Arid Zone Research ›› 2021, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (5): 1452-1463.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2021.05.28

• Ecology and Environment • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Change processes and trends of land use/cover in the Balkhash Lake basin

LIU Wanru1,2(),CHENG Chunbo1,LUO Geping1,3,4(),HE Huili1,4   

  1. 1. Stake Kay Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, Xinjiang, China
    2. College of Resource and Environment Sciences, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, Xinjiang, China
    3. Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, Xinjiang, China
    4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2020-11-30 Revised:2021-01-15 Online:2021-09-15 Published:2021-09-24
  • Contact: Geping LUO E-mail:liuwanru_1109@outlook.com;luogp@ms.xjb.ac.cn

Abstract:

The Balkhash Lake basin is an important transboundary basin spanning China’s Xinjiang region (domestic) and Kazakhstan (overseas). Existing since 1972, the Kapuchagai Reservoir, which is the largest water conservancy project within the Balkhash Lake basin has experienced different stages of ecological change, especially since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This study analyzed three periods in which change occurred and trends in Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) starting from the 1970s, 2005 and year 2015, using the Markov model and other methods. Moreover, the differences between internal and external basin characteristics where identified and compared. The results showed that, in the Balkhash Lake basin, LULC changed; both cultivated and wood lands initially showed a decreasing trend between the 1970s and 2005, then an increasing trend afterward (2005-2015). In contrast, the change processes observed in water areas and unused lands showed a completely opposite trend. In addition, grassland and urban land uses maintained a steady increasing trend. This indicates that later changes in LULC had a greater impact on the overall LULC changes throughout the study period. These changes mainly assume a two-way conversion process, so the change process of the whole river basin was always in equilibrium during the study period. The structure and change process of LULC types outside and inside were different: Internal land use types were more evenly distributed than those located externally, and both the single type and regional LULC variation in trends, and the status index indicated that the domestic change process was more stable than that outside the watershed. However, because the external area accounted for 86% of the entire river basin, it dominated the structure and change process of LULC types in the whole area. This study provides a basis for sustainable land resource management and ecological environment protection in the region.

Key words: Balkhash Lake basin, land use/cover change, land transfer matrix, spatio-temporal changes