How land-cover has been changed by human use over the last 300 years is oneof the five overarching questions guiding the Land-use/Cover Change (LUCC) Science/Research Plan.China has variety of historical documents pro...How land-cover has been changed by human use over the last 300 years is oneof the five overarching questions guiding the Land-use/Cover Change (LUCC) Science/Research Plan.China has variety of historical documents providing unique data superiority. So the characteristicsof farmland area in Shandong Province during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) are summarized firstly: 1)the rising trend of farmland area was striking; 2) farmland area had remarkable fluctuation; 3)farmland area per capita decreased dramatically; 4) wasteland reclamation index increased rapidly.Then, the driving forces of farmland area change are analyzed. It is concluded that natural andhuman factors are jointly influential. Among the driving forces, human dimensions are the mainfactors of farmland area change, which direct the general tendency of the changes mentioned above.And the natural factors influence the stability of farmland area as well. Variation of the naturalfactors would act as the major contributory factor to farmland area change during years or periodsof abrupt climatic changes, or during the intensive occurring periods of natural hazards. Besides,the passive aspects of human factors, such as war chaos also influenced the fluctuation of thefarmland area. This research indicates that it is feasible to study the land-use/cover change byChinese historical literatures, which has huge potential to provide a comprehensive picture of thegrowing dominance of human land-use and land-cover patterns that can be used in many global changeresearch projects.展开更多
文摘How land-cover has been changed by human use over the last 300 years is oneof the five overarching questions guiding the Land-use/Cover Change (LUCC) Science/Research Plan.China has variety of historical documents providing unique data superiority. So the characteristicsof farmland area in Shandong Province during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) are summarized firstly: 1)the rising trend of farmland area was striking; 2) farmland area had remarkable fluctuation; 3)farmland area per capita decreased dramatically; 4) wasteland reclamation index increased rapidly.Then, the driving forces of farmland area change are analyzed. It is concluded that natural andhuman factors are jointly influential. Among the driving forces, human dimensions are the mainfactors of farmland area change, which direct the general tendency of the changes mentioned above.And the natural factors influence the stability of farmland area as well. Variation of the naturalfactors would act as the major contributory factor to farmland area change during years or periodsof abrupt climatic changes, or during the intensive occurring periods of natural hazards. Besides,the passive aspects of human factors, such as war chaos also influenced the fluctuation of thefarmland area. This research indicates that it is feasible to study the land-use/cover change byChinese historical literatures, which has huge potential to provide a comprehensive picture of thegrowing dominance of human land-use and land-cover patterns that can be used in many global changeresearch projects.
