| Abstract: | This paper tries to qualitatively analyze land use and cover changes (LUCC) and accompanied soil degradation in China, the data of World Atlas of Agriculture in 1969, Land Cover Data of Asia in 1992 and Global Assessment of Human Induced Soil Degradation in 1992, etc. have been used. From 1960' s to 1990's, the area of forestland had increased, arable land and paddy as well as grassland had significantly decreased in China. The major type of soil degradation is due to water erosion, which is widely distributed especially in Loess Plateau and in Southeast and Southwest China, this happened in forestland, grassland and arable land and mainly resulted from deforestation. The secondary type is wind erosion, which is mainly distributed in Northwest China, it happened in arable land and grassland and was caused by overgrazing. Chemical deterioration is distributed in North and Northwest China, which happened in paddy, arable land and grassland. Physical deterioration only concentrated in local area in North China, it happened in arable and paddy. Chemical and physical deteriora-tion mainly resulted from unreasonable activity. Because of different human activities, different LUCC and different natural conditions, the types and strength of soil degradation can be different. |
