A method for spatial heterogeneity evaluation on landscape pattern of farmland shelterbelt networks: A case study in midwest of Jilin Province, China

On the basis of landscape ecology, combining the Spot 5 high resolution satellite imagery with GIS, a method evaluating the spatial heterogeneity of shelterbelts distribution at landscape scale is put forward in this paper. The distance coefficients of reasonable and existing landscape indexes of farmland shelterbelt networks were computed, and then through the classification of the distance coefficients, and the establishment of evaluation rules, the spatial heterogeneity of farmland shelterbelts was evaluated. The method can improve the evaluating system of previous studies on shelterbelts distribution, resolve the disadvantages of lacking spatiality of overall evaluation, and make the evaluation results have more directive significance for shelterbelt management. Based on this method, spatial heterogeneity of shelterbelt networks was evaluated in the midwest of Jilin Province, China. The results show that the regions with fewer shelterbelts and no closed network account for 34.7% of the total area, but only 4.9% of the area has relative reasonable pattern of shelterbelt networks. Many problems exist in the distribution pattern of shelterbelts, therefore, much attention should be paid to construct farmland shelterbelts in the study area.