Land Cover Changes and Some Proposals for Promoting Sustainable Development in the Source Regions of the Yangtze River, China

The source regions of the Yangtze River are situated in the hinterland of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of the roof of the world, with a typical continental alpine climate. Countless rivers and creeks originate in the source regions, so it is praised as "China's water tower". Because of the abundant biological species, the source regions are praised as "the resources bank of biological species". Based on land ecological classification and field investigation, we mainly used the remote sensing techniques to contrast and analyze two-phase Landsat TM/ETM remote sensing data in 1991 and 2005. Utilized the software system of ARC/INFO and ARCVIEW to process the digital graphic, and adopted the methods of the Landscape ecological patterns to analyze the characteristics of the spatial changes and dynamic transfers of grassland. Results show that the natural condition is harsh and the eco-environment is fragile. The environmental problems in the source regions have been caused by the global climate changes, human activities, and rat-caused damages, etc. The critical problems urge the authors to seek approaches of ecological alleviation in the source regions of the Yangtze River. The ultimate intention of this paper is to contribute to the sustainable utilization of the resources as well as sustainable development of economy in the source regions of the Yangtze River.