Dynamics and driving forces of landscape patterns in Mu Us Sandy Land, from 1990 to 2014

Land use is affected by climate and human activities, which in turn affects the landscape pattern. In this study, we combined 3S technology and landscape index to investigate the land use and landscape pattern change characteristics of Mu Us Sandy Land, a semi-arid area of China, in 25 years (1990, 1995, 2002, 2008, and 2014), select climate and human activities 10 factors analysing driving force. The results showed that the area of fixed sandy land increased by 7.5%, semi-fixed sandy land increased by 3.8%, shifting sandy area decreased by 47.8%, the rate of farmland increased by 4.6%, surface water and low-wet land were essentially the same, and the urban construction area increased. Fixed sandy land mainly by semi-fixed sandy land and shifting sandy land changed from; increased semi-fixed sandy land mainly by shifting sandy land and fixed sandy land changed from; the reduced shifting sandy land mainly changed into fixed and semi-fixed sandy land. Landscape structure became complex, the total number of patches and landscape fragmentation indices increased, and the change in each type of patch number and isolation indices are very significantly. Climate change and human activities are the two driving forces for the change in land use. Human factors include population, GDP, gross out of farming, forestry, animal husbandry and per capita net income of peasant & herdsman. The contribution of climate to the change in land use is not significant.