The core objective of rural vitalization is to systemically establish a coupling pattern of various rural development elements including population, land and industry. As one of the prerequisites, land resources is required to be optimally allocated via land consolidation. Consequently, land consolidation contributes greatly in population agglomeration, industry development and resources support under the context of combating rural decline. In light of these facts, this paper conducts an elementary analysis on the connotation of land consolidation and rural vitalization in the new era, as well as their relationships. Furthermore, the issues on the alternative paths for achieving rural vitalization via land consolidation in different regions were also discussed. Main conclusions are drawn as follows: (1) It is manifested that rural vitalization in the new era can be explained as a comprehensive process of tackling the loss and decline of rural development elements through political, economic and cultural means. Most importantly, vitalizing the interior motivation and absorbing the external power are essential for the efficient reconfiguration and utilization of rural population, land and industry, thus achieving the goals of arousing rural vitality, optimizing elements structure, enhancing territorial function and restructuring rural morphology. (2) From the perspective of rural vitalization, land consolidation, which adheres to the path of connotative development, should not only target at stimulating the key elements of rural development, but also place emphasis on the coordination of material space and spirit core, so as to realize the co-prosperity of the urban and the rural areas. (3) Regional natural indigenous factors and the corresponding phases of socio-economic development should be both taken into account in the process of implementing rural land consolidation. Following the principle of adjusting measures to local conditions, appropriate paths or modes are supposed to be chosen in different regions constrained by the territorial development pattern. Finally, focusing on a series of problems and new concepts, which is aimed at achieving urban-rural integration development and boosting socio-economic growth in rural areas, we propose further discussions.

Targeted poverty alleviation is a pillar of China's new and innovative anti-poverty and development strategy. China is an agricultural country with a large but poor rural population. At the village level, poverty alleviation has the potential to affect millions of citizens. The Loess Plateau is a composite of fragile ecological environment and rural poverty communities. As a backward economy often twins with fragile ecology, studying poverty from a multidimensional perspective in tandem with spatial heterogeneity and its influencing factors can provide an effective analysis of poverty in regions with characteristics similar to those of the Loess Plateau. This study features Pengyang, which is a poverty-stricken county located on the Loess Plateau, and relies on the approach by Alkire and Foster to measure multidimensional poverty, using spatial autocorrelation, Geodetector, OLSR and quantile regression (QR) analysis. Results from our investigation show that the study area has a deep level of multidimensional poverty, with a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) score of 0.045. The rates of health, housing, and education dimensions were 0.263, 0.245, and 0.227, respectively. Moran's I of MPI was 0.2, which indicates that multidimensional poverty was positively correlated with a spatial pattern of "north, south, middle; high, high, low". Using Geodetector, the mean distance between villages and the center of town, as well as the mean elevation of the villages and mean distance to a river, were found to be the main factors of spatial heterogeneity within the MPI. The q-values of them were 0.552, 0.396, and 0.326, respectively, and the result of regression analysis conforms to the Geodetector. The interaction of the above factors enabled the creation of a multidimensional poverty spatial heterogeneity mechanism at village level for the Loess Plateau, revealing a lack in welfare of farmers, the poor of infrastructure, the congenital deficiency and stalled development of industry, and weak government functioning at the township level. Our results suggest that new strategies regarding urbanization should be investigated in order to improve and ensure the quality of public services in areas with similar characteristic as the Loess Plateau. These new strategies could enable the resolution of problems from the root, such as designing public goods and services that fill gaps in current health care and housing options, as well as the operation of transport facilities at the village level. This could help to mitigate welfare loss of farmers as well as reduce the negative impact of health, housing, education, and other dimensions of poverty.