Analysis Land-use Changes of the Suomo Basin Based on Remote Sensing Images

Three periods of land-use maps of the Suomo Basin were drawn from topographic maps (1970a) and Landsat TM/ETM images (1986a and 1999a). The area of each kind of land use was calculated from the three maps. From 1970 to 1999, the area of forestland decreased 17%, the area of sparse forestland increased 8%, and the area of grassland increased 10%. The transferring trend of the land-use is that forestland turned into sparse forestland and brush land, and the brush land degenerated into grassland based on the transferring matrixes from 1970 to 1986, and from 1986 to 1999. According to the local government record and statistical data, forest cover rate had been increasing from 1970 to 1998, but the amount of growing stock had been declining. From 1957 to 1998, the amount of growing stock declined from 423m$^3$/ha to 177m$^3$/ha.