Change Detection of Coastal Landscape Pattern Using GIS: a Case Study of Tianjin Binhai New Area

摘要

Change detection of landscape patterns has become a fundamental research theme in urban and rural studies due to its scientific importance in understanding the connection of global environment changes to social-economic dynamics. Landscape patterns can be directly represented and visualized by landuse maps, and they can also be further abstracted and mathematically quantified by landscape metrics. This paper examines the changes in coastal landscape patterns of Tianjin Binhai New Area using landuse datasets of 1981,1990 and 2000. The results show that the coastline played a controlling role in shaping landscape patterns across the study area. As a result, the rate of urban expansion in the north-south direction was much faster than that in the east-west direction. During the period of 1981-2000, most changes occurred on urban land, forestland, wetland and agricultural land, while the change on water bodies remained insignificant.