Study on land use/cover change based on GIS-A case of Yueyang county

The land use change and its spatial distribution from 1993 to 2002 in Yueyang county are analyzed based on remote sensing and GIS data. It is illustrated that over the 9 years the area of rural-used land and water body had decreased, and the built-up areas, woodland had increased. The changing trends are dominated by the decrease of rural-used land and the increase of woodland. The main conversion types include rural-used land converting to built-up land and woodland, water body converting to woodland. Each type of land use change has a dramatic spatial distribution. It concludes that industrialization, population explosion, adjustment of agricultural structure and the development of tour business are the main factors of land use change in Yueyang County.