Trade-offs analysis of land use functions in a hilly-mountainous city of northwest Hubei Province: The interactive effects of urbanization and ecological construction

Exploring trade-offs of land use functions (LUFs) affected by urbanization and ecological construction in hilly-mountainous cities is vital to balancing urban development and ecological protection. Previous studies biased toward the single impact of urbanization or ecological construction on LUFs trade-offs. However, the interaction of urbanization and ecological construction affecting the trade-offs among LUFs remains unclear. This paper used Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, one of the typical hilly-mountainous cities in central China, as an empirical case study to explore the underlying mechanisms of the interactive effects of policies on ecological construction and urbanization-induced forces. The results showed that land-use production function (LPF), living function (LLF), and ecology function (LEF) maintained different growth trends and spatial patterns during 2000 and 2019. Compared with 2000, the synergy between LPF and LLF went stronger at the city-wide level, while the trade-off between LEF and LLF became stronger and the trade-off between LEF and LPF became weaker in 2019, respectively. Spatially, the trade-off of LLF and LEF was generally stronger than that of LPF and the other two LUFs. We also found that urbanization, environmental governance, and ecological restoration had differential impacts on the trade-offs among LUFs. As interaction with urbanization occurred, ecological restoration aggravated the trade-off between LPF and LEF while mitigating the trade-off between LLF and LEF; meanwhile, environmental governance aggravated the trade-off between LPF and LEF while mitigating the trade-off between LLF and the other two functions. Territorial space optimization in hilly-mountainous cities should focus on the collaborative promotion of urbanization and ecological construction for reconciling the trade-offs among LUFs.