Proceedings Article | 26 July 2007
KEYWORDS: Vegetation, Artificial intelligence, Information operations, Image classification, Landsat, Analytical research, Stochastic processes, Geomatics, Ecosystems, Earth observing sensors
Urbanization is the complex process of converting rural land uses to urban land uses, which has caused significantly land cover changes and associated surface characteristics. Therefore, researches on land cover and its landscape pattern change under urbanization are essential for analyzing the impacts of human activities on environment. This study firstly detected land cover (i.e., forestland, non-forest vegetation, built-up area, and water) changes in Changsha City from 1973 to 2005 by using the multi-temporal Landsat images (TM1973, TM1993, TM1998, ETM+2001) and land use map (2005); and then analyzed the spatiotemporal changes of landscape pattern at landscape-level and class-level by using FRAGSTATS, respectively. At last, the class-level metrics of each land cover class were further regressed to the degree of urbanization. The results indicated that: (1) in the context of urbanization, the built-up area and the non-forest vegetation experienced a significant changes, while the forestland and water remained relatively unchanged, and the non-forest vegetation cover bore the major burden of urbanization; (2) with the advance of urbanization, the change of overall landscape pattern of Changsha represented a complex dynamic process; (3) obvious differences of impacts of urbanization on landscape patterns of various land cover classes existed, i.e., along with the decrease of MPS of non-forest vegetation, the AI of built-up area increased dramatically; (4) some class-level metrics of various land cover classes were strongly correlated to the degree of urbanization, but the correlated extend varied along with the various land cover classes. To sum up, this study demonstrated the differences of impacts of urbanization on various land cover patterns. The results have the potential to assist land-use planning and management.
