GIS-based suitability evaluation of uncultivated arable land in Xinjiang Region

It’s a foundation for interregional flows of arable land resource to indentify the amount and layout of uncultivated arable lands.Taking Xinjiang Province as a case, an evaluating indicator system including natural suitability, ecological suitability and economic suitability was set up, 1 km2 grid and county was taken as evaluating units to analyze the total area and layout of uncultivated arable lands. The results showed that: ①the total area with natural and ecological suitability was 1.47 million hm2, and areas ranged from 100 hm2 to 176500 hm2 in different counties. ②the total area with natural, ecological and economic suitability was 976100 hm2, which distributed in 65 counties. ③The area of uncultivated land suitable for interregional flows of arable land was 971900 hm2, which distributed in 51 counties. The conclusion is that with the addition to restriction conditions for land evaluation, the amount of uncultivated arable land decreases steadily and impacts of ecological risk and economic cost on interregional flows arable need further study.