Resources Utilization and Management
GUAN Xing-liang, FANG Chuang-lin, LU Sha-sha
As industrialization and urbanization accelerates, the contradiction between limited cultivated land resources and the expansion of construction land and ecological land is becoming increasingly acute. By Lawrence curve, models of gravity center and level classification division and other spatial analysis technique, this essay conducts an in-depth study of the spatial distribution pattern of the total cultivated land changes in China based on the national land use data between the 1980s and 2000. The main conclusions are as follows: Firstly, the total cultivated land increased 28374 km2 during the past ten years, with an increase of 25328 km2 in dryland, accounting for 89.26%, and 3046 km2 in paddy, accounting for 10.74%. Secondly, China’s cultivated land was mainly distributed in Heilongjiang, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Henan, Shandong and other northern and central provinces. The total cultivated land had reduced in 19 provinces including Jiangsu, Guangdong, Hebei, Shandong and Zhejiang, etc. While the rest of 13 provinces such as Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Xinjiang, etc saw an increase in the total cultivated land. Thirdly, we found that 88% of the nation’s cultivated land was distributed in the southeast of Hu Huanyong’s line, occupying 40% of land area by measurement of cultivated land indices. The spatial distribution pattern of China’s cultivated land could be appropriately classified as high degree of sparse areas, low degree of sparse areas, general transition zone, low concentrated areas and high concentrated areas. Fourthly, the types of China’s cultivated land changes could be considered as such seven major types: high growth areas, moderate growth areas, low-growth areas, general transition area, low degree reduction area, moderate degree reduction area and high degree reduction area guided by cultivated land changes index and gravity centers curve of cultivated land changes. This paper aims to reveal the spatial distribution pattern and changes of China’s cultivated land by applying the spatial analysis methods. It puts forwards that spatial distribution and division of the level of cultivated land changes with consideration of quality of cultivated land should be further explored.