The influences of land-use changes on the absorbed nitrogen and phosphorus loadings in the drainage basin of Lake Chaohu,China

The influences of land-use changes on the absorbed nitrogen and phosphorus loadings in the drainage basin of Lake Chaohu were investigated in this study. Based on the principle of universal soil loss equation, a model was developed for estimating the annual mean soil erosion amount from 1989 to 2008 in Chaohu basin. Applying the GIS and soil data, the absorbed nitrogen and phosphorus loadings were stimulated and quantified for three-time stage (1989–1995, 1996–2000, 2001–2008). Furthermore, the influences of historical land-use changes on the absorbed nitrogen and phosphorus loadings were assessed. The results indicated that the absorbed nitrogen and phosphorus loadings of drainage basin have an obvious spatial difference in the three-time stage because of the different characteristics of climate and geology. Temporally, the absorbed nitrogen and phosphorus loadings in the second stage (1996–2000) are less than the one in the first (1989–1995) and third stage (2001–2008), and the load of third stage is the largest, which was mainly impacted by rainfall and land-use change. Forest and grass can act as a source for the load of absorbed nitrogen or absorbed phosphorus. The paddy land and residential land in these areas act as sinks or transformation zones as expected. Other factors such as slope and geology also play important roles in the transport of nutrients and sediments to streams.     

Land transformation assessment using the integration of remote sensing and GIS techniques: a case study of Al-Anbar Province,Iraq

Human activities and climate changes significantly affect our environment, altering hydrologic cycles. Several environmental, social, political, and economical factors contribute to land transformation as well as environmental changes. This study first identified the most critical factors that affect the environment in Al-Anbar city including population growth, urbanization expansion, bare land expansion, and reduction in vegetation cover. The combination of remote sensing data and fuzzy analytic hierarch process (Fuzzy AHP) enabled exploration of land transformations and environmental changes in the study area during 2001 to 2013 in terms of long and short-term changes. Results of land transformation showed that the major changes in water bodies increased radically (94 %) from the long-term change in 2001 to 2013 because of water policies. In addition, the urban class expanded in two short-term periods (2001–2007 and 2007–2013), representing net changes of 46 and 60 %, respectively. Finally, barren land showed 25 % reduction in the first period because of the huge expansion of water in the lake; a small percentage of growth gain was observed in the second period. Based on the land transformation results, the environmental degradation assessment showed that the study area generally had high level of environmental degradation. The degradation was mostly in the center and the north part of the study area. This study suggested for further studies to include other factors that also responsible for environmental degradation such as water quality and desertification threatening.     

Using Landsat data to determine land use changes in Datong basin,China

The aim of this study was to determine land use changes in Datong basin using multitemporal Landsat data for the period of 1977–2006. Four dates of Landsat images from 1977, 1990, 2000, and 2006 were selected to classify the study area. Based on the supervised classification method of maximum likelihood algorithm, images were classified into six classes: water, urban, forest, agriculture, wetland, and barren land. A multidate postclassification comparison change detection algorithm was used to determine changes in land use in four intervals. It is found that (1) urban land area increased 213% due to urbanization that resulted from rapid increase of urban population and high-speed economic development, (2) agriculture area increased 34.0% due to land reclamation that resulted from rapid increase of rural population and improvement of irrigation capacity, (3) forest area decreased 20.9% due to deforestation for urban area and agricultural use, (4) barren land area decreased 78.2% due to cultivation for agricultural use, and (5) water and wetland decreased 39.1 and 67.1%, respectively, due to exploitation of surface water and decrease of recharge from groundwater to surface water that resulted from over exploitation of groundwater.     

嫩江流域沼泽湿地景观变化及其水文驱动因素分析

借助ArcGIS空间分析工具,以嫩江流域1978年、1990年、2000年和2008年4期遥感湿地分布图为基础,采用SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool)水文模型将嫩江流域划分为43个子流域,并以沼泽湿地类型为例,将各个子流域内降水和径流信息与湿地退化遥感信息作对比筛选,对全流域以及湿地面积减少严重所在子流域作进一步分析。另外,利用两期土地利用类型数据生成嫩江流域土地利用转移矩阵。结果表明:1978—2008年间嫩江流域沼泽湿地退化严重,尤其以1990—2000年间最为显著。这与流域内降水、径流的变化密切相关,并受到土地利用类型转化以及水利工程建设等人类活动的影响。其中,沼泽湿地面积变化与流域径流系数变化在0.01水平上呈极显著正相关,pearson相关系数为0.90。气候变化和人类活动影响下对湿地水文过程以及水资源的变化,导致湿地日益萎缩,对流域内湿地生态系统平衡产生了负面影响。     

利用光学卫星遥感数据监测抚顺地区煤矿开采引起的地貌变化

抚顺市是中国重要的采煤城市之一,100多年的煤矿开采已经使抚顺地区的地貌特征发生了重大变化。由于长期的露天开采,抚顺西露天矿形成了一个海拔约为-300m的深坑;煤矿的地下开采造成了大面积的地表沉陷;与此同时,煤矸石的露天堆积形成了3个排土场。本研究利用多时相的美国Landsat MSS（Multispectral Scanner）,TM（Thematic Mapper）,ETM⁺（Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus）,以及日本ASTER（Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer）卫星遥感数据分析过去近30年来抚顺地区煤矿开采所引起的地貌变化。多时相卫星遥感图像的对比分析显示,由于地面沉陷引起的地表积水面积在近5年（2001～2006年）内出现明显增大的趋势,增加了1.73km。同期的ASTER DEM数据对比分析还发现,西露天矿的开采深度在不断增加,最大增加量为55m,与此同时出现的新增排土场造成地面高程增加量最大为25m。这一研究表明利用遥感技术可以定量监测人类矿产开发活动所引起的地貌特征变化及其过程。     

Effects of basin activities and land use on water quality trends in Tahtali Basin, Turkey

Bi-weekly water quality data from seven monitoring stations located within Tahtali Watershed, ?zmir, Turkey and digital land use/land cover data of the same watershed are analyzed in this study. To examine the changes in land use associated with urbanization, the satellite images of the main pool of the Tahtali reservoir prior to filling and subsequent to filling, respectively, are analyzed. Aerial photos of the basin taken in 1995 (October) are compared with images taken in 2005 (November) from the IKONOS satellite through use of several GIS techniques. New residential buildings, greenhouses, and industrial buildings are presented in separate layers, and changes in basin activities are quantified. The effects of urbanization on the water quality are investigated through statistical analysis. The seasonal Kendall test is applied to the water quality parameters monitored bi-weekly at seven stations within the basin for the duration 1997–2005. There was no trend in phosphorus, but there was a negative trend in boron and nitrate and a positive trend in the parameters of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). The improvement in nitrate concentrations is attributed to the new regulations on the use of fertilizers in greenhouses. However, increase of BOD and COD concentrations is related to the growing settlement areas and industrial zones, which point to the insufficient wastewater treatment within the basin. Soil erosion within the basin is also quantified by the universal soil loss equation using available maps. Estimated total soil loss rate increased about 2.5 times that of 1995 when the changed land use composition in 2005 is considered in the calculations.     

Spatio-temporal land cover changes in a semi-arid watershed: Central India

Land use/land cover change is a global phenomenon which reflects natural resources degradation and/or utilization. Remote sensing and GIS have been widely used to monitor such changes at watershed level. The present study evaluates the LU/LC change during 1989 - 2001 in a semi-arid watershed of central India. Geocoded satellite data of 1989 and 2001 on 1:50,000 scale, were visually interpreted to prepare thematic maps which were later digitized using ArcGIS softwares. The analysis shows that vast tracts of cultivated land have become uncultivated and at some places even converted to wasteland. However, the land under dense forest and open forest has decreased due to expansion of built-up land and other anthropogenic activities. Increase in area of uncultivated land, wasteland and decrease in cultivated land and open scrub is also supported by rainfall analysis, which shows a declining trend and a fall of 186.93 mm in average annual rainfall for 1986-2003 period. The change detection map prepared using land use/land cover of 1989 and 2001 as inputs shows that out of the total geographical area of the watershed, 25.78% of the watershed area has seen a change from one land use category to another, however rest 74.22% has remained unchanged.     

大布苏地区土地利用及其景观格局变化研究

利用大布苏地区1996年和2001年两个时相的TM遥感图像,获取不同时期的土地利用信息,分析了大布苏地区土地利用时空变化,借助FRAGSTATS软件进行了景观格局变化研究。研究结果表明,土地利用变化的总趋势是水域、荒草地减少,居民用地、耕地增加,土地利用综合程度指数降低;从景观尺度上看,斑块密度、多样性指数、优势度和均匀度指数减小,最大斑块指数、景观形状指数增加。     

Land-use change and its environmental impact in the Heihe River Basin, arid northwestern China

Rapid land-use change has taken place in many arid and semi-arid regions of China over the last decade as the result of demand for food for its growing population. The Heihe River Basin, a typical inland river basin of temperate arid zone in northwestern China, was investigated to assess land-use change dynamics by the combined use of satellite remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS), and to explore the interaction between these changes and the environment. Images were classified into six land-use types: cropland, forestland, grassland, water, urban or built-up land, and barren land. The objectives were to assess and analyze landscape change of land use/cover in Heihe River Basin over 15 years from 1987 to 2002. The results show that (1) grassland and barren land increase greatly by 22.3, and 268.2 km², respectively, but water area decreased rapidly by 247.2 km² in the upper reaches of Heihe River Basin; (2) cropland and urban or built-up land increased greatly by 174.9, and 64.6 km², respectively, but grassland decreased rapidly by 210.3 km² in the middle reaches of Heihe River Basin; and (3) barren land increased largely by 397.4 km², but grassland degraded seriously and water area decreased obviously by 313.3, and 21.7 km², respectively in the lower reaches of Heihe River Basin. These results show that significant changes in land-use occur within the whole basin over the study period and cause severe environmental degradation, such as water environmental changes (including surface water runoff change, decline of groundwater table and degeneration of surface water and groundwater quality), land desertification and salinization, and vegetation degeneracy.     

Land degradation in the source region of the Yellow River, northeast Qinghai-Xizang Plateau: classification and evaluation

Land degradation imposes a great threat to the world. It is not merely an environmental issue, but also a social and economic problem. Land desertification is among the main aspects of environment changes in the source region of the Yellow River. Previous studies focused on water resource utilization and soil erosion, but land degradation in the source region of the Yellow River even the whole Qinghai-Xizang Plateau received little attention. Based on the data obtained by field investigation and TM satellite images of 2000, this study provides the classification and evaluation information of the land degradation in the source region of the Yellow River. There are six types of land degradation in this region: water erosion in the northern mountains around the Gonghe Basin, sandy desertification in the Gonghe Basin and Upland Plain Area, aridization in the lower reaches, salinization in the Gonghe Basin, vegetation degradation in the intramontance basin and freezing and thawing erosion in the high mountains. The total degraded area is 34,429.6 km², making up 37.5% of the land in the study area. Finally, land degradation in the source region of the Yellow River was evaluated according to changes in the physical structure and chemical component of soils, land productivity, secondary soil salt and water conditions.     

Analyzing and modeling of a large river basin dynamics applying integrated cellular automata and Markov model

Historical and exact information about the land use/land cover change is very important for regional sustainable development. The aim of this paper is to determine the rapid changes in land use/land cover (LULC) pattern due to agriculture expansion, environmental calamities such as flood and government policies over Upper Narmada basin, India. Multi-temporal Landsat satellite images for years 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2015 were used to analyze and monitor the changes in LULC with an overall accuracy of more than 85%. Results revealed a potential decrease in natural vegetation (? 9.52%) due to the expansion of settlement (+ 0.52%) and cropland (+ 9.43%) from 1990 to 2015. In the present study, Cellular Automata and Markov (CA–Markov), an integrated tool was used to project the short-term LULC map of year 2030. The projected LULC (2030) indicated the expansion of built-up area along with the cropland and degradation in the vegetation area. The outcomes from the study can help as a guiding tool for protection of natural vegetation and the management of the built-up area. Additionally, it will help in devising the strategies to utilize every bit of land in the study area for decision makers.     

Risk assessment of water soil erosion in upper basin of Miyun Reservoir,Beijing, China

This research selected water soil erosion indicators (land cover, vegetation cover, slope) to assess the risk of soil erosion, ARCMAP GIS ver.9.0 environments and ERDAS ver.9.0 were used to manage and process satellite images and thematic tabular data. Landsat TM images in 2003 were used to produce land/cover maps of the study area based on visual interpreting method and derived vegetation cover maps, and the relief map at the scale of 1:50,000 to calculate the slope gradient maps. The area of water soil erosion was classified into six grades by an integration of slope gradients, land cover types, and vegetation cover fraction. All the data were integrated into a cross-tabular format to carry out the grid-based analysis of soil erosion risk. Results showed that the upper basin of Miyun Reservoir, in general, is exposed to a moderate risk of soil erosion, there is 715,848 ha of land suffered from water soil erosion in 2003, occupied 46.62% of total area, and most of the soil erosion area is on the slight and moderate risk, occupied 45.60 and 47.58% of soil erosion area, respectively.     

桂林毛村岩溶地下河流域水土流失遥感动态监测研究

为了给西南岩溶地区石漠化发展演变的研究工作提供一定的科学依据和决策支持,选择桂林毛村岩溶地下河流域作为研究区,利用两期遥感影像对该区影响水土流失的三个主要自然要素,即地形坡度、植被覆盖度和土地利用方式进行信息提取,并以地理信息系统为分析平台,参考水土流失强度分级标准,对该区两个时期的水土流失状况进行对比分析。调查监测结果显示,研究区随着坡度的增大,水土越容易流失,而且水土流失强度级别增大;植被覆盖度对水土流失强度起着控制性作用,为抑制并缩减水土流失面积,应保护植被,退耕还林;研究区土地利用变化比较缓慢,导致水土流失面积变化幅度不大。上述结果表明,利用遥感技术手段,可为当地的经济发展和水土流失的监测、评价、预测及治理提供参考。      

Understanding land-use/cover change process for land and environmental resources use management policy in Ghana

Accurate information on land-use/cover change is a critical input for natural resource use management policy decisions. In Ghana, however, land-use/cover change is premised on the assumption that there has been a historically simple, linear, and uniform degradation of vegetation across all landscapes. The Kintampo and neighboring districts have become a subject of intense debate as to the real nature of prevailing land cover changes .It is commonly assumed that there is ubiquitously progressive irreversible woody vegetation loss across the area. The paper reports on the process and amount of land-use/cover changes that have prevailed in specific localities across the area within a 10-year period. It is hoped this will improve understanding and management of land-use/cover change in Ghana. Remote sensing and Geographic information systems technologies were used for the investigation. A multi-site satellite imagery approach was adopted to ensure that inductive inferences could be made. The outcome of the study indicated that, in space and time, there have been significant land-use/cover changes. Variability in change was a constant, rather than occasional feature across these human dominated landscapes. The conversion and transformation processes indicated that the traditional land-use strategies are self-sustaining. Any effective land-use/cover management strategy should be built upon the existing traditional farming system knowledge and practices.     

Investigation of land use changes on soil erosion process using geographical information system

Land use change quantified for the last 50 years within and near a fast growing agricultural land in Neka River Basin, using geographic information systems. Land cover and land use change was projected for the next decade using topography, geology, land use maps and remote sensing data of the study area. The study explored the relationships between agricultural land growth and landscape changes. The land use changes assessed among the different land cover classes. It is important to mention that conducting of the present study a very severe land cover changes taken place as the result of agricultural land development. These changes in land cover led to the forest degradation of the study area. Relationship between land-use changes and agricultural growth offered a more robust prediction of soil erosion in Neka watershed. This study aims to find the relationships between land use pattern, erosion and the sediment yield in the study area. The land use coefficient has applied in the model of erosion potential method to forecast the effect of the land type to reduce the erosion. The results of this study indicated that the total sediment yield of the study area has notably decreased to 89.24 % after an appropriate land use/cover alteration. The estimated special erosion for the southern Neka Basin is about 144465.1 m³/km² where after management policy is predicted 15542.9 m³/km²/y. Therefore, the total difference for the study area has estimated about 128922.2 m3/km2/y.     

Mapping coastal erosion at the Nile Delta western promontory using Landsat imagery

A set of six Landsat satellite images with 5–9 years apart was used in a post-classification analysis to map changes occurred at Rosetta promontory between 1973 and 2008 due to coastal erosion. Spectral information were extracted from two multi-spectral scanner (MSS) images (1973 and 1978), three thematic mapper (TM) images (1984, 1990, and 1999), and one enhanced thematic mapper plus (ETM+) image (2008). To estimate the quantity of land loss in terms of coastal erosion, a supervised classification scheme was applied to each image to highlight only two classes: seawater and land. The area of each class was then estimated from the number of pixels pertaining to this class in every image. In addition, the shoreline position was digitized to address retreat/advance pattern throughout the study period. Results showed that Rosetta promontory had lost 12.29 km² of land between 1973 and 2008 and the shoreline withdrew southward about 3.5 km due to coastal erosion. Most land loss and shoreline retreat occurred between 1973 and 1978 (0.55 km²/year and 132 m/year, respectively). Coastal protection structures were constructed successively at the promontory. These structures have considerably contributed to reduce coastal erosion; however, they promoted downdrift erosion.     

Geospatial assessment of soil erosion vulnerability at watershed level in some sections of the Upper Subarnarekha river basin, Jharkhand, India

Undulating landscapes of Chhotanagpur plateau of the Indian state of Jharkhand suffer from soil erosion vulnerability of varying degrees. An investigation was undertaken in some sections of the Upper Subarnarekha River Basin falling within this state. An empirical equation known as Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was utilized for estimating the soil loss. Analysis of remote sensing satellite data, digital elevation model (DEM) and geographical information system (GIS)–based geospatial approach together with USLE led to the soil erosion assessment. Erosion vulnerability assessment was performed by analyzing raster grids of topography acquired from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global DEM data. LANDSAT TM and ETM+ satellite data of March 2001 and March 2011 were used for inferring the land use–land cover characteristics of the watershed for these years, respectively. USLE equation was computed within the GIS framework to derive annual soil erosion rates and also the areas with varying degrees of erosion vulnerability. Erosion vulnerability units thus identified covered five severity classes of erosion ranging from very low (0–5 ton ha^?1 yr^?1) to very severe (> 40 ton ha^?1 yr^?1). Results indicated an overall increase of erosion in the year 2011 as compared to the erosion computed for the year 2001. Maximum soil erosion rate during the year 2001 was found up to 40 ton ha^?1 yr^?1, whereas this went up to 49.80 ton ha^?1 yr^?1 for the year 2011. Factors for the increase in overall erosion could be variation in rainfall, decrease in vegetation or protective land covers and most important but not limited to the increase in built-up or impervious areas as well.     

Analysis of the landscape change at River Basin scale based on SPOT and TM fusion remote sensing images: a case study of the Weigou River Basin on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Eco-environmental changes which generally manifest as the ecological landscape changes are mainly affected by natural and human factors. Through complex interaction, natural factors and human activities alter the landscape structure and decide the service function of regional ecosystem. With the development of geographical information system (GIS) and satellite remote sensing (RS) techniques, the researches on quantitative analysis of landscape changes have made great strides forward. In this paper, the landscape change dynamics in the Weigou River basin have been investigated by the combined use of high-resolution RS images and GIS techniques. The objectives are to determine the landscape transition rates among landscape types and to quantify changes of various landscape indexes using FRAGSTATS, one of the spatial pattern analysis programs for categorical maps. Under man–machine interactive interpretation method, all of the 10-m resolution SPOT + TM images are classified into six primary types (farmland, forest, grassland, water, construction area and desert) and 12 sub-types based on the interpretation key which was established based on 1947 filed pictures in the Weigou River basin. A field check on the data accuracy shows that the total interpretation accuracy approaches 97.53%. Significant land-use change has taken place in the Weigou River basin over the six years from 1998 to 2004 due to rehabilitation measures. The results show that there has been a notable decrease in farmland mainly due to conversion to forest and grassland, the landscape heterogeneity and evenness has increased, and there is a greater connectivity. The dominance of farmland patch has decreased. And hence the ecological environment has started to develop in a reversing direction. The study of the integration of high-resolution RS images and GIS technique is an effective approach to analyze the landscape changes at river basin scale.     

不同尺度喀斯特地区土地利用变化研究

以贵州典型喀斯特地区贞丰县、北盘江镇、花江示范区作为研究样区,讨论了不同尺度喀斯特地区土地利用动态变化过程。结果发现: 研究样区土地利用的数量变化主要表现在农用地与未利用地之间的增减变化, 而且1997— 2000年的土地利用变化速度比2001- 2003年的快。在土地利用的结构变化上,北盘江镇园地所占比例增长、未利用地所占比例减少和贞丰县林地面积所占比例变化最大,花江示范区同北盘江镇的结构变化相似。在土地利用的程度变化上,三个研究区土地利用程度综合指数都有所提高,整体趋于平衡。县级尺度的土地利用程度综合指数大于镇级尺度,村级尺度的土地利用综合指数最小。三个研究区的景观偏离度呈有规律的缓慢增长趋势,表明人类活动对土地利用的影响逐渐加强。      

Change detection of the coastal zone east of the Nile Delta using remote sensing

The coastal zone of the Nile Delta is a promising area for energy resources and industrial activities. It also contains important wetland ecosystems. This coastal area witnessed several changes during the last century. A set of four satellite images from the multi-spectral scanner (MSS), thematic mapper (TM) and Systeme Pour l’Observation de la Terre (SPOT) sensors were utilized in order to estimate the spatio-temporal changes that occurred in the coastal zone between Damietta Nile branch and Port-Said between 1973 and 2007. Image processing applied in this study included geometric rectification; atmospheric correction; on-screen shoreline digitizing of the 1973 (MSS) and 2007 (SPOT) images for tracking the shoreline position between Damietta promontory and Port-Said; and water index approach for quantifying Manzala lagoon surface area change using 1973 (MSS), 1984 (TM) and 2003 (TM) images. Results showed that coastal erosion was severe near Damietta promontory and decreased eastward, however, accretion was observed near Port-Said. About 50% of the coastal strip was under erosion and 13% was under accretion. In addition, a remarkable decline (34.5%) of the Manzala lagoon surface area was estimated. These changes were attributed mainly to the control of the River Nile flooding and the land use change by anthropogenic activities.