Abstract: Ningbo and its surrounding area is the forefront in the rapid economic development in the Yangtse delta, and the main production area for food supplies, cotton, edible oil and hemp; and at the same time, is the main area for wetland protection in Zhejiang Province. Our objectives were to quantify land cover change in Ningbo and its surrounding area from 1987 to 2000 and to analyze the causative factors of the change. Using 30-m resolution Landsat TM/ETM+ data and maximum likelihood classification method, we classified the study area into six land cover types: forest, agriculture, urban, freshwater, seawater and bottomland. The research results showed that significant changes in land cover occurred in the study area, and that agriculture and urban land cover change dominated most of the land cover change and were main causes for the changes of other types with human activities, such as urbanization, industrialization, etc. being the main factor while it was not very obvious whether climatic conditions have any role in the land cover changes. Agriculture, bottomland and other nature dominated land cover types are undergoing significant changes due to industrialization and urbanization, which threaten the stabilization of the environment. The study conclusion called for finding reasonable ways to solve the problems between land cover change and land use.

Key words: Land cover change, Maximum likelihood classification, Landsat TM/ETM+, Remote sensing, Ningbo

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