Integrated Analysis and Modeling of Land Use Efficiency in China

The project has two main aims:

1. To develop an integrated methodology for investigating the interplay between rapid industrialization and land degradation and water and soil conservation in mountain areas 
2. To provide scientific information and insights for stakeholders and decision makers 

The project investigates the processes of land marginalization in mountainous areas of China and the consequent challenge and policy choices in term of water and soil conservation.

The complex interaction mechanisms between the urban and rural sectors, and between farmers' consumption-production decisions and government policy interventions will be modeled.

The project fits well in the strategic themes of IIASA on ecosystem services management and water and soil conservation in the context of China. It includes five working themes:

1. Understanding human pressure on land and water 
2. Investigating agricultural land marginalization 
3. Investigation of the impacts of property rights system and demographic factors by developing a switching simulation model 
4. Analysis of GIS-referenced rural-urban labor migration 
5. Calculation of the risk probabilities of land marginalization and soil erosion in GIS- referenced sample plots and the upscaling of such calculations.

Project partners

• National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
• Institute of Geographical Sciences & Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
• Southwest University of China
• Chongqing Normal University

Last edited: 01 July 2015