Characteristics and driving forces of wetland landscape pattern evolution of the city belt along the Yellow River in Ningxia, China

Wetlands are one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, with functions of water purification, climate regulation, and carbon sinks. Due to the stresses caused by human social development and changes of natural conditions, wetlands have been seriously damaged. We examined the evolutionary law of landscape pattern of wetland along the Yellow River, and acquainted the current situation of wetland resources and dynamic change. Based on satellite images of year 2000, 2009, and 2018 from Landsat, we used landscape indices and geographic detectors to quantitatively analyze the characteristics and driving forces of wetland landscape pattern evolution of the city belt along the Yellow River in Ningxia from 2000 to 2018. The results showed that the wetland area of the city belt along the Yellow River in Ningxia enlarged first and then decreased from 2000 to 2018. The wetland area increased by 52.2 km in the early stage of the study with an increasing rate of 8.2%, and decreased by 26.8 km with a reduction rate