Assessing the Role of Policies on Land-Use/Cover Change from 1965 to 2015 in the Mu Us Sandy Land, Northern China

Sen Li, Tao Wang and Changzhen Yan
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Sen Li: Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 260 West Donggang Road, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China
Tao Wang: Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 260 West Donggang Road, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China
Changzhen Yan: Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 260 West Donggang Road, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: Policy has long been considered one of the major driving forces for land-use/cover change. However, research on the interactions between land-use/cover change (LUCC) and relevant policies remains limited. The agropastoral ecotone is a typical area of policy implementation and LUCC. Therefore, this study integrates the use of multisource and multiresolution remote sensing and topographic and field-based datasets for the case of the Mu Us Sandy Land (MUSL) in northern China. The research aim was to quantify LUCC from 1965 to 2015 and describe the relationship between policy changes and land-use types during three stages: the stage of the Great Cultural Revolution, the stage of the modernization of the economy, and the stage of the Great Ecological Project. The results indicated that land use was affected by different national policies because of the national approach to land use during different periods. In the stage of the Great Cultural Revolution, the amount of cultivated land increased, and the environment deteriorated under the influence of leftists. In the stage of the modernization of the economy, vegetation coverage improved after the initial damage, and cultivated and artificial surfaces also increased. In the stage of the Great Ecological Project, cultivated land and unused land decreased, and woodland and sparse vegetation increased with the implementation of the Grain for Green Project (GGP). However, cultivated land increased but wood land and sparse vegetation decreased significantly by the end of the GGP. The coverage of artificial surfaces increased and grasslands decreased due to the encroachment of artificial surfaces into grasslands.

Keywords: policy; land-use/cover change; agropastoral ecotone; Mu Us Sandy Land (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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