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Land Use/Cover Changes, the Environment and Water Resources in Northeast China

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Abstract

Land use/cover in Northeast China went through extensive changes during the 1990s. This report explores the interaction between these changes and the environment, and the implication of these changes for rational allocation of water resources. Two maps of land use/cover produced from 1990 and 2000 Landsat TM satellite images were overlaid in ArcInfo to reveal changes in land cover. Results indicate that farmland and grassland decreased by 386,195 and 140,075 ha, respectively, while water, built-up areas, and woodland increased by 238,596, 194,231, and 192,682 ha, respectively. These changes bore a mutual relationship with the environmental change. On the one hand, climate warming made some of these changes (e.g., conversion of woodland and grassland to farmland) possible. On the other hand, the changed surface cover modified the local climate. These changes, in turn, caused severe environmental degradation and increased flooding. The change between dry field and rice paddy, in particular, raised severe implications for the proper allocation of limited water resources in the Northeast. Efforts are needed to coordinate their rational allocation to reap maximum and sustainable return over the entire area, not just in some localities. Results obtained in this study should be of interest to the international audience of Environmental Management in that they highlight the interactive nature of human activities and the environment and the off-site impact of these activities on the environment.

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Acknowledgments

This research received financial support from the Key Knowledge Innovation Project Fund at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (project number: KZCX1-SW-19-01), the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (grant number: 40171007), as well as the Key Science and Technology Project, Ministry of Land and Resources (grant number: 20010102). Additional funding for this project came from the Visiting Researchers by Outstanding Overseas Scholar Fund at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. We are deeply indebted to Chuanjun Wu and Jiyuan Liu at the Chinese Academy of Sciences for providing valuable materials and insightful comments during the successful completion of this study. The Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology in Changchun offered assistance in carrying out the field work of this study. We are grateful for the constructive comments four anonymous reviewers provided on an early version of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Yansui Liu & Dawei Wang

  2. School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand

    Jay Gao

  3. Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130021, China

    Wei Deng

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  1. Yansui Liu
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  2. Dawei Wang
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  4. Wei Deng
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Correspondence to Yansui Liu.

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Liu, Y., Wang, D., Gao, J. et al. Land Use/Cover Changes, the Environment and Water Resources in Northeast China. Environmental Management 36, 691–701 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-004-0285-5

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