The rural human-land relationship transition in Southwest karst mountainous areas based on rural population, agricultural production land, and rural settlement coupling

Rural population, agricultural production land, and rural settlement are the core of the rural human-land system. Analysis of the human-land relationship transition is significant for rural ecological protection and high-quality development in karst mountainous areas of Southwest China. However, current research still lacks sufficient analysis of the interactive logic among these three elements and exploration of the transition patterns of the human-land relationship. This study constructs an analytical framework based on the coupling of rural population, agricultural production land, and rural settlement to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and transition patterns of human-land relationship in the karst mountainous areas of Southwest China, and explores the interaction logic and driving mechanism. The research results indicate that: (1) Population and land are characterized by phased changes, with the overall manifestation that the rural population and agricultural production land continue to decrease, while rural settlement continue to expand, with significant spatial differentiation at different elevations, slopes, and orientations. (2) The interaction among the rural population, agricultural production land, and rural settlement has formed an obvious transition trend of human-land relationship, in which the "population decline-land increase-settlement increase" type of human-land relationship is conducive to the coordinated development of ecology and economy in karst mountainous areas. (3) Natural environment, socioeconomic, and policy factors are the main driving mechanisms for the human-land relationship transition, and the increasing policy strength gradually dominates the evolution of the human-land relationship. We proposed differentiated development strategies, which can serve as a reference for sustainable development in similar regions worldwide.