China Linpan Landscape Ecology Assessment

Shuang Wu and Fengyi Xu, Landscape Architecture

This study focuses on a unique agricultural landscape in Southwest China called Linpan. It has been used by the local residents for thousands of years and has been utilized for its high food productivity and high resiliency. However, during recent years of rapid urbanization in China, this landscape is under threat. Due to its uniqueness and outstanding ecological and social value, this talk analyzes how quickly this landscape is degrading, how to quantify the fragmentation of this landscape and what its relationship is to urbanization indicators such as road construction. Tools used include the GIS landscape metrics calculation package Fragstats.