Assessment on characteristics of LUCC process based on complex network in Modern Yellow River Delta, Shandong Province of China

摘要

Research on land use cover change (LUCC) has reached a mature stage and has formed a relatively complete scientific system. However, most studies analyzed the LUCC process from the view of land use types ignoring the integrality and systematicness of the land use system, which brought certain constraints to understanding the complexity and systematicness of land use process scientifically. Using the Modern Yellow River Delta (MYRD) of China as the study area, this research introduced the complex network analysis method to the study of the LUCC process by using 9 periods of land use data between 1976 and 2014 to build 8 stages of complex networks. The values of node degree, betweenness, changing proportions, and average shortest path in the networks were calculated to identify the key land use types, changing models of land use types, and the stability of land use system. Additionally, main parts of complex networks of the period from 1976 to 1995 and the period from 1995 to 2014 were selected to evaluate the changing characteristics of the LUCC process. The results indicated the area and proportion of natural wetland kept reducing, but the area and proportion of artificial wetland or non-wetland continued rising. The bare land, reed, bush, and cultivated land were the key land use types of the LUCC process. In the past 38 years, beach, bare land, reed and bush had been the output types, and the building land and salt pan had been the input types. The LUCC process has been a transfer process of natural wetland to artificial wetland and non-wetland in the past 38 years, which could be divided into land accretion process (1976 to 1995) and construction process (1995 to 2014). The land ecosystem was unstable for the period from 1990 to 2006.