Identification of the ＂source＂ and ＂sink＂ patterns influencing non-point source pollution in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area

Non-point source pollution is one of the primarily ecological issues affecting the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. In this paper, landscape resistance and motivation coefficient, which integrated various landscape elements, such as land use, soil, hydrology, topography, and vegetation, was established based on the effects of large-scale resistance and motivation on the formation of non-point source pollution. In addition, cost models of the landscape re- sistance and motivation coefficients were constructed based on the distances from the land- scape units to the sub-basin outlets in order to identify the ＂source＂ and ＂sink＂ patterns af- fecting the formation of non-point source pollution. The results indicated that the changes in the landscape resistance and motivation coefficients of the 16 sub-basins exhibited inverse relationships to their spatial distributions. The landscape resistance and motivation cost curves were more volatile than the landscape resistance and motivation coefficient curves. The landscape resistance and motivation cost trends of the 16 sub-basins became increas- ingly apparent along the flow of the Yangtze River. The landscape resistance and motivation cost models proposed in this paper could be used to identify large-scale non-point source pollution ＂source＂ and ＂sink＂ patterns. Moreover, the proposed model could be used to de- scribe the large-scale spatial characteristics of non-point source pollution formation based on ＂source＂ and ＂sink＂ landscape pattern indices, spatial localization, and landscape resistance and motivation coefficients.