Spatio-Temporal Variation in Mountainous Landscape Changes: A Case Study of Shizhu County

Abstract

The study of dynamic changes and spatial variation of landscape patterns is important to deeply understand the relationship between human activities and the natural environment. We selected a typical mountain area, Shizhu County, as the study area and analyzed the landscape’s dynamic changes and spatial variation in that area from 2000–2015. The results showed that cropland and forestland were the dominant landscape types in the study area. Cropland and grassland areas decreased, being mainly converted to forestland. Forestland and built-up land areas were increasing; the increase in built-up land was mainly due to the invasion into cropland areas, and the increase in forestland was mainly due to the conversion of cropland and grassland. Water bodies were affected by factors such as water storage in the Three Gorges Reservoir, and their area continued to increase. The change in landscape was most dramatic from 2005–2010, mainly due to the rapid increase in the areas of built-up land and water bodies and the rapid decrease in grassland area. There were apparent spatial variations in landscape distribution, patterns, and dynamic changes. Although water bodies were mainly distributed in the relatively gentle slope areas with an elevation of less than 200 m and a slope of 0°–6°, other landscapes were concentrated at an elevation higher than 500 m, a slope of 15°–35°, with a westerly or northwesterly aspect. These areas also had the most drastic landscape changes. At the type-level and the landscape-level, landscape indices showed greater variation with elevation and slope than with aspect. Finally, the variations with elevation, slope, and aspect differed among different landscape types.

Evaluating the impacts of land use/land cover changes across topography against land surface temperature in Cameron Highlands

“…The study notes that the majority of land cover change is contributed not only by farmland expansion but also through illegal deforestation for logging exports. Furthermore, Chen et al [ 19 ] used spectral indices to map landscape types of the mountainous region of Shizhu county. Similarly in a mountain range, the Fanjingshan Nature Reserve in China as an example, Tsai et al [ 20 ] used a number of satellite sensors including Landsat, Quickbird and GeoEye to monitor land use changes in the national park.…”

“…Several studies have been conducted on LULCC in high elevation regions, with an emphasis on slopes [8,[17][18][19], mountains [19,20], coastal regions [21][22][23], and elevated terrains of numerous landscape patterns [24,25]. Landscape changes undoubtedly brings both positive and negative changes to an area [21].…”

A Spatiotemporal Assessment of Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Peri-Urban Areas: A Case Study of Arshaly District, Kazakhstan

“…In particular, the use of multiple RS data provides continuous and accurate LULC status information. RS data, combined with geographic information systems (GIS), are used to assess LULC changes in a wide range of natural resource parameters at the local level [23][24][25], including agricultural land in PUAs. In Kazakhstan, intensive land-use studies, including RS-and GIS-based studies, started in the 1990s [26].…”

Economic Globalization Impacts on the Ecological Environment of Inland Developing Countries: A Case Study of Laos from the Perspective of the Land Use/Cover Change

“…Frequent international trade has also increased the probability of cross-border pollution incidents [10,11]. Economic globalization has become a powerful factor that fundamentally changes global land use/cover landscape patterns, increasing the complexity of land use/cover landscape patterns and dynamic evolution, which in turn, has a profound impact on the structure, function, and evolution of ecosystems [12][13][14]. Problems, such as surface runoff and soil erosion [15,16], variations in soil properties [17,18], water pollution [19], and biodiversity loss [20] are generated.…”