Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Driving Factors of Land-Cover Change in the Heilongjiang (Amur) River Basin

Monitoring land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) is extremely important in the sustainable development and management of terrestrial ecosystems. Taking the Heilongjiang (Amur) River Basin as the study area, this study aimed to identify the spatiotemporal characteristics of land cover at the entire basin and at the country levels of the three countries using the land-use change index, frequency statistics and land-cover change degree. The results showed that: (1) The LULC types were mainly forest land and grassland (accounting for nearly 83% in total) from 2001 to 2019. The main land-cover types in China, Russia and Mongolia were forest land, forest land and grassland, respectively. (2) The area of urban land, cropland and wetland increased significantly from 2001 to 2019, while the area of forest land and bare land decreased during this time. In general, the ecological environment has greatly improved over the last 19 years, although the relevant ecological restoration still needs to be further implemented. The findings can provide a scientific basis for ecological protection and sustainable development in the Heilongjiang (Amur) River Basin. The approaches here are also applicable to land-cover change research in other similar regions.

Automated summary

This study examined the spatiotemporal characteristics of land cover in the Heilongjiang (Amur) River Basin using land-use change index, frequency statistics, and land-cover change degree. The results indicated that forest land and grassland were the predominant land-cover types, while urban land, cropland, and wetland areas increased significantly from 2001 to 2019. The findings contribute to ecological protection and sustainable development in the region and can be applied to similar land-cover change research.