Use of multi-temporal Landsat images for analyzing forest transition in relation to socioeconomic factors and the environment |
| |
| Authors: | Zhi-Hua Shi Lu Li Wei Yin Lei Ai Nu-Fang Fang Yan-Tun Song |
| |
| Institution: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yangling, Shanxi 712100, China;2. Key Laboratory of Subtropical Agriculture & Environment of Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China;3. Changjiang Water Resource Protection Institute, Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, Wuhan 430051, China |
| |
| Abstract: | Recently there have been reports of forest regrowth occurring in different regions across the world. There is also a growing recognition of the potential beneficial impact that secondary forests may have on the global environment: providing crucial ecosystem services such as soil conservation, stabilization of hydrological cycles, carbon sequestration, and support for forest dependent communities. Consequently, there is a growing awareness of the need to recognize that landscapes are complex shifting mosaics wherein forest clearing and reforestation take place. In this study, the rates of reforestation, deforestation, forest regrowth and degradation were measured using multi-temporal Landsat images of Danjiangkou, China. Landsat data from 1990, 1999 and 2007 were (1) classified as dense forest, open forest and non-forest areas and (2) compared between years to identify forest cutting, regeneration and degradation. The results showed that there was a net gain of 29,315 ha of forest area (including dense and open forest) from 1990 to 2007, showing a clear trend of reforestation in the study area. Forest modification (degradation and regrowth) and change categories (deforestation and reforestation) occurred simultaneously during the observation time period. Socioeconomic data from public statistics and environmental attributes allowed the assessment of the socioeconomic factors and the environmental conditions that caused these changes using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). The research showed that the socioeconomic factors due to different policies were major driving forces of forest transition, whereas environmental attributes of the underlying landscape constrained forest cover changes. These findings have led to a better understanding of forest transition at a local scale in our study region. Comprehensive knowledge of these relationships may be useful to reconstruct past forest transitions and predict future changes, and may help to enhance sustainable management practices aimed at preserving essential ecological functions. |
| |
| Keywords: | Forest transition Socioeconomic factors Environmental conditions Remote sensing (RS) Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) China |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
