Reconstruction of Spatial–Temporal Changes in Cropland Cover from 1650 to 1980 in Taiyuan City

Abstract

As a crucial component of studies on land use and cover change (LUCC), the reconstruction of historical cropland cover is important for assessing human impact on the environment. This study collects cropland records of each county in Taiyuan City based on historical documents, agricultural statistics, and survey data such as the Gazetteers, Agriculture and Commercial Statistics Table and Datasets of Land and Resources of China. The cropland area at the county level from 1650 to 1980 is determined by revising, correcting, and extrapolating the obtained historical records. By assessing the driving physiogeographic factors for the distribution of cropland through GeoDetector, we establish a land suitability-based gridded allocation model. The cropland areas at the county level are allocated into 1 km × 1 km grid cells. Our results indicated the following. (1) The total cropland area increased since the Qing Dynasty, reaching its maximum value in 1937, after which it declined due to the impact of urbanization after 1937. (2) In terms of the spatial distribution patterns of cropland, from 1650 to 1980, the cropland was mainly distributed in the Fenhe River Valley Plain, and the cropland expanded from the center to the south after 1952. (3) Comparing the reconstruction results for 1980 with the 1 km resolution satellite-based cropland cover data, differences of most (95.77%) grids are between −20% and +20%, comparing the HYDE3.2 dataset with our results. The HYDE3.2 dataset is distinctly lower than our datasets, and the grids with large differences are mainly in the central and southern parts of the study area, especially in the Qing Dynasty. Our reconstruction could evaluate the accuracy of the global dataset when applied to regional areas and serve as base data in studying historical climate change.