ANALYSIS ON SPATIAL FEATURES OF LUCC BASED ON REMOTE SENSING AND GIS IN CHINA

In view of the large quantities of areas,complex landform and dynamic change of resources and environ-ment in China,China has already funded abundantly a series of macro remote sensing investigation projects in land use cover change(LUCC) since 1990.Supported by the achievements of such projects,Chinese resources,environmental and remote sensing database(CRERS) was created.In this paper,we standardized the LUCC dataset of CRERS at scale of 1km,which facilitated the study of spatial features of LUCC in China.The analysis on the spatial features of LUCC and their causes of formation in China are based on the CRERS supported by the technologies of Geographic Information System(GIS) .The whole research was based on the grade index of land use,ecological environmental index and index of population density.Based on the correlation analysis,we found that the special features of LUCC were closely related with those of ecological environment and population density,which resulted form that areas with better ecological environ-ment and high production potential of land were easy and convenient for human being to live,which,furthermore,led to the aggravation of excessive exploitation of land resources there.     

Watershed prioritization of Palar sub-watershed based on the morphometric and land use analysis

Morphometric analysis is an indispensable tool for hydrological investigation that involves the development and management of drainage basin. This study characterizes the micro watersheds in the Palar sub-watershed using morphometric analysis and assesses its risk by land use and land cover features in a particular micro watershed. Palar sub-watershed is divided into 6 micro watersheds for prioritization based on morphometric and land use analysis. Several morphometric parameters （linear, shape and relief） are determined from the drainage map; ranks are assigned based on their capacity to induce erodability and degradation. Final ranking is based on the composite index calculated from the sum of the ranks of each morphometric parameter. Morphometric analysis reveals micro watersheds 5 and 6 as most susceptible and 2 and 3 as low susceptible. Land use is mapped using IRS ID LISS III satellite data. The risk in terms of watershed degradation involved to each micro watershed is based on the ranks of each land use feature, obtained from a similar composite index as that of morphometric analysis. Land use analysis shows that micro watersheds 2 and 4 fall under high priority category while 5 and 6 under low priority category. Integration of the morphometric and land use analysis shows that only microwatershed 1 falls under the same category in both analyses. Control measures are suggested to contain degradation depending on its specific land use pattern and morphometric features. This study ean be used to prepare a comprehensive watershed plan for the development or for planning resource conservation strategies, by integrating land use features with the drainage characteristics of the region, in particular for a hill ecosystem as the prioritization is at micro level.     

Review of studies on land use and land cover change in Nepal

Land use and land cover(LULC) in Nepal has undergone constant change over the past few decades due to major changes caused by anthropogenic and natural factors and their impacts on the national and regional environment and climate.This comprehensive review of past and present studies of land use and land cover change(LUCC) in Nepal concentrates on cropland, grassland, forest, snow/glacier cover and urban areas. While most small area studies have gathered data from different sources and research over a short period, across large areas most historical studies have been based on aerial photographs such as the Land Resource Mapping Project in 1986. The recent trend in studies in Nepal is to focus on new concepts and techniques to analyze LULC status on the basis of satellite imagery, with the help of geographic information system and remote sensing tools. Studies based on historical documents, and historical and recent spatial data on LULC, have clearly shown an increase in cropland areas in Nepal,and present results indicating different rates and magnitudes. A decrease in forest and snow/glacier coverage is reported in most studies. Little information is available on grassland and urban areas from past research. The unprecedented rate of urbanization in Nepal has led to significant urban land changes over the past 30 years. Meanwhile, long term historical LUCC research in Nepal is required for extensive work on spatially explicit reconstructions on the basis of historical and primary data collection, including LULC archives and drivers for future change.     

Soil Erosion under Different Land Use Types and Zones of Jinsha River Basin in Yunnan Province, China

Severe soil erosion in the middle and upper reaches of Yangtze River has been regarded as a major environmental problem. The on-site impact of soil erosion on agricultural production and the off-site impact on floods and sedimentation in Yangtze Rive are well known. A quantitative assessment of soil erosion intensity is still scanty for developing appropriate soil erosion control measures for different land use types and zohes in this region. This article constructs a localized USLE and estimates the average soil loss in the Jinsha River Region in Yunnan Province, one of the priority areas for soil erosion control in the middle and upper reaches of Yangtze River. The estimation is done under different land uses and zones in this basin. The estimation shows that while soil erosion in the cultivated land is the most severe, 36～40% of the garden and forest land suffers from soil erosion of various degrees due to lack of ground cover and other factors. Soil erosion in the pasture is modest when the ground cover is well maintained. It also confirmed that terracing can reduce soil erosion intensity significantly on the cultivated land. Research findings suggest that sufficient attention must be paid to regeneration of the ground cover in reforestation programs. In addition to mass reforestation efforts, restoration of grassland and terracing of the cultivated land should also play an important role in erosion control.     

LUCC and Accompanied Soil Degradation in China from 1960''''s to 1990''''s

This paper tries to qualitatively analyze land use and cover changes (LUCC) and accompanied soil degradation in China, the data of World Atlas of Agriculture in 1969, Land Cover Data of Asia in 1992 and Global Assessment of Human Induced Soil Degradation in 1992, etc. have been used. From 1960' s to 1990's, the area of forestland had increased, ara-ble land and paddy as well as grassland had significantly decreased in China. The major type of soil degradation is due to wa-ter erosion, which is widely distributed especially in Loess Plateau and in Southeast and Southwest China, this happened in forestland, grassland and arable land and mainly resulted from deforestation. The secondary type is wind erosion, which is mainly distributed in Northwest China, it happened in arable land and grassland and was caused by overgrazing. Chemical deterioration is distributed in North and Northwest China, which happened in paddy, arable land and grassland. Physical de-terioration only concentrated in local area in North     

Urban Construction Land Suitability Evaluation Based on Improved Multi-criteria Evaluation Based on GIS （MCE-GIS）： Case of New Hefei City,China

Urban construction land suitability evaluation （UCLSE） is a complex system engineering and the basis for rational use of the limited urban land resources in China. It has an important practical value on urban construction land use planning and management from the angle of methodology. As a widely used technique, traditional multi-criteria evaluation based on GIS （MCE-GIS）, is not suitable for UCLSE. This study develops an improved MCE-GIS method which could be more suitable for UCLSE based on urban complex ecological system theory and the summary of the shortcomings of traditional MCE-GIS. The improvements include three aspects： a composite evaluation index system rather than natural indexes alone, an index weight calculated by using fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process （AHP） method rather than the common AHP method, and the integrated overlay rule, which includes selecting the minimum value, weighted linear combination （WLC） and simple summation. The main advantage of this improved technique is that it can make UCLSE more comprehensive, more operational and more reasonable. It can provide a scientific basis for decision making in the planning and management of urban construction land use. The improved MCE-GIS system has been adopted in the New Hefei City, Anhui Province, China. Based on the results of UCLSE in New Hefei, three functional areas including construction-appropriate areas, construction-restricted areas and construction-forbidden areas could be worked out, in which 36.90% of the total study area could be developed as urban construction land and the remaining 63.10% should be protected as reserves land or as ecological land. Furthermore, the results can orovide scientific decision suooort for spatial planning and eco-environment nrotection in New Hefei.     

Geographical information system-based assessment of ecological security in Changbai Mountain region

Ecological security defined as the creation of a condition where the physical surroundings of a community provide for the needs of its inhabitants without diminishing its natural stock,which is important for regional security and social stability.In recent years,land use patterns in the Changbai Mountain region have changed significantly with intensive human activities,and consequently led to increasing problems in regional ecological security.Based on the Pressure-State-Impact-Response（PSIR） model and the mathematical method of catastrophe progression supported by geographical information system（GIS）,the ecological security situation of the study area under land use and cover change（LUCC） was evaluated.The results indicated that the ecological security in Changbai Mountain region varied nonlinearly,which got better from 1990 to 2000 but became worse from 2000 to 2007,the ecological security levels in Changbai Mountain region were mainly medium and medium to low during the past 17 years,with higher values of Ecological Security Index（ESI） in the central region and lower values in the east and west,the ecological security situation was more serious in the settlements and river valleys,where the LUCC was most remarkable.     

Rehabilitation and Sustainable Use Pattern of Rocky-desertified Land in Southwest China＇s Poverty-stricken Karst Mountainous Areas ——A Case Study in Benggu Township, Xichou County, Yunnan, China

The rocky desert in a karst area directly causes the lack of soil, water and forest, hence leading to the poverty there. In 1990, the villagers from the Muzhe Village in Benggu Township, Xichou County, Yunnan declared a war against rocky desert in an attempt to ask the fields for more yields. They invented a distinctive land rehabilitation and sustainable use pattern called ＂transforming heaven and earth＂ that had been practiced in Southwest China＇s karst areas. The key mechanism of the pattern was to develop terraced fields with well conserved soil, water and fertility by exploding rocks in the fields, building stone walls, gathering more soil, and improving soil quality and productivity for the fields in combination with building of irrigation facilities and roads, as well as with forestation and agriculture structure adjustment. The purpose of the pattern was to alleviate poverty in the karst areas by improving soil productivity and promoting agricultural development. A typical area was studied with the help of Participatory Rural Appraisal （PRA） and the pattern was carried out there for fifteen years, have produced excellent ecological benefits and good economic benefits. Its application in the area approved that it was a sustainable land use pattern for rocky desert areas.     

Spatial Pattern and Development of Protected Areas in the North-south Transitional Zone of China

The north-south transitional zone in China mainly consists of the Qinling-Daba Mountains. It is the most important West-East geo-ecological space in China, containing protected areas vital for biodiversity conservation and ecological security of China. The protection and rational development of its natural habitat is of great significance to China’s ecological security and integration of protected areas based on mountain forest ecosystems on a global scale. In this study, five important types of protected areas in the transitional zone were selected, and their spatial patterns were analysed. Spatial analysis methods, such as kernel density estimation and accessibility analysis, were employed for both point and areal data, and focused on four aspects: land use scale, shift in the centre of gravity, spatial agglomeration, and accessibility. In addition, policy background and evolution of spatial and temporal characteristics of the protected area system in the transitional zone from 1963 to 2017 were also examined. We analysed the characteristics and geographical significance of the West-east corridor using the spatial pattern of the protected area system from the perspective of ecological and economic spaces. We focused on spatial shape, type intersection, and key areas to analyse the spatial overlap of the protected areas. Protected area establishment was divided into three stages: initial(1956–1980), rapid development(1981–2013), and national park transformation(2014–present). These stages reflected the change in the concept of ‘simple protection—sustainable use—integration and upgrade’ for protected areas of China. The spatial centre of gravity of the protection zone system was located in the west Qinling-Daba Mountains, and its high-density core exhibited a relatively stable N-shaped structure composed of four gathering areas. Affected by factors such as geographic environment and socio-economic development density, the average access time for protected areas was high(1.56 h);wetland parks and scenic areas are located closer to the city centre. As the West-east corridor in the transitional zone extends from west to east, there is a clear spatial dislocation between the development of protected areas and the intensity of human activities. During development, differentiated goal orientation should be adopted based on the idea of zoning and classified governance. With the advancement of the construction of protected areas, the spatial overlap of protected areas in the transition zone has become more prominent. At present, the spatially overlapped protected areas in the transitional zone remain prominent, with inclusion overlap being the most common, and forest parks exhibiting the highest probability of overlap with other protected areas, we should focus on in the integration process of the corridor-type ecological space based on the mountain forest ecosystem.     

Using Multi-agent System for Residential Expansion Models——A Case Study of Hongshan District, Wuhan City

Residential expansion is gaining more and more attention from government authorities and urban planners.However,most of the current urban models focus heavily on presenting economic,political and ecological objectives of urban development,while seldom taking the effects of human behavior into consideration.Multi-agent systems for land use/cover change(MAS/LUCC),which mainly concern the behavioral effects of stakeholders on the processes of land use/cover change,are promising to fill the gap.This article,based on the concepts of MAS/LUCC model,con-structs a multi-agent system for residential expansion model(MAS/RE)through the analysis of the behavior of gov-ernment authorities and households.The model takes complex human actions into account,namely urban master plan-ning,planning review and approval,policies of traffic,economy and environment,location and allocation choices of the households and their interrelationships.Taking Hongshan District of Wuhan City,Hubei Province as an illustration,the model is implemented on Arc/info platform to simulate residential expansion between 1996 and 2002.The study result shows that the model is suitable for understanding the process of residential expansion with the effects of human actions,and is especially effective for its capacity in presenting spatio-temporal and behavioral complexity.Therefore,the model can be a reference for policy-making for government authorities and urban planners.     

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Coastal Wetlands and Reclamation in the Yangtze Estuary During Past 50 Years(1960s–2015)

Reclamation is one of the fastest-growing land use type developed in coastal areas and has caused degradation and loss of coastal wetlands as well as serious environmental problems. This paper was aimed at monitoring the spatiotemporal patterns of coastal wetlands and reclamation in the Yangtze Estuary during the 1960s and 2015. Satellite images obtained from 1980 to 2015 and topography maps of the 1960 s were employed to extract changes of reclamation and coastal wetlands. Area-weight centroids were calculated to identify the movement trend of reclamation and coastal wetlands. The results show that from the 1960 s to 2015, the net area of natural wetlands declined by 574.3 km~2, while man-made wetlands and reclamation increased by 553.6 and 543.9 km~2, respectively. During the five study phases, the fastest areal change rate natural wetlands was –13.3 km~2/yr in the period of 1990–2000, and that of man-made areas was 24.7 km~2/yr in the same period, and the areal change rate of reclamation was 27.6 km~2/yr in the period of 2000–2010. Conversion of coastal wetlands mainly occurred in the Chongming Island, Changshu City and the east coast of Shanghai Municipality. Reclamation was common across coastal areas, and was mainly attributed to settlement and man-made wetlands in the Chongming Island, Lianyungang City and the east coast of Shanghai Municipality. Natural wetlands turned into farmlands and settlement, and man-made wetlands gained from reclamation of farmlands. The centroid of natural wetlands generally moved towards the sea, man-made wetlands expanded equally in all directions and inland, and the centroid of reclamation migrated toward Shanghai Municipality. Sea level rise, erosion-deposition changes, and reclamation activities together determine the dynamics of the Yangtze Estuary wetlands. However, reclamation activities for construction of ports, industries and aquaculture are the key causes for the dynamics. The results from this study on the dynamics of coastal wetlands and reclamation are valuable for local government to put forward sustainable land use and land development plans.     

AN ASSESSMENT OF LAND USE CHANGES IN FUQING COUNTY OF CHINA USING REMOTE SENSING TECHNOLOGY

Fuqing County of southeast Chian has witnessed significant land use changes during the last decade.Re-mote sensing technology using multitemporal Landsat TM images was used to characterize land use types and to monitor land use changes in the county.Two TM scenes from 1991and 1996 were used to cover the county and a five-year time period.Digital image processing was carried out for the remotely sensed data to produce classified images.The images were further processed using GIS software to generate GIS databases so that the data could be further spatially analyzed taking the advantages of the software.Land use change areas were determined by using the change detection technique.The comparison of the two classified TM images using the above technologies reveals that during the five study years,a large area of arable lands in the county has been lost and deforestation has taken place largely because of the dramatic in-crease in built-up land and orchard.The conclusive statistical information is useful to understand the processes,causes and impacts of the land use changes in the county.The major driving force to the land use changes in the county ap-peared to be the rapid economic development.The decision makers of the county have to pay more attention to the land use changes for the county‘s sustainable development.     

SOIL SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND AGRICULTURAL LAND USE OPTIMIZATION BY USING GIS

This paper discusses the methods and process of Geographic Information System(GIS) applied in soil spatial analysis ,involving the collection of soil spatial data that GIS required ,spatial analysis method of soil nutrient,land use,slope and exposure of geography,crop yield and other factors,and also including acquiring soil spatial information and creating thematic map,and so on .Taking Hengjing Town in Wuxian County of Jiangsu Province as a case study and the maximum income as a principle,and applying the GIS methods and their interrelated models,we have calculated the most optimized agricultural land and the possible maximum income of Hengjing Town.According to the method,we can rationally regulate local agricultural production,and put forward some scenarios for optimizing agricultural structure of Hengjing Town .The paper puts forward an evaluation method of land adaptability based on soil spatial analysis,and offers some research clews to optimize agricultural land use constitutions.so the paper will be have important reference value for soil study.     

Object-oriented Urban Dynamic Monitoring——A Case Study of Haidian District of Beijing

It is crucial to conduct the land use/cover research to obtain the global change information.Urban area is one of the most sensitive areas in land use/cover change.Therefore land use/cover change in urban areas is very im-portant in global change.It is vital to incorporate the information of urban land use/cover change into the process of decision-making about urban area development.In this paper,a new urban change detection approach,urban dynamic monitoring based on objects,is introduced.This approach includes four steps:1)producing multi-scale objects from multi-temporal remotely sensed images with spectrum,texture and context information;2)extracting possible changed objects adopting object-oriented classification;3)obtaining shared objects as the basic units for urban change detection;4)determining the threshold to segment the changed objects from the possible changed objects using Otsu method.In this paper,the object-based approach was applied to detecting the urban expansion in Haidian District,Beijing,China with two Landsat Thematic Mapper(TM)data in 1997 and 2004.The results indicated that the overall accuracy was about 84.83%,and Kappa about 0.785.Compared with other conventional approaches,the object-based approach was advantageous in reducing the error accumulation of image classification of each datum and in independence to the radiometric correction and image registration accuracy.     

Did Ecological Engineering Projects Have a Significant Effect on Large-scale Vegetation Restoration in Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Region,China? A Remote Sensing Approach

Aiming for the restoration of degraded ecosystems, many ecological engineering projects have been implemented around the world. This study investigates the ecological engineering project effectiveness on vegetation restoration in the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Region(BTSSR) from 2000 to 2010 based on the rain use efficiency(RUE) trend in relation to the land cover. More than half of the BTSSR experienced a vegetation productivity increase from 2000 to 2010, with the increasing intensity being sensitive to the indicators chosen. A clear tendency towards smaller increasing areas was shown when using the net primary productivity(NPP, 51.30%) instead of the accumulated normalized difference vegetation index(59.30%). The short-term variation in the precipitation and intra-seasonal precipitation distribution had a great impact on the remote sensing-based vegetation productivity. However, the residual trends method(RESTREND) effectively eliminated this correlation, while incorporating the variance and skewness of the precipitation distribution increased the models′ ability to explain the vegetation productivity variation. The RUE combined with land cover dynamics was valid for the effectiveness assessment of the ecological engineering projects on vegetation restoration. Particularly, the result based on growing season accumulated normalized difference vegetation index(ΣNDVI) residuals was the most effective, showing that 47.39% of the BTSSR experienced vegetation restoration from 2000 to 2010. The effectiveness of the ecological engineering projects differed for each subarea and was proportional to the strength of ecological engineering. The water erosion region dominated by woodland showed the best restoration, followed by the wind-water erosion crisscross regions, while the wind erosion regions dominated by grassland showed the worst effect. Seriously degraded regions still cover more area in the BTSSR than restored regions. Therefore, more future effort should be put in restoring degraded land.     

Relocation selection for poverty alleviation: Factor analysis and GIS modeling

Resettlement is considered a major policy measure in two major Chinese policy programs,the "Great Development of the West" and poverty alleviation in the new century,and the "New Countryside Development".The selection of the target location of resettlement sites for poverty-stricken villages is of critical importance to the success of resettlement projects,yet the selection process is challenged by the need for analyzing a variety of contributing factors,and the need for many rounds of tedious data processing.So in this paper we present an in-depth analysis of the major factors and data processing model concerning mountainous povertystricken villages,which also takes a major part of China’s poor villages.Our analysis shows the following factors bear the most importance in resettlement selection:1) topography:candidate areas should have slope less than 25 degrees and altitude less than 2400 meters.2) accessibility:close to market conventions places and transportation facilities.3) farming resources:with abundant land and water resources.4) non-intrusiveness:interests of receiving villages should be considered and negative impact minimized.A simple measure could be having the candidate area 1000 m away from the receiving residents.5) Minimal ecological and political footprint:candidate areas shall not conflict with nature conservation areas or nationally planned key land use projects.6) Social and cultural compatibility:residents will better off if relocated in the same county,considering language,religion,ethnic culture and other factors.Taking Makuadi,Lushui County of Nujiang Prefecture as a case study,we demonstrate how GIS analysis and modeling tools can be used in the selection process of resettlement projects in mountainous areas.     

The impact of catastrophic natural disaster on land-use changes of Qingping town and the selection of suitable land for settlement construction

A Ms 8.0 large earthquake occurred in Sichuan,China on May 12,2008(hereafter called 5.12 Earthquake),and then a large debris flow happened in the quake-hit Qingping Township of Mianzhu county on August 13,2008(hereafter called 8.13 Debris Flow).The influence of two disasters on the changes in land use were analyzed by using highresolution aerial photos and satellite remote sensing images taken before and after the 5.12 Earthquake and 8.13 Debris Flow,the selection of suitable construction land were studied by learning experiences and lessons from the selection of resettlement areas and through field surveys and with land use transfer model and analytical model in combination with RS and GIS.The results showed that the influence of the 5.12 Earthquake on ecological environment was far greater than that of the 8.13 Debris Flow;there were more salient conflicts between population and land after the earthquake.Sites for post-disaster reconstruction should not be in disaster-prone areas or in gully-facing areas.Suitable land for settlement construction in I-1~I-5 low-hazard zones is optimal settlement areas for post-disaster reconstruction.     

Road impacts on spatial patterns of land use and landscape fragmentation in three parallel rivers region, Yunnan Province, China

The structure and function of network is a central issue in landscape ecology.Road networks with hierarchical structure are crucial for understanding landscape dynamics.In this study,we compared the distribution of national road,provincial road,county road and rural road in the Three Parallel Rivers Region(TPRR)in Yunnan Province of China,and estimated the effect of roads(and other factors)on the spatial patterns of land use and land cover with logistic regression.In addition,we analyzed the land use and land cover change(LUCC)and landscape fragmentation in 1989–2005 along a buffer zone of the primary traffic corridor,national road G214.The results showed that,county and rural roads had much higher percentage of length extending into more natural habitats at higher elevation and steeper slope,compared with the higher level roads in this region.While the distributions of natural land cover types were dominated by environmental factors,human land use types i.e.,building land and farmland types were significantly related with roads,linking more closely with lower level roads.The LUCC dynamics(1989–2005)of the G214 buffer zone showed a general trend of land transformation from conifer forests and valley arid shrubs to building land and farmland,and from ice and snow to alpine shrubs and forests.With the length of G214 unchanged during the time,the overall landscape pattern changed little in the buffer zone,but habitat fragmentation and area decrease had occurred for the natural vegetation types,in contrast to patch mergence and expansion of human land use types,and landscape fragmentation was intensified above 2500 m a.s.l.but declined below the elevation.The results indicated the dynamics of landscape composition and patch type level distribution in spite of the stability of the overall landscape pattern,and implied the potential role of roads,especially the low level roads on landscape changes.     

Evaluating the Spatial Uncertainty of Future Land Abandonment in a Mountain Valley(Vicdessos,Pyrenees-France): Insights from Model Parameterization and Experiments

European mountains are particularly sensitive to climatic disruptions and land use changes.The latter leads to high rates of natural reforestation over the last 50 years. Faced with the challenge of predicting possible impacts on ecosystem services,LUCC models offer new opportunities for land managers to adapt or mitigate their strategies.Assessing the spatial uncertainty of future LUCC is crucial for the definition of sustainable land use strategies. However, the sources of uncertainty may differ, including the input parameters, the model itself, and the wide range of possible futures. The aim of this paper is to propose a method to assess the probability of occurrence of future LUCC that combines the inherent uncertainty of model parameterization and the ensemble uncertainty of the future based scenarios. For this purpose, we used the Land Change Modeler tool to simulate future LUCC on a study site located in the Pyrenees Mountains(France) and two scenarios illustrating two land use strategies. The model was parameterized with the same driving factors used for its calibration. The definition of ‘static vs. dynamic' and ‘quantitative vs.qualitative(discretized)' driving factors, and their combination resulted in four parameterizations. The combination of model outcomes produced maps of the spatial uncertainty of future LUCC. This work involves adapting the definition of spatial uncertainty in the literature to future-based LUCC studies. It goes beyond the uncertainty of simulation models by integrating the uncertainty of the future to provide maps to help decision makers and land managers.