A comparative research on built-land changes between Fujian and Taiwan provinces

Abstract

Comparative study of LUCC between Fujian and Taiwan provinces could be a good case for study because of their geographical proximities and historical, cultural similarities. Fujian and Taiwan had gone through and currently are in different economic development stages. Taiwan is in the stage of post-industrialization and Fujian is in the intermediate stage of industrialization. By using the official statistics, changes of built-land in Fujian and Taiwan were analyzed in details. The results showed that these two provinces seemed to have the same characteristics of built-land changes, i.e., accelerating development, and concentrated distribution on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, forming a pattern with the economic layout of two sides acting in cooperation with eath other. If comparing different industrialized areas in Fujian with industrialized stages in Taiwan, it is clear that these two provinces seemed to have the same characteristics of synthesized index of built-land change (Lc), i.e., which is from stabilization or comparative stabilization at the initial stages of industrialization to high expansion at the intermediate stages of industrialization, then followed by low consumption at later stages of industrialization, but the Lc of the initial and the later stages of industrialization in Taiwan were slightly higher than those in Fujian. The results from comparison on relevant indexes have shown: The industrial structure changing rate of Fujian is actually higher than that of built-land in Taiwan, but its using efficiency of regional built-land is also obviously lower than that in Taiwan in the intermediate and later stages of industrialization of Fujian. The major driving forces of the built-land changes in both provinces were analyzed in Causal Models of Path Analysis, and its result indicated that the difference in built-land changes of the two provinces is closely related to their economic development stages and industrial structure. Countermeasure for the realization of sustainable utilization of built-land in Fujian put forward in this article is to strengthen its intension and tap the latent power.