Abstract
The Pearl River Estuary Area was selected for this study. For the past 40 years, it has been one of the most complex coasts in China, yet few studies have analyzed the complexity and variations of the area’s different coastlines. In this investigation, the coastlines of the Pearl River Estuary Area were extracted from multi-temporal Landsat remote sensing data from 1978, 1988, 1997, 2008, and 2018. The coastline of this area was classified into mainland, island, and estuarine. To obtain more detailed results of the mainland and island, we regarded this area as the main body, rezoned into different parts. The box-counting dimension was applied to compute the bidimensional (2D) fractal dimension. Coastline length and the fractal dimension of different types of coastline and different parts of the main body were calculated and compared. The fractal dimension of the Pearl River Estuary Area was found to have increased significantly, from 1.228 to 1.263, and coastline length also increased during the study period. The island and mainland showed the most complex coastlines, while estuaries showed the least complexity during the past forty years. A positive correlation was found between length and 2D-fractal dimension in some parts of the study area. Land reclamation had the strongest influence on fractal dimension variations.
Highlights
The coastal area is one of the most significant elements of Earth’s ecosystems, providing habitats for humans and other creatures [1]
Frequent interactions between sea and land have occurred in the Pearl River Delta area which have led to significant coastline variations from the natural
To discuss how natural and anthropogenic factors impacted on fractal dimension (FD) and coastline length, and compare the FD of the study site with other coastal areas of China
Summary
The coastal area is one of the most significant elements of Earth’s ecosystems, providing habitats for humans and other creatures [1]. Length is an important element of the coastline, and has been widely studied in the past, and fractal dimension (FD) is another useful and direct way to understand geometric coastline complexity and variations. In 2014, Xu et al analyzed coastline variations in northern China from 2000 to 2012 using both length and FD They calculated the FD using the box-counting method and found that the FD of the study area increased smoothly with length of coastlines [24]. Scientists have calculated coastline FD to analyze the complexity of the coastal zone in the past, they cannot provide information on the differences among the mainland, islands, and estuarine coastlines. Fractal dimension indicates the complexity of coastlines and provides details of the coastal area It is, useful for analyzing the Pearl River Estuary Area (PREA), one of the most complex coasts in China. To discuss how natural and anthropogenic factors impacted on FD and coastline length, and compare the FD of the study site with other coastal areas of China
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