Analysis on landscape pattern in the upper and middle reaches of Yarlung Zangbo River: Taking Zhongba County, Angren County, Rikaze City as example

Abstract

Taking Zhongba County, Angren County, Rikaze City located at the Upper and Middle Reaches of Yarlung Zangbo River as landscape units, this paper studied the difference of the landscape pattern under various degrees of human disturbance in the three areas. The results showed that: the three areas all reflected the same characteristic of landscape pattern in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the natural landscapes were in the absolute dominant position. However, from Zhangba to Rikaze, with human disturbance intensity increasing, anthropogenic features of landscapes became more and more outstanding. In Zhongba, the landscape structure appeared to be simpler with coarse grains and a less rich diversity. Conversely, in Rikaze, the landscape showed a complicated shape with finer grains and a relatively richer diversity. This reflected that the impact of human activities to natural landscape behaved a gradually-growing trend from the upper reach to the middle one of Yarlung Zangbo River Basin.