Monitoring and analysis of changes in a wetland landscape in Xingzi county

摘要

Wetlands play an important role in water conservation, environmental protection, and biodiversity conservation. Remote sensing is an economical and efficient technique for wetland monitoring which can limit disturbance in sensitive areas and support wetland conservation. In this paper, we used three phases of Thematic Mapper/Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (TM/ETM+) remote sensing images from October 1989, October 1999, and October 2009 to study wetlands in Xingzi County. The images were segmented using the object-oriented remote sensing image interpretation software eCognition Developer 8.64, then segmented images were classified by slope, digital elevation model (DEM) data, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Specific Leaf Area Vegetation Index (SLAVI), and Land and Water Masks (LWM) index to produce land type classification maps. Land use change information was obtained by analyzing the superposition of two classification maps of the wetland area from different years. The results showed that landscape patches in Xingzi County displayed fragmentation in their spatial distribution over time. Based on an index of changes in landscape patches, the fastest growing landscape type is grassland, while the fastest decreasing type is irrigated land. Dominant driving factors of changes in Xingzi County's wetland landscape are population growth and policy changes.