CONTENTS Acknowledgements i List of figures vii List of tables ix 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Problem statement 2 1.2 Research objectives 3 1.3 Study area descriptions 3 1.4 Thesis outline 4 2 Regional vegetation dynamics with climatic feature 7 Abstract 8 2.1 Introduction 9 2.2 Material and methods 10 2.2.1 Study area 10 2.2.2 MODIS image processing 11 2.2.3 Regional meteorological processing 11 2.3 Results 12 2.3.1 Vegetation NDVI characteristic 12 2.3.2 Climatic data calculation 15 2.3.3 Yearly correlation analysis 17 2.3.4 Monthly correlation analysis 18 2.4 Discussion 19 2.4.1 Correlation of NDVI and climatic indicators 19 2.4.2 Application in regional environmental management 20 2.5 Conclusions 20 3 Long-term land cover variation analysis 23 Abstract 24 3.1 Introduction 25 3.2 Material and methods 26 3.2.1 Study area 26 3.2.2 Image acquisition and pre-processing 27 3.3 Results 28 3.3.1 Watershed land cover variation from 1977 to 2006 28 3.3.2 Grassland transformation with other land covers 31 3.3.3 Land cover transformation matrix from 1977 to 1996 33 3.3.4 Land cover transformation matrix from 1996 to 2000 34 3.3.5 Land cover transformation matrix from 2000 to 2006 35 3.4 Conclusions 35 4 Long-term landscape pattern variation with hydroelectric cascade exploitation 37 Abstract 38 4.1 Introduction 39 4.2 Material and methods 40 4.2.1 Study area description 40 4.2.2 Landscape simulation 41 4.3 Results 43 4.3.1 Landscape fragmentation metric variation 43 4.3.2 Landscape ahape metric variation 45 4.3.3 Landscape diversity metric variation 47 4.4 Discussion 48 4.4.1 Landscape fragmentation with hydroelectric cascade exploitation 48 4.4.2 Landscape shape with hydroelectric cascade exploitation 50 4.4.3 Landscape diversity with hydroelectric cascade exploitation 52 4.4.4 Application for hydroelectric cascade exploitation Environmental Impact Assessment 53 4.5 Conclusions 54 5 Soil erosion dynamics response to landscape pattern 57 Abstract 58 5.1 Introd uction 59 5.2 Material and methods 60 5.2.1 Study area description 60 5.2.2 SWAT modelling database setup 60 5.2.3 Data analysis 65 5.3 Results 66 5.3.1 Watershed yearly soil erosion 66 5.3.2 Monthly soil erosion 66 5.3.3 Soil erosion with land cover 67 5.3.4 Soil erosion with landscape pattern 68 5.3.5 Soil erosion with patch landscape feature 69 5.4 Discussion 70 5.4.1 Relationship between soil erosion and land cover 70 5.4.2 Relationship between soil erosion and landscape pattern 71 5.5 Conclusions 72 6 Modelling soil erosion and sediment yield by SWAT and interaction with vegetation NDVI in basin and sub-basin scale 75 Abstract 76 6.1 Introduction 77 6.2 Material and methods 78 6.2.1 Research framework 78 6.2.2 Data procedure 78 6.3 Results 79 6.3.1 Soil erosion and sediment yield simulation 79 6.3.2 Basin and sub-basin NDVI 81 6.3.3 Sub-basin yearly interactions 82 6.3.4 Monthly basin interactions 84 6.3.5 Interaction of NDVI, slope with soil erosion 85 6.4 Discussion 86 6.4.1 Spatial interaction 86 6.4.2 Temporal interaction 86 6.4.3 Slope, NDVI and soil erosion 87 6.5 Conclusion 87 7 Landscape transformation and non point source nutrients polIution interaction 89 Abstract 90 7.1 Introduction 91 7.2 Materials and methods 92 7.2.1 Research framework 92 7.2.2 Data process 92 7.3 Results 93 7.3.1 NPS nutrients pollution simulation 93 7.3.2 Landscape pattern 95 7.3.3 NPS nutrients pollution interaction with vegetation area 95 7.3.4 NPS nutrients pollution interaction with vegetation landscape 97 7.4 Discussion 99 7.4.1 NPS nutrient pollution with three types of vegetation' area 99 7.4.2 Influence of vegetation landscape pattern on NPS nutrients polIution 100 7.5 Conclusions 101 8 Temporal-spatial dynamics of vegetation variation on non-point source nutrient pollution 103 Abstract 104 8.1 Introduction 105 8.2 Materials and methods 106 8.3 Results 106 8.3.1 Temporal-spatial trends of the NDVL 106 8.3.2 Spatial trends of NPS nitrogen pollution 108 8.3.3 Spatial trends of NPS phosphorus pollution 110 8.4 Discussion 111 8.4.1 Influence of NDVI temporal variation on NPS nutrient loads 111 8.4.2 Sub-basin NDVI with NPS nitrogen pollution 112 8.4.3 Sub-basin NDVI with NPS phosphorus pollution 114 8.4.4 Slope, NDVI and nutrients load 116 8.5 Conclusions 117 9 Synthesis 119 9.1 Introduction 120 9.2 Main results and their interrelationships 120 9.2.1 Identifying long term land cover and landscape variation 120 9.2.2 Soil erosion dynamics response to landscape pattern and vegetation 123 9.2.3 Non point source pollution dynamics response to landscape pattern and vegetation 125 9.3 Future work 126 9.4 Conclusions 127 Bibliography 129 Author's biography 141 Summary 143 Samenvatting 147 ITC Dissertation List 150