Territorial function differentiation and its comprehensive regionalization in China

During the sustainable development of land surface system, different territories undertake different functions. The understanding and representation of territorial differentiation of the land surface system is the main purpose of comprehensive function regionalization research. Focusing on the theoretical gap of comprehensive geographical regionalization, that is, the spatial decoupling of the physical environment and human activities, the non-nested relationship of spatial scale transformation, and the persistence and uncertainty of the dynamic evolution of territorial functions, this research proposed the identification principles and division methods of comprehensive functional regions. Based on the major function zoning in China, the systematic classification method with function orientation was employed to delineate the comprehensive functions of each territory, such as ecological security, food production and urban development. Then, the geographical regionalization method, which follows the principles of interconnection of different regionalization objectives at different levels and a combination of top-down decomposition and bottom-up aggregation, was used to determine the geographic boundaries. To meet the objective requirements of flexible and dynamic boundaries, two sets of land regionalization schemes for 2035 and 2050 were finally formed, each of which had three spatial levels. The first-level regionalization identified four major regions, which comprehensively represented the relatively stable state of China’s land development and protection pattern under the leading role of physical environment differentiation. The second-level regionalization identified 12 regions, which comprehensively represented the spatial layout of a new development pattern of multi- and inter-provinces coordinating the innovation chain, industrial chain and supply chain based on a relatively independent and complete natural carrier. The third-level regionalization identified 80 sub-regions, which comprehensively represented the functional differentiation patterns of sub-provinces during sustainable development. Compared with the current geographical differentiation research, the study of territorial function differentiation has academic values for the development of integrated geography in exploring the territorial system of the human-environment relationship, and it can provide a scientific basis for determining the territorial model of sustainable development and op