Dynamic study on landscape spatial pattern of land use in China based on RS and GIS

In this article, we used the technologies of remote sensing and geographical information system to analyze the spatial pattern and its spatial temporal changes of land use in China from 1990 to 2000. Based on the two-period TM images of China as basic information resource and with support of ARCGIS, we built the spatial information database and divided the landscape types of land use in China into six main types and twenty-six sub-types. Then the mathematical methodology from landscape-ecology, including: the landscape diversity index (H), the landscape dominant index (D), the landscape homogeneity index (E) and the landscape broken index (C), was introduced into our analysis. According to these landscape-ecology indices of spatial patterns, we can easily analyze the interference degree caused by human activities. In our results, the four indexes H, D, E, C, show regularity in spatial-temporal distribution. We could say that the landscape-ecology method would greatly contribute to the land use change driven mechanism research.