Abstract:

Understanding land use change and associated driving forces is fundamental for optimizing land use and providing scientific basis for sustainable utilization of land resources We selected the basins that are larger than 10 000mu in Guizhou Province in the present study Using GIS techniques and spatial analysis，land use/ over information of recent 10 years was extracted and the cause of changes was further studied With support of socioeconomic data，the results showed that the area of cultivated land continually reduced and the second study period （ie，2005-2010） was severer than the first （ie，2005-2010）. The decreased cultivated lands were 7 87473 hm2 and 10 52173 hm2，showing an continuous reducing trend In the two temporal phases，forested lands，urban construction lands，rural residential areas，water，and roads increased in different degrees Meanwhile，urban construction lands and rural residential areas in the second temporal phase increased much faster than the first one，while the other three type of lands increased more slowly Shrublands were firstly decreased and then increased Cultivated lands were mainly turned to woodlands from 2000 to 2005，and mainly to rural residential areas and urban construction lands from 2005 to 2010 The variation of cultivated land was the major characteristic of land use change in the study area There are two possible driving forces of these land changes The first one was state policy （such as the urbanization promotion and new rural construction）. The second one was increasing mining and traffic flow Using principal component analysis，we classified and standardized 10 factors The results showed that land use change in study area was affected by population，economic benefits and policy An increasing population led to urban construction and increasing rural residential areas Land use intensity should be enhanced to meet the increasing population and the rising consumption demand Policy also had an impact on the land use[HJ1][HJ]