Spatio-Temporal Variation and Driving Forces of Land-Use Change from 1980 to 2020 in Loess Plateau of Northern Shaanxi, China

Xue Zhou and Yang Zhou
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Xue Zhou: Institute of Geographic Sciences & Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Yang Zhou: Institute of Geographic Sciences & Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-17

Abstract: Land-use cover is undergoing intense change under global climate change and rapid urbanization, especially in the Loess Plateau, where ecological restoration policies like Green for Grain Project (GFGP) have been vigorously implemented since the 1980s. The main objective of this study was to distinguish the difference of spatio-temporal variation of land-use change in the two study periods of 1980–2000 and 2000–2020 at the county scales. Geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) was employed to handle both the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the driving forces for land use change. The results showed that the quantity of construction land, woodland and grassland experienced continuous growth, but arable land declined substantially. The results of GTWR model showed that the dominant influencing factors of land-use change had temporal and spatial differences in the Loess Plateau. Specifically, the implementation of GFGP and precipitation accelerated the changes in arable land, grassland and woodland. For construction land, its growth was mainly promoted by gross domestic product (GDP) and population, both of which had more obvious positive effects in the last 20 years. The findings provide a scientific basis to put forward countermeasures emphasizing sustainable land use in the Loess Plateau.

Keywords: land use change; GTWR; spatio-temporal pattern; driving forces; Loess Plateau of China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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