Analysis of Landscape Change Based on Fractal Dimension

The landscape in the Hongze Lake and its adjacent upland has been changing since the early 1980s. These changes have caused a significant loss of wetlands in Hongze Lake. On November 13, 2001, Jiangsu Sihong Hongze Lake Wetland Natural Reserve was established for the protection of rare wetland species and birds. The main purpose of the paper is to track the trajectories of landscape change in the Hongze Lake by coupling the changes of fractal dimension over two periods. First the three dates of TM/ETM+ imagery were segmented into patches. Second, double log fractal dimension index was computed for each patch. Third, three dates of distribution maps of double log fractal dimension were coupled into two maps to describe the changes of fractal dimension over time. The results showed that the method can describe the life history of landscape by using the changes of fractal dimension.