Spatio-temporal evolution of hilly cultivated — A case study in Sichuan Province, China

In this paper, an analysis of the spatial and temporal landscape evolution of northwest Sichuan Province, China, is carried out based on the landscape theory, RS and GIS. Fucheng District in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, is chosen as our study area, and the driving forces of its landscape evolution are discussed based on the land use maps, the Landsat TM/ETM+ and CBERS 2B remote sensing images and other related geographic data. The result indicates that: (1) The area of cultivated land in northwest Sichuan declined sharply during the past 13 years with a much higher dynamicity than the average landcover change rate in study area. (2) The stability of the spatial pattern of cultivated land gradually decreased, while the annual terrain evolution presented a significant temporal and spatial variation. (3) The spatio-temporal evolution of cultivated land is the joint result of the negative driving forces including land slope, elevation, increased construction sites, population density, urbanization and GDP, and the positive driving forces, such as irrigation conditions, highways grades and the intensity of land consolidation.