Investigating the impact of road network development on land cover change in Lijiang River Basin

Lijiang River Basin (LRB) has witnessed intensive human activities in the past 20 years, due to its unique karst landform, which has attracted a large amount of tourists. During this period, land cover changes were impacted by rapid expansion of road network substantially. This paper analyzes the interactions between road network and land cover change in the LRB by statistical analysis on both random samples and buffer samples. The results demonstrate that road network has a positive correlation with built-up land area and a negative correlation with woodland area. Built-up land is more affected by road network as compared with woodland. Impact strength of surface distance to road on built-up land is greater than that on woodland. Random samples and buffer samples in combination help us uncover the interactions between road networks and land cover change quantitatively and thoroughly.