Landscape Ecological Quality Evaluation of the Typical Region in the Lower Reaches of Tarim River

Located in Xingjiang of the Northwestern China, Tarim River is the longest inland river of China. Owing to the improper use of water resources, the ecological environment in the lower reaches of Trim River has degraded greatly in recent 20 years. The 320 km - long riverbeds below Daxihaize reservoir have been dried up since 1974. Taking the section between Kala and Taitema Lake as a typi-cal region of Tarim River, this paper comprehensively evaluated the landscape ecological quality. Three evaluation indices were selected, i. e. ground water table, land use and vegetation. The information of both land use and vegetation came from TM image taken in 2000. With the support of RS and GIS techniques, landscape ecological quality in the typical region was divided into five levels. The spatial distribution of landscape ecological quality in each level was also obtained. The result showed that landscape ecology in bad quality was the main body of the typical region. The area of landscape in level 3, 4 and 5 occupied 98. 91 % of the total area. They were usually far away from the riverbeds and mostly distributed in the lower reaches below Yingsu. While those in good quality scatter along the river and were usually artifitial oasis. This research provided a scientific foundation for the planning of ecological management in this region.