Analysis of landscape patterns and driving factors of land use in China

Abstract

The research on land use and land cover changes is a core for studies on the global change. The study on spatial pattern and its change of land use is important for better understanding land use/land cover changes and environmental management. Remote sensing and geographical information system were used to analyze the landscape pattern and its driving factors of land use in China. First, the types of land use in China were divided into six major types and twenty-six sub-types. The major types include cultivated land, forestland, grassland, water area, built-up land and barer land. Second, the information of land use classification was extracted from a database of resource and environmental with 1:100000 scales and in raster format. The spatial pattern of land use based on the land use classification database was analyzed. Third, we calculated the landscape diversity index (H), the landscape dominant index (D), the landscape homogeneity index (E) and the landscape broken index (C). These indexes of spatial patterns showed a clear picture of disturbance caused by human activities. Fourth, According to characteristic of landscape patterns and its eco-environmental background of land use, five transects were selected and the driving factors of land use landscape patterns were analyzed.