Analyzing Land Cover Dynamics Using Hierarchical Classification in Binzhou City, China

Based on multi-temporal Landsat images from 1996 to 2014, a hierarchical strategy for land use classification has been presented. The land use dynamic index, conversion matrix and spatial center have been used to quantitatively analyze the spatial–temporal dynamics of land cover in Binzhou urban area. Per results, the overall accuracy and kappa coefficient of hierarchical classification method have been found to be 93.82% and 0.92, respectively, indicating that the method used for land cover classification was feasible. Per findings from the urban area under study, during 1996 to 2014, the cropland area decreased constantly, forestland and water body area decreased at first and then increased, while the built-up land area increased constantly. The major pattern emerging from the land cover change was represented by the conversions of cropland to built-up land. As a result of hydraulic and landscape engineering, gains in forestland and water body were more than the corresponding losses. The area gained by forestland reached peak in the period of 2005 to 2009, while the area gained by water body peaked in the period of 2001 to 2005. Moreover, spatial centers of cropland and built-up land had been located on the southwest side and the east side of the city square, respectively. Per findings, spatial center of cropland was moving away from the City Square in southwestern direction by about 634.30 m, while the built-up land extended to the west, and the spatial center of the built-up land moved towards the southwest as well by about 1575.84 m. The movement of built-up land spatial center was closely related to the development and construction of west urban area.