Dushan county, Guizhou province, is located in the southernmost tip of Guizhou province. It belongs to the temperate climate of the subtropical region and is one of the centers of the karst east Asia area. The total area of the county is 242220 hectares, of which 169142 hectares are rocky desertifi cation or endangered desertification state. At present, the problem of rocky desertification has seriously affected the ecological environment of the county, which is one of the important factors that restrict the local social living standard and economic development. Therefore, it is of great significance to promote the social and economic development of the county by investigating and analyzing the spatial differentiation rules, present situation and harm of rocky desertification in Dushan county.

This study aims to investigate the difficulties local governments face as a result of the province directly managing county system reform. It reveals the various challenges faced by local governments under the provincial directly managed county reform through a thorough analysis of the history, rationale, and implementation of the reform along with pertinent literature reviews and case studies. It is discovered that the county reform, which is directly governed by the province, has not only significantly altered the functions and organizational structure of local governments, but it has also made their resource allocation, financial strain, and brain drain problems worse. To help local governments deal with the difficulties in the province-directly governed county reform, related remedies, and solutions are finally proposed to handle these issues.