Zhu, G.; Xu, X.; Ma, Z.; Xu, L., and Porter, J.H., 2012. Spatial dynamics and zoning of coastal land-use change along Bohai Bay, China during 1979-2008.

Research on land-use dynamics in coastal zones is important to environmental protection and regional sustainable development. The area involved in this study is the coastal zone of Bohai Bay, a new pole of economic growth in China. Landsat images from 1979, 1989, 1999, and 2008 are used to create land-use maps with seven first-class and 18 second-class types. A comprehensive approach, including a multidimensional transition matrix, land-use dynamic degree, and dynamic zoning based on an artificial neural network, is applied to investigate the evolution and spatial differentiation of land-use dynamics. Widespread changes in land use have occurred in the study area and accelerated between 1979 and 2008. Settlement and transportation land (i.e., land use for transportation) increased rapidly, while cultivated land and unused land suffered a noteworthy loss. These results reveal two key socioeconomic processes: urbanization and land reclamation from the sea. In this study, 20 primary land-use dynamics are calculated, and the study area is divided into 12 zones. According to the zoning map, there are three noteworthy transitions: unused land to saltwater body (primarily near the shore); unused land to transportation land (centered in the Tianjin New Port and Caofeidian Port); and cultivated land to settlement (mainly occurring in the northern and western parts of the study area). Urbanization, industrialization, land reclamation from the sea, port development, policies, and the structural adjustment of the primary industry all play a vital role in the land-use changes. Such changes should receive more attention from local authorities, who are expected to take immediate action to mitigate the impacts on the environment and implement land-use planning to achieve regionally sustainable development.