Land use change in farming-pastoral region of Inner Mongolia based on GIS and Markov model

For studying the influence of human activity on spatial distribution, transformation of land use type and ecological environment in farming-pastoral region, Taipusi Qi in Inner Mongolia was selected to analyze the change of land use, land cover and spatial landscape pattern in the past 30 years by remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS). The Markov model was applied to predict land use variation in the following 20 years. The results showed that grassland and farmland were the main land use types of research area with obvious reciprocal transformation. Grassland was mainly transferred to farmland in 1975-1990. Farmland was chiefly converted to grassland, and grassland tended to increase in 1990-2004. The landscape diversity in the study area rose with the contagion index decreasing and fragmentation degree being intensified during 1975-2000. The advantageous patches maintained good connectivity with the increasing patch cohesion index and the decreasing landscape fragmentation during 2000-2004. The change of human interference intensity played an important role on the variation of land use structure. Land use intensity was mainly affected by the changes in population as well as national land use policies. In the following 20 years, the agriculture land area would tend to decrease, the grassland and unused land area would have a slight reduction by contrasting the increasing the forest land area notably. It is a basic approach to ecological restoration by implementing rational land use policies and utilizing ecosystem self-repair functions.