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Remote Sensing Change Detection and Process Analysis of Long-Term Land Use Change and Human Impacts

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Abstract

This study investigates environmental change over a 30-year period and attempts to gain a better understanding of human impacts on an arid environment and their consequences for regional development. Multi-temporal remotely sensed imagery was acquired and integrated to establish the basis for change detection and process analysis. Land cover changes were investigated in two categories, namely categorical change using image classification and quantitative change using a vegetation index. The results show that human-induced land cover changes have been minor in this remote area. However, the pace of growth of human-induced change has been accelerating since the early 1990s. The analysis of the multi-temporal vegetation index also shows no overall trend of rangeland deterioration, although local change of vegetation cover caused by human activities was noticeable. The results suggest that the current trend of rapid growth may not be sustainable and that the implementation of effective counter-measures for environmentally sound development is a rather urgent matter.

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Acknowledgments

The research is supported by a National Key Basic Research and Development Program Grant (2006CB701305), a Hong Kong Research Grants Council General Research Fund Grant (HKBU 202907), and a Hong Kong Baptist University Faculty Research Grant (FRG/06-07/II-76). The authors would also like to thank Prof. Bernie Owen of Hong Kong Baptist University for editing and improving the text of the manuscript. The constructive comments and suggestions from anonymous reviewers are also highly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Centre for Geo-computation Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

    Qiming Zhou

  2. State Key Laboratory of Environment and Resources Information System, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of China

    Baolin Li

  3. School of Resource and Environment Science, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430079, People’s Republic of China

    Yumin Chen

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  1. Qiming Zhou
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  2. Baolin Li
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Correspondence to Qiming Zhou.

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Zhou, Q., Li, B. & Chen, Y. Remote Sensing Change Detection and Process Analysis of Long-Term Land Use Change and Human Impacts. AMBIO 40, 807–818 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0157-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0157-1

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