Abstract: Based on the remotely sensed data of land use/land cover in Jiangsu Province in 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2008, a combined spatial analysis using GIS, Ucinet social network analysis software and atlas analysis were conducted to comprehensively and quantitatively study the spatial-temporal variations of land use change in Jiangsu Province during 1985 to 2008, including the variations of land use change rate, land use transformation direction and land use intensity. Results showed that: 1) The integrated dynamic degree of land use dynamics during 1985-1995, 1995-2005, 2005-2008 was 12.95, 17.17 and 15.03, respectively, suggesting that the impact of human activities on land use change followed a rule of inverted U-shape curve starting from slight to intense impacts and then to slowing-down impacts. This phenomenon seems to be closely related with regional socioeconomic transformation process, yet other case studies and more rigorous mechanism studies are needed. 2) Since 1985, the land use interchange flows between cultivated land, built-up land and water area have been dominant in the land use dynamics of Jiangsu Province. They reflected the main manifestations of the impacts by human activities on land use dynamics, accounting for more than 80% of all land use change flows. In addition, the flow of cultivated land into built-up land ranked as the top land use change type, mainly distributed in the metropolitan areas of Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, and Nanjing as well as in the developed county-level cities such as Kunshan and Jiangyin, and also in part of the North Jiangsu of including Suqian, Huaian and Xuzhou. These conclusions are in line with existing findings of previous case studies, indicating that the comparative economic advantages between various land use types have driven those land use changes along with regional development process. 3) As land use intensity is an indicator closely related with capital input and economic output per unit land, its spatial-temporal variations gave other hints of the dynamics of human activities. Since 1985, the pursuit of direct economic output prompted the increasing of built-up land and the decreasing of cultivated land, leading to the ascending growth of overall land use intensity degree in Jiangsu. This impact of human activities on land use change was most obvious in South Jiangsu all the time while it was ever-increasing in North Jiangsu. Our findings provided novel insights into land resource sustainability in Jiangsu Province, suggesting new possibilities to better manage land resources in accordance with regional socioeconomic development stage.

Key words: land use/cover change, human activities, TUPU analysis, complex network, Jiangsu Province