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Mapping wetland changes in China between 1978 and 2008

Chinese Science Bulletin volume 57, pages 2813–2823 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Four wetland maps for all China have been produced, based on Landsat and CBERS-02B remote sensing data between 1978 and 2008 (1978, 1990, 2000 and 2008). These maps were mainly developed by manual interpretation and validated by substantial field investigation in 2009. Based on these maps, we analyzed the 2008 wetland distribution in China and discussed wetland changes and their drivers over the past 30 years. (i) There were about 324097 km2 of wetlands in 2008, for which inland marshes or swamps were the most common wetland type (35%), with lakes (26%) second. Most of the wetlands were in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai and Tibet, occupying about 55% of the national wetland area. (ii) From 1978 to 2008, China’s wetland area continually and significantly decreased, by about 33% based on changes in the wetland map. This was in sharp contrast to the increase in artificial wetlands, which increased by about 122%. Inland marshes accounted for the main loss of total wetlands from 1978 to 2000. From 2000 through 2008, riverine and lacustrine wetlands constituted the main wetland loss. Fortunately however, the rate of wetland loss decreased from 5523 to 831 km2/a. (iii) The change ratio of lost natural wetlands (including inland and coastal wetlands) to non-wetlands has decreased slightly over the past 30 years. From 1978 to 1990, nearly all natural wetlands (98%) lost were transformed into non-wetlands. However, the ratio declined to 86% from 1990 to 2000, and to 77% from 2000 to 2008. (iv) All Chinese provinces were divided into three groups according to patterns of wetland changes, which could relate to the driving forces of such changes. Tibet was completely different from other provinces, as it was one representative example in which there was a net wetland increase, because of global warming and decreased human activity since 1990. Increased economic development caused considerable wetland loss in most eastern provinces, and artificial wetlands increased.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100101, China

    ZhenGuo Niu, HaiYing Zhang, XianWei Wang, Hui Zhao, NaNa Li, HuaBing Huang, CaiXia Liu, Shuang Liu, Lin Wang, Zhan Li, Fei Qiao, YaoMin Zheng, ZiQi Guo & Peng Gong

  2. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Center for Earth System Science, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    WenBo Yao & Peng Gong

  3. Department of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100037, China

    DeMin Zhou

  4. Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130012, China

    KuiYi Zhao

  5. Department of Geography and Remote Sensing, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    CongCong Li, ZhenZhong Yang & Xiao Cheng

  6. College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Jun Yang

  7. Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, USA

    YanLei Chen & Peng Gong

  8. Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095, USA

    YongWei Sheng

  9. Department of Life and Geographic Sciences, Qinghai Normal University, Xining, 810008, China

    XiaoHong Gao

  10. Department of Geography, Yanbian University, Yanbian, 133002, China

    WeiHong Zhu

  11. School of Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    WenQing Wang

  12. School of Geographical Information Science, Hohai University, Nanjing, 211100, China

    Hong Wang

  13. School of Surveying and Mapping Transportation Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

    YongLing Weng

  14. Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    DaFang Zhuang & JiYuan Liu

  15. School of Surveying and Mapping, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    ZhiCai Luo

Authors
  1. ZhenGuo Niu
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  2. HaiYing Zhang
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  7. Hui Zhao
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  8. NaNa Li
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  11. Jun Yang
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  24. Hong Wang
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  29. Xiao Cheng
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  30. ZiQi Guo
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  31. Peng Gong
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Correspondence to ZhenGuo Niu or Peng Gong.

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Niu, Z., Zhang, H., Wang, X. et al. Mapping wetland changes in China between 1978 and 2008. Chin. Sci. Bull. 57, 2813–2823 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-012-5093-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-012-5093-3

Keywords

  • wetland change
  • remote sensing
  • global change
  • China
  • wetland reserves