Comparison on urban land use change in China's three terrain ladders

A comparative study is conducted on the change of urban land use in China's 3 terrain ladders, in order to seek the differentiation and commonality of land use change in different regions. This paper establishes a spatiotemporal mathematical modeling for multi-phase LANDSAT TM images of Changsha, Quanzhou, Xiamen and Guyuan Area from 1988 to 2010 through remote sensing and GIS integration technologies, in order to analyze and compare these spatiotemporal characteristics. Results show that the areas of cropland, forest and orchard in the eastern and central regions such as Xiamen, Quanzhou and Changsha decrease continuously, while there is a continuously increasing trend in the areas of construction land and open water, with an especially prominent increase in construction land use. However, Guyuan Area in the western region of China is mainly featured by a decrease in orchard and grassland as well as an increase in cropland, with a slow and unremarkable increase in construction land. In terms of land use degree and development degree, it is the highest in the eastern region, medium in the central region and the lowest in the west. The eastern region is in an advanced stage of land use, with its economic growth pattern turning from basic industries into high-tech and service industries, relatively high urbanization and land intensification levels. The western region is in a low stage in terms of land use, where the industrial growth is slow and the urbanization degree is low, with agriculture as its major production sector, agriculture and crop farming as its major production structures through extensive management of land; the central region is in a medium stage.