Spatial-temporal characteristics of land use changes in the ten tributaries of Yellow River in Inner-Mongolia since 1980
The study of the land use changes in the ten t ributaries of Yellow River in Inner-Mongolia is of great significance for not only the construction of regional ecological environment, but also the evaluat ion of w ater and soil conservation effect s. Based on t he land use data interpret ed from remote sensing images in 1980, 1998 and 2010, the spatial and temporal variat ion of land use in the ten tributaries since 1980 w as analyzed from the land use dynamic change and the direction of land use transforma-tion. Some conclusions can be draw n as follows: First, Arable land, grassland and unused land w ere the major land use t ypes in the t en tributaries. T he area of grassland gradually increased, w hile unused land decreased since 1980. The rate and speed of var-iation were higher during 1998-2010 than 1980-1998. Second, during 1980-1998 and 1998-2010, the directions of land use change were mainly as follows: unused land w as converted to low and m iddle coverage grassland, low coverage grassland to m iddle and high coverage grassland, middle coverage grassland to high coverage grassland. The area of conversion were mainly distributed in t he upper and middle basin of the ten t ributaries. The largest area of conversion of low coverage grassland to middle and high coverage grassland was obtained during 1980-1998. While the largest unused land to low and middle coverage grassland was ob-served during 1998-2010. The urbanization level had grown, w ater and soil conservation of forest and grass had been enhanced, regional ecological environment had been im proved in the ten tribut aries since 1980, and more outstanding improvement effects were found after the launch of bioenvironmental recovering policy of Grain to Green Program ( GTGP) in 1999.
land use changespatial-temporal characterist icswater and soil conservation of forest and grassremote sensing in-terpretationthe ten tribut aries