Dynamic land use and its policy in response to environmental and social-economic changes in China: A case study of the Jiangsu coast (1750–2015)

With the rapid industrialization and urbanization, China’s mainland coasts have witnessed an increasing challenge of sustainable development. Policy-making and management in coastal development also need an in-depth understanding of long term land use changes. Historically, coastal land use and its policy in China experienced a complex and tortuous evolution from the preindustrial era to modern times. However, there is a lack of detailed treatment in previous studies, about the issues of the policy response to environmental and social-economic conditions. Using an approach of historical document analysis and multidisciplinary synthesis, based on the case from the Jiangsu coast, we explore the land use changes and its policy response for China’s mainland coasts on a centennial time scale. The results show that the land use policy had different performances in response to the changes of environment and social-economy at different stages, with a dynamic shift from passive to active response. During the 18–19th centuries, the management framework was associated with the monopolized land use policy that was dominated by the government's interests of salt industry; there were few initiatives to take into account the environment changes and stakeholder conflicts. Yet, during the 20th century, the emphasis of the policy was placed on reclamation and diversified industry, reflecting the pressure from the coastal environment change and social-economic situation. At the same time, the adjustment of land use policy became more frequent. Population growth and physical environment change are the two major driving forces for the observed shifts. The study on the long term change of land use and policy response for China’s mainland coasts may provide a reference frame to be considered for future sustainable development and adaptation.