LANDSCAPE PATTERN CHANGE AND ASSOCIATED ENVIRONMENTAL 
IMPLICATIONS IN HAIHE RIVER BASIN, CHINA 
Yusheng Shi a,b , Jieying Xiao c , Yanjun Shen 3, * 
a Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of 
Sciences. 286. Huaizhong Rd., Shijiazhuang 050021, China; email: - yjshen@sjziam.ac.cn Tel: +86-311-8582-5464 
b Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Beijing, 100049, China 
c School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology. 70. East Yuhua Rd., 
Shijiazhuang 050018, China. 
Youth Forum 
KEY WORDS: Landscape Change, Remote Sensing and GIS, Landscape Metrics, Haihe River Basin, Environmental Effects 
ABSTRACT: 
Quantifying landscape pattern and its change is essential for the monitoring and assessment of ecological consequences of land use 
change and human interference. The changing characteristics of landscape structure in the Haihe River Basin (HRB), China, during 
1990 to 2000 were detected by using satellite remote sensing based land use data. Key landscape indices were selected to 
characterize the landscape patterns. The results showed that from 1990 to 2000, the landscape within the study area has undertaken a 
complicated transformation in landscape structure and composition. A notable decrease in cropland mainly due to conversion to 
built-up land. Spatial distribution of different patches became more separated and the patch types became more disaggregated. 
Additionally, we found that both Shannon’s diversity index and Shannon’s evenness index increased during the periods, manifesting 
the landscapes in the study area became more fragmented and heterogeneous under intensive exploitation and reconstruction of 
landscape by human beings. The environmental effects of landscape change were also discussed. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Landscape structure and composition develops continuously in 
space and time. These developments are attributable to the 
complex interaction between natural environment and human 
activities, resulting in the change of the stability of individual 
elements in the landscape system and the spatial structure of 
landscape (Xiao et al., 1990). Investigating landscape structure 
and its change is a prerequisite to the study of ecosystem 
functions and processes, sustainable resources management, and 
effective land use planning (Matsushita, et al., 2006). The 
research on regional landscape change has been one of the hot 
topics in this field, which attracts general interests of the 
geographers and ecologists worldwide (Forman and Godron, 
1986; Dong, et al., 2007). Landscape and environmental 
changes are interrelated and interact on each other. Studying on 
landscape change and associated environment takes quantitative 
analysis of landscape change as preexisting. The methods of 
quantitative analysis of landscape pattern structure and its 
change based on landscape metrics have been widely adopted 
by landscape ecology researchers (Herold, et al., 2003; Olsen, 
2007). 
Haihe River Basin (HRB), which suffered intense human 
interference and decreasingly deteriorating environment, has 
been an important commodity grain base and ecology 
conservation base in north China and holds an increasingly 
important social and economic position. A severe lack of water 
resources, integrated with tremendous landscape change 
jeopardized the ecosystem stabilization, structure and function. 
Accordingly, the study on landscape changes in this area can 
improve our understanding of the interrelationships among 
landscape structure, natural environment, and human activities, 
and help to define the magnitude and direction of landscape 
changes caused by human interfering activities, and thus 
provide an important scientific basis for the sustainable 
development of the region (Lu, et al., 2003). The main issue is 
the interpretation of the magnitude and pattern of change and its 
effects on the regional ecological processes and patterns. There 
have been some academic researches on landscape change in 
provinces Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei according to 
administrative boundary, almost all of which focused on the 
urbanization process (e.g. Xiao, et al., 2006), but few reports on 
landscape change analysis at the basin scale based on remote 
sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS). 
Therefore, our objectives of the present study are: (1) to 
characterize the land use change in the Haihe River Basin, 
China; (2) to quantify the changes in landscape pattern in HRB; 
and (3) to evaluate the effects of landscape pattern changes on 
environment. 
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS 
2.1 Study Area 
Haihe River Basin is located between 35°~43°N and 
112°~120°E. It neighbors the Inner Mongolia Plateau in the 
north, and Yellow River is the borderline in the south. It faces 
the Bohai Sea to the east and borders Shanxi Plateau in the west 
(Figure 1). It has a typical warm to temperate, semi-humid and 
semiarid, continental monsoon climate, and well-defined 
seasons. The Haihe River Basin, with an area of 318,000 square 
kilometers, involves primarily Hebei Province and two huge 
municipalities, Beijing and Tianjin. Other four Provinces, such 
as Inner Mongol, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong, partially fall 
into the Basin. Haihe River Basin is one of the most developed 
regions in China. About 10 percent of the China’s population, 
15 percent of nation’s industrial and 10 percent of the total 
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