Land Use Change in Fast Developing Regions: A Case Study of Chongqing Municipality in Southwestern China

This study takes into account Chongqing Municipality of China as a typical case and explores the main characteristics of the land use change in a fast developing and urbanization region. Study also demonstrates the magnitude of land use change caused by the land use policy and economic development strategy. The purpose is to improve the understanding of their land use change so that sustainable land utilization could be practiced. Based on the Landsat TM data of 1980, 1995 and 2005, the spatial-temporal characteristics of land use changes within the periods 1980-1995 and 1995-2005 in the study area were quantified using remote sensing and GIS. The method of the dynamism index was used to measure the annual change rate of land use. Results show that land use type in 1980 was mainly dominated by73% of cropland and 20% of forestland; the built up area occupied 4% of the study area; the land use type in 1995 had almost the same character, but in 2005, it was mainly dominated by 49% of cropland and 38% of forestland (37%); the built up area increased to 10% of the study area. There was no big change on land use during the period from 1980 to 1995, however during the period from 1995 to 2005, there was big change on land use by substantial growth of built-up areas and increase of forestland area resulting in significant decrease in the area of cropland and unutilized land. The annual change rate of overall land use during the period from 1995 to 2005 is 3.5% which is larger than that of Shanghai (2.1%) during the same period. The case study shows the tremendous land use changes during the period of fast developing and urbanization which were mainly caused by national policy and strategy.