Introducing a new method for assessing spatially explicit processes of landscape fragmentation |
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| Affiliation: | 1. College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China;2. Institute of Loess Plateau, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China;3. Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA;1. Department of Geology, Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Alcalá, Spain;2. Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of Algarve, Portugal;3. Research Group on Projects and Planning, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain;1. INRA, UMR1201 DYNAFOR, BP 52627, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France;2. Université de Toulouse, INP-ENSAT, UMR1201 DYNAFOR, BP 32607, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France;1. Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Ministry of Education, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;2. Key Laboratory for Environmental and Urban Sciences, School of Urban Planning and Design, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, China;1. University of Bucharest, Institute of Research, ICUB, Romania;2. Transdisciplinary Research Centre Landscape-Territory-Information Systems, CeLTIS, Romania;3. University of Bucharest, Department of Regional Geography and Environment, Faculty of Geography, Romania;4. University of Bucharest, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Romania;5. Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Landscape Dynamics, Switzerland;6. University of Bucharest, Centre for Environmental Research and Impact Studies, Romania |
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| Abstract: | Landscape fragmentation is commonly defined as having five distinct phases (perforation, dissection, subdivision, shrinkage, and attrition). Previous studies focus on using landscape pattern metrics to interpret the phase of the landscape. A critical but underinvestigated aspect is that these five phases are also spatially explicit processes. This study proposes a new method to map and measure the different spatially explicit processes of landscape fragmentation. Unlike previous studies that are based on landscape pattern metrics, this current study measures landscape change directly. The new method is applied to Bao’an District in Shenzhen, China, to investigate forest land fragmentation under rapid urbanization. Landsat data were used to map the land use distributions from 1978 to 2009. Results show that different spatial processes occur simultaneously throughout the study area as well as in different study periods of forest fragmentation. Shrinkage was the dominant spatial process in the early period. In the later period, subdivision played a more important role, followed by attrition. Interestingly, urban land was not the leading land use that directly encroached on forest land, as many other studies have shown. Instead, forest land was first converted to orchard land, and orchard land was converted to urban land. The study contributes to Forman's general model of spatially explicit processes of landscape fragmentation and holds implications for urban planning policy and practice. The study concludes that the new method is effective in understanding and assessing forest land fragmentation, especially in the context of rapid urbanization. |
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| Keywords: | Landscape change Forest fragmentation Landscape metrics Rapid urbanization China |
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