SCIENTIA GEOGRAPHICA SINICA ›› 2022, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (11): 1996-2005.doi: 10.13249/j.cnki.sgs.2022.11.014

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Spatial and Temporal Explicit Analysis of Forestland of Northeast China in 1950-2020

Yang Xuhong1(), Jin Xiaobin1(), Yang Yongke2, Xue Qiaofeng1, Liu Ronggao3, Zhou Yinkang1   

  1. 1. School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu, China
    2. Key Laboratory for Digital Dongting Lake Basin of Hunan Province, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, Hunan, China
    3. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
  • Received:2021-05-07 Revised:2021-12-04 Online:2022-11-30 Published:2022-11-20
  • Contact: Jin Xiaobin E-mail:yangxhnju@nju.edu.cn;jinxb@nju.edu.cn

Abstract:

The abundant forest cover information has been recorded on the historical topographic maps which can offer the first-hand information of long time period of forest cover change and satisfy the research of land cover reconstruction and its environmental effect. By the meaning of map interpretation and data digging, this study has extracted the forestland cover information from historical topographic maps (1950) and contemporary land use map (2020), and analyze the change process and spatial-temporal pattern of forestland cover during 1950 to 2020. The results showed that: 1) It is very accurate for the forestland cover information recorded in the historical topographic maps which can effectively represent the fundamental spatial-temporal pattern characteristics of forestland in Northeast China in the middle of 20th century; In the past 70 years, the total area of forestland in Northeast China had rapidly increased by 10.04×104 km2, and meanwhile the forestland coverage ratio had increased from 34.67% to 44.97%. Except Baishan City, the area of forestland in the cities level is increasing and the forestland area of net growth of top five cities have exceeded 5 000 km2. 2) During the study period, the region areas of maintained, increased and decreased forestland were 28.36×104 km2, 15.49×104 km2 and 5.45×104 km2 respectively. The maintained region for forestland mainly were distributed on the Changbai Mountains, the Lesser and Greater Khingan Mountains which have spatially formed the inverted U-shaped pattern, and the area have covered the 64.68% of whole forestland in 2020. The increasing district of forestland was concentrated in the Liaohe Plain, the west of Changbai Mountains, the east side of the Sanjiang Plain and the east-east sides of Da Hinggan Mountains, and the decreased region of forestland was scattered in many place. 3) The region disappeared the forest have been mainly occupied by the grassland and grain farming which have accounted for the 88.18% of whole decreased forestland area, and it is basically equal for the forestland occupied by waterbody or urban-rural construction, accounting for about 2.00% of whole decreased area. 4) The site condition and quality of forestland have been greatly improved. On the one hand, the average distance from forestland to the nearest towns has shrunk by 2.26 km, and more than half of the newly increased forestland have located the region within no more than 10 km distance to the towns, and it means the forestland have spatially expanded to the near center of town. On the other hand, the average elevation of forestland has been decreased by 41.44 m, and more than half of the newly increased forestland have concentrated the region within 300 m elevation above the sea level, which means the increasing forests have grown on the plains and gentle slopes region.

Key words: forestland change, historical maps, site condition, Northeast China, 70 years

CLC Number: 

  • F301.2