Achievements and tasks of research on land-use change in China

Abstract

There has been remarkable progress in the study of land-use/cover change in China since the early 1990s, partly because of the pressing need of it for environmental and land resource management, and partly because of the establishment of the LUCC (Land-Use/Cover Change) Programme in 1996. It is argued in this paper that the promotion of Focus 1 of LUCC, i.e. 'Land-use dynamics-comparative case study analysis,' is the key to the success of LUCC in China. The paper reviews Focus 1 studies on China, and raises priority themes and tasks of research, including development and analyses of historical land-use/cover information bases, delineation and use of 'environmental land-use regions,' promotion of field-based regional case studies and comparative studies that together contribute to improved understanding in land-use/cover changes in the whole country, and encouragement of human dimensional investigations in such issues as urbanization, rural sustainability and technology transfer, which have considerable effects on land-use/cover change and sustainable development in China.