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Land use and land cover change and driving mechanism in the arid inland river basin: a case study of Tarim River, Xinjiang, China

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Abstract

Identifying the primary causes and examining the processes and trends of land use change are crucial for land use planning, utilization of regional resources and environment management. Combining the ecological quantity analysis with GIS technology, based on the land use data and remote sense images, the changes of land use and land cover and the driving force were analyzed in the mainstream of the Tarim River from 1973 to 2005. The results showed that the areas of cropland and built-up land increased obviously, grassland, forest and wetland decreased and unused land increased first and then decreased. The major patterns of land use change were from grassland (major source), woodland, unused land and wetland to cropland, from a great lot of cropland to built-up land, as well as from grassland (occupying 30 %), woodland and wetland to unused land. Land use change underwent a process of obvious change–slow change–obvious change–tremendous change in the period of 1973–2005. The influence of natural factors including elevation, slope, soil types, distance from river course and climate change on land use and land cover change was limited. Population growth, economic development and industry policy were the dominant driving force for land use and land cover change in the mainstream of the Tarim River. The sustainable use of land resources is significant to keep economic development and environmental protection in arid inland river basin.

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Acknowledgments

The research is supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program: 2010CB951003), the PhD Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (20106203120004), the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40971078, 41061017) and the Youth Foundation of Northwest Normal University (No. NWNU-LKQN-09-23). The authors wish to thank the editor-in-chief of Environmental Earth Sciences and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    Ruifeng Zhao, Peiji Shi, Jinghu Pan & Haili Zhao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, CAS, 818 Beijing Nanlu, Urumqi, 830011, Xinjiang, People’s Republic of China

    Yaning Chen

  3. Gaolan Experiment Station for Ecology and Agriculture Research, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Lihua Zhang

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  1. Ruifeng Zhao
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  2. Yaning Chen
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  3. Peiji Shi
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  4. Lihua Zhang
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  5. Jinghu Pan
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Correspondence to Yaning Chen.

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Zhao, R., Chen, Y., Shi, P. et al. Land use and land cover change and driving mechanism in the arid inland river basin: a case study of Tarim River, Xinjiang, China. Environ Earth Sci 68, 591–604 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-012-1763-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-012-1763-3

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