| As the unique natural and cultural resource,rural landscapes have valuable functions in the transmission of Chinese farming civilization,ensurance of food security,maintenance of rural characteristics,coordination of urbanization and landscape functions,and protection of biological diversity.However,some of these functions have suffered from gradual loss under hyper urbanization.As such,this thesis aims to provide theoretical framework and pathways to reverse this deteritorating and unsustainable process of function loss and achieve sustainable development of rural landscape.Multiple scales and actors were engaged in this study based on the cross-scale study cases of "China(upper scale)-Anhua County(core scale)-Maluxi Villag(lower scale)".The main research outomes are as follows:(1)A macro-micro integrated framework of rural landscape conservation was proposed to ensure rural landscape sustainability.This framework consisted of two pathways(macro pathway and micro pathway)for rural landscape conservation.The macro pathway focuses on the conservation of landscape functions,stuctures and spatial patterns,while the micro pathway centers on the landscape-use behaviors of landscape actors.(2)A spatial classification system of rural-landscape importance for conservation was estabilished.This system has three main classes and flexible sub-classes.The three main classes(represented by Ⅰ,Ⅱ,Ⅲ)were indentified with the method of proportional control,which was based on the ranking of landscape-function importance at upper scale.Each main class may have sub-classes according to the core-scale reality.In this study,the Ⅰ-class of Anhua County was area with landscape production function and ecological function,where the ecological function was especially prominent;the Ⅱ-class area contained production,ecological and cultural functions;the Ⅲ-class area consisted of production function and cultural function;the Ⅰ-class area of ecological function was equally divided into two sub-classes(Ⅰ-ⅰ and Ⅰ-ⅱ)based on the reality of Anhua.This kind of cross-scale study has several advantages compared to the single-scale study,namely carifying the spatial differences of different landscape functions and advancing the cross-scale coordination for regional sustainability.(3)Behaviral characteristics and mechanism of landscape actors(incl.central government,local government and farmers)on landscape conservation were indentified.The results show that the central government is the active leader of rural landscape conservation,the important supplier of conservation policies and the "principal" of the policy implementation.The conservation decision of central government has the trend of transformation from single-fucntional conservation by single sector to multi-fucitonal conservation by multiple sectors.This is the rational choice of central government with the consideration of its social costs and benefits.The second landscape actor,local government,acts as the "agent" of conservation policies and the economic rational person,which causes the local government make inconsistent strategies during policy implementation process.The underlying driver for this inconsistence is that the local government makes rational choice at different time to maximize its benefits.The third landscape actor,the farmers,differed their decision making in different landscape functions,which originated from the social-rational personality of farmers.This means that farmers’behavioral decision is not only driven by economic interests,but also influenced by ethics,customs,traditions,values,social relations and other non-economic factors.(4)Evolution characteristics of rural landscape conservation were summerized.By reviewing the development traits of the study case and the developed countries,four evolution stages of rural landscape conservation were indentified:the development stage(including traditional-use stage,excessive development stage and responding conservation stage),the management and control stage,the governance stage and the stewardship stage.From the initial development stage to the final stage of landscape stewardship stage,the goal of rural landscape conservation changes gradually from production to sustainable development.Accordingly,the sustainability of rural landscape shows a trend of first decreasing and then rising.(5)Patterns of rural landscape conservation in response to urbanization were constructed.This thesis proposed corresponding conservation patterns for the four evolution stages of rural landscape conservation.They are tradition-stewardship pattern,development-stewardship pattern,control-stewardship pattern,and governance-stewardship pattern.Among them,the control-stewardship pattern is-the most suitable pattern for the rural landscape conservation of Anhua.Correspondingsuggestions for the construction of control-stewardship pattern at Anhua were put forward:optimizating principal-agent relationship between central and local governments and promoting education and propaganda of rural landscape conservation in the near future,and in the far future strengthening conserving coordination of different landscape funtions,fostering the leading role of farmers in rural landscape conservation and enhancing policy innovation and flexibility for rural landscape conservation. |
