A STUDY ON LAND USE AND ENVIRONMENT IN TONZA CITY AREA IN HAINAN PROVINCE, CHINA: TWENTY YEARS OF CHANGE

摘要

Counties under the Tonza city of Hainan province in China are remote areasrninhabited mainly by Li ethnic community. Remote Sensing has been utilized in order to betterrnunderstand the human interaction with the environment and the natural resources. This paperrnsummarizes the study of changing land use covering a time span of last two decades, in thernfour counties, namely Fan Yang Zheng, Maoyan Zheng, Hongshang Xiang and Shui ManrnXiang in Tonza city area in Hainan. Landsat MSS and Landsat ETM data were used tornanalyze the land cover into broad classes, and then spatial and temporal dynamics of landrnuse change was analyzed for the whole area and different counties. The study showed arnsignificant increase in forest and a decrease in grassland in the study area over this period.rnThis change is consistent with the history of various policy measures and laws with respect tornshifting cultivation and forest use adopted in the area during the period, which could bernverified from our field investigations.