Analysis on the Human Factors Resulting in Land Desertifcation in Arid Areas

Currently,one of the important conflicts in arid areas is the negative impact of human activities to environment,which results in the obvious degeneration of ecological environment dominated by land desertification. In this paper,the natural and human factors resulting in land desertification are compartmentalized based on the conception of land desertification described in the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and /or Desertification,Particularly in Africa,October 1994 in Paris and the general features in arid areas. By discussing the meanings and characteristics of human activities,the human factors,such as the driving effects,ways and management functions of human activities in the development of land desertification,are synthetically analyzed. According to some principles,the index system of human activities resulting in land desertification in arid areas is developed,the index system includes some quantitative indexes of human activities,can reflect the dynamic change of human activities,and can provide the basis for further studying the effects of human activities in land desertification.