Reconstruction of Agriculture-Driven Deforestation in Western Hunan Province of China during the 18th Century

Yikai Li, Yu Ye, Xiuqi Fang and Yachen Liu
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Yikai Li: Northwest Institute of Historical Environment and Socio-Economic Development, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China
Yu Ye: Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Xiuqi Fang: Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Yachen Liu: School of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Xi’an University, Xi’an 710065, China

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-21

Abstract: Reconstruction of historical deforestation helps to understand the dynamics of forest cover change and provides a basis for the further study of human-nature interactions over the long term. Significant agriculture-driven deforestation occurred in the 18th century in China due to its socio-cultural transformation. To understand this deforestation during the 18th century, we took typical counties in western Hunan as a case study area and reconstructed the settlements’ expansion and densification as indicators of socio-cultural factors. We then reconstructed the agricultural land expansion and agriculture-driven deforestation based on these settlements. The results showed that the agricultural land area increased by 40.4% from the early to the late 18th century, while the proportion of forest area covering the region decreased from 78.0% to 69.1%. Meanwhile, agriculture-driven deforestation mainly unfolded in the eastern and western parts of the region at relatively low elevation in the early 18th century, and this mainly happened in the middle of the region lying at relatively high elevation in the late 18th century. This study’s results provide an improved spatial resolution for the reconstruction of historical land use/cover change, thus enabling insights to be gained from a more detailed spatiotemporal pattern of historical deforestation trends. This study helps to understand the anthropogenic land cover change on a larger spatiotemporal scale through a regional case study.

Keywords: deforestation; historical land use/cover change; the 18th century; the South China; Western Hunan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:2:p:181-:d:731890

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