Landscape pattern and driving forces in the upper reaches of Minjiang River, China

Research studies aimed at integrating socio-economic and geo-bio-physical factors in order to improve our understanding of the causes and effects of landscape change. The study reported in this paper addresses landscape change and driving forces of landscape change in the area of the upper reach of Minjiang River, China. Based on the remotely sensed images, statistic data of local government and field survey, we studied the landscape pattern change with the approach of landscape metrics and cross-tabulation. Using the multivariate statistics method of Principal component analysis (PCA), the driving forces of landscape change was analyzed. The results showed that the area of forestland decreased, however, the area of shrub land and grassland increased correspondingly. The farmland and economic cropland increased dramatically. The landscape fragmentation of the study area aggravated with increasing number of patches and complexity of landscape shape. Based on the results of PCA analysis, the landscape changes were mainly driven by the forces of population increasing and continuous deforestation.