Quantitative Analysis Of Spatio-Temporal Distribution Of Land Cover

The change of land use or land cover mainly refers to the change of land cover type andthe use style. while the change of land cover or land use type is in the dominant position. Area,however, represents the change of land cover/Land use type. In the research of land use/landcover change, changes of area should be studied first and the spatial variation and qualitychange can then be studied. Land use/land cover spatio-temporal changes are reflected inmany aspects such as quantity, strength, structure and quality. Since natural condition plays animportant role on land use/land cover landscape formation, there is obvious differencesbetween land use/land cover type in different terrain conditions. Based on the application inthe ‘geographical national detection’ project, geographical quantity methods and GISstatistical analysis have been used in this research to study the spatial distributioncharacteristics, structure characteristics and dynamic changes of land cover in Qinghaiprovince. The main achievements are as follows:(1) Land cover spatial distribution and change characteristics of Qinghai province areacquired. The advantageous terrain gradient (Altitude, Slope, Terrain niche) of each landcover type and the advantageous land cover type of each terrain gradient are acquired thoughcalculating area of each land cover type within altitude classification, slope classification andterrain niche distribution index.(2) Land cover transfer matrix, dynamic index, land use degree comprehensive index,gravity center, etc. are calculated to analyse the change of land use degree, gravity change,dynamic and rate characteristics.(3) The land cover regional distribution evenness is acquired though spatial Lorenz curveand the Gini coefficient, complex degree and stability degree are also analysed by calculatingfractal-dimension index and stability index.(4) Several landscape pattern indexes of land cover in sample area are calculated. Fragiledegree, complex degree, stability degree, evenness degree and diversity degree arequantitatively analysed, also landscape evolution characteristics are acquired by comparingthe variation of indexes.(5) Finally,four region are acauired by comprehensive factor regionalization.include： Grassland area in northern-east, economic center in Xining city, developing area in southand pasture area in southern east.