Analysis of land-use change using GIS in Loess Plateau of Dingxi Prefecture, Gansu Province of China

Based on the land-use datum (at scale of 100 000) of the interpretation of Landsat Thematic Mapper in 1980, 1995 and 2000, this study presents land-use change in Loess Plateau of Dingxi Prefecture, such as range, spatial distributing pattern, direction, farmland key change and development trend of land use pattern in 2015, by the combined using geographic information systems (GIS) method and Markov Probability Model. The results show: the annual rate of land-use change from 1995 to 2000 is 2.57 times as much as that from 1980 to 1995. In the period of 1995～2000, transformations of land-use pattern reveals obvious differences of spatial distributing pattern. Land-uses of farmland, grassland, woodland and rural resident land are the key change types. Transformations between farmland and other land-use patterns distribute most extensively. Most high quality farmlands change into rural resident land. The area of farmland changed into rural resident land from 1995 to 2000 has been increased to 66.18%(1759 hm²) as compared with that from 1980 to 1995. The areas of woodland and grassland converting to farmland are 17294 hm². By 2015, area and proportion of farmland, urban or build-up land and rural resident land will increase. The area and proportion of the woodland, grassland, water land and barren land will decrease.