KEY WORDS : Forest cover change, Remote sensing data, Inner M ongolia, Land use and land cover data
ABS TRACT:Forest is the lung of the earth, and it has important effect on maintaining the ecological balance of the whole earth. This study was conducted in Inner M ongolia during the year 1990-2015. Land use and land cover data were used to obtain forest cover change of Inner M ongolia. In addition, protected area data, road data, ASTER GDEM data were combined with forest cover change data to analyze the relationship between them. M oreover, patch density and landscape shape index were calculated to analyze forest change in perspective of landscape aspect. The results indicated that forest area increased overall during the study period. However, a few cities still had a phenomenon of reduced forest area. Results also demonstrated that the construction of protected area had positive effect on protecting forest while roads may disturbed forest due to human activities. In addition, forest patches in most of cities of Inner M ongolia tended to be larger and less fragmented. This paper reflected forest change in Inner M ongolia objectively, which is helpful for policy making by government.