Evolution of land use and landscape pattern of the village area in karst mountain area over the past 50 years：A case study of Wangjiazhai area in Qingzhen City of Guizhou Province

It is of great significance to explore the influence of human activities on land use and landscape pattern evolution in small-scale in karstic mountain villages. In this study, the suburb Wangjiazhai village area of Qingzhen City was selected as a case. With the support of GIS,using the data superposition analysis of the land use figures in 1963, 1982, 2005, 2010 and 2015，land use /cover information of more than 50 years was extracted to establish the models of land use area change, single land use type dynamics, regional land use comprehensive dynamics and the model of land use transfer matrix. At the same time, the spatial and temporal characteristics of land use / cover and landscape pattern change are systematically analyzed by selecting different indices at the type level and landscape level. Combined with the result of socioe-conomic statistics the results showed that, (1) In 1963-2015, the main change of land cover in the area was characterized by the significant decreases of high-cover grassland and valley dry farmland; in the same period, low cover grassland, and the areas for rural resident, industry and mine land and road construction increased; of them the use of valley dry farmland tended to yield higher economic interests. (2) The overall trend in the evolution of the landscape pattern was that the number and density of land plots have grown since 1963 but decline since 2015 the largest patch land index decreased year by year and tended to be irregular in shape. At the same time, the landscape diversity index has continued to increased over the last 50 years. (3) Land use/cover and the landscape pattern in the study area changed periodically, from 1963 to 2005, the land use activities in the area were stronger. After 2005, the land use intensity increased, the agriculture gradually transformed and the settlement continued to expand.(4) The change of land use and landscape pattern in the study area is mainly influenced by economic, population and policy factors. Land use and landscape pattern should be enhanced to meet the increasing population and the rising consumption demand.