Response Of Farmland Use Change To Human Activities In Jinta Oasis, Arid Northwestern China

The dynamic change and the driving forces of farmland use are the important aspect of the research on land use and land cover change (LUCC). Because of the fragile ecological environment in arid northwest of China, studies on the driving forces of farmland use change are the important reference value in the western development. Based on the farmland data between 1988 and 2007 in Jinta Oasis, the characteristics and driving forces of the farmland use change are discussed in this paper, divided into 5 parts as following:The first part talks about the research on LUCC at home and abroad, and then analyses the background and significance of topics discussed in this paper. The methods and content is also discussed in this part.The second one discusses the dynamic change of farmland in Jinta Oasis, as well as the structure of the farmland. The results are showed as following:1. The quantitative change of the farmland: The quantity of cultivated land and forestry land has increased, with a reduction of grassland and garden plot. The dimension of grassland has shrinked from 6.61×104 hm2 into 2.81×104 hm2, with a shrinking rate of 57.46%; The garden plot has shrinked from 2.42×103 hm2 into 2.09×103 hm2, with a shrinking rate of 13.39%; The dimension of cultivated land has increased from 1.85×104 hm2 into 1.89×104 hm2, with a extending rate of only 2.13%; The forestry land has increased from 1.04×104 hm2 into 2.79×104 hm2, with a extending rate of 175.75%.2. The structure of farmland has changed accordingly. The proportion of grassland declined from 68% in 1988 to 36% in 2007, as the cultivated land, forestry land and garden plot in a rising share of farmland. The farmland has increased from 19% in 1988 to 25% in 2007; The forestry land increased from 11% in 1988 to 36% in 2007; The garden plot increased from 2% in 1988 to 3% in 2007, although the dimension of the garden plot has declined.Based on the result obtained in the second part, the third part analyzes the driving force of the farmland use changing from both natural and humanity aspect, which makes up a foundation for the forth part.The forth part makes use of principal component analysis method studying the effect of human activities on farmland use changing. In this paper, population, the level of economic development, economic structure, the level of agricultural technology development, urbanization level and other socio-economic indicators were selected. By means of principal component analysis method, two factors were concluded as the major aspect affecting the farmland use changing, which is the level of agricultural economic development and the economic structure.Based on the analysis aboving, the fifth part give some recommend according rational use of farmland, including scientific use of water resources, controlling population growth, increasing investments in agriculture.