Abstract:

The high speed expansion of construction land is one of the main characteristics of modern land use change in China.Based on the land use database acquired by interpreting the multipletemporal(1995,2000 and 2005)remote sensing images,GIS spatial analysis(mainly overlay and buffer analysis),ESI(expansion speed index)and EII(expansion intensity index)were used to analyze the spatialtemporal pattern and driving forces of the construction land expansion in Jianghan Plain from 1996 to 2005.And the driving forces of construction land expansion were analyzed by Grey relational analysis combined with social and economic statistic data.The results showed that the expansion of construction land accelerated in later five years compared to that of former five years;the construction land expansion showed obvious areal difference in different counties;construction land grew dramatically along the major traffic lines,especially along rivers during the later five years.Population growth was the most important driving force of the expansion of 〖JP2〗construction land.Traffic conditions improvement,economic development and the industrial structure transformation were also main driving factors of the construction land expansion in Jianghan Plain