Tracking three decades of land use and land cover transformation trajectories in China's large river deltas

Abstract

Large river deltas are characterized by complicated land use/land cover (LULC) dynamics driven by intertwined natural and anthropogenic processes. Understanding spatiotemporal LULC dynamics associated with multiple drivers can help mitigate the adverse ecological impacts resulting from human activities. This research tracked spatiotemporal LULC trajectories in relation to multiple natural and anthropogenic driving processes and explored their correlations within four large river deltas (the Liaohe River Delta [LRD], Yellow River Delta [YRD], Yangtze River Delta [YtRD], and Pearl River Delta [PRD]) in China from 1980 to 2010. The results showed that the coastal wetlands had undergone transformations with 39% in LRD, 85.1% in YRD, 96.5% in YtRD, and 100% in PRD, respectively. The LULC transformations were linked with six major driving processes (accretion, erosion, reclamation, restoration, succession, and regressive succession) and were impacted by complex coupled effects between natural and anthropogenic drivers. Reclamation‐related LULC transformation types dominated in the four river deltas and had greater spatiotemporal interactions than the other driving processes. Reclamation and restoration as well as accretion and erosion showed high positive correlations in all four river deltas, but other pairwise correlations of driving processes presented regional variations. This study presents an overview of the patterns and processes of complex multitemporal LULC dynamics and can be replicated elsewhere in areas where land reclamation activities are entangled with natural processes. A ‘scrolling’ development pattern with reasonable magnitudes of land reclamation for the river deltas is proposed as a spatial strategy to minimize the adverse ecological impacts of human activity.

Correlation Analysis between Land-Use/Cover Change and Coastal Subsidence in the Yellow River Delta, China: Reviewing the Past and Prospecting the Future

“…Over the past 30 years, land-use changes in the coastal zone of the Yellow River Delta have featured the rapid expansion of salt fields and aquaculture. These features are in line with spatial-temporal patterns reported for the delta in other studies [2,25]. In particular, the expansion of salt pans is the most remarkable land-use transformation, with an area growth rate of 23 km 2 /year, corresponding to the findings of Qiao [4].…”

Impacts of Coastal Reclamation on Natural Wetlands in Large River Deltas in China

“…Comparative studies are ultimately necessary to understand the connections between anthropogenic activities and ecological loss, and to enable better environmental and social outcomes from planning initiatives (Kittinger et al, 2014;Ma et al, 2019a). Integrating the multi-indicators of human activities in multiple cases to find the response of coastal ecosystem to external disturbances may assist practitioners in developing more comprehensive analyses for decision making, balancing ecological conservation and economic development.…”

“…A large number of literatures showed that coastal reclamation was the significant driving force for coastal wetland loss (Murray et al, 2014;Cui et al, 2016;Ma et al, 2019a). Various ecological processes, including hydrology, sediment deposition, plant evolution and landscape connectivity had been altered by human activities (Lotze et al, 2006;Barnard et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2014;Chen et al, 2016;Zhu et al, 2017;Mou et al, 2018).…”

Seven decades of shoreline changes along a muddy mangrove coastline of the Upper Gulf of Thailand

“…Rising sea level is now a major factor accelerating shoreline recession in many deltas around the world (Boateng et al, 2017; Cai et al, 2009; Fletcher et al, 2012; Islam et al, 2015; Thieler & Hammar‐Klose, 1999, 2000). Unfortunately, human activities such as groundwater and/or hydrocarbon extraction, damming, water management, land use changes, coastal development, etc., have also caused flooding and shoreline retreat during the past half century (Alberico et al, 2012; Anthony et al, 2015; Besset et al, 2019; Bi et al, 2014; Bidorn & Rukvichai, 2018; Bidorn, Solk, et al, 2021; Cai et al, 2019; Cui & Li, 2011; Day et al, 2016; Häglund & Svensson, 2002; Hapke et al, 2006; Jaskólski et al, 2018; Li & Damen, 2010; Ma et al, 2019; Mahapatra et al, 2015; Maiti & Bhattacharya, 2009; Martínez et al, 2018; Ruggerio et al, 2013; Sowmya et al, 2019; Tessler et al, 2018; Wang et al, 2019; Yang et al, 2011). Two‐thirds of the world’s largest cities are situated on coasts, and about 60% of the world’s population live in the coastal zone (Cai et al, 2009; Cicin‐Sain et al, 1998).…”