# Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Obstacles of the Multi-Functionality of Land Use in Xiangxi, China
## 1 Introduction  
Land is a complex system including topography, soil, hydrology, biology, climate, and other elements [1]. In addition to providing food, fresh water, and other material resources for humans, it is also essential for habitation, transport, leisure, and other activities [2]. Land use reflects the type and intensity of human activities, which directly affects the biodiversity of ecosystems [3], water security [4], and human health [5]. The changes of land use are dominated by human activities [6], which, in turn, affects people's livelihood and sustainable development of the economy. Several models have been used to assess land use change [7, 8], but most of them have only focused on the economic or ecological functions of land [9]. Land resources are multifunctional, which is not only an important factor of the ecological environment, but also the main resources of human production and life. Land multi-function evaluation is a very effective method that takes economic, social, and ecological factors into consideration [10]. The concept of multi-functionality in land use originated from agriculture and refers to the ability of land to provide diversified products to meet various needs. This concept has gradually expanded into the non-agricultural sectors. In 2004, the SENSOR project, under the sixth framework of the European Union, considered that the function of land use refers to the various uses of land for the provision of multiple products and services [11], to meet the needs of humans for economic, environmental, cultural, and social services. The multi-functionality of land as the basisfor land use and allocation is an important factor affecting regional land decision-making and spatial planning, and is related to the sustainable development of society and economy. Research concerning the versatility of land use have become increasingly abundant. These studies have mainly focused on the types of land function, the multiple functions of agriculture, and the evolution of land function. Land multi-function includes regulation function, habitat function, production function, information function, and so on [12]. Scholars have generally discussed the relationship between agricultural versatility, agricultural policy [13], and sustainable development, believing that the main functions for agricultural land were food production and environmental sustainability [14], which had a positive impact on the life of the higher social capital class [15]. An index system for quantifying the versatility of agricultural land was constructed [16; 17]. Based on results of this evaluation, the land functions were divided into different areas [18], and the zoning optimization strategy was proposed. Scholars have analyzed the rubber agroforestry system in Sumatra and China [19], concluding that the factors restricting multifunctional change are complex and diverse. A survey in Australia has found that ranches have changed from a single production function to a variety of functions [20], such as protecting biological communities and developing tourism. The study has discovered that family farms in Missouri provide different leisure services and play a diversified role in land use [21]. Since the 21 st century, the land use of parks in Poland has undergone significant changes [22]. The reasons for the changes of forest landscape functions in Southwest Parks of Poland include population change, intensive agriculture, urbanization, and land-use policy change [23]. Evidence from Denmark shows that recreational hunting contributes to multi-functional maintenance and change of land use [24]. It can be seen from the above that scholars have carried out extensive studies concerning the types of functions, the current multi-functional use of agricultural land, and have made beneficial attempts to understand the spatio-temporal evolution of multi-functional land use.