Agricultural Evolution: Process, Pattern and Water Resource Effect

Fengqin Yan,Fenzhen Su,Jia Ning

doi:10.3390/app10155065

Abstract

Assessing historical landscape change and its related land–use changes is necessary for understanding agricultural evolution processes and their ecological effects. In our study, the landscape patterns of paddy fields and dry farmland were studied using information obtained from remote-sensing data. Land-use changes related to cultivated land were analyzed based on transition probability index and trajectory computing method. Furthermore, the possible driving force and water resource effect of cultivated land changes were discussed. The results indicated that paddy field and dry farmland expanded by 56.99% and 10.92% in the West Songnen Plain, respectively, compared with their own area in 1990. Trajectory analyses showed that dry farmland was usually more stable than paddy field. Climate warming, wind speed reduction, population growth, technological development, as well as land use policies all drove cultivated land changes. The net water consumption of cultivated land showed an increased trend. To achieve the sustainable development of land-system, optimizing land-use structure as well as configuration between water and soil resources should be given more attention in the future.

Highlights

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) is widely regarded as a fundamental element and driving force of global changes [1,2,3]
Paddy field and dry farmland expanded by 56.99% and 10.92%, respectively, compared with their own area in 1990
The proportion of paddy to cultivated land increased from 6.35% to 12.32% while that of dry farmland decreased from 93.65%

Summary

Introduction

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) is widely regarded as a fundamental element and driving force of global changes [1,2,3]. LULCC influences key functions of ecosystem services (ES), playing an important role in global sustainability [4,5]. Human activities in the past decades have significantly changed the global environment, primarily because of the transformation from natural ecosystems (forest, grassland and wetland etc.) to agricultural land or developed area [6,7,8,9,10]. Estimating the spatio–temporal characteristics of historical LULCC especially human-induced LULCC quantitatively as a basic ecological process is of great significance for predicting future LULCC and providing a decision–making basis for the sustainable use of land resources [7,12].

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion