Spatiotemporal evolution and driving mechanism of slope cultivated land in karst mountainous areas of Southwest China—A case study of Puding County, Guizhou Province

• DOI: 10.1002/ldr.4936
• Publication Date: 2023-10-04T17:37:52Z
• Authors: Limin Yu; Yangbing Li; Guangjie Luo; Guanghui Ge; Han Zhang; Fang Tang; Meng Yu
• Keywords: Abandonment (legal); Restoration Ecology; Fragmentation

Abstract Slope‐cultivated land (SCL) is essential for food security and ecological protection in Southwest China's karst mountainous areas (KMA). Constructing a unified conceptual framework to study SCL's spatiotemporal evolution characteristics thoroughly driving mechanisms can comprehensively reveal the development of regional human–land relations sustainable use. Therefore, this article first constructs SCL KMA China carries out case Puding County, typical area, based on high‐resolution remote sensing images from 2004 2020 digital elevation model (DEM), analyze different topographic gradients introduce Geodetector further explore factors evolution. The results show that evolving toward fragmentation, driven by socio‐economic factors. active policy state encourages abandon steep with poor productivity KMA, abandonment high altitude slope into woodland grassland brings remarkable benefits, while low gentle economic fruit forest generates significant obvious ecological‐economic win‐win benefits. southwestern mountains has promoted restoration made an important contribution greening world reducing degradation (karstic rocky desertification, KRD). present research provide ideas utilization, functional transformation, ecologically similar SCL.