Landscape Pattern Variation Research Articles

Spatio-temporal variation of landscape pattern and the response of windbreak and sand fixation service in Hexi corridor of northern sand fixation belt.

Landscape pattern, an important factor affecting the supply and maintenance of ecosystem services, is the basis for the healthy and stable regional ecosystem and the optimal decision of land use. Taking the Hexi Corridor in the northern sand fixation belt as the study area, we quantified and analyzed the temporal and spatial variations and response relationship between landscape pattern and windbreak and sand fixation services during 2000-2020 by using the software Fragstats 4.2, the revised wind erosion equation and the spatial autocorrelation method. The results showed that, the landscape pattern of land use types changed obviously in the study area during 2000-2020, mainly from Gobi to cultivated land and from grassland to cultivated land, and that the landscape pattern tended to be diversified, heterogeneous, and fragmented. The spatial pattern of windbreak and sand fixation services was generally characterized by "high in southeast and low in northwest", with the amount of windbreak and sand fixation increasing at first and then decreasing. The windbreak and sand fixation capacity was higher in cultivated land and grassland and lower in the bare land and construction land. Shannon's diversity index, patch density and landscape shape index were all positively correlated with windbreak and sand fixation services, while mean patch size was negatively correlated with it. Our results indicated that the increases of landscape heterogeneity, the more uniform distribution, the more patches and the more complex landscape shape had a promoting effect on windbreak and sand fixation services in the Hexi corridor of the northern sand fixation belt with Gobi Desert as the dominant landscape.

Differential analysis of landscape patterns of land cover products in tropical marine climate zones – A case study in Malaysia

Abstract Land cover in tropical marine climate zones is important for global climate change. The existing analysis of land cover product consistency mainly focuses on a continental or national scale and rarely takes different geographical zones (such as tropical marine climate zones) as examples to carry out micro-interpretation from the perspective of ecology from the grid scale. In fact, some types of land cover under different zones have poor accuracy due to the standard of cognition and the complexity of the spatial pattern of ground objects. In addition, land cover and its change in tropical Marine climate zones will affect the greenhouse effect, energy balance, water transport, and so on, thus affecting climate change on a regional or even global scale. Therefore, this article presents an evaluation based on GLOBCOVER, CCI LC, and MCD12Q1 data using Malaysia as a case study, through area composition similarity, field sample point validation, and landscape indices. The results showed that (1) the area correlation coefficient between GLOBCOVER and CCI LC is the highest at 0.998. (2) The CCI LC had the highest OA and kappa coefficient of 59.01% and 0.4957, while the GLOBCOVER product had the lowest OA and kappa coefficient of 49.24% and 0.3614, respectively. (3) The consistency of the water landscape index is high between the CCI LC and GLOBCOVE data, the consistency of the artificial surfaces landscape index is high between the CCI LC and MCD12Q1 products, and the consistency of the grassland/shrubland landscape index is high between the GLOBCOVE and MCD12Q1 products. The results of microscopic landscape patterns show that the three product landscape patterns are generally more consistent in East Malaysia than in West Malaysia. The low accuracy of grassland, bareland, and shrubland is the key reason for the wide variation in landscape patterns between the three products.

Impact of Land Use/Land Cover and Landscape Pattern on Water Quality in Dianchi Lake Basin, Southwest of China

The water quality of a basin is pronouncedly affected by the surrounding types of land use. Analyzing the impact of LULC and landscape patterns on water quality is critical for identifying potential drivers. To further study how LUCC affects the water quality in a typical plateau lake basin, this study investigated the impacts of land-use types on water quality in the Dianchi Lake Basin in Southwest China. We analyzed changes in land-use types and the landscape pattern of the Dianchi basin, calculated the CWQI (Canadian Water Quality Index) value based on the water quality indexes (PH, total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen (DO), permanganate index (CODMn), five-day biochemical ox-ygen demand (BOD5), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), turbitidy, and chlorophyll-a (Chla)), used the RDA (Redundancy Analysis) and SMLR (Stepwise multiple linear regression) methods, the coupling degree, coupling coordination degree, and the geographical detector model to explore the relationship between water quality and changes in the land-use type. The results show that (1) changes in the land-use types were obvious: the majority of the land, which was originally forest land, became built land in 2020 and farmland in 1990 (except for the Dianchi water). Landscape pattern indexes indicated that almost all land-use types were first scattered, then gathered from 1990 to 2020. (2) Changes in the water quality of Dianchi Lake lagged behind the changes in land-use types, and the variation trends were similar to the landscape pattern variation trends. The CWQI value decreased in a nearly linear fashion from 1990 to 1998, exhibited a slight change from 1999 to 2013, and quickly increased from 2013. (3) Land-use types demonstrated a tight correlation with the Dianchi water quality, and LPI was the most dominant factor in both Caohai Lake and Waihai Lake. (4) There were different indexes affecting the coupling coordination degrees of Caohai Lake and Waihai Lake.

Temporal and spatial variation of ecosystem service value and its response to landscape pattern change in Guizhou Province, China.

Guizhou Province is a test area of ecological civilization in China, and one of the most typical areas of karst landform development in the world. Exploring the change of ecosystem service value and its spatial correlation distribution characteristics with landscape pattern is conducive to formulating ecological environment improvement and protection measures according to local conditions. We analyzed the spatial and temporal variations of landscape pattern and ecosystem services in Guizhou Province from 2005 to 2018 and constructed a geographically weighted regression model to explore the spatial changes of their correlation coefficients. The results showed that the transfer of landscape types in Guizhou Province from 2005 to 2018 mainly occurred in the five landscapes of construction land, forest, water, grassland, and cropland. The landscape fragmentation and diversity increased. The value of ecosystem services was increasing year by year. Forests were the main contributors to the value of ecosystem services in Guizhou Province, with regulation services as the main ecosystem services. For high-value landscape types, the increase of diversity and the reduction of fragmentation were conducive to the increases of ecosystem service value. In the area with concentrated low-value landscape types, it showed the opposite effect. The direction of landscape transfer and the spatial distribution of diversity and fragmentation of different landscape types should be adjusted according to the characteristics of ecological environment in different regions of Guizhou Province, to realize the increases of ecosystem service value.

Predicting springtime herbicide exposure across multiple scales in pacific coastal drainages (Oregon, USA)

Identification of non-point sources of watershed pollution such as pesticide runoff is challenging due to spatial and temporal variation in landscape patterns of land use and environmental conditions. Regional case study monitoring investigations can document region-specific conditions and processes to inform managers about pesticide movement through watersheds. Additionally, modeling field-collected data within these contexts can be used to predict pesticide presence in un-sampled areas. During a 45 day period in the spring of 2019, we sampled sixteen coastal watersheds in Oregon, USA for current-use water-borne herbicides commonly used in forestland vegetation management. At 80 % of sampling locations, at least one of four commonly used herbicides was detected in integrative passive water samplers, with hexazinone and atrazine most commonly detected. In this study, we use total accumulation of detected compounds to compare relative detections with upstream management and environmental watershed variables using multiple linear regression. An additive effects model was developed using slope, herbicide activity notified during the sampling window, and recent clearcut harvest notifications to predict variation in total herbicide accumulation (R2 = 0.8914). The model was then applied to predict concentrations in un-sampled watersheds throughout the Oregon’s coastal region at three watershed scales using Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUCs) 8, 10, and 12. Regional differences in predicted values were visualized using choropleth maps. Subwatersheds (HUC12) were grouped by subbasin (HUC8) and base mean predicted values were compared to further quantify regional differences. Models predicted that south coast sites have higher than average herbicide concentrations, which aligned with field-collected data findings.

Responses of soil erosion to changes in landscape pattern and its evolution in watershed in the loess hilly region under characteristic management and development

Understanding the relationship between soil erosion and the changes in landscape patterns is important for guiding the management and development of watersheds. The Nangou watershed in Ansai County, Shaanxi on the Loess Plateau, is an area with the implement of "Grain for Green", ecological agriculture, ecological tourism and the demonstration of science and technology for landscape management. We quantified the spatial and temporal variations of landscape pattern and soil erosion from 1981 to 2018 using the GIS and the universal soil loss equation (USLE). The relationship between the soil erosion modulus and nine landscape pattern indices in three categories was analyzed using the principal component analysis at both plot and landscape levels. The results showed that, among the five landscape types, the spatial and temporal changes of cultivated land and woodland dominated the evolution of landscape patterns, which affected the concentration and distribution degree of the whole watershed. Soil erosion in the Nangou watershed decreased annually, with erosion area, erosion modulus and soil erosion intensity decreasing by 29.7%, 61.2%, and 73.4% from 1981 to 2018, respectively. The variation of cultivated land and forest land areas determined the changes of soil erosion modulus of the whole watershed. The change trend of landscape pattern index was consistent with that of soil erosion. "Grain for Green" Project was the major dri-ving force for the changes in the landscape pattern and for the reduction of soil erosion. The characteristic development and management could weaken soil erosion intensity in parts of the study area. The rational configuration of landscape types could effectively control soil erosion in a watershed. The combination of rational configuration and characteristic management could help achieve the goals for sustainable and high quality development of the watershed.

Ecological Vulnerability of Lake Basin by Integrating Human Activity Indicators based on RS and GIS: A Case of Fuxian Lake in Yunnan Province, China

The variation of landscape pattern and vulnerability can indicate the ecological environmental state. This study established a model for landscape pattern vulnerability based on human activity intensity by taking five sets of land use data (1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015). Landscape sensitivity index, landscape adaptability index and human activity intensity of land surface were all used to compute the landscape vulnerability index. In virtue of Fragstats 4.2 and ArcGIS 10.5, landscape index can be obtained and spatial-temporal distribution and evolution of landscape pattern vulnerability were analysed. Results showed that, (1) from 1995 to 2015, the human activity intensity and landscape pattern vulnerability in the Fuxian Lake Basin deteriorated gradually, the area of higher intensity/vulnerability and high intensity/vulnerability dramatically expanded with time. (2) the spatial heterogeneity of landscape pattern vulnerability increased, there are significant differences between the north, south ends and east, west sides of Fuxian Lake. (3) The global spatiality of landscape pattern vulnerability exhibited strong positive correlation with the significant form of spatial agglomeration, and the positive spatial autocorrelation continued to keep on but the tendency of spatial concentration was slightly decreasing over time. The local autocorrelation mainly based on high-high accumulation zone and low-low accumulation zone had stronger spatial autocorrelation among neighbouring space units. Due to the implementation of the protection policy, the landscape pattern vulnerability in the east sides of Fuxian Lake had expressed declining trend, but that in the north need more attention and protection.

Spatial-temporal variations of landscape pattern and hot spot analysis in the Lixiahe Plain of Jiangsu Province from 1980 to 2018

Objective With an exploration of the temporal and spatial changes of landscape pattern as well as an investigation of its cold and hot spots, this paper is aimed to provide a scientific basis for regional ecological security and high-quality development. Method With landscape type data collected of the Lixiahe Plain, Jiangsu Province over the five periods of 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2018, an analysis was made of the characteristics of temporal and spatial changes of its landscape pattern in the past 40 years using landscape pattern metrics, transfer matrix and comprehensive dynamic index. Then, an investigation was conducted of the cold and hot spot regions of landscape changes on the basis of hot spot analysis. Result Cultivated land, lake wetland and construction land were the dominant landscape types in the study area with the coverage of cultivated land accounting for the largest proportion, but having decreased by 1 000.67 km2 in the past 40 years whereas the areas of lake wetland and construction land increasingly expanded, with the area of construction land increasing by 679.83 km2 and the area of grassland and unused land showed a slightly decreasing trend, while that of forest increased slightly. The landscape types had undergone complex mutual transformations in the past 40 years with those of cultivated land, lake wetland and construction land being the most remarkable with the comprehensive dynamic index of the grid landscape varying between 0 and 5.43% over the study period. The landscape change of the Lixiahe Plain had obvious directionality and agglomeration: the center of change was tilted along the “southeast-northwest” direction, and the hot spots of landscape change were located at Xinghua City, Gaoyou City, Yandu District and Jiangdu District. Conclusion The landscape pattern of the Lixiahe Plain underwent significant changes due to the increase of landscape diversity and the intensification of fragmentation and the impact of human activities on the landscape pattern. The implementation of the natural wetland restoration policy had a positive impact on the landscape ecological security in the Lixiahe Plain. [Ch, 4 fig. 4 tab. 32 ref.]

Spatio-temporal variation of oasis landscape pattern in arid area: Human or natural driving?

The eco-environment of the arid area is constantly fragile global-wide. The study on the spatial and temporal variation of its landscape pattern can quickly identify the driving factors, which is an effective analysis method of ecological conservation in the arid area. In this study, Jinghe County, Xinjiang, in Northwestern China, is chosen as a case study of understanding the major driving force of the oasis landscape. Landsat satellite images of 1994, 2007, and 2017 are used as the basic data sources for analysis. The moving window method, transition matrix, and factor analysis are selected as the main technical means for this paper to reveal the temporal and spatial variation of landscape pattern in Jinghe County, and to quantitatively describe its driving factors. The results of the analysis show that: (1) The landscape pattern of Jinghe County has changed dramatically, especially the construction land and farmland. Both show an increase of 351.29% and 269.01% respectively between 1994 and 2017. Farmland increased the most, with the proportion of 6.45% in Jinghe County, and expanded along with the “triangle” three sides. The area of forest land increased slightly, the area of grassland and unused land decreased, and the area of water did not change significantly. (2) The dominant obvious regional differences of landscape types in Jinghe County are mainly manifested in farmland and forest land. Taking the unused land as the boundary, the biodiversity of farmland decreased, and the aggregation degree deepened, while the fragmentation degree of forest land increased. (3) The spatial–temporal variation of landscape patterns in Jinghe County is the result of the combination of natural and human factors, but the correlation between human factors and the change of landscape area is significantly greater than that of natural factors. Thus, human factors are the main driving force of landscape pattern change in Jinghe County. The scientific management and planning of the intensity of human activities in Jinghe County should be the focus of ecological environment restoration and protection.

Landscape changes and their ecological effects of Miaodao Archipelago with human disturbances and under natural conditions in the past 30 years

The modern landscape patterns of islands usually show obvious spatial heterogeneity and complex ecological effects due to the vulnerability of ecosystems with natural characteristics under increasing human activities. In this work, we studied the variation in landscape pattern of the Miaodao Archipelago in Bohai Sea, North China, from 1990 to 2019, and an evaluation index system was established to explore the impacts of natural conditions and human disturbances on the ecological effects in the pressure-state-response (PSR) framework. Empirical analysis was conducted on the natural conditions, human disturbances, and ecological effects. The results show that forest was the main component of the landscape pattern in the archipelago. Both of the areas of forest and construction land were increasing, and the areas of cropland and grassland were declining. Other landscape types changed slightly, and the landscape fragmentation was increasing. The natural condition exhibited positive effects while human disturbance showed negative effects on the local ecology. Human disturbances come mainly from shoreline use while the natural conditions were mainly from the elevation change. The ecological effects were resulted mainly from the net primary productivity and water yield.

Spatial Changes of Landscape and Urban Planning for the Ethnic Settlements under the Background of Urbanization

With the stable development of new countryside construction, the changing of the landscape pattern in the Chinese countryside attracts more attention, especially in the ethnic townships which are hardly accessible. To explore the development of ethnic areas, it is crucial to understand the spatial and temporal variation of the landscape pattern. In this study, the landscape pattern change was analyzed at both patch type level and landscape level. The land use data (format: vector) got from Aerla Town (a typical Daur ethnic township in Inner Mongolia) for the duration from 2008 to 2013 was analyzed by ArcGIS platform and Fragstats. For the patch level, the grassland, farmland, and forestland turned into construction land gradually. Regarding the landscape level, the landscape diversity index and landscape connectivity index were relatively low, the heterogeneity index and the landscape fragmentation were relatively high, and the landscape fragmentation index was increasing. Then with considering the social and economic development in Aerla Town, the Pearson correlation analysis and grey correlation method are used to get the main driving force of landscape change. The results indicated that population changes and GDP growth were the main driving forces of landscape pattern change. Finally, the driving forces which resulted in the variation of landscape pattern incorporating the economic, cultural, policy, and natural effects were discussed. The research could provide basic information and a theoretical foundation for the development of minority areas in Northeast China.

自然保护地整合优化的景观格局变化分析——以贵州省思南县为例

自然保护地整合优化是我国重构自然保护地体系、衔接三条控制线划定、完善国土空间规划的重要举措。利用自然保护地整合优化成果、国土三调数据，综合运用GIS空间分析、景观格局指数和保护地边界分析法，对贵州思南县自然保护地整合优化各阶段景观格局的变化特征及其合理性进行了分析。结果表明：（1）整合优化后土地利用/覆盖组成变化显著，耕地、建设用地显著减少，优势景观林地面积增加。（2）整合优化后，思南县自然保护地景观异质性降低、优势度增强、破碎度增加。（3）各斑块类型的复杂性和异质性降低，林地优势度增强，但耕地、园地的破碎度增加，整合优化未造成优势景观的破碎化。（4）整合优化后，自然保护地边界复杂度显著提高，自然保护区、地质公园变化最明显，将给自然保护地勘界定桩增加难度。（5）耕地、建设用地、林地变化是思南县自然保护地景观格局变化的主要因素，耕地、建设用地主要作为矛盾调出自然保护地，而林地则主要作为破碎化斑块伴随矛盾一并调出。本研究自然保护地整合优化方案围绕矛盾和问题开展调整，所反映的景观格局变化，与整合优化调整规则限定的内容相适应，整合优化方案总体可行、合理。由于存在的破碎化、边界复杂化、区域分离等问题，在整合优化过程中应进一步优化调整规则，统一数据精度，尽量避免此类问题的产生。景观格局指数变化所反馈的信息可为自然保护地整合优化的科学开展及其成果的合理性评价提供一定参考，引入成果评估机制对自然保护地整合优化工作具有重要意义。;The integration and optimization of natural protected areas (IONPA) is a significant way to reconstruct the system of natural protected areas, connect the delimitation of three control lines, and improve the project of land spatial plans in China. In this paper, while using the result of IONPA and the data of the third national land survey, we analyzed the pattern of variations and rationalities of the landscape in each stage following the practice of IONPA in Sinan County, Guizhou Province, with the methods of GIS spatial distribution, landscape pattern index, and boundary analysis. The results showed that after IONPA, (1) the composition of land use/cover varied significantly, the area of cultivated land and construction land decreased dramatically, and the area of forest land from the dominant landscape increased relatively. (2) The landscape heterogeneity decreased, but both the dominance and the fragmentation increased in the natural protected areas in Sinan County. (3) The complexity and heterogeneity of each patch type decreased, but the dominance of forest land increased, while the fragmentation for the cultivated land and garden land increased. The IONPA did not fragment the dominant landscape. (4) The boundary complexity of the natural protected areas increased significantly, where the nature reserve and geopark varied the most, which would increase the difficulties of delimiting and staking the boundaries. (5) The changes of the cultivated land, construction land and forest land were the main factors attributed to the variations of landscape pattern in Sinan County. The cultivated land and construction land were suggested to move out from the natural protected areas mainly due to conservation conflicts, while the forest land was also suggested to move out mainly as fragmentized patches along with conflicts. In this study, the scheme of IONPA was adjusted focused on resolving the contradictions and problems, therefore, the changes of landscape pattern reflected from the practice in this study were consistent with the specific contents of the adjustment rules of IONPA. In general, the scheme of IONPA in this study was feasible and reasonable. However, there are still some problems like fragmentation, boundary complexity and regional separation, which remind us to avoid the above-mentioned problems, and meanwhile, to further optimize the adjustment rules of IONPA and to unify the accuracies of all data in the future. The information coming from the changes of landscape pattern indexes can provide a certain reference to conduct IONPA scientifically and to assess the result rationally. Additionally, introduction of the achievement evaluation mechanism to IONPA was significantly important.

Spatiotemporal Change and Landscape Pattern Variation of Eco-Environmental Quality in Jing-Jin-Ji Urban Agglomeration From 2001 to 2015

Identifying the changes and relationships between regional eco-environment quality and landscape pattern in an urban agglomeration have a great significance in realizing sustainable development goal. However, limited research has been performed to understand the spatiotemporal change of eco-environment quality, the variation of landscape pattern, and their relationship in an urban agglomeration. This study selected the Jing-Jin-Ji (JJJ) urban agglomeration as the study area. A comprehensive index, the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI), was utilized to understand the eco-environment spatiotemporal change and landscape pattern variation at class-level and landscape-level of JJJ during 2001~2015, then, their relationship was explored. The major conclusions were as follows: (1) The average RSEI value of JJJ increased from 0.43 to 0.46, which represented that the eco-environment of JJJ had improved in the fourteen years. Among it, the improved region was mainly located in Zhangjiakou city, while the degraded region was mainly distributed in the eastern Hebei plain. (2) The landscape characteristics of entire JJJ eco-environment were becoming more aggregated, connected, diverse, and regular. However, fair, moderate, and good grades were getting more concentrated and continuous; poor grade indicated a more fragmented and disconnected trend; excellent grade displayed an expanded and concentrated situation. (3) Human factors have an increasing influence on regional eco-environment changes. (4) Fair, moderate, and good grades showed a more dominant and stronger influence on the variation of landscape pattern in JJJ. Specifically, the fair grade had a positive correlation with the variation of landscape pattern, while moderate and good grades had a negative one. All of these conclusions could be valuable information for relevant decision-makers in managing or achieving the optimal eco-environment landscape pattern.

Landscape pattern variation, protection measures, and land use/land cover changes in drinking water source protection areas: A case study in Danjiangkou Reservoir, China

Understanding the changes and interactions between landscape patterns and land use/land cover (LULC) in drinking water source protection areas (DWSPAs) is fundamentally important for effective land management to ensure landscape sustainability and the protection of water quality. However, there is limited research on LULC changes, landscape patterns and the relationship between them in DWSPAs. This study focused on the DWSPAs of the Danjiangkou Reservoir, one of the most important water sources in China. Four LULC maps (2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015) were extracted to study the temporal-spatial relationship between landscape patterns and LULC. According to the results of the change processes and trends, a series of dramatic changes occurred in the LULC, including percentage decreases in cultivated land (10.31%) and water bodies (20.23%) and a percentage increase in built-up land (116.96%). A comprehensive index for Status, Direction, and Trend with a value of 0.66 indicated an imbalanced and one-way transition in the study region. The Aggregation index metric decreased from 98.2885 to 98.2120, and the Simpson's diversity index metric increased from 0.7161 to 0.7369, which suggested a diversification and fragmentation of the landscape trends. The relationship analysis revealed that the changes in the LULC due to protection measures were the driving factors of the variation in landscape patterns, especially in cultivated land and water bodies. These insights on LULC changes, landscape pattern variations, and temporal-spatial relationships have important implications for future land-use planning polices and environmental activities.

Landscape Pattern Changes in the Xingkai Lake Area, Northeast China.

Understanding landscape change is important for ecologically sustainable development. In this paper, we assessed the spatiotemporal variations of landscape pattern in the Xingkai Lake area using remote sensing data from 1982, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. Landscape patterns of marshlands, paddy fields, dry farmlands, and their combinations were analyzed at class and landscape levels. We examined the stability of landscape types through principal component analysis based on class level indices for landscape types. The results indicated that marshland areas decreased significantly by 33.87% but paddy fields increased by 1.84 times from 1982 to 2015. The largest conversion of dry farmlands to paddy fields was 90.88 km2 during the period 2010–2015. In contrast, the largest conversion of paddy fields to dry farmlands was 86.03 km2 during the period 2000–2005. The difference in relative change revealed that dry farmlands had experienced a greater relative change than paddy fields since 2000. The interspersion and juxtaposition index decreased, while the number of patches grew. This showed that landscape fragmentation was increasing and the landscape pattern was becoming dispersed. Marshlands were more stable than paddy fields and dry farmlands across all time periods, except for the year 2005.

Remote Sensing-Based Analysis of Landscape Pattern Evolution in Industrial Rural Areas: A Case of Southern Jiangsu, China

With the rapid economic development of industrial rural areas in Southern Jiangsu, the rural landscape and ecological environment of these industrial rural areas are getting damaged. Based on GIS and RS techniques, Landsat Satellite remote sensing images from 1981, 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2018 were collected for Jiangyin, Zhangjiagang, Changshu and Kunshan, to extract landscape pattern indexes and spatial distribution data. Landscape pattern indexes of the patch-class level and landscape level from each year were calculated by FRAGSTATS. After analyzing and comparing landscape pattern variation of five years, progress, characteristics and driving forces of landscape pattern evolution were explored. At the patch-class level, construction land had continuously encroached on green and cultivated land, exhibiting trends of expansion and centralization. At the landscape level, the number of small patches and degree of landscape fragmentation generally increased. The direct cause of landscape pattern evolution in industrial rural areas of Southern Jiangsu was the encroachment and segmentation of green and cultivated land by construction land, and the dominant factors driving the changes in construction land in the industrial rural areas of Southern Jiangsu were the effects of land and population aggregation exerted by the development of township enterprises and rural industries.

Correlation between Spatial-Temporal Variation in Landscape Patterns and Surface Water Quality: A Case Study in the Yi River Watershed, China

The evidence for a correlation between landscape patterns and surface water quality is still weak. We chose the Yi River watershed in China as a study area. We selected and determined the chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, total phosphorus, dissolved oxygen, and electric conductivity to represent the surface water quality. We analyzed the spatial distribution of the surface water quality. Buffer zones with five different radii were built around each sampling site to analyze landscape patterns on different scales. A correlation analysis was completed to examine the influencing rules and the response mechanisms between landscape patterns and surface water quality indicators. The results show that: (1) Different landscape composition types impact the surface water quality differently and increasing the area of forest land can effectively reduce non-point source pollution, (2) an increase in urban area may threaten the surface water quality, and (3) landscape compositional change has a greater influence on surface water quality compared to landscape configurational change. This study provides a scientific foundation for the spatial development of watersheds and outlines a strategy for improving the sustainability of surface water quality and the surrounding environment.

Landscape pattern evolution along terrain gradient in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, China.

Terrain is an important factor in land landscape pattern change. To reveal the spatial and temporal characteristics and variation of landscape pattern along a terrain gradient, we used three remote sensing images and digital elevation model (DEM) data of Fuzhou in 1995, 2005 and 2015 to investigate the topographic gradient effect of landscape pattern and the cause of formation based on terrain index, land use distribution index, geo-informatics map analysis and landscape index. The results showed that forestland was mainly distributed in middle-low, middle-high and higher level terrain, while farmland, water body, construction land and unused lands were mainly distributed in the low rank terrain. From 1995 to 2015, the area of forestland, farmland, and unused land in Fuzhou decreased, while that of construction land and water body increased. The change of landscape type was stable, which was mainly distributed in middle-low, middle-high, and high grade terrain gradient region. In addition, landscape pattern changes were obvious across the terrain gra-dient. The landscape type of low terrain area mainly shifted to the construction land, but farmland and forestland had an alternation change in the middle-low and middle-high terrain area. The characteristics of landscape pattern fragmentation, landscape heterogeneity and landscape diversity in the study area had been increasing year by year, but they had decreased with the elevation of terrain.

Spatial-temporal evolution and prediction of urban landscape pattern and habitat quality based on CA-Markov and InVEST model.

The change of urban landscape caused by human activities is one of the most important factors affecting terrestrial ecosystem. The distribution of urban landscape pattern has great impacts on the service function of regional biodiversity. To reveal the variation of landscape pattern and habi-tat quality in cities and its driving factors, we extracted landscape type information of Wuhan in 2005, 2010, 2015, and analyzed spatial-temporal evolution of landscape pattern using Markov transition model. The CA-Markov model was used to simulate the landscape pattern in 2020 under the natural growth scenario. The driving factor for landscape variation was analyzed using Logistic regression model. Combined with InVEST model, spatial pattern of habitat quality and its variation in three phases were calculated and evaluated. The simulated habitat quality in 2020 was obtained and its distribution characteristics were analyzed. The relationship between variation of landscape pattern and human activities was explored. The results showed that cultivated land and manufactured surface were the landscape types with highest variations between 2005 and 2015. The area of cultivated land continued to decline, with most of the area being transferred into manufactured surface. The area of manufactured surface continued to increase, most of which was transferred from paddy field and dry land. From 2005 to 2015, the habitat quality declined, with a large number of landscapes with high habitat quality level being changed to low habitat quality level. The overall index of habitat quality decreased and the biodiversity service function declined, indicating the degeneration of habitat quality. In 2015-2020, the evolutionary trend of landscape pattern and habitat quality would keep consistent with the past decade, with an increasing area of artificial surface, decreasing index of habitat quality, weakening biodiversity service function, and degenerating habitat quality. The most important factor accounted for the landscape pattern change in the study area was the changes in Gross Domestic Product (GPD) and regional fiscal revenue. Human socio-economic activities were the key driving force for the spatial variation of landscape and degeneration of habitat quality. Urbanization and land reclamation by filling lakes were the main reasons for landscape pattern variation in Wuhan.

Spatio-Temporal Variation Analysis of Landscape Pattern Response to Land Use Change from 1985 to 2015 in Xuzhou City, China

Rapid urbanization has dramatically spurred economic development since the 1980s, especially in China, but has had negative impacts on natural resources since it is an irreversible process. Thus, timely monitoring and quantitative analysis of the changes in land use over time and identification of landscape pattern variation related to growth modes in different periods are essential. This study aimed to inspect spatiotemporal characteristics of landscape pattern responses to land use changes in Xuzhou, China durfing the period of 1985–2015. In this context, we propose a new spectral index, called the Normalized Difference Enhanced Urban Index (NDEUI), which combines Nighttime light from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System with annual maximum Enhanced Vegetation Index to reduce the detection confusion between urban areas and barren land. The NDEUI-assisted random forests algorithm was implemented to obtain the land use/land cover maps of Xuzhou in 1985, 1995, 2005, and 2015, respectively. Four different periods (1985–1995, 1995–2005, 2005–2015, and 1985–2015) were chosen for the change analysis of land use and landscape patterns. The results indicate that the urban area has increased by about 30.65%, 10.54%, 68.77%, and 143.75% during the four periods at the main expense of agricultural land, respectively. The spatial trend maps revealed that continuous transition from other land use types into urban land has occurred in a dual-core development mode throughout the urbanization process. We quantified the patch complexity, aggregation, connectivity, and diversity of the landscape, employing a number of landscape metrics to represent the changes in landscape patterns at both the class and landscape levels. The results show that with respect to the four aspects of landscape patterns, there were considerable differences among the four years, mainly owing to the increasing dominance of urbanized land. Spatiotemporal variation in landscape patterns was examined based on 900 × 900 m sub-grids. Combined with the land use changes and spatiotemporal variations in landscape patterns, urban growth mainly occurred in a leapfrog mode along both sides of the roads during the period of 1985 to 1995, and then shifted into edge-expansion mode during the period of 1995 to 2005, and the edge-expansion and leapfrog modes coexisted in the period from 2005 to 2015. The high value spatiotemporal information generated using remote sensing and geographic information system in this study could assist urban planners and policymakers to better understand urban dynamics and evaluate their spatiotemporal and environmental impacts at the local level to enable sustainable urban planning in the future.