Spatial analysis of land-use management for gully land consolidation on the Loess Plateau in China

Abstract

Abstract How to balance the relationship between man and land has always been an essential problem for human beings. In 2011, the Gully Land Consolidation (GLC) project was implemented on the Loess Plateau in China. The aim of this project was to improve the living conditions of the local people through land-use management while ensuring the integrity of the environment. As little is known about the GLC, the objective of this study is to provide insight into the effects and potential problems associated with this project. We carried out a polygon-based interpretation of five land types before and after this project was implemented using multiple high-resolution satellite images (0.46 m) and 0.1 m resolution UAV photographs. The ecological footprint method was applied to analyze the supply-demand relationship between human and the land to assess the impact of engineering. Both the ecological capacity value and the area of arable land have increased due to land-use management, suggesting that this project had a positive effect in the area studied. The correlation between the spatial distribution and the transformation of arable land types was also examined to evaluate the efficiency of this project. Six factors were statistically analyzed to identify the most typical characteristics of the unused land distribution role. The existence of unused arable land is concentrated at the head of each gully. It is mainly affected by engineering, but it is also affected by the scale of the project. As a result, we identified two effects of the GLC. Although there were problems after this project, for instance, the unused rate of land became higher as the arable land increased, this project can satisfy human needs by increasing the area and quality of the arable land while improving the carrying capacity of the ecological environment.