Governmental policies drive the LUCC trajectories in the Jianghan Plain

The prosperity of farmers is closely tied to governmental policies. The Jianghan Plain is an important region for commodity grains, cotton and edible oil for China. The trajectories of land use and land cover change (LUCC) of the study area from 1995 to 2010 were studied based on the LUCC database of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The LUCC was characterised by a continuous decrease of arable land and continuous increase of waters and construction land. The LUCC was obviously concurrent with the implementation of related national policies. The transition to construction land was ever well controlled by ‘Notice regarding the further strengthening of land management and arable land protection’ promulgated in 1997. However, it flourished again with the ‘Rise of Central China Strategy’ taking effect since 2006. The transition of construction land to others reflects an uncommon trend, which must be strengthened with the strict implementation of the overall plan, which imposes a limited acreage quota of construction land to each district. The policies were quite contradictory to the transition of waters. LUCC related to waters is most active, which was driven by both natural forces and national policies. Just after the devastating flood of 1998, the state council of China put forward the Green Policy to govern the major rivers. As to the study area, it is mainly to ‘push over dykes to let flood through and return farmland to lakes’. In 2004, the Grain Direct Subsidy Policy was implemented, which, along with the surge in the price of rice, resulted in a strengthening trend of conversion of ponds to paddy fields.