Analysis of Land Use Change in the “Golden Four Corners” Area of China, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos Based on Geo Information Atlas

PurposeTaken the “Golden Four Corners” area of China, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos as an example, based on the theory of geo information atlas, to analyse its land use change trend.

MethodsUsing the land use dynamic degree, landscape centroid translation degree, map algebraic operation and other models, the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics, atlas types and fluctuation trend of land use were analyzed.

Results1) The land use in the study area was dominated by forest land, cultivated land and shrubs. The land use landscape with forest land, cultivated land and shrubs as the matrix, water body as the corridor, and garden grassland and construction land as the patches had initially formed. 2) With the time evolution, the land use structure in the study area changed greatly. The area of land related to human activities such as building land, bare soil and unused land had increased, while the area of natural dominant land such as forest land and shrubs had decreased as a whole. From 2000 to 2018, the dynamic degree of comprehensive land use in the study area decreased from 45.99% to 10.44%, the overall change rate of land use slowed down. 3) During 2000 to 2018, the building geological center was generally biased to the southeast with the largest distance, while the forest geological center was slightly shifted to the east, the spatial pattern of land use changed obviously. 4) Among the map atlas change patterns, the stable map unit area was the widest, and the largest map pattern was forest-forest-forest, with an area of 113700 km²; the area of repeated change map unit was the smallest, and the maximum area map model was cultivated land-shrub-cultivated land, with an area of 668.65 km². The land use and development degree in the study area was still relatively low. 5) The characteristics of land use fluctuation in the study area showed some similarities and differences between different countries in 2000-2009 and 2009-2018, and the change range in the later stage of the study was obviously lower than that in the earlier stage, which was related to the reduction of the conversion area of forest land, shrub land and cultivated land as the land use matrix with the stability of economic and social structure.

ConclusionThe land use in the “Golden Four Corners” area is characterized by the difference of temporal change, the nationality of spatial change and the stability of map atlas change.