Effects of Tidal Channels and Roads on Landscape Dynamic Distribution in the Yellow River Delta, China

Landscape characters in estuarine regions generally controlled by tidal regimes and human activities like road construction. In this work, tidal channels and road construction in the Yellow River Delta (YRD) were extracted by visual interpretation methods so as to decipher impacts of tidal channel development and road construction on landscape patch change during 1989–2016. Spatial distribution history of three wetlands, which covered by Phragmites australis (freshwater marsh, FM), Suaeda salsa (salt marsh, SM), and mudflats (MD) were also established. Results indicated that tidal channel, number, frequency, and fractal dimension were all the maximum in 2003, and the minimum in 1998, respectively. Road length, number, and density showed increasing trend during 1989–2016. MD were the predominant landscape type, followed by FM and SM during 1989–2016. Principal component analysis implied two extracted factors, F1 and F2, which could represent 91.93% of the total variations. F1 mainly proxied tidal channel development, while F2 represented road construction. A multiple linear regression analysis showed positive effects of both F1 and F2 on FM patch numbers and negative impacts on SM patch areaes with R2 values of 0.416 and 0.599, respectively. Tidal channels were negatively related to MD patch numbers, while roads were positively related to that. In any case, road construction showed larger impacts on landscape type shifting than that of tidal channel development in the YRD.