Abstract:

With the integrated technology of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System(GIS), the status of LUCC in the mountain areas of southern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is thoroughly studied by statistics and conversion matrix based on the remote sensing imagery date of 1975, 1985 and 2001. The main results are as follows. (1) The main styles of LUCC in the study area is farmland, and the following is grassland and woodland. The area of farmland reaches its maximum in 1987, with 790 312.06 hm2, taking 70.03% in the total land area. (2) The study results from conversion matrix indicate that there is 370 770.52 hm2 grassland and 39 813.57 hm2 woodland that had changed to farmland from 1975 to 1987. But from 1987 to 2001, there are 316 865.89 hm2 farmland that had changed to grassland and 50 729.16 hm2 farmland changed to woodland. The main reason that leads to this variation is that the local economy development was based on construction of farmland from 1975 to 1987. In this period, the development policy encouraged farmer to cultivate wasteland. But after 1990, the national exploitation policy changed greatly and carried out some zoology project, especially Returning Farmland to Forests and Grassland Project. Such policies and projects play an important role in the recovery process of grassland and woodland.

Key words: GIS, image, land use and land cover change, Ningxia, RS