Land Cover Change in Jiaodong Peninsula during the Recent 40 Years Using RS/GIS

Abstract

Five sets of satellite images of spacing 37 years were used for mapping the land cover change in Jiaodong Peninsula in the present study. Unsupervised classification was applied to classify the land cover into 4 categories including vegetation, built-up land, water body and bared land. Among them vegetation and built-up land were listed as the first and second dominant category accounted for over 90%. Continuous decline in the land covered by vegetation were founded during the study period, whereas the built-up land showed a continuous increase. Symmetrical phenomena of positive and negative change were observed at every study period. It was indicted the conversion of vegetation into built-up land due to rapid population growth and urban sprawl. There was a marked acceleration in the rate of conversion since 1999. It could be seen more clearly from the maps of image interpretation. The change of water body was different from above two classes. The shrinkage and expansion of the category was due to the climate change. Remote sensing and GIS technologies were proved to be effective tools in monitoring land use change in the study.