A Study of Spatio-Temporal Change and Driving Forces of Arable Land Area in Sichuan During 1996 to 2006

Sichuan is one of the main grain production areas,which plays an important role in food security.The spatio-temporal change of arable land area in Sichuan Province is investigated based on the modification data of land use from 1996 to 2006.The results show that the total area and per capita area of arable land in Sichuan had been declining,and arable land area of 21 districts had been decreasing with differences in reduction scope in different districts.An analysis of transfer of arable land respectively in Sichuan Province,Liangshan Autonomous State as well as Chengdu City indicates that arable land area in Sichuan and Liangshan i ncreased mostly by reclamation of unused land and arable land reduction resulted mainly from conversion of farmland to wood-land.In the City of Chengdu,construction land readjustment was the main source of newly,increased arable land,and most of the lost arable land was changed to garden land.Using DPS data processing system to run R-mode cluster analysis,the paper classifies the driving forces as the increase of population and income,the advancement of science and technology,the develop-ment of economy,the change of grain yield.