| China, has only seven percent of the total cultivated land of the world, but it has fed twenty two percent of the total world's population. We can see, the "land" has a specific important meaning for China. According to the China's government information (August 28, 1991), the human population in China increases by 16 million per year, and the cultivated land decreases by 4,600 hectares per year. The total loss in hectares has been calculated from loss due to water and soil erosion, desertification and non-use of agriculture land. Desertified land occupies 13.4 percent of China's total area, and it is increasing every year. This basic information indicates how serious the land problem is for China. But it is a problem not only for China, but also for the whole world.; The Maowusu Sandland is a typical and seriously desertified land area. Different types of sand land are scattered over 77 percent of the total sandland area. Population growth and environmental degradation increased the need for seeking an approach to solve the desertification problem.; Control of land desertification can only be achieved by changing land use planning (only technical approach). Through land evaluation, a systematic way of assessing land use suitabilities plans can be made to control human misuse of lands.; In this study, we obtained a great deal of information from 3810 plots of field survey, 1200 soil profiles, and 604 tree trunk analyses, which have come from investigations. There are ten maps with analyses made by the Geographical Information System (GIS). The land suitabilities analyses and maps are made by the Automated Land Evaluation System (ALES) and GIS. Those computerized methods, are in accordance with the FAO's Framework for Maowusu Sandland evaluation, which have been combined with the computer system. Because it is convenient to transfer information for different analysis and other use this system has more advantages for desertification land planning.; Obviously, land evaluation of Maowusu Sandland by those methods and "tools" do not only produce good results, but also the models are very suitable for use in actual land evaluation processes. |
