Journal of Geographical Sciences >
A review of historical reconstruction methods of land use/land cover
*Corresponding author: Zhang Shuwen (1955-), Researcher, specialized in land use and land cover change. E-mail: zhangshuwen@neigae.ac.cn
Author: Yang Yuanyuan (1988-), PhD Candidate, specialized in land use and land cover change. E-mail: sophiayangyuanyuan@hotmail.com
Received date: 2013-05-28
Accepted date: 2014-01-22
Online published: 2014-04-20
Supported by
National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41271416.CAS “Strategic Priority Research Program”, No.XDA05090310
Copyright
Understanding long-term human-environment interactions requires historical reconstruction of past land-use and land-cover changes. Most reconstructions have been based primarily on consistently available and relatively standardized information from historical sources. Based on available data sources and a retrospective research, in this paper we review the approaches and methods of the digital reconstruction and analyze their advantages and possible constraints in the following aspects: (1) Historical documents contain qualitative or semi-quantitative information about past land use, which also usually include land-cover data, but preparation of archival documents is very time-consuming. (2) Historical maps and pictures offer visual and spatial quantitative land-cover information. (3) Natural archive has significant advantages as a method for reconstructing past vegetation and has its unique possibilities especially when historical records are missing or lacking, but it has great limits of rebuilding certain land-cover types. (4) Historical reconstruction models have been gradually developed from empirical models to mechanistic ones. The method does not only reconstruct the quantity of land use/cover in historical periods, but it also reproduces the spatial distribution. Yet there are still few historical land-cover datasets with high spatial resolution. (5) Reconstruction method based on multiple-source data and multidisciplinary research could build historical land-cover from multiple perspectives, complement the missing data, verify reconstruction results and thus improve reconstruction accuracy. However, there are challenges that make the method still in the exploratory stage. This method can be a long-term development goal for the historical land-cover reconstruction. Researchers should focus on rebuilding historical land-cover dataset with high spatial resolution by developing new models so that the study results could be effectively applied in simulations of climatic and ecological effects.
Key words: review; historical reconstruction; land use; land cover
YANG Yuanyuan , ZHANG Shuwen , YANG Jiuchun , CHANG Liping , BU Kun , XING Xiaoshi . A review of historical reconstruction methods of land use/land cover[J]. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2014 , 24(4) : 746 -766 . DOI: 10.1007/s11442-014-1117-z
Figure 1 Land-cover reconstruction based on historical documents |
Figure 2 Land-cover reconstruction based on historical maps and pictures |
Figure 3 Land-cover reconstruction based on land suitability evaluation model |
Table 1 Advantages and constrains of reconstruction methods and their suitable spatial and temporal scales |
Advantages | Constrains | Suitable spatial and temporal scales | |
---|---|---|---|
Reconstruction based on historical documents | 1. Accessible data 2. Huge amount of land-cover information and great variety 3. Widely used in numerical reconstruction | 1.Time-consuming to collect 2. Fragmentary 3. Inaccurate and missing information 4. Qualitative or semi-quantitative data 5. Different meaning with that of today 6. Recorded in administrative units with fuzzy spatial information | 1. Millennium time-scale 2. From regional to national scales |
Reconstruction based on historical maps and pictures | 1. Visual information 2. Abundant spatial quantitative information | 1. Errors, inconsistencies and inaccuracies 2. Geometrical irregularities 3.Un-unified land cover classification 4. Missing certain boundaries in some classes of land covers | 1. Centennial time-scale 2. Regional scale |
Reconstruction based on natural archives | 1. Providing accurate spatial details of land use 2. With long time span | 1. Not easily available. 2. With great limits of certain land-cover type | 1.Millennial time-scale or longer 2. Regional scale |
Model-based reconstruction | 1. Driving forces and driving mechanism of land use 3. Quantitatively spatial land cover. | 1. High quality data acquisition and input parameters 2. Incomplete reconstruction system 3. Few historical land-cover datasets with high spatial accuracy | 1. From decadal to millennial time-scales 2. From regional to global scales |
Reconstruction based on multiple-source data and multidisciplinary analysis | 1. Multiple perspectives 2. Complementing missing data and verifying reconstruction results | 1. Difficult to couple various types of data 2. Few all-round researchers with multidisciplinary backgrounds | Unlimited |
Figure 4 Reconstruction framework of historical land use |
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
1 |
|
2 |
|
3 |
|
4 |
|
5 |
|
6 |
|
7 |
|
8 |
|
9 |
|
10 |
|
11 |
|
12 |
|
13 |
|
14 |
|
15 |
|
16 |
|
17 |
|
18 |
|
19 |
|
20 |
|
21 |
|
22 |
|
23 |
|
24 |
|
25 |
|
26 |
|
27 |
|
28 |
|
29 |
|
30 |
|
31 |
|
32 |
|
33 |
|
34 |
|
35 |
|
36 |
|
37 |
|
38 |
|
39 |
|
40 |
|
41 |
|
42 |
|
43 |
|
44 |
|
45 |
|
46 |
|
47 |
|
48 |
|
49 |
|
50 |
|
51 |
|
52 |
|
53 |
|
54 |
|
55 |
|
56 |
|
57 |
|
58 |
|
59 |
|
60 |
|
61 |
|
62 |
|
63 |
|
64 |
|
65 |
|
66 |
|
67 |
|
68 |
|
69 |
|
70 |
|
71 |
|
72 |
|
73 |
|
74 |
|
75 |
|
76 |
|
77 |
|
78 |
|
79 |
|
80 |
|
81 |
|
82 |
|
83 |
|
84 |
|
85 |
|
86 |
|
87 |
|
88 |
|
89 |
|
90 |
|
91 |
|
92 |
|
93 |
|
94 |
|
95 |
|
96 |
|
97 |
|
98 |
|
99 |
|
100 |
|
101 |
|
102 |
|
103 |
|
104 |
|
105 |
|
106 |
|
107 |
|
108 |
|
109 |
|
110 |
|
111 |
|
112 |
|
113 |
|
114 |
|
115 |
|
116 |
|
117 |
|
118 |
|
119 |
|
/
〈 | 〉 |