?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.relation=https%3A%2F%2Fpure.iiasa.ac.at%2Fid%2Feprint%2F5014%2F&rft.title=Anthropogenic+Driving+Forces+of+Land-Use+Change+in+China&rft.creator=Heilig%2C+G.K.&rft.description=There+are+few+places+in+the+world+where+people+have+changed+the+land+so+intensely+and+for+such+a+long+time+as+in+China.+Much+of+the+country's+habitated+land+had+been+transformed+by+human+intervention+already+several+hundred+years+ago.+The+Loess+Plateau+of+northern+China%2C+for+instance%2C+was+completely+deforested+in+pre-industrial+times.+During+the+early+Han+Dynasty%2C+in+the+fourth+and+third+century+BC%2C+the+Chinese+started+systematic+land+reclamation+and+irrigation+schemes%2C+converting+large+areas+of+natural+land+into+rice+paddies.+The+process%2C+which+was+scientifically+planned+and+coordinated+by+subsequent+dynastic+bureaucracies%2C+reached+a+first+climax+in+the+eleventh+and+twelfth+century.+In+the+second+half+of+the+18th+and+first+half+of+the+19th+century+another+period+of+massive+land+modification+followed.&rft.publisher=WP-96-011&rft.date=1996-01&rft.type=Monograph&rft.type=NonPeerReviewed&rft.format=text&rft.language=en&rft.identifier=https%3A%2F%2Fpure.iiasa.ac.at%2Fid%2Feprint%2F5014%2F1%2FWP-96-011.pdf&rft.identifier=++Heilig%2C+G.K.+%3Chttps%3A%2F%2Fpure.iiasa.ac.at%2Fview%2Fiiasa%2F1318.html%3E++(1996).++Anthropogenic+Driving+Forces+of+Land-Use+Change+in+China.+++IIASA+Working+Paper.+IIASA%2C+Laxenburg%2C+Austria%3A+WP-96-011+++++