Temporal-spatial patterns of land use change in coastal China from 1980's to 2010

Land use and land cover change has become an important trend in research on global environmental change, especially in developing countries. For instance, Chinese coastal zone has witnessed remarkable land use changes since the reform and opening up policy launched in 1978. In order to explore land use changes in coastal China, the paper utilized a transition matrix and rates of land-use change metrics to discuss the temporal-spatial patterns of land use changes from 1980's to 2010. The results clearly demonstrated that the structure and spatial distribution of land have been significantly changed; settlement has the biggest increase and cultivated land has the biggest decrease, as manifested by the destruction of farmland and the rapid development of urbanization in coastal China. Huge land-use change dynamics mainly took place in the north coastal zone, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta.