Assessment for salinized wasteland expansion and land use change using GIS and remote sensing in the west part of Northeast China

Due to human impact under climatic variations, western part of Northeast China has suffered substantial land degradation during past decades. This paper presents an integrated study of expansion process of salinized wasteland in Da'an County, a typical salt-affected area in Northeast China, by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. The study explores the temporal and spatial characteristics of salinized wasteland expansion from 1954 to 2004, and land use/cover changes during this period. During the past 50 years, the salinized wasteland in study area have increased by 135,995 ha, and in 2004 covers 32.31% of the total area, in the meantime grassland has decreased by 104,697 ha and in 2004 covers only 13.15% of the study area. Grasslands, croplands and swamplands were found the three main land use types converted into salinized wasteland. Land use/cover changes shows that between 1954 and 2004, 48.6% of grasslands, 42.5% of swamplands, and 14.1% of croplands were transformed into salinized wasteland, respectively. Lastly, the major factors influencing salinized wasteland expansion and land use/cover changes were also explored. In general, climatic factors supplied a potential environment for soil salinization. Human-related factors, such as policy, population, overgrazing, and intensified and unreasonable utilization of land and water resources are the main causes of salinized wasteland expansion.