The Study Of Driving Forces Of Land Use /cover Change In Wuqi County

Research on regional land use cover/change is a hot topic in the field of global change research.Regional land use change is often the results of the interactions of region's natural factors and socio-economic factors.The study of the driving factors of land use change is helpful to the deeper understanding of the living environment and to better adapt and transform the environment.The purpose of returning farmland to forest program is to transform sloping land and wasteland into forest land and grassland,and to improve the local ecological environment and increase the income of farmers.This shows that the conversion project is one of the driving factors of land use change.Discussing the relationships among the conversion project and other driving factors and the land use change can provide new ideas and perspectives for measuring the effectiveness of the project.In this paper,taking Wuqi County as the research area,the descriptive analysis method is used to describe the natural and social economy and the implementation of the program of returning farmland to forest in Wuqi County,and this will help to understand the background and profile of the study area and lay the foundation for the establishment of the theoretical model.Secondly,this paper uses remote sensing technology and geographic information system(GIS)technology.Based on the interpretation of two remote sensing images of Wuqi County in 1998 and 2011,we introduce the land use transition matrix and the dynamic degree model of land use and analyze the conditions of land use/cover change of Wuqi County.Thirdly,the theoretical model of land use change and its driving force is established by using structural equation model.Based on the received data of land use change in Wuqi County and the village level data of Wuqi County acquired by team investigation,the hypothesis is verified.Finally,this paper gets these conclusions:(1)The results of returning farmland to forest greatly improved from 1998 to 2011.(2)Based on the analysis of land use change in Wuqi County,it is concluded that the degree of land use change in Wuqi County is graduallyimproved,which is closely related to the local social economic development and the increase of human production activities.(3)The overall land use change was relatively gentle during the study period,and the area of f orest land and construction land increased gradually between 1998 and 2011,while the other land area showed a decreasing trend.(4)The socio-economic development situation has a positive effect on the land use change in the region,that is to say,the social and economic development will promote the local land use change.(5)The returning farmland to forest program will directly affect the change of land use type through the transformation among forest land,grassland,wasteland and cultivated land,and it has positive effect.(6)The implementation of the reforestation project will indirectly affect the current situation of land use by affecting the local economic and social development.The conversion project not only affects directly on land use type,but also has indirect impact on land use change by increasing the local farmers' income,change the labor structure and land use policy changes.