Land use and land cover change in China’s loess plateau: The impacts of climate change, urban expansion and grain for green project implementation

Abstract

This paper used data on land use, normalized difference vegetation index, digital elevation model, temperature and precipitation, and urban distribution to analyse the impacts of climate change, urban expansion and the Grain for Green project implementation on land use and land cover change in the Loess Plateau between 1980 and 2015 based on a single factor and comprehensive factor analysis. The aim of this paper is to explore the spatial expression of human activities under the influence of urban expansion, climate change, and the implementation of the Grain for Green project. The results indicated that climate change dominated among the influencing factors of land use and land cover change in the Loess Plateau, accounting for 93.65% of the total, with a surface-like distribution. It was followed by urban expansion, accounting for 5.46% of the total, with a point-like distribution. The impact of the Grain for Green project implementation accounted for 0.64%, with a patchy distribution. However, due to the low resolution, the quantitative assessment results regarding the role of the Grain for Green project implementation was lower, while for climate change and urban expansion, results were higher.