Land use and landscape pattern change:a linkage to the construction of the Qinghai-Xizang Highway

Based on digital land use data from 1995 to 2000 and road data, the land use and landscapechanges of Golmud, Qumaleb and Zhidoi are studied on a macro-scale. Land use and landscapechanges in highway buffer zones and city expansion are special subjects. A new formula is used todefine the exact degree of dynamic land use. To adequately define land use and landscape patternchanges, the buffer zones, illustrating the changes at different distances from the road, are recognizedwith ArcGIS 8.1 software. Prominent changes took place in land use and landscape patterns from 1995to 2000, and the area of built-up land increased by 323.8%. The comprehensive degree of dynamicland use is 2.25, and the degree of dynamic land use of built-up land is the highest, followed bycultivated land. Woodland has the lowest value. The used degree index of land resources declined by38.8 from 1995 to 2000. Landscape changed dramatically which influenced ecological processesimmensely. Different from the corridor effect of other traffic routes, the corridor effect of this sectionof road is not obvious and its "point" radiation effect can be easily seen. The expanding range ofGolmud City is confined to a 3 km buffer, while for Wudaoliang, it is 1 km. No land use changehappened in the Nanshankou buffer.