Abstract: The conception of land use change flow was put forward in this paper, and the dynamics of land use change in the loess platform region was analyzed with the models of land use change. In addition, the spatial agglomeration of land change flow was studied. The results are obtained as follows. The proportion of cultivated land is predominant in the study area, however, that of unused land is very low, which means that reserved cultivated land resource is scarce. The proportions of forest land, grassland and waters are low, indicating that the ecosystem is at risk. The land use change flows relationships of cultivated land and built-up land, cultivated land and grassland, cultivated land and forest land played key roles in the land use change of the loess platform region. The flow of cultivated land to built-up land was the main reason for the loss of cultivated land resources, and the flow of grassland to cultivated land was the main complement source of cultivated land. The land use change flow of cultivated land to built-up land was 26668.80 ha from 1985 to 2010, accounting for 40.75% of the total. The flow of grassland to cultivated land was 18923.90 ha, accounting for 28.91% of the total. The disturbed degree from high to low is water ecosystem, forest ecosystem, and grass ecosystem. Land system was relatively stable from 1985 to 1990, yet it changed significantly from 1990 to 2000. The spatial features of land use were different at different scales. The land use change rate around cities was higher than that of other regions at a 25-year scale, however, the region with a high land change rate changed from the central part of loess platform region to the marginal zone at a 5-year scale.

Key words: land change science, land system, land use change flow, spatial agglomeration feature, loess platform region