The Sustainability Analysis of Land Use and Social Economy in Mountain Areas, Western Hunan Province, China

Western Hunan is the core and key area of ecological restoration and protection in the mountain areas of southern China and the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. How to make a good trade-off in land-using between ecological conservation and economic development is the primary issue for the regional sustainable development. We analyzed the spatial-temporal changes of land use and socio-economic development in this area. The results showed that: 1) The change of cropland, woodland and urban construction land from 1980 to 2018 was significant, and cropland was evolving towards the hollowing pattern, while the urban construction was expanding from the center to the periphery; 2) With the high speed of socio-economic development in recent years, rural population and the production industry proportion of each county deceased, while urban population, the manufacturing industry proportion and the service industry proportion were increasing; 3) There was a strong correlation between the area proportion of cropland, woodland and the proportion of rural population and the production industry, and the correlation decreased first and then increased with the annual economic development, while the urban construction land had a certain correlation with urban population and the manufacturing industry and the service industry, especially with the service industries. On the basis of further analysis, it was concluded that the social and economic development were the important driving factors to land use change, the capacity of ecosystem services reduced in recent years. The results could be used as the basis for the local government to make decision on the effective land protection. It was also a reference information for researchers to carry out in-depth optimization and integrated management on land resources, so as to achieve the good synergistic effect for both socio-economic development and land protection and promote the sustainable development of human society and economy.