Stages Division and Characteristics Measurement of Land Use Change in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River

[Objective] From the perspective of socioeconomic development transition, this study aims to explores the spatiotemporal characteristics of land use change in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (MRYR). [Methods] The method of change range and change speed of land use change, as well as geographical information map were employed. [Results] (1) The socioeconomic development stage of the MRYR have undergone two transition processes during 2000—2018. The first is from the primary production stage II to the middle industrialization stage, with slow growth of urbanization and serious outflow of population. The second is from the middle industrialization stage to the late industrialization stage, with steady growth of urbanization and continuous return of population. (2) In terms of overall characteristics, the cultivated land area continues to decrease, the water area and construction land area continue to increase, the woodland, grassland and wetland area obviously decrease, and the unused land area remains r