Spatiotemporal Patterns of Forest in the Transnational Area of Changbai Mountain from 1977 to 2015: A Comparative Analysis of the Chinese and DPRK Sub-Regions

Hui Tao, Ying Nan and Zhi-Feng Liu
Additional contact information
Hui Tao: Department of Geography, Yanbian University, Yanji 133000, China
Ying Nan: Department of Geography, Yanbian University, Yanji 133000, China
Zhi-Feng Liu: Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 6, 1-23

Abstract: The transnational area of Changbai Mountain (TACM) is crucial to sustainable development in Northeast Asia owing to its abundant forest, which helps in maintaining biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services. However, the spatiotemporal patterns of forest in the TACM have been poorly understood across the whole region. The objectives of this study were to quantify the spatiotemporal patterns of forest in the TACM from 1977 to 2015, investigate the causes of forest dynamics, and assess the impacts of forest dynamics on habitat quality. To do this, we first extracted the forest in the TACM from Landsat images acquired in 1977, 1988, 1999, 2007, and 2015 using visual interpretation. Then, we analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of forest in the TACM from 1977 to 2015 using landscape metrics and compared the dynamics of forest between the area in China and the area in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). After that, we investigated the driving forces of forest dynamics and the impacts of forest dynamics on habitat quality. We found that the TACM experienced a noticeable forest decrease—from 1.57 million ha in 1977 to 1.48 million ha in 2015, a decline of 5.78%—and underwent a forest fragmentation process. In particular, the sub-region in the DPRK had a much larger decrease (17.75%) than the sub-region in China (2.86%). We found that timber harvesting, urban expansion, agricultural reclamation, and typhoon disasters were the main driving forces behind forest decreases in the TACM. Specifically, agricultural reclamation was the most important factor in the DPRK sub-region, while urban expansion was the dominant factor in the Chinese sub-region. Furthermore, such forest loss and fragmentation has resulted in declines in habitat quality across both sides of the TACM. Thus, we suggest that more effective forest management with cooperation between China and DPRK is needed to maintain and improve forest coverage in the TACM.

Keywords: transnational area of Changbai Mountain; China; Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK); forest; spatiotemporal patterns; habitat quality; remote sensing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/6/1054/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/6/1054/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:6:p:1054-:d:101794

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().