Land Use and Desertification in Horqin Sandy Land

Based on the digital land use data and the desertification data obtained from TM image from 1985 to 2000, land use structure and desertification land composition and its changes are studied, the relationship between land use and desertification is analyzed. The conclusions are as follows: cultivated land and pasture land are the main land use types, and the unused land area is much and other land use area is small. In the past fifteen years, the area of cultivated land and woodland increased much and that of pasture land reduced. The main change direction is that pasture land transformed into cultivated land and woodland. The desertification land area in Horqin is large and the main desertification type is moderate. Desertification changing trend is that the desertification land area expanded and desertification degree reduced. Under continuously intensive land utilization, much of the pasture land and cultivated land degraded; the degraded lands developed into light and moderate desertification lands from potential desertification land. The area of desertification land induced by land use change is small and also its percentage in total new desertification land is little, whereas the increase of land use intension, such as pasture land use and cultivated land use, is the most important reason of desertification. To some extent the changes of land use pattern could accelerate the process of desertification.