Abstract
The farm pond system for irrigation is the most prominent feature in the Taoyuan area, Taiwan, giving the region a unique landscape and hydrological character. Although this area had more than 3,290 ponds in the 1970s, fewer than 1,800 now remain. This study analyzes changes in irrigation farm ponds and the canal network landscape in the Taoyuan area. The spatial and temporal changes to ponds and the canal network on the Taoyuan plain were examined graphically for each spatial unit (2,765 m × 2,525 m) using aerial photographs for 1979 and 2005. Landscape metrics were calculated to analyze landscape change associated with increased urbanization. Landscape indices of connectivity and circuitry were utilized to describe changes in the configuration of ponds and canal networks. The total length of canals and total number of ponds in the study area decreased significantly during 1979–2005. The average values of connectivity indices (γ- and α-index) also decreased during 1979–2005, reflecting degradation of canal networks due to urban sprawl. A multivariate technique was applied to portion the study area into three zones according to changes to land cover, ponds, and canal networks. The effects of urban sprawl on the spatial pattern of ponds and canal networks are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Antrop M (2000) Changing patterns in the urbanized countryside of western Europe. Landscape Ecology 15:257–270
Collinge SK (1998) Spatial arrangement of habitat patches and corridors: clues from ecological field experiments. Landscape and Urban Planning 42:157–168
Cook EA (2002) Landscape structure indices for assessing urban ecological networks. Landscape and Urban Planning 58:269–280
Costanza R, d’Arge R, de Groot R, Faber S, Grasso M, Hannon B, Limburg K, Maeem S, O’Neill R, Paruelo J, Raskin R, Sutton P, van den Belt M (1997) The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387:253–260
Crist MR, Wilmer B, Aplet GH (2005) Assessing the value of roadless areas in a conservation reserve strategy: biodiversity and landscape connectivity in the northern Rockies. Journal of Applied Ecology 42:181–191
Daily GE (1997) Introduction: what are ecosystem services? In: Dailey GE (ed) Nature’s services—societal dependence on natural ecosystems. Island Press, Washington D.C, pp 1–10
de Groot RS, Wilson MA, Boumans RMJ (2002) A typology for the classification, description and valuation of ecosystem functions, goods and services. Ecological Economics 41:393–408
de Sherbinin A, Schiller A, Pulsipher A (2009) The vulnerability of global cities to climate hazards. In: Bicknell J, Dodman D, Satterthwaite D (eds) Adapting cities to climate change: understanding and addressing the development challenges. Earthscan, London, pp 129–157
Deckers B, Verheyen K, Hermy M, Muys B (2005) Effects of landscape structure on the invasive spread of black cherry (Prunus serotina) in an agricultural landscape in Flanders, Belgium. Ecography 28:99–109
Fang WT (2006) The disappearing cultural assets in Taoyuan: the analysis of pond change and settlement development in the last hundred years. In: The proceedings of Taoyuan community culture reservation conference, Taoyuan county cultural foundation, 2006, Taoyuan, Taiwan (in Chinese)
Fang WT, Lin SW (2005) Preservation scenarios to selecting farm ponds for wintering bird refuges in Taoyuan, Taiwan. In: Bulter R, Malcolm C, Ronald Y (eds) Proceedings of the 27th meeting of the International Waterbird Society 2005, Tainan, Taiwan
Forman RTT (1995) Land mosaics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Forman RTT, Godron M (1986) Landscape ecology. Wiley, New York
Franklin JF (1993) Preserving biodiversity: species, ecosystems, or landscapes? Ecological Applications 3:202–205
Gustafson EJ (1998) Quantifying landscape spatial pattern: what is the state of the art? Ecosystems 1:143–156
Huang S-L, Wang S-H, Budd WW (2009) Sprawl in Taipei’s peri-urban zone: responses to spatial planning and implications for adapting global environmental change. Landscape and Urban Planning 90:20–32
Jantz P, Goetz S, Jantz C (2005) Urbanization and the loss of resource lands in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Environmental Management 36:808–825
Kaiser HF (1958) The varimax criterion for analytic rotation in factor analysis. Psychometrika 23:187–200
Kristensen SP, Caspersen OH (2002) Analysis of changes in a shelterbelt network landscape in central Jutland, Denmark. Journal of Environmental Management 66:171–183
Lathrop RG, Bognar JA (1998) Applying GIS and landscape ecological principles to evaluate land conservation alternatives. Landscape and Urban Planning 41:27–41
Leitão BA, Ahern J (2002) Applying landscape ecological concepts and metrics in sustainable landscape planning. Landscape and Urban Planning 59:65–93
Leitão BA, Miller J, Ahern J, McGarigal K (2006) Measuring landscapes: a planners handbook. Island Press, Washington
Lin YP, Deng DP, Chang TK (2004) The application of landscape ecology approach for studying farm pond change in Taoyuan tableland. In: The proceedings of Taoyuan canal Academic conference on water resources and management, 2004, Taoyuan, Taiwan (in Chinese)
Long J, Nelson T, Wulder M (2010) Regionalization of landscape pattern indices using multivariate cluster analysis. Environmental Management 46:134–142
Martinuzzi S, Gould WA, Gonzalez OMR (2007) Land development, land use, and urban sprawl in Puerto Rico integrating remote sensing and population census data. Landscape and Urban Planning 79:288–297
Marulli J, Mallarach JM (2005) A GIS methodology for assessing ecological connectivity: application to the Barcelona metropolitan area. Landscape and Urban Planning 71:243–262
McGarigal K, Cushman SA, Neel MC, Ene E (2002) FRAGSTATS: spatial pattern analysis program for categorical maps. University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) Ecosystems and human well-being. Island Press, Washington, D. C
Opdam P, Wascher D (2004) Climate change meets habitat fragmentation: linking landscape and biogeographical scale levels in research and conservation. Biological Conservation 117:285–297
Opdam P, Steingröver E, van Rooij S (2006) Ecological networks: a spatial concept for multi-actor planning of sustainable landscapes. Landscape and Urban Planning 75:322–332
Pirnat J (2000) Conservation and management of forest patches and corridors in suburban landscapes. Landscape and Urban Planning 52:135–143
Saura S, Pascual-Hortal L (2007) A new habitat availability index to integrate connectivity in landscape conservation planning: comparison with existing indices and application to a case study. Landscape and Urban Planning 83:91–103
Seto KC, Fragkias M (2005) Quantifying spatiotemporal patterns of urban land use change in four cities of China with time series landscape metrics. Landscape Ecology 20:871–888
Vitousek PM, Mooney HA, Lubchenco J, Melillo JM (1997) Land use change under conditions of high population pressure: the case of Java. Global Environmental Change 9:303–312
Ward JH (1963) Hierarchical grouping to optimize an objective function. Journal of the American Statistical Association 58:234–244
Yeh C-T, Huang S-L (2009) Investigating spatiotemporal patterns of landscape diversity in response to urbanization. Landscape and Urban Planning 93:151–162
Acknowledgments
The financial support for this research was provided by the National Science Council of Taiwan (Grant no. NSC96-2415-H-305-012-MY3).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Huang, SL., Lee, YC., Budd, W.W. et al. Analysis of Changes in Farm Pond Network Connectivity in the Peri-Urban Landscape of the Taoyuan Area, Taiwan. Environmental Management 49, 915–928 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9824-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9824-7