Analysis on macro-driving forces of the arable land resources change in yantai area

This paper revealed the characteristics of arable-land resources and utilization, the basic process and regional difference of changes in arable-land area and current direction of cultivated land according to the arable-land statistics data during the reform and opening-up over the past 20 years and detailed survey and altered data of land use during the recent five years. Also, the major driving factors and influence mechanism for the changes in the cultivated land area were discussed. The main conclusions were shown below: (1) There was a trend of obvious fluctuant decrease in arable-land area during the past 20 odd years. The changes of arable-land undergone the process from gentle decrease to steep decrease to slow decrease, and there were three peak periods of arable-land loss in 1985 from beginning to end, 1987-1990 and 1991-1993, respectively. (2) The decreased arable-land was mainly converted into land used for industrial and mining, residential area, and all kinds of traffic and orchard. The increase of arable-land mainly came from exploitation and reclamation of non-utilized land and arrangement and reclamation of industrial and mining's land. (3) The economic development, population growth and policy were the dominant macro-driving factors in decrease of cultivated land area in Yantai. The obvious break during the change process of arable-land was related to the national macro-policies background. The rapid decrease of cultivated land area coincided in time with the overheated economic growth resulting from the direct investment in fixed assets. Spatial distribution of the decrease in arable-land matched the differences in speed and scale of economic growth between different regions of Yantai area. Furthermore, the decrease in arable-land because of population increase could not be ignored.