Studies on Changes and the Driving Forces of Cultivated Land in Henan Province

The changes of the cultivated land in Henan province was studied based upon the analysis of statistical data in the last 50 years.It was found that the cultivated land area had experienced two in-creasing phases and one decreasing phase in Henan from 1949 to 2003.The per capita cultivated land has a decreasing trend year after year basically.Using the GIS software to analyze the spatial changes rule of cultivated land it was found that there was significant regional difference between the east and midwest.That is,the relative change index of the cultivated land in eastern areas is higher,but that of the midwest is lower.According to the principle component analysis,the 3 driving forces affecting arable land changes were population increasing,economy developing and progress of science and tech-nology in agriculture.Furthermore,nature disaster and policy have the bigger influence on the change of the total cultivated land.