Human Driving Forces: Analysis of Rocky Desertification in Karst Region in Guanling County, Guizhou Province
- Publish Date: 2011-08-17
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Key words:
- karst rocky desertification /
- human driving forces /
- STIRPAT model /
- Guanling County, Guizhou Province
Abstract: Karst rocky desertification is one of the major ecological and environmental problems that threaten the sustainable
development of southwestern China. It is caused by irrational and intensive land-use patterns in karst geo-ecological environment.
Therefore, it is vital to identify how human forces work on this degraded environment. Based on the soil erosion information in 2000 and
remote sensing images of Guanling County collected in 2000 and 2007, four grades of karst rocky desertification data in 14 villages of
Guanling County were extracted. Impacts of population, affluence, and other human forces on karst rocky desertification were analyzed
using STIRPAT model. The results show that: 1) Factors of population and affluence had strong influence on karst rocky desertification.
In the STIRPAT model analysis, the population and affluence coefficients were positive, indicating that the increase in population and
affluence would lead to more serious desertification. 2) Factors of farmer correlated with karst rocky desertification negatively, especially
the way of viewing the relationship between people and nature, and the level of knowledge about rocky desertification. Government
behavior was not a significant factor in this analysis. 3) The findings provide evidence that STIRPAT model can be used to analyze the
relationship between human driving forces and rocky desertification.
Citation: | WU Xiuqin, LIU Hongmeng, HUANG Xiulan, ZHOU Tao. Human Driving Forces: Analysis of Rocky Desertification in Karst Region in Guanling County, Guizhou Province[J]. Chinese Geographical Science, 2011, 21(5): 600. |