The examination and quantization of cultivation in Anhui before and after the War of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Abstract

In view of the probability of historical documents,it is stressed that the time-scales on the study of LUCC covers the past 300 to 500 years in China.Land statistical figures from official documents before the year of 1911 had more errors which could not meet a criterion of modern statistics,only a special term fiscal-unit showing taxation and mixing different land use types.Owing to the complex nature of historical statistics,we need not only textual research and discrimination error of historical documents,but also consistent examination and amendment of the land statistics,not a single one can be omitted. The War of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was an inflection point of cultivated land use change from summit to bottom in Anhui Province during the Qing Dynasty.The thesis makes an attempt on quantization treatment of cultivation in counties of Anhui before and after the War,and also puts forward reestablishment of cultivation data and a feasible interpolation algorithm for the cultivation rate without recorded data by using historical documents,linking with analysis by means of modern technology and taking all error factors into consideration in which the deviation within the limits is under control.Cultivation rate in counties of Anhui before the War is mainly calculated by saturation ratio,and after the War by population losing ratio.Based on the above,we complete reconstruction of cultivation rate in different counties of Anhui before and after the War,and then display the changing pattern of cultivation in Anhui by GIS.It is a relatively reasonable measure to quantize spatial distribution of cultivation and reclamation which is authenticated by historical documents.