Land-use conversion and its regulative mechanism in metropolitan area in west China

Building harmonious society is one of the most important aims for China nowadays and the problem of severe imbalance between human and nature must be solved firstly. Geographic information system (G-IS) can play an all-important role to help to this issue. Alone, with the rapid urbanization, it is very prominent that the agricultural lands converted to building lands, especially, in some metropolitan areas. This study took Lanzhou metropolitan area in West China as an example. Firstly, based on interpretation on the TM 2, 3, 4 integrated images 1986 and ETM + 2, 3, 4 integrated 2000 in Lanzhou metropolitan area, the basic pattern of land-use conversion was analyzed under the support of GIS. Secondly, according to the data supplied by government from 1986 to 2000, we found out the driving factors of land-use conversion by using principal component analysis and Granger causality test. Influence of the driving forces on land-use conversion was estimated by using regression analysis method. Besides, from the views of market economy and government intervention, the regulative mechanism of land-use conversion was analyzed theoretically. In the end, the paper presented some feasible suggestions.