IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i12p2263-d122699.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of Landscape Patterns of Arid Valleys in China, Based on Grain Size Effect

Author

Listed:
  • Shu Fang

    (Linze Inland River Basin Research Station, Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, Key Laboratory of Eco-hydrology of Inland River Basin, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

  • Yonghua Zhao

    (College of Earth Sciences and Resources, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710054, China)

  • Lei Han

    (College of Earth Sciences and Resources, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710054, China)

  • Chaoqun Ma

    (College of Earth Sciences and Resources, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710054, China)

Abstract

Landscape metrics are useful tools in investigating spatial structure and in describing the heterogeneity of landscapes, but are sensitive to grain size. Thus, it is necessary to determine the appropriate grain size before researching landscape patterns. However, there have been few large-scale investigations in high-precision research about the effect of grain size on landscape patterns, especially in arid valleys in China. Thus, we selected three representative sample areas according to the basic characteristics of arid valleys, and we chose 22 grain sizes from 15 to 450 m to calculate twelve landscape metrics at the landscape level and six landscape metrics at the class level to analyze the most appropriate grain size for the arid valleys. All basins in the study area were converted to an appropriate-sized grid to analyze the landscape patterns. Our results showed that the effect of grain size on landscape metrics can be categorized as: no law, increasing, decreasing, or no change. The majority of the fitted landscape index curves were good, with high R 2 values. The most appropriate grain size at both levels was 75 m. The landscape pattern of arid valleys was scale-dependent. At the landscape level, arid valley landscape patterns changed from northwest to southeast due to topography and hydrothermal conditions. While the value of aggregation for different size classes was high, the other metrics showed significant differences due to area and degree of human activity at the class level.

Suggested Citation

  • Shu Fang & Yonghua Zhao & Lei Han & Chaoqun Ma, 2017. "Analysis of Landscape Patterns of Arid Valleys in China, Based on Grain Size Effect," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-20, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:12:p:2263-:d:122699
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/12/2263/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/12/2263/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Limin Yu & Yangbing Li & Meng Yu & Mei Chen & Linyu Yang, 2023. "Dynamic Changes in Agroecosystem Landscape Patterns and Their Driving Mechanisms in Karst Mountainous Areas of Southwest China: The Case of Central Guizhou," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-21, June.
    2. Yongwei Liu & Yao Zhang, 2024. "Responses of Ecosystem Services to Land Use/Cover Changes in Rapidly Urbanizing Areas: A Case Study of the Shandong Peninsula Urban Agglomeration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Peng Tian & Luodan Cao & Jialin Li & Ruiliang Pu & Xiaoli Shi & Lijia Wang & Ruiqing Liu & Hao Xu & Chen Tong & Zijing Zhou & Shuyao Shao, 2019. "Landscape Grain Effect in Yancheng Coastal Wetland and Its Response to Landscape Changes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-20, June.
    4. Erfu Dai & Yahui Wang & Liang Ma & Le Yin & Zhuo Wu, 2018. "‘Urban-Rural’ Gradient Analysis of Landscape Changes around Cities in Mountainous Regions: A Case Study of the Hengduan Mountain Region in Southwest China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-21, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:12:p:2263-:d:122699. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.