Estimation System for Land Productivity and Its Applications

The land resource is a multifunctional natural resource, which is in continuously growing demand under a background of rapid population growth and fast economic development (Lin and Ho, 2003; Veldkamp and Verburg, 2004; Deng et al., 2006). This is especially the case in China, where the economy is developing rapidly and land use patterns are undergoing unprecedented change due to pressure from these demands (Ash and Edmonds, 1998; Liu et al., 2004). Structural change and pattern succession in land systems undoubtedly leads to changes in the suitability and quality of different kinds of land types and directly influences agricultural productivity (Fischer, 1998; Seto et al., 2000; Albersen et al., 2002; Deng et al., 2005; Deng et al., 2008). In the context of the debate “Who will feed China” and the global food safety crisis, the issue of loss of land resources has caused much concern in governmental and academic circles (Husle, 1993; Fan, 1997; Fisher et al., 2001). Consequently, the structural change in land systems and the change in land productivity resulting from land pattern succession have become a hotspot for academic research (Dumanski, 2000; Liu and Chen, 2000; Fischer and Sun, 2001; Foley et al., 2005; Deng et al., 2006).