Use Of Intensity Analysis Research Articles

Use of intensity analysis and transfer matrix to characterize land conversion in the Aral Sea Basin under changing climate

Use of intensity analysis and transfer matrix to characterize land conversion in the Aral Sea Basin under changing climate

Use of Intensity Analysis to Characterize Land Use/Cover Change in the Biggest Island of Persian Gulf, Qeshm Island, Iran

In this study, land use/cover change was systematically investigated in the Qeshm Island to understand how human and nature interact in the largest island of Persian Gulf. Land-use maps were prepared for 1996, 2002, 2008, and 2014 using Landsat satellite imagery in six classes including agriculture, bare-land, built-up, dense-vegetation, mangrove, and water-body, and then dynamic of changes in the classes was evaluated using intensity analysis at three levels: interval, category, and transition. Results illustrated that, while the land changes were fast over the first and third time intervals (1996–2002 and 2008–2014), the trend of changes was slow in the second period (2002–2008). Driven by high demand for construction and population growth, the built-up class was identified as an active gainer in all the three time intervals. The class of bare-land was the main supplier of the land for other classes especially for built-up area, while built-up did not act as the active supplier of the land for other classes. The dense-vegetation class was active in all three time intervals. As for the mangrove class, drought and cutting by residents had negative effects, while setting up protected areas can effectively maintain this valuable ecosystem. High demands were observed for land change in relation to built-up and agriculture classes among other classes. The findings of this study can advance our understanding of the relationship and behavior of land use/cover classes among each other over 18 years in a coastal island with arid climate.

Armed conflict and mining induced land-use transition in northern Nimba County, Liberia

This study determined pre-conflict, conflict and post-conflict land use change and analysed the impact of armed conflict on the intensity of land use change in northern Nimba County. Landsat images of 1986, 1990, 2002 and 2016 were classified into four dominant land use categories in the study area: cultivation, mine, forest and settlement using maximum likelihood classification algorithm. Land use change was determined by deriving pre-conflict, conflict and post-conflict transition matrix. Based on the transition matrix, gain, loss, persistence, total change, swap and absolute value of net change were computed. Intensity of land use change was determined using the intensity analysis approach. The results show that the intensity of land use change was slow during the conflict but increased sharply after the conflict. Pre-conflict, conflict and post-conflict mine occupied 0.63%, 0.78% and 17.68%, forest cover accounted for 71.08%, 69.26% and 56.42% and settlement was 1.99%, 1.96% and 25.63% respectively. Similarly, pre-conflict, conflict and post-conflict uniform intensity of land use change was 4.09%, 1.51% and 5.01% respectively. Recent forest cover loss is primarily driven by sustained settlement expansion. The implications of rapid post-conflict settlement increase and forest loss in northern Nimba County include threat to habitat in a globally important biodiversity hotspot, increasing pressure on available agricultural land because of increasing population and potential exposure of the population to pollution from increase in mining activities. Therefore, more effective forest management strategies need to be developed to mitigate the prevailing trend. The use of intensity analysis has provided insights on the patterns and processes of pre-conflict, conflict and post-conflict land use change in a biodiversity hotspot. This is important for defining effective conservation goals, planning sustainable conservation strategies and deploying relevant tools for forest conservation and governance in conflict and conflict prone areas.

Use of intensity analysis to measure land use changes from 1932 to 2005 in Zhenlai County, Northeast China

Analyzing spatiotemporal dynamics of land use and land cover over time is widely recognized as important to better understand and provide solutions for social, economic, and environmental problems, especially in ecologically fragile region. In this paper, a case study was taken in Zhenlai County, which is a part of farming-pastoral ecotone of Northeast China. This study seeks to use multi-temporal satellite images and other data from various sources to analyze spatiotemporal changes from 1932 to 2005, and applied a quantitative methodology named intensity analysis in the time scale of decades at three levels: time interval, category, and transition. The findings of the case study are as follows: 1) the interval level of intensity analysis revealed that the annual rate of overall change was relatively fast in 1932–1954 and 1954–1976 time intervals. 2) The category level showed that arable land experienced less intensively gains and losses if the overall change was to have been distributed uniformly across the landscape while the gains and losses of forest land, grassland, water, settlement, wetland and other unused land were not consistent and stationary across the four time intervals. 3) The transition level illustrated that arable land expanded at the expense of grassland before 2000 while it gained intensively from wetland from 2000 to 2005. Settlement targets arable land and avoids grassland, water, wetland and other unused land. Besides, the loss of grassland was intensively targeted by arable land, forest land and wetland in the study period while the loss of wetland was targeted by water except for the time interval of 1976–2000. 4) During the early reclamation period, land use change of the study area was mainly affected by the policy, institutional and political factors, followed by the natural disasters.

Use of intensity analysis to link patterns with processes of land change from 1986 to 2007 in a coastal watershed of southeast China

This paper characterizes transitions among three land categories during three consecutive time intervals in a subtropical coastal watershed of southeast China that has enormous influence on the region’s economic and ecological health. Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite imagery of 1986, 1996, 2002, and 2007 were used to create maps of each time point for three categories: Agriculture, Natural, and Built. Intensity analysis was applied to quantify the annual intensity of the changes at three levels: time interval, category, and transition. The results show that overall land transformation is accelerating across the three time intervals. Agriculture shows net gain in the first time interval, then net losses in the subsequent two time intervals. The swap change is larger than the net change for both Agriculture and Natural during all three time intervals. Nearly all of the changes are exchanges between Agriculture and Natural areas. Agriculture and Built are active categories, whereas Natural is a dormant category during all three time intervals. The changes are stationary for all three time intervals in terms of the intensities of categories and transitions for Natural to Agriculture, Agriculture to Natural, and Agriculture to Built. The transition from Agriculture to Built is intensively systematic. The land-cover change is associated with the overall economic growth and recent agricultural decline of the area. The intensity analysis in the Jiulong River watershed reveals information that links patterns to processes of land-use and land-cover changes that are common in many other urbanizing places in China.