PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2012, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (12): 1739-1746.doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.12.021

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research Progresses on Driving Forces of the Changes of Landscape Pattern

WU Jiansheng, WANG Zheng, ZHANG Liqing, SONG Jing   

  1. Key Laboratory for Environmental and Urban Sciences, School of Urban Planning and Design, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, China
  • Received:2012-02-01 Revised:2012-07-01 Online:2012-12-25 Published:2012-12-25

Abstract: Research on driving forces of the changes of landscape pattern is a basis for understanding the relationship between human activities and evolution of landscape pattern. In recent years, a large number of case studies at home and abroad have done qualitative or quantitative analysis on the driving forces. This paper provides an overview of the categorization of driving factors, analyzes the effects of dominant driving factors in terms of time scale, spatial scale and landscape themes, and discusses research progresses (or lack thereof) on interactions of the driving factors, identification of the driving mechanisms, and adaptation and feedback of landscape systems to the driving factors. The methods of driving force identification have been going through the change from qualitative analysis to quantitative and semi-quantitative analysis, and sample collection methods are in fast-paced improvement, thanks to the progress on remote sensing technology. Multidisciplinary integration has become an inevitable trend in the research on driving forces of landscape patterns. With the characteristics of a problem-oriented landscape research, this field lacks cross-time, cross-space, multi-factor comparisons for a specific type of driving force. Thus, cross-board studies on the changes of landscape pattern would help with a better understanding of the mechanisms of the types of driving forces such as political systems and culture.

Key words: change of land cover, change of landscape pattern, driving forces, scale effect