China's changing landscape during the 1990s: Large-scale land transformations estimated with satellite data

Details China's changing landscape during the 1990s: Large-scale land transformations estimated with satellite data China's changing landscape during the 1990s: Large-scale land transformations estimated with satellite data

Jan 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005georl..3202405l&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 32, Issue 2, CiteID L02405

Physics

18

Global Change: Impacts Of Global Change (1225), Global Change: Land/Atmosphere Interactions (1218, 1843, 3322), Global Change: Land Cover Change, Global Change: Remote Sensing (1855), Global Change: Water Cycles (1836)

Scientific paper

Land-cover changes in China are being powered by demand for food for its growing population and by the nation's transition from a largely rural society to one in which more than half of its people are expected to live in cities within two decades. Here we use an analysis of remotely sensed data gathered between 1990 and 2000, to map the magnitude and pattern of changes such as the conversion of grasslands and forests to croplands and the loss of croplands to urban expansion. With high-resolution (30 m) imagery from Landsat TM for the entire country, we show that between 1990 and 2000 the cropland area increased by 2.99 million hectares and urban areas increased by 0.82 million hectares. In northern China, large areas of woodlands, grasslands and wetlands were converted to croplands, while in southern China large areas of croplands were converted to urban areas. The land-cover products presented here give the Chinese government and international community, for the first time, an unambiguous understanding of the degree to which the nation's landscape is being altered. Documentation of these changes in a reliable and spatially explicit way forms the foundation for management of China's environment over the coming decades.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

China's changing landscape during the 1990s: Large-scale land transformations estimated with satellite data does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with China's changing landscape during the 1990s: Large-scale land transformations estimated with satellite data, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and China's changing landscape during the 1990s: Large-scale land transformations estimated with satellite data will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-902329