The Grain-for-Green Policy aims to convert cropland to grassland and forest across western China, and evaluating ecological risk is essential to its implementation. Because few recent studies have focused on eco-risk changes of land use in the areas affected by significant policies, this paper took Zhengning County in Gansu Province as our focal area, and studied spatial-temporal changes in ecological risk before and after policy implementation. Based on indices of landscape fragmentation and ecosystem service value, an ecological risk assessment method using ArcGIS and Fragstats was done. The regional gravity center model and land spatial distribution model were also used to enrich the quantitative description of divisional eco-risk and its spatial-temporal variation in the county. Results showed that the implementation of the policy has contributed to an overall reduction in ecological risk in Zhengning County, with a divisional degree order reduction following the pattern： eastern Zhengning 〉 western Zhengning 〉 central Zhengning. The gravity center for eco-risk shifted 4288 m southwest from 1995 to 2010 due to landscape fragmentation. The study implies that greater attention should be paid to forest and grassland restoration in eastern Zhengning, cropland protection in central Zhengning, and soil and water conservation in western Zhengning.
[Objective] This study aimed to analyze the sustainability of cropland use in cropping-pastoral ecotone before and after the Grain-for-Green Policy. [Method] Using Yanchi County in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region as a case study area, this investigation used the annual transfer rate of land use types, cropland suitability and emergy analysis to examine the major pressures affecting the sustainable use of cropland before and after the Grain-for-Green Policy. [Result] The expansion of con- struction land onto cropland was significant; the annual cropland area was still larger than the land area suitable for cropping after the policy; agrochemical inputs used for crop production gradually increased and unit crop outputs required more agro- chemical inputs. Cropland use sustainability showed a fluctuating downward trend. [Conclusion] The results imply that the protection of high quality cropland, further im- plementation of the policy and control of agrochemical inputs according to precipita- tion are the main measures needed for sustainable cropland use in cropping-pastoral ecotone.
