Annotation:::: The paper focuses on resettlement projects in the mountain area of Dongdou county, Zhejiang province, and looks the impact of resettlement projects on local socioeconomic development. Zhejiang is a province where geographical disasters occur frequently, including mud-rock flow and landslides that happen during the typhoons. These disasters pose a serious threat to lives and property of civilians residing in remote mountainous areas, and have also contributed to the severe imbalance of economic development between different areas. In order to eliminate such an imbalance, Zhejiang provincial government has recently initiated various types of resettlement plans, including integral relocation of mountain migrants, relocation of mountain migrants caused by construction of reservoirs, and relocation related to natural disasters.The paper takes a geographical and environmental science approach and adopts methods of empirical and documental study to analyse the practice of resettling mountain migrants. According to the findings, projects aimed at relocating impoverished mountain people prove to be an important strategy for stimulating the development of mountain economies. These projects can help to realize the manageable transfer of the rural work force, drive development of the local economy, and protect the eco-environment. This process also contributes to eliminating the imbalance between highland and plains areas in terms of socioeconomic development, and also to alleviate some disputes related to the local human-land relationship.
