the impact of the residential form on residential area, so that the absolute number of science cannot be compared at the macro level. In this paper, through technical means to eliminate the statistical aperture since 2009 and the impact of housing form, we estimate the redundant part of rural residential land of each province in China and analyze the evolution process and its spatial distribution pattern. The results indicate large amount of redundant residential land and obvious spatial distribution difference among the coastal, central and western parts of China. The ‘increase vs. decrease balance’ policy is highly praised to improve the land use efficiency of the redundant residential land and to coordinate the changing man-land relationship in rural China. However, the governments bear the major role in implementing the policy to deal with the redundant residential land. And, the peasants’ willingness of relocation must be respected and their interests must be protected.