Abstract
This study examines landscape changes in the context of China’s national Grain for Green (GFG) policy, one of the world’s largest “payment for environmental/ecosystem services” (PES) programs. We explored landscape structures and dynamics between 2000 and 2010 in Shaanxi Province, the Chinese province with the greatest amount of cropland conversion and reforestation in recent decades. We used Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM)-derived data and landscape metrics for six land cover classes to determine (1) the major land cover changes during enforcement of the policy, (2) the spatial and temporal variations in these changes, and (3) the effects of land cover changes on landscape structure and dynamics. The results suggested that provincial-level land cover changes modestly reflected the goals of the GFG. Over the 10-year study period, the forest and grassland coverages expanded from 95,737.9 to 97,017.4 km2 and from 37,235.9 to 40,613.1 km2, respectively, while the cropland coverage decreased from 59,222.8 to 54,007.6 km2. The conversion direction differed regionally: the targeted croplands in Shanbei, namely, types III and IV, were mainly transformed into grassland while those in Shannan were mainly transformed into forestland. Reforestation was associated with increased inter-landscape aggregation and connection. Despite this large-scale reforestation trend, we found notable and significant differences in the land cover changes at the subprovincial level.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41271103 and 40901093) and by the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science Project of China (Grant No. 10YJC790017).
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The sample numbers of the different land use types used to assess the accuracy for 548 Shaanxi Province (DOC 30 kb)
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The equations and a brief explanation of the meaning of each metric at the landscape 550 and class levels. (DOC 30 kb)
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Chen, H., Marter-Kenyon, J., López-Carr, D. et al. Land cover and landscape changes in Shaanxi Province during China’s Grain for Green Program (2000–2010). Environ Monit Assess 187, 644 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-015-4881-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-015-4881-z