The characteristics of land use are different in each phase of economic development.As one of the developing areas in West China,economic development in Jiangzhou is below the nation's average level and still belongs to the initial stage of industrialization.With a leading agriculture and low industrialization level,Jiangzhou shows the typical characteristics of land use in this economic stage,which are:the competition between farmland and land for environment purpose constitute the main contents of land changes;slow enhancement of construction land in constrast to the greater proportion of rural settlements in Jiangsu Province;and rural inhabitant area per capita going up gradually.Based on statistical data from 1978-2002,the driving factors of arable land changes are studied by principal component method and regression analysis.The results show that economic development,population growth and land management led to the constant expansion of the cultivated land while the enhancement of income and consumption level and the adjustment of agricultural industry structure resulted in the reduction of the arable land.The rapid economic development will bound to cause rapid conversion of farmland into land for non,agricultural purpose.As a result,more attention will be given to protecting arable land,reducing waste of land,preventing environmental pollution,and realizing sustainable regional land use.