Evaluation of the natural suitability of human settlements environment in Jilin Province based on RS and GIS

Abstract

Taking Jilin Province as the study area,this paper analyzed four natural living environment factors of terrain conditions,land cover conditions,climate conditions and hydrological conditions using models such as relief degree of land surface,vegetation cover index,comfort index( also called temperature and humidity index),and water resource index by GIS and RS technology. Then the weighted models of Human Environment Index were established to evaluate the natural suitability of human settlements of 43 counties in Jilin Province with an analysis of the grading evaluation. The authors made suggestions concerning the migration and improvement of residential environment in Jilin Province. The results show that the natural human environment suitability presents an obvious spatial differentiation pattern,the dry areas of western Jilin Province and Korean Autonomous County of Changbai in southeast Jilin Province belong to the unsuitable area; the central and western counties belong to the critical suitable area,which accounts for more than half of the whole province; the central and eastern counties belong to the generally suitable area; and Ji'an City belongs to the moderately suitable area.