Analysis of landscape pattern characteristics in Kunming city

With the aid of an integrated GIS/RS-based approach, authors chose the area within the second ring road of Kunming city, Yunnan province, PR China as study target on the basis of landscape ecology theory and method. Taking remote sensing images of 2000 and 2006 in Kunming city as data source and by means of a quantitative analysis method, the authors analyzed change of landscape pattern of Kunming city in recent years. Using FRAGSTATS software to calculate landscape metrics at the levels of patch, class and landscape, we characterized the landscape structures. The results showed that concentrated distribution of built-up land patches and sparser distribution of bare land as well as bodies of water resulted in separation degree aggravated from 2000 to 2006. The patches of forest land, grassland and bare land appeared cross-distributed. Both the evenness index and richness index of the whole landscape were low in the target area which was a disadvantage for edge effect.