Digital Northeast China for about 100 years: RS dynamic observations and GIS frame design and example analysis regarding resources and the environment in Northeast China

Northeast China is the national commercial grain base of China. It provides the critical food supply for other areas of the country every year. In this region dramatic changes, such as population increase, deforestation, grass land degeneration, wetland shrinking and so on, have taken place in recent several decades. The changes in resources and environment in this region have significant impacts on human living, social economy and many other aspects of the regional development. In this study uses Remote Sensing (RS), GIS and other information technology to reconstruct a digital Northeast China of the last 100 years from year 1900 to 2000. This paper first introduces the Digital Northeast China of this 100 years which includes the system targets, data foundation and design frame. Then as a case study, the woodland resource changes after 1980s based on the completed dataset are analyzed. This Digital Northeast China is based on satellite remote sensing images (Landsat TM and ETM) and topology maps and can help people solve problems related to population, natural resources and environment. On the other hand, the Digital Northeast China system can help farmers make wise use of land, increase production and preserve environment simultaneously. Furthermore, using data contained in the system, geographical scientists can analyze the resource and environment changes and make certain forecasts of the future development.