Analyses on Change of Land Use and Landscape Pattern in the Three River Headwater Region

The variation characteristics of land use and landscape pattern in the ThreeRiver Headwater Region during recent ten years were analyzed through the data sets of land use types of the region based on the interpretation of remote sensing image by three time periods of TM/ETM images since 2000. The results showed that the change of land use in the ThreeRiver Headwater Region was relatively slow and the overall land use status was relatively stable from 2000 to 2010. the average dynamic degree of the grassland, woodland, wetlands and artificial land was all less than 0.5%, and the change index of land use among different types was around 0.5 %. The analyses on integrated dynamic degree and change index of land use showed that the change in the later five years was significantly less than that of in the previous five years, indicating that the overall change in land use types in the ThreeRiver Headwater Region was slowed down, and the land use and landscape pattern trended to be stable. The ratio of grassland landscape to other types of landscape patchs in the study area was decreased, which led to the decline of predominant landscape types, the increase of regional landscape types, equalized development of different landscape types and the landscape became more diversified. Meanwhile, the continuity of landscape was reduced, there were aggregated distribution of different landscape types, and the landscape tended to be fragmented.