Fuqing County of southeast China has witnessed significant land use changes during the last decade. Re mote sensing technology using multitemporal Landsat TM images was used to characterize land use types and to monitor land use changes in the county. Two TM scenes from 1991 and 1996 were used to cover the county and a five-year time period. Digital image processing was carried out for the remotely sensed data to produce classified images. The images were further processed using GIS software to generate GIS databases so that the data could be further spatially analyzed taking the advantages of the software. Land use change areas were determined by using the change detection technique. The comparison of the two classified TM images using the above technologies reveals that during the five study years, a large area of arable lands in the county has been lost and deforestation has taken place largely because of the dramatic in crease in built-up land and orchard. The conclusive statistical information is useful to understand the processes, causes and impacts of the land use changes in the county. The major driving force to the land use changes in the county ap peared to be the rapid economic development. The decision makers of the county have to pay more attention to the land use changes for the county’s sustainable development.
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