Land Use And Land Cover Change On The Coastal Plain Of South Hangzhouwan Bay Bank

Land use and land cover change (LUCC) is relative a kind of local and accumulative process compared with the global changes. It not only records the changes of special pattern of the earth surface feature that caused by human being, but also shows the process of special and temporal dynamic changes in landscape of the earth surface again. Meanwhile, it is an available approach to estimate the effects of human activity on global environment change quantitatively.The coastal plain of South Hangzhouwan Bay bank, principally including the Cixi city of Ningbo, located at the center part of the Hu-Hang-Yong Economic Golden Triangle, was chosen as a case study in the paper. Based on RS and GIS technology, field investigation, laboratory test and theories of geography, landscape ecology, economics, environmental science and so on were synthetically employed, qualitative and quantitative methods are combined. The paper studied the processes, patterns and driving mechanism of LUCC on the coastal plain of South Hangzhouwan Bay bank, discussed the effects of LUCC on soil quantity change, and fundamentally investigated the change of ecosystem service caused by LUCC. Following results were concluded: 1. Regional LUCC Is Characterized by Great Increase of Land Use on Construction and Decrease of Land Use on Other AspectsFrom 1987 to 2000, Land use appears great increase in construction, decrease in agricultural land, tidal flat, woodland and saltern, and a little increase in fishery land and water covered area on the coastal plain of South Hangzhouwan Bay bank. In terms of transformation among land use types, dry agricultural land is the uppermost victim, followed by paddy field, fishery land and water covered area. Woodland was transformed mostly into dry agricultural land and constructional land, tidal flats into breed aquatics land, dry agricultural land and water covered area, and saltern into dry agricultural land respectively. Increase of water covered area is mainly from tidal flat and dry agricultural land.2. The Balance of Total Amount of Cultivated Land Based on the Buffering Function of Reclamation of Tidal Flats on Land DecreaseCompared with that of 1949, agricultural land area decreased little on the south coast of Hangzhouwan Bay. However, the area of agricultural land that was invaded and occupied by economic development exceeds it greatly. Reclamation of tidal is the dominative process of compensating land decrease. Change of agricultural land use structure appears as decrease of paddy field and increase of dry land on the coastal plain of South Hangzhouwan Bay bank.3. Agricultural Land Change Varies Greatly In Different Regions SpatiallySpatial change of agricultural land area in the 23 towns on the coastal plain of South Hangzhouwan Bay bank is obviously correlated to the spatial variance of production volume per capita. The towns with higher secondary and tertiary industry production volume occupied more agricultural land. For the northern coastal towns, however, mostly depend on aquiculture and vegetable and flower growth, the primary industry production volume is relatively higher, and tidal flat reclamation produces more agricultural land.4. Enhancement of Land Use Appears as Increase in the Forth Grade Land and Decrease in the First and Third Grade LandLand use enhanced gradually on the coastal plain of South Hangzhouwan Bay bank. In the land use classification system, proportion of the forth grade land use (constructional land use) increases greatly, mainly sourcing from the first grade (tidal flat) that is the lowest grade, and the third grade (agricultural land). The sum of the second grade land use changes little, but there is a notable change within this grade of land use.5. Land Use and Land Cover Change is Driven by Both Natural and Human Factors Different from most regions that land use and land cover change in short-terms mainly drivenby human factors, tidal flat progradation and reclamation is one of the essential factor that affect land use and land cover chan...