LAUSR

Abstract Water resources in arid regions are concentrated in oasis areas and are sensitive to human activities. In this study, we examined how land use policy influenced water area decrease in Ejina, an oasis region located in northwest China. Standard deviational ellipse and spatial autocorrelation methods were used to examine the effects of land use policy on the spatiotemporal changes in the area of surface water from 1986 to 2012. The study found the following. 1) Since 1986, water bodies were lost gradually from west to east and the spatial distribution of water areas changed from discrete to agglomerated. 2) The points reflecting changes to water bodies agglomerated from west to east along the Heihe River and West Juyan Lake, especially in the last ten years. 3) Land use policies were divided into land institution and land regulation systems. Land institution systems (LIS) affected the spatial distribution of water changes; However, land regulation systems (LRS) had the opposite effect. Therefore, the effect of comprehensive implementation of land use policy did not play an effective role in the process of distribution in water area changes. To prevent bias in the selection of land use policy, the potential impacts of different kinds of land use policy on water area decrease should be taken into full consideration. It is also important to identify optimal combinations of LIS and LRS when policy makers carry out regional planning for sustainable development and to solve environment challenges.