Fractal Analysis of Urban Wetland Shape Changes Using Remote Sensing - A Case Study of Nanhu Lake in Wuhan

Anthropogenic activity is a crucial factor in urban wetland evolution and it is significant to explore the relationship between human activities and urban wetland landscape in order to protect urban wetland. In this paper, Nanhu lake, located in Wuhan city was chosen for analysis of wetland loss and human activities factors by fractal theory. Aided by remote sensing and GIS technology, the fractal dimensions of lakeshore shape in the years 1991 and 2002 were calculated. The results show that the fractal dimension was decreased dramatically from 1991 to 2002. Under the influence of urbanization and the increasing needs of construction land, excessive land-use development around the lake area and lake filling without control should be responsible for the fractal response. Several driving factors, such as industrial development, population increasing, transportations network associated to the lakeshore changes were analyzed.