Abstract:

Land use system is a complicated and macro system with dissipative structure. To study the change of land use structure, we need to know the degree of area development and the behavior of humankind, and this kind of research is the major research area in studying structures of regional development. Shannon information entropy theory is one of the measurements to study the degree of regional land use system. This paper was then based on Shannon information entropy theory to study the land use structure during the period from 1992 to 2004 in east region of Tibet, China. The order degree of land use system was applied to indicate the information entropy values. It was revealed that the information entropy of research area in 2004 was higher than in 1992, though the change was very little. Compared with the information entropy of land use structure in the country and the west area of Tibet as a whole, the entropy was lower in east area of Tibet, with the order being rather higher. The factors influencing the information entropy variation were mostly related with the changes in land use structure and in regional policies; economical development and population growth also influenced the variation. The information entropy values are of guiding significance in the regulation of land use structure in a region as they can reflect the dynamics and transformation degree of land use types in a region in a certain period. Shannon information entropy theory will also be useful to analyze the characteristics of land use system in regional scale and to evaluate, adjust and optimize the regional land use mode.

Key words: land use structure, information entropy, Changdu Area, Tibet