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Land use change analysis at different periods has been very helpful for resource management and essential trends detection through time. In order to understand the changes of land use, we examine the level of land use and the strength of human activities on land use in the Yellow River Basin in recent years. Based on the analysis of the change of land use area in the study area, according to secondary divisions of water resources, importance index of land use change (Ci), proportion of land use change area (D) and vegetation index of forest and grassland (R) were used to analyze the direction and degree of land use change in eight regions of Yellow River Basin during 1980- 2015. It is found that land use in this basin underwent significant changes in the 35 years. The intensity of land changes in the Hekouzhen-Longmen section of the Yellow River Basin was the most intense. Although the degree of change in the eight sub- regions was relatively small, the absolute change area was large. The speed and degree of land use change were studied in four periods of 1980-1990, 1990-2000, 2000-2010 and 2010- 2015 by using single land use dynamic degree, comprehensive land use dynamic degree and land use degree. The results showed that compared with 1980, the area of built-up land and water changed significantly. By analyzing the rate of single land use change in different periods, the rate of desert and unused land, water and urban and rural industrial and residential land changed significantly. The other three types of land use were not noticeable because of larger base area. In terms of the study periods, the change rate during 2010-2015 was the highest, and presented an increasing trend over time. Through the analysis of land use change rate, there was an increasing trend in all the eight regions; however the increasing trend in Longyangxia region was the most obvious. Except Longyangxia and Huayuankou water resources divisions, the comprehensive index of land use degree in the entire Yellow River basin ranged from –2 to 2 from 1980 to 2015, indicating that the comprehensive level of land use in each division did not change much in this period. From this perspective, human activities have less impact on land use. The reason for this result is that the entire area of the Yellow River Basin is too large, and the areas with intense human activities are only distributed in densely populated towns and plains. In the 35- year period, human activities did not have a profound impact on forests, grasslands, and deserts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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