Reconstruction of historical arable land use patterns using constrained cellular automata: A case study of Jiangsu, China

The reconstruction of arable land patterns over historical periods is one of critical research issues in the study of land use and land cover change (LUCC). Taking into account the continuous distribution of arable land and spatial constraints, this paper proposes a constrained cellular automata model to reconstruct historical arable land patterns. The paper describes model establishment, parameter calibration, and results validation in detail. The model was applied to Jiangsu Province, China, and was compared with a conventional spatial allocation method. The results showed that the methodology developed in this study can more objectively reflect the evolution of the pattern of arable land over historical periods, in terms of similarity with contemporary pattern, than the spatial allocation methods and can provide an effective basis for the historical study of arable land.