Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
follows. The urban and built-up land has special requirement for location,
the spatial pattern of the built-up land in the future will show significant
regional differentiation under the joint influence of natural factors, socio-
economic factors, topographic conditions, etc. In the eastern part of China,
the urban and built-up land will continue to gather in the three major plain
regions (i.e., Northeast China Plain, North China Plain and Middle-Lower
Yangtze Plain), Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, it will show an
expanding trend on the original basis. In the western part of China, the urban
and built-up land will mainly concentrate in the regions such as Sichuan
Basin, Guanzhong Basin, Hetao Plain, Hexi Corridor, oases in Xinjiang
Province. While with the implementation of policies to exploit the land
resources on the low hill and gentle slope, the land in hills with gentle slope,
mountains and plateaus may also become urban and built-up in the future.
The cropland, including dryland cropland and pasture, irrigated cropland and
pasture, mixed dryland/irrigated cropland and pasture, cropland/grassland mosaic
and cropland/woodland mosaic, will still be contiguously distributed in the three
major plain regions (i.e., Northeast China Plain, North China Plain and Middle-
Lower Yangtze Plain), Sichuan Basin, Hexi Corridor, oases in Xinjiang Province,
etc. Besides, it will also gather in some alluvial plains and regions of the low hill
and gentle slope. In addition, in the marginal areas between cropland, grassland
and forest land, there may be some farming-grazing or farming-forestry ecotones,
which include various land cover types.
Grassland is mainly located in Inner Mongolia, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the
western part of China. While in the eastern part of China, grassland will be mainly
distributed in the regions of the low hill and gentle slope, and it will generally be
mixed with cropland or forest land. There will be great regional heterogeneity of the
distribution of land cover types that mainly include the forest land, such as shrubland,
mixed shrubland/grassland, deciduous broadleaf forest, deciduous needleleaf forest,
evergreen broadleaf forest, evergreen needleleaf forest and mixed forest. In the
northern part of China, the forest land will be mainly located in Northeast China, e.g.,
Greater Khingan Mountains, Lesser Khingan Mountains, Changbai Mountains and
Liaodong Basin. While in the southeast part (e.g., Lingnan area, Taiwan), southwest
part (e.g., the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Sichuan Basin and Guangxin Province), the
forest land will be mainly distributed in the regions of hills and mountains.
Some land use/cover types, including water bodies, herbaceous wetland and
wooded wetland, will still remain in the original regions, but will show an
shrinking trend on the whole on the original basis; In spatial pattern, there will be
more of these land use/cover types in the eastern part and less in the western part,
more in the southern part and less in the northern part. Savanna, herbaceous
tundra, wooded tundra and bare ground tundra will be located in the Alpine
regions of Himalaya Mountains. There is no mixed tundra in China.
Snow or ice will be mainly distributed in the regions above the snow line in the
high mountains (Tianshan Mountains, Qilian Mountains, Kunlun Mountains and
Himalaya Mountains) in the southwest and northwest part of China. Barren or
