The spatial-temporal characteristics and driving forces analysis of water area landscape pattern changes on the Jianghan Plain

In order to explore the dynamic changes regarding water landscape patterns on the Jianghan Plain and their respective driving factors from 2000 to 2020, research was carried out using transition matrix analysis, spatial autocorrelation analysis, landscape metrics analysis and redundancy analysis, applying both GIS and multivariate statistics techniques. Results show that the surface area of water on the Jianghan Plain has decreased by 36% from 2000 to 2020, as a result of farmlands being reclaimed for urbanized purposes, and water-areas then being reclaimed for use as farmlands. Indices of Global Moran′s I and Anselin Local Moran′s I show a distinct change, and water-area edge density have dropped dramatically. Spatial aggregation and connectivity of water-area of some regions such as the Sihu catchment have shown a significant decrease. 45.8% of the changes to the water landscape patterns are a result of precipitation, temperature, and farmlands and artificial surfaces. Of these, precipitation and temperature factors only show a negligible contribution to the overall changes, the contiguous cultivated land has proven to be one of the main causes of the reduction in water landscape areas, while artificial surfaces show a large and direct contribution to the fragmentation of water bodies. During the last two decades, the changes to the water landscape area on the Jianghan Plain is evident, both shape complexity and connectivity have decreased along with a trend towards fragmentation, cultivated lands and artificial surfaces used for agricultural activities and urbanized purposes have severely affected water landscape patterns.