Spatiotemporal dynamics of reclamation and cultivation and its driving factors in parts of China during the last three centuries*

Abstract Different from other similar studies, in this paper, most of the data were excerpted from historical archives and documents, and were used to study the spatiotemporal dynamics of cultivated land resources in China during the last 300 years. It is clear that these data may help reveal land use change dynamics and its regional differences, but they may be problematic due to the constraints of the original data in the Ming Dynasty, Conversion of Land Area for the purpose of collecting land taxes, and the deliberate or inadvertent omission of cultivated land area during land surveys, therefore, such data were adjusted to our need. In processing the data, we made great efforts to analyze the historical context of their sources and reduced the possible errors. The results show that the cultivated land area increased most quickly in the early Qing Dynasty, and slowed down after the middle Qing Dynasty, and then was stable in the late Qing Dynasty until 1949, and has been decreasing since then. It is also found that the cultivated land use varied greatly in different regions. The east of the country was cultivated much more heavily than the west, but in some western provinces cultivated land area increased more quickly. It is considered that the driving factors of such cultivated land area change include the increase of the population, the political issues, and the impacts of wars. Natural environmental factors and the introduction of new crops might also have affected the cultivated land use change in the past 300 years. Keywords: land useChinalast three centuries Supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX1-SW-01-09), and Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. CXIOG-E01-05-01) Supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX1-SW-01-09), and Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. CXIOG-E01-05-01) Notes Supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX1-SW-01-09), and Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. CXIOG-E01-05-01)