Abstract
Variations in landscape patterns can provide key information on the effects human activity has on landscapes, and consequently, have received increased attention in recent years. This paper mainly deals with the spatio-temporal variation and driving force of the landscape pattern on the Yancheng coast using remote sensing and GIS. The results indicate the following: (1) The landscape was mostly farmland from 1984 to 2008, not wetlands. The landscape matrix changed from a situation in which the natural landscape was equal to the artificial landscape in 1984, while the latter was dominant between 1990 and 2008. The area of natural landscape decreased considerably—the proportion of natural landscapes was 51.07% in 1984, while it decreased to 28.82% in 2008. Artificial landscapes increased significantly—the majority of the increased artificial landscapes were farmland and aquaculture ponds. (2) The changes in these landscapes showed a trend, changing from natural landscapes to artificial landscapes. Salinity is the decisive factor of this fixed route o the landscape successions of the coast. (3) Although Yancheng wetland nature reserve was established in 1984 and was designated as a National Nature Reserve in 1992, anthropogenic activities on the Yancheng coast continue apace, and the trend of natural landscape loss has not changed. (4) According to the analysis of the landscape transition rate of the Yancheng coast during each phase, we concluded that the main driving force of coastal landscape succession was anthropogenic activities. Our method provides a novel quantitative method to assess the driving forces behind landscape successions.
Highlights
Landscape pattern variations can provide crucial information on the effects of anthropogenic activity on landscapes, and this topic has received much attention in recent years (Baus et al, 2014; Currin et al, 2015; Skilodimou et al, 2018)
Anthropogenic activities have become the main factors of coastal landscape succession
Where K is the dynamic transfer rate of single land use during the study period, Ua and Ub are the quantity of a type of land-use at the beginning and end of the study period, respectively, T is the length of the study period, and the value of K is the annual transfer rate of single land-use in the study area
Summary
Landscape pattern variations can provide crucial information on the effects of anthropogenic activity on landscapes, and this topic has received much attention in recent years (Baus et al, 2014; Currin et al, 2015; Skilodimou et al, 2018). The coast is an ecotone with interactions between marine effects, land, and atmospheric processes, biological effects, and anthropogenic activities (Noble et al, 2003; Lee et al, 2006). It is a fragile ecotone that is sensitive to environmental changes (Rosenberger et al, 2008; Kong et al, 2015). The coast is a suitable habitat for many endangered waterfowl used for breeding and wintering, and plays a Assessing Landscape Pattern Change significant role in environmental regulation and biodiversity conservation. With population increases and rapid economic development, coastal resources have been over-developed by tideland reclamation, coastal projects, and so on (Lei and Zhang, 2005; Chen et al, 2017), which can lead to the invasion of alien species and coastal pollution
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
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
