Is there a regularity: the change of arable land use pattern under the influence of human activities in the Loess Plateau of China?

Abstract

Conventionally, the evolutions of landscape patterns show different regularities in terms of different spatial scales. Therefore, the changes of arable land use pattern under the influence of human activities in the Loess Plateau of China also follow similar rules. To examine this assumption, we selected Per Capita Arable land Area (PCAA) as an index to indicate arable land use pattern, and Human Activity Intensity (HAI) as an index to indicate the influence of human activities. We also used land use data and demographic data at a 5-year interval from 1990 to 2015 to quantify PCAA and HAI in four different spatial scales across over the Loess Plateau region. These four scales include the whole loess Plateau region, provincial (autonomous region) scale, municipal (autonomous prefecture) scale, and county (city, district) scale. The theoretical model of arable land use pattern and the HAI calculation model were used comprehensively. We performed spatial analysis on the whole PCAA and HAI with the support of GIS geographic information technology, and conducted spatial autocorrelation analysis and Pearson’s correlation analysis. We performed analysis of factor driving on the PCAA and HAI for different land-use types at the county (city, district) scale. We found that the changes in arable land use pattern of the Loess Plateau were dominated by human activities at the whole region and provincial scales from 1990 to 2015. However, at the municipal and county scales, human activities account for 60% of the changes in land use pattern. Two interesting findings were found at the municipal and county scales: one is that with the changing rate of HAI increases, the changing rate of PCAA decreased substantially; the second is that with HAI decreases, PCAA increased significantly. Besides, the changes in arable land use pattern can be explained by the synergy effect of multiple factors of human activities. This study provides insight knowledge in understanding the drives under the change of arable land use pattern in the Loess Plateau and hopefully can provide guidance for the sustainable goal of the local and country scale planning from the management perspective.