The objective of the study reported here was to determine whether LANDSAT TM images could be used to quantify changes in land-use and ecosystem services in Yuanmou County. The sizes of six land use/land cover （LUCC） categories were estimated in Yuanmou County according to the LANDSAT TM images in the summer of 1986 and 2005. Coefficients published by Xie Gaodi and co-workers in 2003 were used to value changes in ecosystem services delivered by each land use/land cover category, and the ecosystem services sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the effect of manipulating these coefficients on the estimated values. The important results are summarized as followings. （1） The estimated size of cultivated land, pasture land, water area and unused land decreased by 6.39%, 1.35%, 2.25% and 10.67% respectively between 1986 and 2005. By contrast, the estimated size of forest land and construction land increased by about 2.23% and 71.15% respectively between 1986 and 2005. （2） The total ecosystem services value （EVS） of the study area increased from 2 142 132 609.46 yuan to 2 146 416 621.00 yuan, with the net increase of 4 284 011.54 yuan during the 20-year time period. （3） The coefficient sensitivity （CS） of the study are less than unity in all cases （CS 〈 1）. This indicates that the total ecosystem values estimated for the study area are relatively inelastic with respect to the ecosystem service coefficients. While this implies that our estimates are robust and the coefficient is reasonable, highly under or over valued coefficients can substantially affect the veracity of estimated changes in ecosystem service values overtime even when the CS are less than unity（CS 〈 1）.
Surface morphology of soil cracks is one of the important factors influencing the water evaporation rate in cracked soil in Yuanmou Dry-hot Valley Region,Southwest China. Quantitative study of the complicated surface morphology of soil cracks is a prerequisite for further studies of soil-cracking mechanisms. The present paper establishes a quantitative indicator system by application of concepts and methods originating from Fractal Geometry and Network Analysis. These indicators can effectively express the complicated features of soil-crack network structure. Furthermore,a series of values related to soil-crack morphology was obtained by image processing on field photos of soil-crack quads,and gradation criteria for the degree of development of soil cracks were determined. Finally,the changes in values of the morphological indicators under different degrees of development were analyzed in detail. Our results indicate that (1) the degree of development of soil cracks can be divided into five grades,i.e.,feeble development,slight development,medium development,intensive development and extremely intensive development; (2) the values of the indicators change predictably with increasing degree of development of soil cracks. The area density (Dc) increases,and both the area-weighted mean ratio of crack area to perimeter (AWMARP),which reflects the intensity of cracking,and the index r,which is related to the connectivity of a soil crack,grow uniformly (albeit with different forms). AWMRAP increases at a geometric rate while r shows logarithm-mic growth,indicating a gradual increase in theconnectivity of a soil crack. Nevertheless,the area-weighted mean of soil-crack fractal dimension (AWMFRAC) shows a decreasing trend,indicating a gradual decline in the complexity of cracks as area density increases.
Quantification of complicated surface morphology of soil crack is a prerequisite and key to soil crack study. This paper takes soil crack quads in Yuanmou arid-hot valley region as examples, selecting several morphological indicators, and analyzes the soil crack＇s morphological features under various development degrees. By statistic analysis, three quantitative indicators for surface morphology are selected, namely soil crack area density, area weighted mean fractal dimension and connectivity index R, which can not only express the development intensity of soil cracks, but also effectively describe its morphological complexity and connectivity. The research results set a good base for the establishment of soil crack assessment system in Yuanmou arid-hot valley region.
