Assessing the changes in land use and ecosystem services in an oasis agricultural region of Yanqi Basin,Northwest China

The Yanqi Basin, one of the most productive agricultural areas, has a high population density in Xinjiang, Northwest China. Land use changes, mainly driven by oasis expansion, significantly impact ecosystem services and functions, but these effects are difficult to quantify. The valuation of ecosystem services is important to clarify the ecological and environmental changes caused by agriculturalization of oasis. This study aimed to investigate variations in ecosystem services in response to land use changes during oasis agricultural expansion activities in the Yanqi Basin from 1964 to 2009. The methods used were based on formula of ecosystem service value (ESV) and ESV coefficients. Satellite data were combined with the ESV coefficients to quantify land use changes and ecosystem service changes in the study area. Sensitivity analysis determined the effect of manipulating the coefficients on the estimated values. The results show that the total ESVs in the Yanqi Basin were $1,674, $1,692, $1,471, $1,732, and $1,603 million in 1964, 1973, 1989, 1999, and 2009, respectively. The net deline in ESV was $71 million in the past 46 years, but the ESVs of each types of landscape changed significantly. The aggregated ESVs of water areas and wetlands were approximately 80 % of the total ESV. Water supply and waste treatment were the two largest service functions and contributed approximately 65 % of the total ESV. The estimated ESVs in this study were elastic with respect to the value coefficients. Therefore, the estimations were robust in spite of uncertainties on the value coefficients. These significant changes in land use occur within the entire basin over the study period. These changes cause environmental problems, such as land degradation, vegetation degeneracy, and changes in aquatic environment.     

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Evaluation for sustainable land use in mountain areas of Northwestern Yunnan Province, China

As an important component of sustainable development in mountain areas, evaluation for sustainable land use is always one of the hotpots of researches on sustainable development. Traditional evaluation for sustainable land use mainly focuses on the sustainability of land use model and biological production on temporal scale, and overlooks the effects of land use patterns on the sustainability, while landscape ecology can be a good help to realize the spatial analysis of sustainable land use. In this study, a synthetic evaluation indexes system for sustainable land use was constructed through the application of landscape metrics. Taking Yongsheng County of Yunnan Province, China as a case study, a series of quantitative evaluation were conducted in 1996, 1999 and 2001, to monitor the temporal dynamics of regional land use sustainability. Two indicators, contributing amount of indexes, and obstacle amount of indexes, were also set up to ascertain the significance of all the evaluation indexes to the evaluation results. The results showed that, in the study phases, the land use sustainability of the whole county had been low with a stable but great spatial difference, and great changes took place in regional land use system in 1999 with the deviation from the aim of sustainable land use. It also showed that, the most important indexes contributing for the land use sustainability in the study period, were the indexes of population density and land use degree, followed by the index of landscape diversity and cropping index. And the most important indexes counteracting the land use sustainability were the indexes of per unit area total production value of industry and agriculture, per unit area yield of cereal crops, landscape fragmentation, followed by the indexes of per unit area yield of economic crops and fertilizer consume per unit area.     

平顶山地区景观格局动态特征及驱动力分析

以平顶山地区为研究对象,利用平顶山地区1992年Landsat-TM影像和2006年中巴资源卫星遥感影像,运用景观生态学原理,借助遥感和GIS技术,选取景观多样性、景观优势度、景观均匀度、景观破碎度等指标指数进行分析,揭示平顶山地区近14 a来城市景观格局演变及其驱动力。研究结果表明:交通用地、工矿及居民点和耕地用地显著增加,林地、水域显著减少;除工矿及居民点外,该地区各类型斑块数量均有增加,其中林地增加最为显著;交通用地、工矿及居民点的破碎度降低,水域、林地、耕地的景观类型破碎度增高;耕地的分维数、形状指数呈下降趋势,而林地的分维数和形状指数呈上升趋势;平顶山地区景观多样性和均匀度都呈下降趋势,而优势度和破碎度增加;景观格局变化受人为因素影响较大,人口增加、经济发展、城镇化和工业发展是平顶山地区景观格局演变的主要驱动力。     

Assessing implications of land use and land cover changes in forest ecosystems of NE Turkey

Monitoring land use and land cover change (LUCC) and understanding forest cover dynamics is extremely important in sustainable development and management of forest ecosystems. This study analyzed the spatial and temporal pattern of LUCC in the Yaln?zçam and U?urlu forest planning units which are located in the northeast corner of Turkey. The investigation also evaluates the temporal changes of the spatial structure of forest conditions through the spatial analysis of forest-cover type maps from 1972 and 2005 using geographical information systems and FRAGSTATS^TM. As an overall change between 1972 and 2005, there was a net increase of 1,823 ha in forested areas, and cumulative forest improvement accounted for 2.06 %. In terms of spatial configuration, the landscape structure in the study area changed substantially over the 33-year study period, resulting in fragmentation of the landscape as indicated by large patch numbers and smaller mean patch sizes, owing to heavy grazing, illegal cutting, and uncontrolled stand treatments.     

2007—2017年三亚城市景观空间格局动态特征及驱动因素分析

应用2007—2017年期间4个时间点的遥感影像数据，选取典型景观格局指数，对三亚市的景观空间格局动态特征进行分析，探求其驱动因素。研究表明：近十年来，三亚市内同种土地利用类型的空间聚集程度降低，空间分布逐渐趋向于分散，不同类型的土地之间相互融合度较高，形状趋于复杂化，景观类型分布趋势呈均衡化，景观的破碎化程度加强，景观复杂程度增高，土地利用的丰富程度逐渐加强。通过驱动因素分析，国家政策的导向、城市总体规划的实施、产业结构调整及自然环境的变化是影响三亚城市景观空间格局变化的主要驱动因素。     

Oasis land-use change and its effects on the eco-environment in Yanqi Basin, Xinjiang, China

Satellite data and the published coefficients about the world's and China's ecosystem were used to analyze the effects of land-use changes on the ecosystem service in the Yanqi Basin. Both economic developments and arid, fragile ecosystems have strongly affected the land use. A sensitivity analysis determined the effect of manipulating the coefficients on the estimated values. Results indicated that (1) the total value of ecosystem services in the Yanqi Basin were 9,374.66, 10,450.52, 9,964.20, and 9,8707.77 million Yuan in 1990, 2000, 2005, and 2011, respectively. The net increase in ecosystem service values were about 496.11 million Yuan within 1990–2011; (2) The aggregated ecosystem service values of water body, wetlands, grasslands, and croplands were about 99.25 % of the total value; (3) Waste treatment and soil formation were the top two ecological functions with high service values and contributing about 61.70 % of the total service values; and (4) Ecosystem service values estimated in this study were inelastic with respect to the value coefficients; therefore, the estimation was robust in spite of uncertainties on the value coefficients. A reasonable land-use plan should be based on rigorous environmental impact analyses for maintaining stability and sustainable development of the Yanqi Basin.     

A landscape approach to quantifying land cover changes in Yulin, Northwest China

In this study we quantified land cover changes in the arid region of Yulin City, Northwest China between 1985 and 2000 using remote sensing and GIS in conjunction with landscape modeling. Land covers were mapped into 20 categories from multitemporal Landsat TM images. Five landscape indices were calculated from these maps at the land cover patches level. It was found that fallow land decreased by 125,148 ha while grassland and woodland increased by 107,975 and 17,157 ha, respectively. Landscape heterogeneity, dominance and fractal dimension changed little during the 15-year period while landscape became more fragmented, with an index rising from 0.56 to 0.58. The major factors responsible for these changes are identified as the change in the government policy on preserving the environment, continued growth in mining, and urbanization.     

Monitoring the urban green spaces and landscape fragmentation using remote sensing: a case study in Osmaniye,Turkey

Urban green spaces play a significant role in management of physical activity, psychological well-being, and public health of urban residents. With the expansion of urban areas in Turkey during the past decades, urban green spaces have been fragmented and dispersed causing impairment and environmental degradation. The purpose of this study is to model urban green space distribution by focusing on the landscape fragmentation in city of Osmaniye using remote sensing and geographic information system technology. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and urban landscape ratio (ULR) were used to assess the proximity and spatial arrangement of urban green spaces within the neighbor landscapes to quantify the urban land use effect. The geospatial analysis results showed that increase in total built-up area and population has significantly decreased the urban green space cover because of high levels of landscape fragmentation in urban city center. Also, due to high levels of landscape fragmentation, approximately 45% of the Osmaniye city is estimated to become urbanized by 2030. This study demonstrated the benefits of directional vegetation index application with geospatial analyses in characterizing the environmental quality for planning and management of urban green spaces. This approach could be used for determining the future urban land development scenarios correlating with regional planning procedures.     

Performance assessment of geospatial simulation models of land-use change—a landscape metric-based approach

Performance evaluation is a critical step when developing land-use and cover change (LUCC) models. The present study proposes a spatially explicit model performance evaluation method, adopting a landscape metric-based approach. To quantify GEOMOD model performance, a set of composition- and configuration-based landscape metrics including number of patches, edge density, mean Euclidean nearest neighbor distance, largest patch index, class area, landscape shape index, and splitting index were employed. The model takes advantage of three decision rules including neighborhood effect, persistence of change direction, and urbanization suitability values. According to the results, while class area, largest patch index, and splitting indices demonstrated insignificant differences between spatial pattern of ground truth and simulated layers, there was a considerable inconsistency between simulation results and real dataset in terms of the remaining metrics. Specifically, simulation outputs were simplistic and the model tended to underestimate number of developed patches by producing a more compact landscape. Landscape-metric-based performance evaluation produces more detailed information (compared to conventional indices such as the Kappa index and overall accuracy) on the model’s behavior in replicating spatial heterogeneity features of a landscape such as frequency, fragmentation, isolation, and density. Finally, as the main characteristic of the proposed method, landscape metrics employ the maximum potential of observed and simulated layers for a performance evaluation procedure, provide a basis for more robust interpretation of a calibration process, and also deepen modeler insight into the main strengths and pitfalls of a specific land-use change model when simulating a spatiotemporal phenomenon.     

Estimation of Plant Diversity at Landscape Level: A Methodological Approach Applied to Three Spanish Rural Areas

Approaches linking biodiversity assessment with landscape structure are necessary in the framework of sustainable rural development. The present paper describes a methodology to estimate plant diversity involving landscape structure as a proportional weight associated with different plant communities found in the landscape mosaic. The area occupied by a plant community, its patch number or its spatial distribution of patches are variables that could be expressed in gamma plant diversity of a territory. The methodology applies (1) remote sensing information, to identify land cover and land use types; (2) aspect, to discriminate composition of plant communities in each land cover type; (3) multi-scale field techniques, to asses plant diversity; (4) affinity analysis of plant community composition, to validate the stratified random sampling design and (5) the additive model that partitions gamma diversity into its alpha and beta components. The method was applied to three Spanish rural areas and was able to record 150-260 species per ha. Species richness, Shannon information index and Simpson concentration index were used to measure diversity in each area. The estimation using Shannon diversity index and the product of patch number and patch interspersion as weighting of plant community diversity was found to be the most appropriate method of measuring plant diversity at the landscape level.     

Landscape-based upstream-downstream prevalence of land-use/cover change drivers in southeastern rift escarpment of Ethiopia

Characterized by high population density on a rugged topography, the Gedeo-Abaya landscape dominantly contains a multi-strata traditional agroforests showing the insight of Gedeo farmers on natural resource management practices. Currently, this area has been losing its resilience and is becoming unable to sustain its inhabitants. Based on both RS-derived and GIS-computed land-use/cover changes (LUCC) as well as socioeconomic validations, this article explored the LUCC and agroecological-based driver patterns in Gedeo-Abaya landscape from 1986 to 2015. A combination of geo-spatial technology and cross-sectional survey design were employed to detect the drivers behind these changes. The article discussed that LUCC and the prevalence of drivers are highly diverse and vary throughout agroecological zones. Except for the population, most downstream top drivers are perceived as insignificant in the upstream region and vice versa. In the downstream, land-use/cover (LUC) classes are more dynamic, diverse, and challenged by nearly all anticipated drivers than are upstream ones. Agroforestry LUC has been increasing (by 25% of its initial cover) and is becoming the predominant cover type, although socioeconomic analysis and related findings show its rapid LUC modification. A rapid reduction of woodland/shrubland (63%) occurred in the downstream, while wetland/marshy land increased threefold (158%), from 1986 to 2015 with annual change rates of -?3.7 and +?6%, respectively. Land degradation induced by changes in land use is a serious problem in Africa, especially in the densely populated sub-Saharan regions such as Ethiopia (FAO 2015). Throughout the landscape, LUCC is prominently affecting land-use system of the study landscape due to population pressure in the upstream region and drought/rainfall variability, agribusiness investment, and charcoaling in the downstream that necessitate urgent action.     

基于遥感和Markov模型的新疆生产建设兵团土地利用变化

通过对兵团土地利用空间格局变化分析,选择合适的土地利用政策保护生态环境。运用RS和GIS技术对兵团近10年土地利用/覆被变化及景观格局空间变化进行分析,并在此基础上运用Markov模型对未来30年土地利用变化进行预测。2000—2010年,新疆生产建设兵团景观多样性升高,连通性增强,形状愈来愈简单,景观格局整体变化不大;草地、灌丛、湿地、荒漠和冰川/永久积雪面积减少,耕地和城镇面积增加,森林保持稳定;人为干扰对土地利用结构的变化具有重要作用,土地利用强度受人为活动影响的同时受土地利用政策影响;在未来30年间耕地和城镇面积继续增加,除森林基本保持不变外其他土地利用类型均减小。兵团城镇用地与草地和耕地之间的矛盾逐渐显现,势必引起兵团生态格局的变化。因此,必须实行合适的土地利用政策保护环境。     

淮北中湖采煤沉陷区治理前后景观格局变化研究

基于淮北中湖采煤沉陷区2005年、2014年和2018年的遥感影像进行地表景观解译,研究治理前后该区景观格局变化特征及生态效应。结果表明:治理前,该区耕地破碎化加剧、景观优势最大并持续减弱,沉陷积水区水体呈聚集化趋势;治理后,景观基质由耕地变为水体,林地、草地面积显著增加且景观优势上升,人工湖泊水体聚集程度高。区域景观破碎化减弱且中部比西北部破碎化程度低,景观蔓延度较稳定,景观多样性增加,边缘正效应增强,生态环境质量上升。在资源枯竭型矿区城市的生态治理中要合理优化水-陆景观格局,改善生态系统结构,减缓城市发展中的景观破碎化。     

A Landscape Ecology Assessment of the Tensas River Basin

A group of landscape ecological indicators were applied to biophysical data masked to the Tensas River Basin. The indicators were used to identify and prioritize sources of nutrients in a Mississippi/Atchafalaya River System sub-basin. Remotely sensed data were used for change detection assessment. With these methods, we were able to look at land use practices over the past twenty years in the Tensas River Basin of Louisiana. A simple land use classification was applied to multispectral scanner (MSS) data from 1972 and 1991. The landscape analysis methods described in this paper will show how to use these methods to assess the impact of human land use practices that are being implemented to improve environmental quality. Landscape assessment methods can be used as a simple, timely, cost effective approach for monitoring, targeting, and modeling ecosystem health in watersheds. Although this study was conducted in the southeast, the methods described in this paper may be applicable to western landscapes.     

Spatiotemporal changes of landscape pattern in response to deforestation in Northeastern Turkey: a case study in Rize

Recognition and understanding of landscape dynamics as a historical legacy of disturbances are necessary for sustainable management of forest ecosystems. This study analyzes spatial and temporal changes in land use and forest cover patterns in a typical mountain forest area in Rize Forest Enterprise of the Northeastern part of Turkey. The area is investigated by evaluated the temporal changes of spatial structure of forest conditions through spatial analysis of forest cover type maps from 1984 and 2007 using GIS and FRAGSTATS. The quantative evidences presented here showed that there were drastic changes in the temporal and spatial dynamics of land use/forest cover. As an overall change between 1984 and 2007, there was a net decrease of 2.30% in total forested areas. On one hand, productive forest areas decreased 12,506 ha, on the other hand, degraded forest areas increased 14,805 ha. In examining the changes of crown closure and development stages of forest ecosystem during the study period, the forest stand area with medium crown closures increased. Regenerated area increased while the other development stages were left to grow to mature development stages in the period. These results regarding to crown closure and development stage showed that forest quality has increased but total forest areas decreased. This is partially due to out-migration of rural population in Rize and Cayeli towns. In terms of spatial configuration, analysis of the metrics revealed that landscape structure in Study area had changed substantially over the 23-year study period, resulting in fragmentation of the landscape as indicated by the large patch numbers and the smaller mean patch sizes due to heavy timber subtraction, illegal cutting, and uncontrolled stand treatments.     

Land-cover changes in an urban lake watershed in a mega-city, Central China

Urbanization can exert a profound influence on land covers and landscape characteristics. In this study, we characterize the impact of urbanization on land cover and lacustrine landscape and their consequences in a large urban lake watershed, Donghu Lake watershed (the largest urban lake in China), Central China, by using Landsat TM satellite images of three periods of 1987, 1993 and 1999 and ground-based information. We grouped the land covers into six categories: water body, vegetable land, forested land, shrub-grass land, open area and urban land, and calculated patch-related landscape indices to analyze the effects of urbanization on landscape features. We overlaid the land cover maps of the three periods to track the land cover change processes. The results indicated that urban land continuously expanded from 9.1% of the total watershed area in 1987, to 19.4% in 1993, and to 29.6% in 1999. The vegetable land increased from 7.0% in 1987, 11.9% in 1993, to 13.9% in 1999 to sustain the demands of vegetable for increased urban population. Concurrently, continuous reduction of other land cover types occurred between 1987 and 1999: water body decreased from 30.4% to 23.8%, and forested land from 33.6% to 24.3%. We found that the expansion of urban land has at least in part caused a decrease in relatively wild habitats, such as urban forest and lake water area. These alterations had resulted in significant negative environmental consequences, including decline of lakes, deterioration of water and air quality, and loss of biodiversity.     

A method to the impact assessment of the returning grazing land to grassland project on regional eco-environmental vulnerability

The Chinese government has conducted the Returning Grazing Land to Grassland Project (RGLGP) across large portions of grasslands from western China since 2003. In order to explore and understand the impact in the grassland's eco-environment during the RGLGP, we utilized Projection Pursuit Model (PPM) and Geographic Information System (GIS) to develop a spatial assessment model to examine the ecological vulnerability of the grassland. Our results include five indications: (1) it is practical to apply the spatial PPM on ecological vulnerability assessment for the grassland. This methodology avoids creating an artificial hypothesis, thereby providing objective results that successfully execute a multi-index assessment process and analysis under non-linear systems in eco-environments; (2) the spatial PPM is not only capable of evaluating regional eco-environmental vulnerability in a quantitative way, but also can quantitatively demonstrate the degree of effect in each evaluation index for regional eco-environmental vulnerability; (3) the eco-environment of the Xianshui River Basin falls into the medium range level. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land use cover and change (LUCC) crucially influence the Xianshui River Basin's eco-environmental vulnerability. Generally, in the Xianshui River Basin, regional eco-environmental conditions improved during 2000 and 2010. The RGLGP positively affected NDVI and LUCC structure, thereby promoting the enhancement of the regional eco-environment; (4) the Xianshui River Basin divides its ecological vulnerability across different levels; therefore our study investigates three ecological regions and proposes specific suggestions for each in order to assist in eco-environmental protection and rehabilitation; and lastly that (5) the spatial PPM established by this study has the potential to be applied on all types of grassland eco-environmental vulnerability assessments under the RGLGP and under the similar conditions in the Returning Agriculture Land to Forest Project (RALFP). However, when establishing an eco-environmental vulnerability assessment model, it is necessary to choose suitable evaluation indexes in accordance with regional eco-environmental characteristics.     

Seasonal variations in the relationship between landscape pattern and land surface temperature in Indianapolis, USA

This paper intended to examine the seasonal variations in the relationship between landscape pattern and land surface temperature based on a case study of Indianapolis, United States. The integration of remote sensing, GIS, and landscape ecology methods was used in this study. Four Terra's ASTER images were used to derive the landscape patterns and land surface temperatures (LST) in four seasons in the study area. The spatial and ecological characteristics of landscape patterns and LSTs were examined by the use of landscape metrics. The impact of each land use and land cover type on LST was analyzed based on the measurements of landscape metrics. The results show that the landscape and LST patterns in the winter were unique. The rest of three seasons apparently had more agreeable landscape and LST patterns. The spatial configuration of each LST zone conformed to that of each land use and land cover type with more than 50% of overlap in area for all seasons. This paper may provide useful information for urban planers and environmental managers for assessing and monitoring urban thermal environments as result of urbanization.     

Governmental policies drive the LUCC trajectories in the Jianghan Plain

The prosperity of farmers is closely tied to governmental policies. The Jianghan Plain is an important region for commodity grains, cotton and edible oil for China. The trajectories of land use and land cover change (LUCC) of the study area from 1995 to 2010 were studied based on the LUCC database of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The LUCC was characterised by a continuous decrease of arable land and continuous increase of waters and construction land. The LUCC was obviously concurrent with the implementation of related national policies. The transition to construction land was ever well controlled by ‘Notice regarding the further strengthening of land management and arable land protection’ promulgated in 1997. However, it flourished again with the ‘Rise of Central China Strategy’ taking effect since 2006. The transition of construction land to others reflects an uncommon trend, which must be strengthened with the strict implementation of the overall plan, which imposes a limited acreage quota of construction land to each district. The policies were quite contradictory to the transition of waters. LUCC related to waters is most active, which was driven by both natural forces and national policies. Just after the devastating flood of 1998, the state council of China put forward the Green Policy to govern the major rivers. As to the study area, it is mainly to ‘push over dykes to let flood through and return farmland to lakes’. In 2004, the Grain Direct Subsidy Policy was implemented, which, along with the surge in the price of rice, resulted in a strengthening trend of conversion of ponds to paddy fields.     

On the intensity and type transition of land use at the basin scale using RS/GIS: a case study of the Hanjiang River Basin

The purpose of this study is to investigate the land use intensity and land use change type at the basin scale in the middle and lower reaches of the Hanjiang River Basin (in Hubei Province, China) by combining the Landsat TM images in 1995 and 2000 with the land use database (in scale 1:10,000) and relative data. In this study, the basic data is acquired from the interpretation of remote sensing (RS) images. The intensity of land use and the rate of change in double-directions of land use dynamics are calculated with the support of software ARC/INFO. The intensity of land use is indicated by the intensity coefficient of land use, and the transition of land use types is quantified as the rate of change in double-direction of land use types and also expressed as the transition matrix of land use types. The results are expressed in space by Geographic Information System (GIS) software. Results of this study show that (1) the intensity of land use is high in the study region, the intensity coefficients of land use in 1995 and 2000 are 260.025 and 290.526, respectively, and the intensity of development and utilization of land is trend to increscent; and (2) the rate of land use change in double directions in the whole study region is 0.52 with great spatial variation and the differentiation of land use types. In the differentiation of land use types, the unutilized land (with the rate to 4.391) is developed fast, the grassland (with 2.836) and water area (with 1.664) are disturbed severely, and these changes will influence the eco-environment in the Hanjiang River Basin and all the Yangtze Basin. The rates of the farmland and the woodland are 0.424 and 0.344, respectively, meaning that the fundamentals of regional human-environmental system are relative stable. With this study, we can conclude that (1) the patterns of land use are increasingly changing in the study region, the environmental impacts are escalated on this stage, and the further outcomes are destined to change the stability of the regional human–environmental system; and (2) the most useful method to study the present land use and its change is through the use of the RS/GIS with the land use database (in scale 1:10,000).