An analysis of oasis evolution based on land use and land cover change: A case study in the Sangong River Basin on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains

doi:10.1007/s11442-017-1373-9

Abstract

Abstract:

This study investigated oasis evolution and the changes of peripheral desert in the Sangong River Basin since the 1950s by rebuilding seven land cover maps derived from black-and-white aerial photographs (1958, 1968, and 1978), a color-infrared aerial photograph (1987), Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery (1998), Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre (SPOT) imagery (2004), and Landsat Operational Land Imager (OLI) imagery (2014). The results showed that: (1) Since 1950, the oasis consecutively expanded more than four times from an alluvial fan to an alluvial plain, causing the shrinkage of desert landscapes that were dominated by a Haloxylon ammodendron Bunge community (HBC) and a Tamarix chinensis Lour community (TLC). Furthermore, the primary (1958-1968) and final (2004- 2014) stages were the most important periods, during which agricultural land experienced the most rapid expansion during the period 1958-1968, and the built-up area showed the most rapid expansion after the 2000s. (2) Two basic management modes, a “local mode” formed by the local governments and a “farm management mode” developed by Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, together promoted oasis evolution under various land-use and land- cover (LULC) stages. (3) The evolution of the modern oasis during the 1950s-2004 showed the general features of an arid oasis, while during the period of 2004-2014 it was characterized by a large-scale inter-basin water diversion or the import of new water sources. (4) The oasis expanded at the expense of desert vegetation, resulting in distinct variation in the structure of the desert plant community, which will make it more difficult to protect the desert ecosystem.

Key words: oasis evolution, land-use and land-cover change, desert plant community, land management, Sangong River Basin

Qi ZHANG, Geping LUO, Longhui LI, Miao ZHANG, Nana LV, Xinxin WANG. An analysis of oasis evolution based on land use and land cover change: A case study in the Sangong River Basin on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains[J].Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2017, 27(2): 223-239.

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Year	Data type	Image acquisition date	Resolution or scale
1958	Black-and-white aerial photographs	1958	1:35,000
1968	Black-and-white aerial photographs	1968	1:35,000
1978	Black-and-white aerial photographs	August 1978	1:35,000
1987	Color-infrared aerial photograph	June 1987	1:70,000
1998	Landsat TM imagery	August 1998	30 m
2004	SPOT5 imagery	June 2004	10 m
2014	Landsat OLI imagery	August 2014	15 m

Grade I	Grade II	Grade III (abbreviation)
Oasis	Agricultural land: includes irrigated lands, and other cultivated lands equipped with irrigation facilities Built-up area: includes cities (Fukang City and the South Junggar oil-based towns), land used for townships and settlements, and industrial and mining land (rural villages, industrial enterprises, mining areas, stone pits, and brickyard fields). Water: includes reservoirs and ponds.
Oasis		Desert	Soil-desert	Haloxylon ammodendron Bunge Community (HBC), Tamarix chinensis Lour Community (TLC), Reaumuria songarica (Pall.) Maxim Community (RMC), Tamarix chinensis Lour - Reaumuria songarica Maxim Community (TL-RMC), Grass (G)
Sandy-desert	Haloxylon ammodendron Bunge Community (HBC), Reaumuria songarica Maxim Community (RMC)	Desert
Mountain	Mountain (only low mountains and hills existed in the study area)

Year	Method	Validation data	Overall accuracy (%)	Kappa coefficient
1978	Stratified random sampling	LULC in oasis (Luo et al., 2003; Luo et al., 2008)	87.50	0.84
1987	Stratified random sampling	LULC in oasis (Luo et al., 2003; Luo et al., 2008)	90.00	0.88
1998	Stratified random sampling	LULC in oasis (Luo et al., 2003; Luo et al., 2008)	92.00	0.89
2004	Random sampling	Google images with high-resolution and plant community distribution (Lv et al., 2007)	90.67	0.89
2014	Random sampling and field investigation	Google images with high-resolution survey data	87.97	0.86

	Parameter	Meaning	Expression
Individual land types	Net change (ΔU)	The areal change of a land type over a period	△U=(U_b-U_a)/U_a╳100%
	Relative change (ΔS)	Sum of the loss and gain (i.e., the overall change) of a land type over a period	△S=(△U_a-△U_b)/U_a╳100%
	Status and trend (Ps)	Describes the strength of a contraction or expansion in a land type, and describes whether or not a particular LULC type is in a stable state	\(P_S=\frac{\Delta U_{in}-\Delta U_{out}}{\Delta U_{in}+\Delta U_{out}}\)-1≤P_S≤1 and △U_in+△U_out≠0
Whole area	Total status and trend (Pt)	Describes the state of LUCC in the whole study area	\(P_t=\frac{\sum^n_{i-1}\|\Delta U_{in}-\Delta U_{out}\|}{\sum^n_{i-1}\Delta U_{in}+\Delta U_{out}},\)0≤Pt≤1

Year	Parameter	Oasis				Desert
Year	Parameter	Water	Agricultural land	Built-up area	Total	Sandy-desert	Soil-desert	Total
1958	Area (km²)	0.00	127.50	1.73	129.23	380.46	828.56	1209.02
	Proportion of Grade I land	0.00	0.99	0.01	1	0.31	0.69	1
	Proportion of study area	0.00	0.08	0.00	0.09	0.25	0.55	0.80
1968	Area (km²)	4.49	273.89	10.42	288.81	376.08	672.67	1048.75
	Proportion of Grade I land	0.02	0.95	0.04	1	0.36	0.64	1
	Proportion of study area	0.00	0.18	0.01	0.19	0.25	0.45	0.70
1978	Area (km²)	7.09	298.43	15.64	321.16	374.81	646.11	1020.93
	Proportion of Grade I land	0.02	0.93	0.05	1	0.37	0.63	1
	Proportion of study area	0.00	0.20	0.01	0.21	0.25	0.43	0.68
1987	Area (km²)	6.45	305.81	26.07	338.34	374.11	635.07	1009.18
	Proportion of Grade I land	0.02	0.90	0.08	1	0.37	0.63	1
	Proportion of study area	0.00	0.20	0.02	0.22	0.25	0.42	0.67
1998	Area (km²)	8.11	356.69	43.45	408.25	373.54	565.83	939.37
	Proportion of Grade I land	0.02	0.87	0.24	1	0.40	0.60	1
	Proportion of study area	0.01	0.24	0.03	0.27	0.25	0.38	0.62
2004	Area (km²)	10.70	418.68	52.56	481.94	372.39	494.05	866.44
	Proportion of Grade I land	0.02	0.87	0.11	1	0.43	0.57	1
	Proportion of study area	0.01	0.28	0.03	0.32	0.25	0.33	0.58
2014	Area (km²)	42.95	500.97	100.94	644.86	370.68	333.14	703.82
	Proportion of Grade I land	0.07	0.78	0.16	1	0.53	0.47	1
	Proportion of study area	0.03	0.33	0.07	0.43	0.25	0.22	0.47