Land Use Change and Carbon Emissions in China from 1990 to 2015

Abstract

Studies of land use changes and the related carbon emission effects have great significance for our understanding of the relationship between land use patterns and carbon emissions. This study indicated that (1) the most significant characteristic of China’s land use change between 1990 and 2015 was the rapid increase in construction land area, reflecting the massive economic development since the reform; (2) after 2000, affected by land remediation, ecological restoration, and land reclamation projects, degraded mining land was transformed into farmland, while villages merged into rural areas, resulting in the conversion of construction land into farmland; and (3) China’s land use types are mainly characterized as carbon sinks. The change process could be divided into two periods, before and after 2000, which may be related to the implementation of ecological construction and restoration projects, such as the Grain-for-Green project. Across China, carbon sources and sinks showed spatial agglomeration, indicating the natural characteristics of different land use types.