Oasis land-use dynamics and its influence on the oasis environment in Xinjiang, China

Land-use/cover change of oases in the and region of Xinjiang plays a significant role in the stability and economic development of the region. The oasis landscape change and its driving forces for a selected research area (150 Regiment in Shihezi District, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region) from 1982 to 1995 were studied using landscape ecological analysis methods. Land-use maps at the scale 1:25,000 of the study area were used for landscape dynamics analysis. Eight types of land-use (patch type) were identified: cropland, vegetable land, orchard, forested land, residential land, abandoned cultivated land, wasted grassland, and sand land. The following results were obtained: (1) landscape matrix was changed from cropland (1982) to wasted grassland (1995); (2) areas of wasted grassland, forested land, and residential land had been increased while other types decreased, among which sand land, cultivated land, and abandoned cultivated land declined dramatically; (3) transition probabilities of vegetable land, abandoned cultivated land, orchard, and sand land patches were over 40%, while wasted grassland and cropland were about 20%. All of above changes are different in different sub-regions of the research area. And the changes have had positive impacts on water resource utilization, oasis microclimate, and the internal environment of the oasis because of the increase of waste grassland and decrease of sand land. The stability of the oasis environment was increased to a great extent due to these positive influences of landscape change. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.