Abstract

Landscape structure changes over the past three decades were determined with land use and land cover(LULC) maps, and their relationships with mean air temperature time series were the analyzed for the Busan metropolitan area and South Kyeongsang Province, Korea. The geometric structures of the LULC data were quantitatively represented based on FRAGSTATS, a spatial pattern analysis program for quantifying landscape structure. FRAGSTATS-derived landscape metrics confirmed that there were major changes in LULC and landscape fragmentation in the region. Meteorological observation records showed that mean air temperature had increased from in the 1990`s to in the 2000`s in Busan. For South Kyeongsang Province, they increased from to during the same time period. These long-term temperature changes are correlated with typical spatial pattern changes of LULC in the southeastern region of the country. Spatial metrics analysis showed that urban area expanded from 9.7% to 26.8% of Busan while forest and agricultural land decreased by 9.6% and 14.9%, respectively over the past thirty years. The significant urbanization are tightly associated with deforestation, removal of agricultural land, and fast temperature increases since the 1990`s. The urban area of South Kyeongsang Province rapidly increased, and it became 12 times as large as it was. The degree of temperature increases differed among three different sub-regions. The temperature increasing rate was lowest in the coastal region while the colder mountainous region had the highest figure.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.