Oasis Landscape Change and Spatial Character Analysis in the Tarim River Origin Basin

Land use/cover change (LUCC) is a key aspect of global environment change and in a sense indicates the influence of human activities on natural environment. Regional case study is the core of LUCC research. Taking the Hotan river basin, an oasis area of the Tarim river origin basin, as an example, Supported by RS and GIS technology, this paper reconstructed LUCC patterns in three periods of 1960, 1990 and 2000, and analyzed their spatial-temporal changes from 1960 to 2000. Combination the method of landscape ecology, several landscape patch index were calculated for oasis land extension. The results are as follows: (1) the oasis transformation mainly occurs among farmland and construction land. (2) the changes of oasis spatial character become regular, the border near upstream basically unchanged, border of the both sides river near the downstream slightly expand outwards. (3) In the forty years, the patch shape index and fractal dimension are both decreased, land-use status of Hotan oasis appeared variation, the extension of the oasis area is mainly the result of the restrict water supply and economic development.