Abstract: Research on land use change and ecological response in typical fossil energy development zones is of significance in optimizing the land use pattern and improving the ecological quality.In this paper,a case study on land use change and its effects on ecological response in typical fossil energy development zones in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous region was carried out based on RS and GIS.The purposes of the study were to acquire the land use data in 1995,2000,2005,2010 and 2015 and analyze the characteristics of land use change and its ecological response by using the methods of transfer matrix of land use change and ecological response of land use transition.The results revealed that,during the period from 1995 to 2015,the areas of arable land and grassland were reduced by 676 km² and 1 808 km²,and those of forestland,residential land,waters and unused land were enlarged by 1 063 km²,966 km²,29 km² and 426 km²,respectively.The land use was changed apparently with an inter-conversion of arable land,grassland and unused land.In recent 20 years,the value of regional ecosystem services was increased gradually with an increase of 1.86×10¹⁰ yuan RMB.Moreover,the contribution of forestland,grassland and waters was the most prominent.The overall quality of regional ecology was in an increasingly evolutionary trend at first and then decreasingly one during the period from 1995 to 2015.There were three evolutionary trends of environment quality in the study area,i.e.the deterioration,stability,and improvement.Among them,the area with stable environment quality was the largest and accounted for 57.08% of the total area,and the areas with deteriorated and improved environment quality accounted for 21.89% and 21.03% respectively.The degradation of waters,grassland and forestland was the leading factor in the deterioration of regional environment quality,and the conversion of arable land and unused land to grassland,forestland and waters,and of the conversion of grassland to forestland and waters were the important driving factors for the improvement of regional environment quality.Therefore,it is an important way to improve the environmental quality and achieve the sustainable development of the fossil energy development zones by strengthening the protection and management of forest land and grassland resources,rationally developing and utilizing the land and water resources,increasing the level of intensive use of arable land resources,and promoting the ecological restoration and land restoration in the new era.

Key words: land use, ecosystem service value, environment equality, ecological response, fossil energy development zone