Land-use transition and its driving forces in a minority mountainous area: a case study from Mao County, Sichuan Province, China

Land-use change is an important research topic in global environmental change. Analyzing land-use change and its driving factors can aid in the evaluation of the current and the determination of future land-use policies. This study took Mao County, Southwest China, as the study area and used the land-use change and statistical data surveyed in 2009 and 2019. With the help of geographic information system technology, a land-use transfer matrix was used to comprehensively analyze the characteristics of spatiotemporal differentiation of land use, while the driving mechanism was analyzed by constructing the influencing factors using a geographical detector model. The results showed that the change in land use in Mao County was drastic. The increasing land types included orchards, grasslands, built-up lands, and water bodies, whereas the decreasing land types included croplands, forestlands, and unused lands. The main driving factors of land-use transition depended on the type of land-use change. Elevation, distance from the county government, and population were the main driving factors of land-use change. Road density, distance from the river, distance from the town/township government, and gross domestic product also affected land-use change to a certain extent, whereas relief and slope had less impact.