Regional agricultural landscape pattern changes along the Yellow River in Henan Province from 1987 to 2002

Agricultural landscape along the riparian zones is designated as important landscape components for partly controlling water quality, biodiversity, as well as for their aesthetic role in landscapes. Therefore, the change of agricultural landscape along the riparian zones is at the top of the agenda for many policy makers and landscape planners. As a basis for conservation management, sufficient information about landscape structure should be provided. In the present study, we reconstructed the former landscape structure and elucidated the changes in landscape patterns during a period of about 15 years. Two sets of maps were used： a landsat-5 TM image （1987） and landsat-7 ETM image （2002）. The frequency index, landscape diversity index and landscape fragmentation index were calculated for analyses. The results showed that： （1） the areas of the irrigated land, river, forest and beach landscape classes presented a decreasing trend while the areas of landscape classes of pool, paddy fields, dry land and construction land increased. （2） Disturbed by human activity, landscape diversity index increased but landscape fragmentation index decreased. In short, Human activities have had important influences on agricultural landscape of the riparian zones along the Yellow River in Henan Province.

Impacts of human activity and natural change on the wetland landscape pattern along the Yellow River in Henan Province

By using GIS and remote sensing techniques, the paper discusses how human activities have changed along the Yellow River in Henan province, China and how these altered activities have influenced the wetland landscape pattern change from 1987 to 2002. Results show that the total area of the wetland reduces dramatically compared to 1987, the total area of wetland reduces by 19.18%, the number of the patches in 2002 increases by 21.17%, the density increases by 50%, and the total perimeter increases by 1,290,491 m. Disturbed by human activities, landscape diversity index decreases from 1.1740 in 1987 to 0.9803 in 2002. During the last 20 years, the total area of the rice wetland increases, while the others decrease. Among those, the area of the bulrush wetland decreases most. In 1987, it takes 0.5% of the total area, but in 2002, it only takes 0.11%. The interpenetration of human influences on the wetland natural system has been long and close. The impacts of human activities on the spatial pattern of the wetland landscape along the Yellow River in Henan from 1987 to 2002 are great.

The Evolution of Landscape Patterns of and Optimization Measures for Urban Core Areas Against the Background of Urbanization: A Case Study of Yangling Demonstration Zone

Studying tiie urban landscape pattern plays a crucial role in scientific land use and management and in improving the urban ecological environment In this paper, AutoCAD, ArcGIS, Fragstats, and other software were used to analyse the data of the fourth phase of land use in the core atea of Yangling Demonstration Zone. The results showed that： ① in the core area, the percentage of construction land incteased from 18.22% to 61.72%, and the percentage of agricultufal land decreased from 58.36% to 11.14%. And the fafm land was fragmented, and traffic connectivily was strengthened. The afea of garden land was reduced from 251.89 hm2 to 50.38 hm^2, and the landscape metric of forest land showed an inverted V-shaped curve. ②The year 2009 in four phases witnessed the greatest landscape fragmentation, both Edge Density （ED） and Ingest Patch Index （LPI） increased, and human interference enhanced the overall landscape complexity. Measures were fotmulated in terms of deaf development goals, optimized allocation of land resoutces, effective protection of ecological ted lines, and definite ecological responsibility, so as to optimize the urban landscape pattern.

Assessment of multifunctional landscapes dynamics in the mountainous basin of the Mo River （Togo, West Africa）

In this study, historical landscape dynamics were investigated to（i） map the land use/cover types for the years 1972, 1987, 2000 and 2014;（ii） determine the types and processes of landscape dynamics; and（iii） assess the landscape fragmentation and habitat loss over time. Supervised classification of multi-temporal Landsat images was used through a pixel-based approach. Post–classification methods included systematic and random change detection, trajectories analysis and landscape fragmentation assessment. The overall accuracies（and Kappa statistics） were of 68.86%（0.63）, 91.32%（0.79）, 90.66%（0.88） and 91.88%（0.89） for 1972, 1987, 2000 and 2014, respectively. The spatio-temporal analyses indicated that forests, woodlands and savannahs dominated the landscapes during the four dates, though constant areal decreases were observed. The most important dynamic process was the decline of woodlands with an average annual net loss rate of –2%. Meanwhile, the most important land transformation occurred during the transition 2000–2014, due to anthropogenic pressures. Though the most important loss of vegetation greenness occurred in the unprotected areas, the overall analyses of change indicated a declining trend of land cover quality and an increasing landscape fragmentation. Sustainable conservation strategies should be promoted while focusing restoration attention on degraded lands and fragmented ecosystems in order to support rural livelihood and biodiversity conservation.