Quantitative study on land cover changes and the driving forces in Maotiaohe basin

In recent years, Chinese scholars have focused more on the karst rocky desertification issues in Southwest China. However, the comprehensive research on land use and land cover change in this area, which is closely related to the karst rocky desertification problem, has been paid little attention. By using the integrated technique of RS, GIS and GPS and by employing the methodology of Canonical Correlation Analysis, the authors have quantitatively studied the land use and land cover change processes and also their driving forces over the past 30 years. The results reveal that the area of arable land, construction land, forest land, water area, and rock-exposed land increased from 1973 to 1990 while grassland and shrub land reduced, which means that the eco-environment deteriorated in general. After 1990, forest land, grassland, construction land, and water area had kept increasing while grassland changed a little and arable land and rock-exposed land reduced, which suggests that the coo-environment tends to become better in Maotiaohe basin. Moreover, the quantitative research shows that it was the factor of total population amount that drove the change of construction land in the study area before 1990, but the factor of gross agricultural product after 1990. The increase of agricultural population was mainly responsible for the change of arable land before 1990, but the increase of corn yield after 1990.