Multi-scale spatial characterization of land use/land cover in China

This paper analyzed the determining factors Of land use and its spatial dependency in China, and through statistical and multi-scale GIS techniques investigated the spatial patterns of land use. Correlation and regression analysis was used to identify the most important explanatory variables from a large set of candidate determining factors. We found that the distribution of all land use types in China will be best described by a combination of different biophysical and socio-economic factors. Specific attention was given to the influence of scale and the spatial distribution of arable land. The results will provide some reference for the land use planning and spicy-making of sustainable utilization of land resources.