ANALYSIS ON SPATIAL DIFFERENCE OF LAND USE CHANGE BASED ON PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL LANDSCAPE ATTRIBUTES ──A Case Study at Mongolian Autonomous County of Qian Gorlos, Jilin Province

Key words: 
• land use change /
• physical geographic region /
• land use dynamic process /
• effective coefficient /
• cultural landscape variable

Abstract: Land use changes are regarded as landscape pattern change driven by many interactive natural and social-economic factors. Different combination of physical geographical elements induced the difference of spatio-temporal pattern of land use change. There are four physical geographical regions in Mongolian Autonomou County of Qian Gorlos of Jilin Province. Based on spatial analysis and statistical analysis, we conclude that the primary pattern of land use and the tendency of land use changes are all different in four physical geographical regions. During 1987 - 1996, the dominant land use change processes were from grassland or forest to arableland, from unused land to paddy and grassland to unused land. Though land use change is mainly affected by social and economic condition in short period, the composite characters of physical geographical elements controls land use dynamic process. The relationship between land use dynamic process and the character of physical geographical units differ in different regions. Possible human impacts on land use change are explored with application of buffer areas of series distance along main roads and radius around main settlements. A few models are built to describe the relationship between land use spatial change rates and distance to road and settlements. According to our result, the relationship with the proximity to roads was a negative liner function, with the change rate decreasing rapidly when moving away from roads. Within a distance of less 7.5km from main traffic lines, land use changes occur red more. The bulk of grassland was apt to be opened up for cultivation around the settlements and the transformation from dryland to paddy occurred within the distance of 1km away from settlements.