Abstract
China has a land area of 9.6 million km2, 65% of the total land area of the world. Only 14.2% is cultivated at present, 0.5% is under fruit trees, 34.8% is in grazing. 17.2% is under forests, 2.6% is used for industry, communication and urban purposes, and 3.5% is covered by water. Of the remaining 27.2%, much is high and barren desert, or under permanent snowfields, or not yet used, or unable to be used with available technologies. Land resources have not been properly developed in some parts of China, owing to the pressure from population growth and other socioeconomic problems. For China as a whole, land restoration has made great progress. One solution is to increase the crop land area through reclamation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bradshaw, A. D. (1984). Land restoration: now and in the future. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B. 223, 1, 23.
Ding, H. (1987). Mining development and land restoration. Journal of Information in Environment Conservation. 2 (in Chinese).
Institute of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1980). Map of China’s Land Utilization. Map Press, Beijing.
Wang, W. (1988). Outlook on restoration of mining disturbance land at home and abroad. Journal of Natural Resources, 2 (in Chinese).
Wu, C. (1983). Proper utilization of land resources and the modernization of agriculture in China. China in Canada. McMaster University, Canada (in English).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guo, H., Wu, D. & Zhu, H. Land restoration in China. Chinese Geographical Science 2, 10–17 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02664542
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02664542