Quantitative identification and the evolution characteristics of production-living-ecological space in the mountainous area: From the perspective of multifunctional land

Developed here is an integrated framework for identifying production-living-ecological space (PLES) quantitatively at grid scale from the perspective of multifunction land use, and 25 compound space types are classified to highlight the multiple functions of PLES. As a typical mountainous city in northern Hebei province, Zhangjiakou is used as a case study, and the results show that more than 80% of the land space in Zhangjiakou has remarkable triple functionality. The living-dominated space and the production-dominated space are distributed mainly in the valleys of the Yanghe, Sanggan, and Huliu rivers and have obvious spatial consistency, while the ecological-dominated space is concentrated mostly at the eastern Yanshan Mountains and southern Taihang Mountains and complements the other two types of space. The former two are spatially fragmented, while the latter has been expanding to the periphery over time. From 1990 to 2015, the ecological-dominated space has increased the most by 1555.02 km(2), while the living-dominated space has increased the least by 816.79 km(2). The types of PLES are more diverse in the medium and low mountains and the areas with gentle slope, and the influencing factors include natural ecological environment, socioeconomic development, human consumption demand, and institutional policies. Therefore, these findings can mitigate conflicts among PLES in mountainous and similar areas, and promote the balanced development of land space.