PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2019, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (6): 883-895.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2019.06.009

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Reconstruction of cropland change in the southern area of the Daqing River Basin over the past 300 years

Jun LI1(), Yu YE1,2,*(), Xueqiong WEI3   

  1. 1. Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
    2. Key Laboratory of Environment Change and Natural Disaster, Ministry of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
    3. School of Geographical Science, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
  • Received:2018-12-11 Revised:2019-03-18 Online:2019-06-28 Published:2019-06-27
  • Contact: Yu YE E-mail:lixiaojun@mail.bnu.edu.cn;yeyuleaffish@bnu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Key Research and Development Program of China, No. 2017YFA0603304;National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 41471156.

Abstract:

Reconstruction of cropland change over the past 300 years forms the basis for environmental change studies. The influence of changes in river and lake areas in North China can provide a reference and validation for the reconstruction of historical arable land. Based on the local historical documents of the Qing Dynasty, the statistical data of the Republic of China, and the data of modern land use, this study reconstructed the cropland change of five time periods in the Baiyangdian Lake and the southern area of the Daqing River Basin in the past 300 years. It established the reclamation model by quantifying the slope and the potential cultivated land reclamation rate in historical periods. The spatial resolution of the analysis is 1 km × 1 km. This study also analysed the influence of river and lake evolution on the cultivation ratio via the changes of the Baiyangdian Lake and the southern branches of the Daqing River. The results show that: 1) Land reclaimation in the research area has expanded to the mountainous areas, and reclamation has constantly intensified over the past 300 years. Average cultivation ratio increased from 0.162 in 1646 to 0.579 in the 1980s. 2) The contraction of the Baiyangdian Lake provided a good material basis for land reclamation in Anxing, Rongcheng, Renqiu, Gaoyang, and Lixian Counties. The reclamation rate of the five counties in the middle and late Qing period was about 3%-40% higher than that of the surrounding counties, and the growth rate was faster too than that of the surrounding counties. 3) The old river channel provided material basis for land reclaimation of Suning, Hejian, Renqiu, and Anguo Counties. After the river diversion, the reclamation rates of the former three counties increased by 2.12, 2.6, and 2.86 times respectively. The reclamation rate in Anguo County increased by 37%, the most significant increase in the same period. 4) Although the new river could destroy some of the land, the floodplain, however, can provide a material basis for land reclamation. Therefore the cultivation ratio of the counties along the new river can increase or decrease. The reclamation rates of Lixian and Gaoyang have increased to 1.80 times and 1.88 times respectively. The reclamation rate of Wangdu and Qingyuan increased by 3% and 4%, and that of Dingzhou decreased by 4%.

Key words: land reclamation, rasterization, past 300 years, channel change, Baiyangdian Lake, southern area of the Daqing River Basin