Simulating the optimal land-use pattern in the farming-pastoral transitional zone of Northern China

This paper describes land-use pattern optimization simulation in the farming-pastoral zone of Northern China. For simulating land-use pattern optimization, the improved Conversion of Land Use and its Effects (iCLUE) model is used, which takes into account both physical and economic factors. The iCLUE model is composed of three modules: gross demand control, spatial analysis, and spatial allocation. In the gross demand control module, the Grey Linear Programming (GLP) method is used to analyze 11 constraint factors covering eight themes of the study area which are then solved by the simplex method. The simulated model is verified by the comparison between the actuality of 2000 and simulated state of 2000. Verified results of the simulation indicate that the iCLUE model can perform land-use optimizing simulation at the regional level effectively, which provides useful information for improving the ecological environment at the regional level. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.