Effects of Urbanization on Black Soil: A Remote Sensing Perspective: Fid-Bau Portal

Effects of Urbanization on Black Soil: A Remote Sensing Perspective

Li, Xiao Yan / Li, Hong / Liu, Hui Jia

Urbanization is considered to be one of the most important human activities in the recent history of China. Northeast China is one of the fastest urbanizing areas in the country with its urban population proportion increasing from 23.8% in 1942 to 32.8% in 32.8%, and to about 47% which is about the same as the world average value. This is a case study conducted in Changchun city to evaluate the impact of urbanization on soil resources using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. The extent of urban land in the study area and the impact of urban sprawl on soil resources at a scale of 1:500,000 were estimated. The soil types occupied by the urbanization processes were determined by overlaying the soil map on the satellite images (Landsat TM and CBERS-2) of the study area at different times (1986, 1995, 2000 and 2005). The results documented the rapid expansion of urbanization in Changchun city, as well as the soil types occupied by the urbanization process. Results showed that, the urban increased by 76.8% during the past two decades and the loss of black soil accounted more than 70% of all soil loss. Growing urbanization may threaten food security, soil diversity and sustainability.