China’s Land-Use Changes during the Past 300 Years

A Historical Perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID15460927
AuthorsLijuan Miao (0000-0002-0332-8488, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, corresponding author), Feng Zhu (0000-0003-3663-6046, Beijing Normal University), Zhanli Sun (0000-0001-6204-4533, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies), John C Moore (0000-0001-8271-5787, Beijing Normal University), John Moore (0000-0003-4566-6247, Beijing Normal University), Xuefeng Cui (0000-0002-9617-072X, Beijing Normal University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume13
Issue9
Pages847-847
Publication date2016-08-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1661-7827 • E-ISSN: 1660-4601
PublisherMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3390/ijerph13090847
PMID27571087
OpenAlexW2512552569
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited64

Understanding the processes of historical land-use change is crucial to the research of global environmental sustainability. Here we examine and attempt to disentangle the evolutionary interactions between land-use change and its underlying causes through a historical lens. We compiled and synthesized historical land-use change and various biophysical, political, socioeconomic, and technical datasets, from the Qing dynasty to modern China. The analysis reveals a clear transition period between the 1950s and the 1980s. Before the 1950s, cropland expanded while forested land diminished, which was also accompanied by increasing population; after the 1980s land-use change exhibited new characteristics: changes in cropland, and decoupling of forest from population as a result of agricultural intensification and globalization. Chinese political policies also played an important and complex role, especially during the 1950s-1980s transition periods. Overall, climate change plays an indirect but fundamental role in the dynamics of land use via a series of various cascading effects such as shrinking agricultural production proceeding to population collapse and outbreaks of war. The expected continuation of agricultural intensification this century should be able to support increasing domestic demand for richer diets, but may not be compatible with long-term environmental sustainability

Agriculture · China · Climate change · Economic geography · Economics · Environmental change · Geography · Land use · Land use, land-use change and forestry · Natural resource economics · Political science · Politics · Population · Population growth · Sociology · Sustainability · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Demography · Land Use and Ecosystem Services · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Ecology