Abstract:

We analyzed the characteristics and differences of land use changes in typical hilly and mountainous rural tourism areas in Sichuan Province, to provide references for the rational use of rural land. In this paper, Pingle township in the hilly area and Suopo township in the mountainous and gorge area in Sichuan were selected as the research areas. We studied land use type transfer characteristics and change intensity and compared the difference of land use changes in different rural tourism areas by collecting literature and data related to local rural tourism and drawing land use type distribution maps in different periods upon remote sensing images and field surveys. The results showed that: (1) the land use change in the study area showed a trend of decreasing arable land and forest land, and an increasing trend in transportation land and residential land; there was an obvious phenomenon of mutual transformation between agriculture and forest land because of the development of tourism and agriculture and forestry industries; (2) there were obvious differences in the intensity of land use change in different rural tourism areas: the intensity of land use change in Pingle township in the hilly area was greater than that in Suopo township in the mountainous area. In conclusion, the hilly and mountainous rural tourism areas in Sichuan Province should formulate comprehensive development plans for agriculture, forestry and tourism on the basis of local natural resources, tourism resources, and locational conditions and so on, to promote rational land use and rural revitalization.

Key words: rural tourism, land use, cultivated land, forest land, agricultural geography, rural revitalization