Assessing the impact of urbanization on vegetation change and arable land resources change in Shandong province

With the rapid development of society and economy especially the urbanization, the pressure on the terrestrial ecosystem in Shandong region increases and the sustainable development of the land resource is faced with severe challenge. As a coastal province of the People´s Republic of China, the terrain is mostly flat. There is a temperate climate and four seasons are distinct in Shandong province. It is important to learn the vegetation change and arable land resources change affected by land use change timely and accurately. Enhanced vegetation index (EVI) with improved sensitivity in high biomass regions and improved vegetation monitoring is used to evaluate the vegetation change. The ratio between minimum per capita arable land area and actual per capita arable land area is called as pressure index of arable land and can be used to evaluate arable land change. In the study, EVI and the pressure index were adopted to analyze the effects of the urbanization in Shandong province. A series of 16-day EVI at the 250 m spatial resolution from 2000 to 2010, one of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MOD13A1 products, was used. The monthly EVI in July were synthesized with maximum value composite to remove the distortion problem effectively caused by water vapor and cloud. The pressure indices of arable land based on the statistical data from 2000 to 2010 were calculated and the spatio-temporal variation was analyzed. Then the relationship between EVI and the pressure index of arable land were analyzed. After analyzing MODIS-EVI, the vegetation change showed dynamic sustainable in recent years. It was found that the vegetation index in the western region and southern region was higher than that in other areas, while the vegetation index in the Yellow River Delta was lower. With regard to arable land, food and population dynamics, the farmland area decreased firstly then increased while the population continued to increase. The total grain output an- yield of per unit area increased. Moreover, the actual farmland area increased. Those led to that a theoretical minimum per capita arable land and arable land pressure index tended to decrease. The pressure on arable land differed in different regions. The obvious pressure was in coastal area and Jinan, Laiwu city with rapid economic growth. The correlation coefficient between MODIS-EVI and the pressure index showed that EVI increased slightly and the pressure index of arable decreased. To some extent, a certain amount of arable land should be maintained to meet food supply in the process of the urbanization.