Landscape effects of environmental impact on bay-area wetlands under rapid urban expansion and development policy: A case study of Lianyungang, China

This paper presents a synthesis of rapid landscape change and regional environmental dynamics in the Lianyungang bay area from 2000 to 2006 based on remote sensing data. We quantified the annual rate of urban land-use change in the study area using classified Landsat TM (2006-05-20) and ETM+ (2000-09-16) images. The classified images were used to generate maps of urban expansion and salt wetlands degradation, and landscape metrics were calculated and analyzed spatiotemporally across class and landscape level for each year. Results indicate that the Lianyungang bay area has a widespread urban–rural interface with rapid land-use changes, urban expansion and wetland degradation. Rapid increases in urban built-up land, which were often associated with large-scale salt wetlands degradation, have been prominent since 2005 when the eastern coastal development policy was implemented.