An Impact Of Rural Labor Migration Under The GGP On Land Use And Cover Change(LUCC) In Northern Shaanxi Province

To understand the mechanism of LUCC,based on the remote sensing image and social-economic information,and taking Yangou watershed of northern Shaanxi Province as a case study,by means of geographic information system and statistics,this work explored the relationship between rural labor migration and LUCC before and after the Grain for Green Program(GGP)at different levels of the watershed and the household.At the watershed level,on one hand,by GIS,this paper analyzed the land use quantity change,land use structure change,land use spatial change,etc.in Yanou watershed from 1990 to 2013.On the other hand,using the method of correlation analysis,the socio-economic and natural driving factors of land use and land cover change were quantitatively analyzed.At the farmer level,by analyzing household questionnaires data,we explored the impact mechanism of rural socioeconomic factors on land use by using the Tobit model.The results showed that,during the research period,the land use and cover change and driving factors in Yangou watershed changed significantly before and after the GGP.At the watershed level,The significant factors affecting cultivated land area change include the total population,the number of workers and the per capita net income of farmers;the significant factors that made forest area change were also the total population,the number of workers and the per capita net income of farmers;The per capita GDP was the most significant factor affecting the change of construction land area,followed by the per capita net income of farmers,the second industry GDP,the total retail sales of social consumer goods,etc.At the household level,the effect of driving factors on land use had been changed significantly before and after the GGP.During the period 1990-2001.the labor migration had no significant impact on the land use of households,and household demographic characteristics and land resource endowment in 1990 had substantial impact on the land use of households in the 21 years.During the period 2001-2013,the significant factors impacting household land use were labor migration and household location.Furthermore,the research showed that land area change rate would increase with the increase in per capita working income;With the increase in the number of migrant workers,the land area change rate would reduce;With the increase in the number of male migrant farmer workers,the land area change rate would reduce.In general,the impact of rural labor migration on land use showed obvious stage difference before and after the Grain for Green Program,compared to the period from 1990 to 2001,labor migration had more significant impact on land use change between 2001 and 2013.