Intersection of Physical and Anthropogenic Effects on Land-Use/Land-Cover Changes in Coastal China of Jiangsu Province

Abstract

China is experiencing substantial land-use and land-cover change (LUCC), especially in coastal regions, and these changes have caused many ecological problems. This study selected a typical region of Jiangsu Province and completed a comprehensive and detailed spatial-temporal analysis regarding LUCC and the driving forces. The results show that the rate of land-use change has been accelerating, with land-use experiencing the most substantial changes from 2005 to 2010 for most land-use types and the period from 2010 to 2015 showing a reversed changing trend. Built-up land that occupies cropland was the main characteristic of land-use type change. Southern Jiangsu and the coastline region presented more obvious land-use changes. Social-economic development was the main factor driving increased built-up land expansion and cropland reduction. In addition, land-use policy can significantly affect land-use type changes. For land-cover changes, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) for the land area without land-use type changes increased by 0.005 per year overall. Areas with increasing trends accounted for 82.43% of the total area. Both precipitation and temperature displayed more areas that were positively correlated with NDVI, especially for temperature. Temperature correlated more strongly with NDVI change than precipitation for most vegetation types. Our study can be used as a reference for land-use managers to ensure sustainable and ecological land-use and coastal management.

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

“…(1) At the patch-class level, the landscape pattern evolution characteristics of industrial rural areas in Southern Jiangsu were that construction land had continuously encroached on green and cultivated land in all four study areas, exhibiting trends of expansion, centralization and the continuous consolidation of small patches into large patches during evolution and ultimately replacing cultivated land as the dominant landscape category. The result was in accordance with those in the studies of Yang, Sun et al, Ma et al, Xu et al and Chuai et al [31][32][33][34][35]. The reasons might be as follows: (1) Relevant studies showed that under the background of rapid socio-economic development, urban master planning is constantly updated, and relevant policies and regulations constantly promote human beings to expand the scope of urban built-up areas through deforestation, farmland reclamation and civil construction.…”

“…Among the four study areas, Kunshan exhibited the most significant landscape pattern evolution characteristics. This result was also in accordance with the results of the studies by Yang, Sun et al, Ma et al, Xu et al and Chuai et al [31][32][33][34][35]. The reason for the results might be as follows: (1) The gradual improvement of a traffic network would cause disorderly cutting of the original patch landscape, which seriously affects the circulation of the ecological function of the regional landscape.…”

“…From the perspective of landscape pattern, it is embodied in the increase of the SPILT index and the decrease of the CONTAG index [33,34]; and (2) for the rapid urbanization in China, the area of urban construction land had increased sharply, and the landscape tends to be homogeneous and fragmented. These might mainly explain the decline of the SHDI index and the SHEI index [35].…”

Effectiveness of Chinese Regulatory Planning in Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change: Comparative Analysis Based on Q Methodology

“…The change of land nature leads to the deterioration of ecological environment and affects urban precipitation and temperature. At the same time, the conversion of land use types in China has accelerated the disappearance of grassland and forest land types, which is not conducive to the development of urban carbon emission reduction [30].…”

“…The 36 Q participants completed the Q sorting, in which 25 samples were valid. The sample size was reasonable and met the research criteria [30].…”