Abstract:

Abstract: Introducing STIRPAT model, influence of population, industrial structure and the level of urbanization on the cultivated land changes were analyzed, and the relationship between prosperous level and cultivated land area were analyzed in Guangzhou City, using the cultivated land data and related socio-economic development data from 1978 to 2005. The results show that there is no main cause for cultivated land reduction in Guangzhou City. However, population change, changes of the urbanization rate and proportion of the tertiary-industry added value to regional GDP of the area all play important role in the cultivated land reduction. In the scope of observational data, the relationship between the prosperous level and the cultivated land area is not similar to the Environmental Kuznets Curve(EKC). Accordingly, several suggestions are proposed in the study to mitigate the pressure of cultivated land reduction, including population control, urbanization level improvement, industrial structure adjustment,and economic growth mode transition, etc.