Rur al Landscape Patterns and Controlling Rocky Deser tification in Kar st Mountainous Ar eas, Southwestern China: Recent Achievements and Futur e Work
西南岩溶山地乡村景观格局与石漠化调控展望

Sustainable rural development and rural landscape (including structures, functions and spatial-temporal modes) presented close relationships karst mountainous areas, southwestern China. For a long time, rural unreasonable development and utilization resulted in some ecological problems, such as serious land desertification, soil erosion and degradation of forest ecosystems. Moreover, they took on the stacks and combinations of various ecological problems, thus restricting rural sustainable ecological-economic development. Therefore, understanding of comprehensive controlling of rock desertification in karst mountainous areas, southwestern China, is important for improving the service functions of karst ecosystem through reasonably distributing rural landscape patterns and optimizing human land use activities. Presently, researches on rock desertification background, drivers and future scenario simulation of rural landscape have already obtained some achievements. Moreover, some successful models have restored/restructured rock desertification ecosystem. But the information of ecological ideals on rural landscape rock desertification should be applied back to ecological controlling practices. Faced with the demand at national level for providing a scientific understanding of controlling rock desertification through optimizing rural landscape patterns, the studies will aim at the following priority aspects in karst mountainous areas: (1) identifying transformation, modification and maintaining of rural landscape patterns, and measuring the contribution weights of rural landscape types and their spatial patterns at different scales; (2) understanding the ecological ideas of different rural landscape patterns and their effects on rural rock desertification, and recognizing the rock desertification effects of rural landscape patterns; (3) analyzing interaction between the high strength human activities as well as their corresponding rural landscape patterns and the rock desertification, and building the framework of rural landscape rock desertification drivers; and (4) discussing rural landscape patterns prone to rock desertification restoration, and improving people's understanding and identification of the process of rural rock desertification effects. Based on these understandings, future research, with the target of reducing rural rock desertification, will pay more attention to two aspects: controlling total areas and spatial patterns of rural rock desertification, in order to optimize rural landscape patterns. Through these means, we can conscientiously do these works for the optimum of rural landscape patterns and the restoration and controlling of rock desertification in karst mountain.