Remote Sensing of Land Use and Land Cover in Mountain Region: A Comprehensive Study at the Central Tibetan Plateau

240 Pages·2020·7.062 MB·English

by  Duo Chu

Duo Chu
Remote Sensing of
Land Use and Land
Cover in Mountain
Region
A Comprehensive Study at the Central
Tibetan Plateau
Remote Sensing of Land Use and Land Cover
in Mountain Region
Duo Chu
Remote Sensing of Land Use
and Land Cover
in Mountain Region
A Comprehensive Study at the Central Tibetan
Plateau
DuoChu
TibetInstituteofPlateauAtmospheric
andEnvironmentalSciences
TibetMeteorologicalBureau
Lhasa,China
ISBN978-981-13-7579-8 ISBN978-981-13-7580-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7580-4
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Preface
MountainscoveraboutonefourthoftheEarth’slandsurfaceandarehometoover
one tenth of the global population, providing the essential ecosystem services and
playingthe role of water towers to billionsof people living in downstream. Mean-
while,mountainregionsaremostvulnerableandsensitivetoenvironmentalchange
and global warming, offering a unique opportunity to monitor and study these
changeprocessesandconsequences.
TheTibetanPlateau,thehighestandlargestplateauontheEarthandwellknown
as “the roof of the world,” is a massive mountainous region on the Eurasian
continent and covers over 2.5 millions of square kilometers, with an average
elevation of over 4000 meters above sea level. Land use and land cover is one of
theimportantenvironmentalaspectsoftheplateau.However,ourunderstandingof
land-useandland-coverchange(LUCC)andtheirdynamicprocessesontheplateau
is very limited compared to the plateau uplifting and its profound dynamic and
thermalforcingontheAsianmonsoonsystem.Therefore,inthispublication,based
on the author’s doctoral dissertation research and various studies that have been
conductedrecently,thespatialandtemporaldynamicsoflanduseandlandcoverin
thecentralTibetanPlateauduringthelasttwodecadesarepresentedfromdifferent
perspectives using various satellite data, long-term field investigation, and GIS
spatial techniques. Further, it demonstrated how remote sensing can be used to
map and characterize land use, land cover, and their dynamic processes in moun-
tainousregionsandtomonitorandmodelrelevantbiophysicalparameters.
After an overview of the background and introduction to LUCC and research
importanceinthefirstchapter,thestudyareaisintroducedindetailfromgeograph-
icallocation,physicalenvironment,andsocioeconomicconditionsinChap.2.Land-
use status, spatial distribution patterns of different land-use types, and land-use
dynamic changes and driving forces in the study area are subsequently analyzed
based on the time series of land-use data and digital elevation model using GIS
spatialanalysistechniquesinChaps.3,4,and5.
Scenario analysis with land-use change models can support the analysis of the
causesandconsequencesofland-usedynamics.Therefore,theMarkovchainmodel
is applied to project land-use changes in the future for the study area based on the
v
vi Preface
land-use change dynamics and transition probability matrix, and comparison anal-
ysis between areas from land-use planning and Markov model projection is
presented in Chap. 6, which has a significant implication in planning and optimal
use of land resources and harnessing the nonnormative changes in the future. In
Chap.7,land-cover changebased onlong-termseriesofthenormalizeddifference
vegetationindex (NDVI)derived fromtheNOAAAVHRR isinvestigated,andits
sensitivity to climate conditions is discussed, followed by quantitative analysis on
vegetationphenologiesanddynamicsusingthediscreteFouriertransform(DFT).
Land-cover classification is one of the most important application areas of
satelliteremote-sensing data. However,derivingthematicmap from satelliteimag-
ery through classification approaches is not a straightforward task, especially from
high-resolution satellite imagery. Thus, based on the main physical environmental
and climatic indicators affecting ecological region in the study area, ecoregion
classificationiscarriedoutusingprincipalcomponentanalysis(PCA)andartificial
neural networks (ANN) techniques in Chap. 8, while land-cover classification is
successfullyimplementedforthestudyareabasedontheTerra/MODISmultispec-
tralcompositeimageusingmaximumlikelihoodclassifierinChap.9.
The grassland is a predominant land-use type in the central Tibetan Plateau
coveringover70%ofthetotalarea.Fractionalvegetationcover(FVC)andbiomass
areimportantparametersofgrasslandecosystems,playacriticalroleinthesustain-
able use of grassland resources and the global carbon cycle, and are often used to
evaluate and monitor vegetation degradation and desertification as well as soil
erosion,whilesatelliteremotesensingofferstheonlyfeasibleapproachtoestimate
FVC and aboveground biomass (AGB) at large spatial scales. Hence, remote-
sensing-based empirical models of FVC and AGB estimation are developed for
the central Tibetan Plateau based on the relationships between field measurements
and corresponding vegetation indices from the Terra/MODIS in the last two chap-
ters, which is particularly important to timely monitor grassland productivity and
dynamic changes for effective management of grassland resources to realize sus-
tainable development of grassland ecosystems since grassland degradation and
desertification are currently the major threat to the environmental conservation in
theTibetanPlateau.
Thispublicationismylong-timeresearcheffortsthatIhaveconductedoverthe
past 10 years and one of the highlights in my professional career and research
achievement. The book was initially written in 2007 and 2008 when I worked at
theInternational Centre for Integrated MountainDevelopment (ICIMOD) inKath-
mandu,Nepal,andathoroughandcompleterevisionandupdateweremadeduring
my visiting at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2017 and from that time
on.Thestudiesinthebookfromfieldobservationandsamplingtofinalpublication
weremadepossiblethroughthesupportfromdifferentfundingsources.Especially,I
would like to acknowledge the financial support from the China Meteorological
Administration (CMA), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC),
Department of Science and Technology of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), and
ICIMOD. MODIS data acquired from the NASA’s Land Processes Distributed
Preface vii
Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)are verymuch appreciated. All meteorological
data is provided by the Meteorological Information and Network Center of Tibet
MeteorologicalBureau.
Finally, I am grateful to my parents; wife, Lhakpan; and daughter, Seldron, for
theircontinuedsupportandencouragement.Itismyhopethatthepublicationofthis
book will help and facilitate students and professionals to use remote-sensing
technology in understanding environmental change relevant to land use and land
cover in mountainous regions around the globe and provide them with a valuable
referenceandguide.
Lhasa,Tibet,China DuoChu
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 ImportanceofLUCC. .. . . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. 1
1.2 BackgroundofLUCCResearch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Land-UseandLand-CoverConceptsandLinkages. . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 LUCCDrivingForces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.5 GlobalConsequencesofLUCC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.6 ApproachestoLUCCResearch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.7 RemoteSensingApplicationsinLUCC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.8 LUCCinMountainRegions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2 StudyArea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1 GeographicalLocationandAdministrativeDivision. . . . . . . . . 25
2.2 SocialandEconomicConditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.3 Topography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3.1 TopographicCharacteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3.2 LandformConditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.4 Vegetation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.4.1 BasicCharacteristics. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. 29
2.4.2 SpatialDistribution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.5 Climate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.5.1 Temperature. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. 32
2.5.2 Precipitation. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. 36
2.5.3 SolarRadiation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3 Land-UseStatus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.2 Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.2.1 Land-UseMappingMethod. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.2.2 AccuracyAssessmentforLand-UseStatusMapping. . . 43
3.3 Land-UseStatusClassificationSystem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
ix
x Contents
3.4 Land-UseStatusatPrefectureLevel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.4.1 OverallLand-UseStructure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.4.2 CultivatedLand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.4.3 HorticulturalLand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.4.4 ForestLand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.4.5 Grassland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.4.6 SettlementandBuilt-Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4.7 TransportationLand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4.8 WaterBody. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4.9 UnusedLand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.5 Land-UseStatusatCountyLevel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.5.1 CultivatedLand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.5.2 HorticulturalLand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.5.3 ForestLand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.5.4 Grassland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.5.5 SettlementandBuilt-Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.5.6 WaterBody. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.5.7 UnusedLand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.6 ConclusionandOutlook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4 SpatialDistributionofLand-UseTypes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.2 DigitalElevationModel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.3 SpatialAnalysisofTopography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.3.1 ElevationAnalysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.3.2 SlopeAnalysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.3.3 AspectAnalysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.4 SpatialDistributionofLand-UseTypes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.4.1 SpatialDistributionofCultivatedLand. . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.4.2 SpatialDistributionofForestLand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.4.3 SpatialDistributionofGrassland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.4.4 SpatialDistributionofSettlementandBuilt-UpLand. . . 77
4.4.5 SpatialDistributionofWaterBody. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.4.6 SpatialDistributionofUnusedLand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.5 ConclusionandDiscussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5 Land-UseChange. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.2 LocationofStudyArea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.3 DataandMethods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.3.1 DataSourceandMethods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.3.2 BackgroundoftheProject“Integrated
EnvironmentalAssessmentandMonitoring
Contents xi
inCentralTibetanPlateauUsingGISand
RemoteSensing”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.4 Land-UseChangeatPrefectureLevel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.4.1 Land-UseChangefrom1990to1995. . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.4.2 Land-UseChangefrom1995to2000. . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.4.3 Land-UseChangefrom1990to2000. . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.4.4 Land-UseChangefrom2000to2007. . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.5 Land-UseChangeatCountyLevel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.5.1 Land-UseChangeinRegionofCity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.5.2 Land-UseChangeinTaktseCounty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.5.3 Land-UseChangeinTolungDechenCounty. . . . . . . . 100
5.5.4 Land-UseChangeinLhundupCounty. . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.5.5 Land-UseChangeinMedroGongkarCounty. . . . . . . . 107
5.5.6 Land-UseChangeinNyemoCounty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.5.7 Land-UseChangeinChushurCounty. . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.6 AnalysisofDrivingForces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.7 ConclusionandDiscussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6 Land-UseChangeScenario. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
6.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
6.2 Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
6.3 ScenarioAnalysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
6.3.1 ValidationofMarkovChainModel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
6.3.2 PredictingLand-UseChange. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6.3.3 ComparisonBetweenAreasfromLand-Use
PlanningandMarkovModelProjection. . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6.4 ConclusionandDiscussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7 Land-CoverChange. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
7.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
7.2 Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
7.2.1 NOAAAVHRRData. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
7.2.2 NOAAAVHRRNDVI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
7.2.3 NOAAAVHRRGVI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
7.2.4 GVIDataProcessing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
7.2.5 MeteorologicalData. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.3 Land-CoverChangeandClimateImpacts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.3.1 Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 138
7.3.2 Domain-AveragedMonthly-MeanNDVITrend. . . . . . 140
7.3.3 RelationshipsBetweenNDVIandClimaticVariables. . . 143
7.3.4 AverageAnnualCycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
7.4 VegetationPhenologiesUsingtheDiscreteFourierTransform. . . 145
7.4.1 Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 145