Land Cover Change Detection Using MSS and MODIS Data: A Case Study for Liangshan-Xiangling Region in Southwestern China

As a result of rapid socioeconomic development and climate change, the land cover has been changing in the mountainous areas in southwestern China while the associated ecological environment has been seriously disturbed. This study is to quantify the land cover change in Liangshan-Xiangling Region in Sichuan Province in China from the 1970s to present and to compare the land cover change rates among different land cover types. Two groups of remote sensing data, including MSS data in 1974-1980 and MODIS data in 2002-2007, were utilized to investigate the land cover changes during different time periods in the study area. The NDVI differencing and unsupervised classification compassion methods were used to detect the land cover quality and quantity changes. The results showed that the vegetation cover in the study area decreased significantly in the 1970s, but increased in recent years due to the establishment of nature reserves and enhancement of environment protection.