Measuring land-use transition in three time intervals: Case study in Pinghe County, Southeast China

Abstract

This paper measures land-use transition in three time intervals in a typical county with high-level agriculture intensification, Southeast China. Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite imagery of 1986, 1996, 2002 and 2007 is used to create maps of each time point for the categories: Agriculture, Natural and Built. The results show that the rate of change has accelerated from 1986 to 2007 for Agriculture, Natural and Built. The transition from Agriculture to Built is the only systematic transition which can be a proof that urbanization accompanied with the agriculture decrease. The findings are supposed to gain better understanding of land-use transition and linkage between pattern and processes of land change at county level.