Quantifying the spatial differences of landscape change in the Hai River Basin, China, in the 1990s

Quantifying a landscape pattern and its change is essential for monitoring and assessing the ecological consequences of land-use/land-cover (LULC) change and human interference. In this study, a combination of landscape pattern indices and land-use dynamics indices based on remote-sensing images was employed to analyse and compare the spatial and temporal dynamics of the landscape pattern in the Hai River Basin (HRB), China, in the 1990s. During this decade, the change in the landscape pattern was mainly driven by intense human-induced alterations. Overall, the landscape pattern changed considerably, progressively becoming more fragmented and diverse, with widespread encroachment of cropland because of rapid urbanization. The change in the landscape pattern exhibited distinctive spatial differences between the mountains and the plains, as well as between urban and rural areas, with higher fragmentation in the plain region and urban fringes or newly urbanizing areas. The changes in the landscape pattern around Beijing resulted in more fragmented and diverse landscape types. A detailed examination of the Jing–Guang (Beijing–Guangzhou) railway line transect and two other subregions indicated that urbanization contributed mostly to the spatial differences of landscape change through population growth, transportation improvements and rapid economic development. Spatial differences in the change in the landscape pattern were induced by economic growth, population increase and government policy.