The Study of Driving Forces of Land Use Transformation in the Pearl River Delta during 1990 to 2010

Based on the land use data of the study area in 1990, 2000 and 2010, the paper tries to analyse the characteristic of land use and cover change (LUCC) in Pearl River Delta and its driving forces as well as the differences of driving forces among Shenzhen, Dongguan and Foshan by adopting the approaches of land use dynamic degree, the land use transition matrix and case studies. The results show that a large amount of farmland and forests have been converted to construction land in the study area, and the synthesize land use dynamic degrees of the study area are 2.3% and 6.2% during 1990-2000 and 2000-2010, respectively. The results also indicate that Zhuhai and Shenzhen have the highest land use dynamic degree among the nine cities of Pearl River Delta during 1990-2000, and Dongguan has the highest land use dynamic degree during 2000-2010. It can be inferred that the transitions from farmland and forest to construction land have been propelled by the local economic development and population growth, and the land use changes in forest and grassland have been driven by natural factors such as slope and elevation.