Research on Characteristics of Changes of Lakes in Wuhan's Main Urban Area

With urban development and economic growth, the conflicts between urban development and land shortage are becoming increasingly striking. An urban development featuring land shortage due to high population and urban expansion are leading to endangered urban water environment; human beings’ asking for land from water bodies inevitably causes serious damage to urban lakes. Wuhan, a big city located in central China, abounds in lakes, rivers and water. Specifically, there are 164 lakes in Wuhan's main urban area(WMUA). Despite of its advantageous geographical environment, a growing number of lakes in Wuhan are filled and encroached as a product of the swelling desire of human beings for land. This study takes WMUA's major 27 lakes as its research object, selects 1989, 2000 and 2009 as its timeframes, and investigates the characteristics of the changes of the 27 lakes via Geographic Information System(GIS) analysis. It also characterizes the changes of the lakes from 1989 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2009 via classification.