Taking the lower reaches of Huolin River

which is in arid and semi-arid regions of China

as study area

the land-use spatial data was built on the basis of topographic maps in year of 1954 and 1964

and remote sensing data of 1986

1996 and 2000. With the spatial analysis model and cumulative transition probability being introduced in the analysis of land use dynamic changes and transition procession during study periods

the land use variations along the lower reaches of Huolin river in the last 50 yeas were discussed. Results showed that the infield and grassland

followed by salinized land took the leading place

the proportion of wetland

woodland

residential land and sand land was relatively low. All the time

the infield and grassland were changing in opposite directions

which indicated close inter-conversion relationship between them two

while the residential land and salinized land varied in opposite directions all the way

from which we could conclude that human disturbance activity was the main factor for the expanding of salinized land. The fastest transition speed of sand land indicated that there was a relatively larger space for amending the sandy condition. The substrate function of infield could be seen from its lowest transition speed. The area of grass land dropped from the order of second to third for its relatively fast transition speed. The transition changes among different land-use types varied significantly. As to lands of identical use type

the types of transition inputs and outputs

as well as the transition magnitude

showed obvious differences and had tendency to varying with time. The dynamic changes of various land-use types in different intervals were controlled by the reduce function of transition outputs overlaying with the increase function of transition inputs.