Economic Structure Transformation and Land Use Change of the Changjiang River Basin

1 Introduction Economic development in any country or region entails a long process of structural change in production as GDP and income per capita rise. In addition, economic de- velopment requires a long period of structural transfor- mation in materials inputs through reallocating natural resources (Cipolla, 1962). Land, as a crucial element and a key factor of production, is always the best witness of such transformations. In China, one of the largest countries in the world, 13.5% of its…

Economic structure transformation and land use change of the Changjiang River Basin

Land, as a key factor of production, is an appropriate indicator of national and regional economic structure transformation. Land use in the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Basin (CRB) since the 1950s has experienced these changes. Industrialization has been the most powerful force of the change in the regional development of the CRB. Virtually all regional resources were put into this effort to modernize the industrial production and urban construction systems of the CRB whose industrialization and urbanization has been a success story, with impressive structural change in both pro- duction and land use. These changes are evident in modern urban areas, but even more in traditionally rural areas. The regression analysis of regional development in the CRB over an extended period shows that the dominant factor in re- gional land use change is widespread industrialization in rural areas rather than the expansion of urban area. Thus, ur- banization has had a limited influence on land use change in the CRB. A major task in realizing more sustainable land use in the future development of CRB is to relocate industrial activities from rural to urban areas.