Measuring Land Change in Coastal Zone around a Rapidly Urbanized Bay

Abstract

Urban development is a major cause for eco-degradation in many coastal regions. Understanding urbanization dynamics and underlying driving factors is crucial for urban planning and management. Land-use dynamic degree indices and intensity analysis were used to measure land changes occurred in 1990, 2002, 2009, and 2017 in the coastal zone around Quanzhou bay, which is a rapidly urbanized bay in Southeast China. The comprehensive land-use dynamic degree and interval level intensity analysis both revealed that land change was accelerating across the three time intervals in a three-kilometer-wide zone along the coastal line (zone A), while land change was fastest during the second time interval 2002–2009 in a separate terrestrial area within coastal zone (zone B). Driven by urbanization, built-up gains and cropland losses were active for all time intervals in both zones. Mudflat losses were active except in the first time interval in zone A due to the intensive sea reclamation. The gain of mangrove was active while the loss of mangrove is dormant for all three intervals in zone A. Transition level analysis further revealed the similarities and differences in processes within patterns of land changes for both zones. The transition from cropland to built-up was systematically targeted and stationary while the transition from woodland to built-up was systematically avoiding transition in both zones. Built-up tended to target aquaculture for the second and third time intervals in zone A but avoid Aquaculture for all intervals in zone B. Land change in zone A was more significant than that in zone B during the second and third time intervals at three-level intensity. The application of intensity analysis can enhance our understanding of the patterns and processes in land changes and suitable land development plans in the Quanzhou bay area. This type of investigation is useful to provide information for developing sound land use policy to achieve urban sustainability in similar coastal areas.

Use of Intensity Analysis to Characterize Land Use/Cover Change in the Biggest Island of Persian Gulf, Qeshm Island, Iran

“…measured the land use changes in coastal zones around urban areas that have experienced rapid growth in China. They reported similar results, so that they found that the urbanization, built-up gains, and cropland losses were active for all time intervals [4].…”

“…Therefore, if R tin < W tn , hence gain of n stops i all along interval t. In case R tin > W tn , then, gain of n targets i within interval t. A comprehensive description of intensity analysis was given by Aldwaik and Pontius [18,34]. There are also case studies in which intensity analysis has been applied including Southeast China [4,8,17], Rwanda [18], Indonesia [16], and Southern Nigeria [35].…”

“…They reported that intensity analysis is much more effective in additional analysis and explain matrices in more details in consecutive time intervals than Markov matrices. Also, Huang et al (2018) compared intensity analysis and land-use dynamic degrees to quantify temporal change among categories in China's southeast coastal region [4]. They found that, comprehensive land-use dynamic degree (CLUDD) cannot show size and intensity of changes at consecutive levels, while intensity analysis spatially characterizes changes in three levels of time, category, and transition.…”

“…Urban development and land-use pattern change have considerable social and environmental effects including destruction of natural habitats, increased natural hazards, severe watershed erosions, sedimentation in seas (especially in coastal zones), biodiversity loss, water quality reduction, and loss of areas related to suburban farmlands and green spaces. Generally, it can be claimed that, LUCC in coastal zones leads to an increase in the vulnerability over these areas [3,4]. The aforementioned 2 of 16 problems and the consequent hazards are somewhat related to land-use changes caused by human activities, and thus, it is crucial to understand the magnitude and trend of LUCC and its spatial patterns.…”

Construction of knowledge rule sets for the classification of land cover information for the coastal zone of Peninsular Malaysia

“…The coastal zone is not only the most valuable land and source of resources for many coastal countries but also the base for the development of marine enterprises and the economy, as well as the link for foreign trade and cultural exchange. Coastal land use types have undergone considerable changes from the construction of ports, the development of aquaculture and the reclamation of land from the sea to expand land resources, which has been the focus of attention (Huang et al, 2018;. China's "one belt and one road" initiative aims to establish good economic partnerships with countries along the route to achieve mutually beneficial results and to promote global economic development .…”