Monitoring coastal zones land use and land cover changes using remote sensing: A case study of Jiangsu, China

In this time of rapid industrial development and urban modernization, the land-use change in coastal areas became most vulnerable. It is necessary for develop efficient management strategies to evaluate land use cover change (LUCC). The main object of the study is to obtain quantitative LUCC changes in Jiangsu coastal zone from 1975 to 2007 using multi-temporal Remote Sensing images. The LUCC classified images was produced by supervised classification with visual interpretation. The result in this study has showed that the main coastal land-use types of Jiangsu coastal areas like cultivated land, bare land and reed bed have been obviously reduced because of anthropogenic activities such as the reclamation of mudflat along the coastal zone. Meanwhile, there is rapid increase in developed land from 1978 to 2007. This study shows the change of Jiangsu coastal region land use in the recent 30 years ever since 1975.