Identification of Land Use Function Bundles and Their Spatiotemporal Trade-Offs/Synergies: A Case Study in Jiangsu Coast, China

Land use multifunctionality (LUMF) is a pragmatic means of resolving land use conflicts and realising regional sustainability and has critical importance in land system science. In this study, we constructed LUMF classifications from a sustainable perspective and quantified and analysed the deliveries of land use functions (LUFs) in the coastal area of Jiangsu Province, China. On this basis, the “bundle” concept was innovatively introduced into the LUMF research framework to analyse the spatiotemporal effects of trade-offs and synergies among multiple LUFs. The results showed that high-value LUF geographic units tended to cluster in human-dominated landscapes. During the study period (2000–2018), the average provision of regional multifunction increased slightly, while the subfunctions changed in different trends. Four LUF bundles (agricultural zone, mosaic cropland–rural housing zone, coastal natural and seminatural landscape zone, urban development zone) were identified, each having different dominant LUFs and landscape configurations. In each LUF bundle, the most common trade-offs were observed in the environmental and economic functions. The space incompatibilities caused by land development demand in different subregions created a trade-off and synergy among multiple functions. Moreover, LUF relations were not static over time, owing to the effects of urbanisation, coastal reclamation activities, and agriculture protection policies. Based on the above results, this research proposes land use optimisations for different multifunctional areas.