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A remote sensing and GIS integrated study on urbanization with its impact on arable lands: Fuqing City, Fujian Province, China
Author(s) -
Xu H.,
Wang X.,
Xiao G.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
land degradation and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1099-145X
pISSN - 1085-3278
DOI - 10.1002/1099-145x(200007/08)11:4<301::aid-ldr392>3.0.co;2-n
Subject(s) - urbanization , arable land , china , geography , deforestation (computer science) , land cover , remote sensing , land use , sustainable development , forestry , physical geography , cartography , agriculture , archaeology , civil engineering , engineering , economic growth , computer science , law , political science , programming language , economics
Landsat TM images were employed to characterize land‐cover type and land‐cover changes in Fuqing City and its adjacent areas in Fujian Province, southeast China. Three TM scenes from 1991, 1994 and 1996 were used to cover the city and the adjacent areas and a five‐year time period. Socio‐economic data were also integrated with remotely sensed data for the study. Digital image processing with assistance of GIS has produced three classified image maps. The comparison of the three maps reveals that the urban expansion was very rapid, a large number of arable lands have been lost, and deforestation has taken place in the study area during the five study years. The main driving forces to the urbanization appeared to be the rapid economic development and traffic infrastructure. The suggestion on the regional sustainable development for the county is also presented. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.