Abstract:

Chuandian farmingpastoral ecotone located in the southeast margin of the Tibetan Plateau in China has a unique and complex geomorphology.Study on the effect of the terrain features on the land use can help people understand the relationship between the human activity and the physical geography,which has practical significance in regional development and environment protection.Based on the RS＼GIS technology,this paper analyzed the land use in 1988 and 2000,and discussed the effect of geomorphic factors on land use pattern.The result indicates:1) Cultivated land,forest land and grass land are mainly land use types in research area.From 1988 to 2000,the land use type transform frequently and the inner structure of each kind of land use changed obviously.2) The geomorphic factors have significant effect on land use pattern,among them the altitude controlled the spatial distribution of different land use type in vertical direction.The study also showed that the terrain features are the foundation of regional land use pattern in research area.The reason was the terrain factor,such as high altitude,determines the redistribution of rainfall,heat,and other natural resource in inner domain,which finally affect the land use type and degree of human being.

Key words: land use/ terrain feature/ Chuandian farmingpastoral ecotone