Land Cover Change and Landscape Pattern in the Mainstream of the Tarim River

This study aims at revealing how land use and land cover changed in the mainstream of the Tarim River since 1973. Combining the integrated technology of ecological quantity analytical method with GIS technology, based on the MSS images in 1973, TM images in 1990 and 2000, CBERS images in 2005, and the land use data of 1983, the changes of land use/cover and landscape pattern were analyzed in this paper in the mainstream of the Tarim River from 1973 to 2005. The results showed that the areas of farmland and residential land increased obviously, areas of grassland, forest and wetland decreased, and that of unused land increased first then decreased. The major patterns of land use change were the conversions of grassland, forest and wetland to farmland, farmland to residential land, and grassland to unused land. Land use change underwent a process of obvious change - slow change - obvious change - tremendous change. The analysis of landscape index showed that due to the disturbance of human activities, landscape diversity index increased while landscape dominance index decreased. Simultaneously, landscape fragmentation index increased gradually.