Pedosphere 16(3): 398--405, 2006
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2006 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
| Landscape changes from 1974 to 1995 in the upper minjiang river basin, China |
HE Xing-Yuan1 , ZHAO Yong-Hua1,2,3, HU Yuan-Man1, CHANG Yu1 and ZHOU Qi-Xing1 |
1 Institute of Applied Ecology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016 (China). E-meail: hexy@iae.ac.cn
2 College of Earth Science & Land Resources Management, Chang'an University, Xi'an 710054 (China)
3 Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039 (China) |
| ABSTRACT |
| Landscape changes were traced over the 20 years from 1974 to 1995 in the upper Minjiang River basin, one of the most important forest regions in China, based on satellite image interpretation to provide basic data for local decision-making as well as sustainable landscape use and management. Results revealed that landscape from 1974 to 1995 changed at the regional scale as the area of forestland decreased, while cropland, shrubland, economic forest, grassland, and built-up land increased. Landscape changes mainly occurred in forestland, shrubland, grassland, economic forest, and built-up land. Moreover, the changes among forestland, shrubland, and grassland were the largest, influencing the whole characteristics of the changes in the basin. Analysis of the changes between 1974 and 1995 in the study area indicated that landscape heterogeneity and fragmentation increased, whereas landscape connectivity decreased. There were multiple reasons for landscape changes. A principal component analysis (PCA) was used to quantitatively study driving forces of landscape changes. The PCA results showed that economic and population factors were the principal driving forces of landscape changes from 1974 to 1995 in the upper Minjiang River basin, and that PCA was a suitable method for investigating driving forces of landscape changes. |
| Key Words: driving forces, landscape change, satellite image, quantification, principal component analysis |
| Citation: He, X. Y., Zhao, Y. H., Hu, Y. M., Chang, Y. and Zhou, Q. X. 2006. Landscape changes from 1974 to 1995 in the upper minjiang river basin, China. Pedosphere. 16(3): 398-405. |
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