Landscape Pattern Dynamics Of Coastal Economic Zone In Jinzhou Bay, Liaoning Province

Using GIS, RS and the theory and methods of the landscape ecology, the remote sensing images of Landsat TM in 1992, 2000 and 2007 of Coastal Economic Developing Zone of Jinzhou Bay were interpreted. The landscape indices at both class and landscape levels were selected to analyze the landscape pattern dynamic changes. The results showed that the landscape pattern of the study area changed significantly from 1992 to 2007. At landscape level, the number and the density of patches increased significantly, whereas the largest patch index decreased, the shape of patches tended to be much more complicated. At class level, the patches'area of farmland, woodland, abandoned land decreased and their connectedness became weak; the shape of these patches became more complicated. The rapid population growth, socio-economic development and the expansion of the highway, railway and other infrastructure investments had a strong influence on the change of the landscape pattern, leading to a deeper level of landscape fragmentation.The ecological risk assessment is currently the advanced method and concept to study the relationship between regional eco-environment and development, but the theoretical research on it is still in its initial phase at present. Regional ecological risk assessment offers scientific suggestions for ecological risk management. It is used to describe and evaluate the possibility and degree of damage that might be taken to the structure and function of ecological system by environmental pollution, human activities and natural disasters on regional scale. The human economic activities are mainly carried out on the level of landscape; therefore, landscape has become the appropriate scale to study the impact of human on environment. In the landscape dominated by human activities, the ecological effects generated by different land use patterns and intensities usually are regional and accumulative, and they will be reflected directly on the structure and composition of the ecological system. Therefore, we can assess the various potential human influences and their consequences by the structure of the ecological system. We can establish the relationship between ecological system structure and ecological influences by statistical analysis, and the results can make good help for environmental management and ecological risk decision making.Taking the coastal economic developing zone in Jinzhou Bay as studying area, using the remote sensing images of Landsat TM in 1992, 2000 and 2007 as the main date source, the ecological risk index was constructed based on the calculation of the landscape pattern indices, and the distribution level of ecological risk was mapped based on ecological risk index values by GIS and geostatistics. The ecological risk of studying area was classified into five levels, i.e. extremely low ecological risk, low ecological risk, moderate ecological risk, high ecological risk and extremely high ecological risk by relative index method. And then the temporal and spatial dynamics of ecological risk distribution were analyzed by overlying the ecological risk maps in different periods. The results show that: (1) Farmland and woodland were the dominated landscape types from 1992 to 2007, but the area decreased slightly, and the fragmentation of them increased. Residential land takes the third place, and the area has increased significantly, at the same time, the connectivity also increased continuously. The area of grassland and unused land reduced year by year, and also the fragmentation increased yearly. (2) In recent 15 years, the moderate ecological risk level covered the biggest area of the study area; the area of extremely low risk and low ecological risk had no obviously change and mainly located in western hills; the area of high ecological risk increased significantly and was mainly distributed in southeast coastal zone of Xingcheng and Suizhong; because of the reduction of high ecological vulnerability, i.e. abandoned land and wetland, the area of extremely high ecological risk also decreased slightly. To obtain the sustainable development of regional land resources, the landscape pattern have to be optimized and the connectivity of landscape patches should be increased.