Dynamic monitoring of land cover changes in Yellow River delta of China using multi-sources remote sensing data

The Yellow River delta of China is the youngest land in China formed by deposition of sands along the Yellow River. The delta expends 40,000 ha of land every year into the sea. The second largest oilfield "Shenli Oilfield" and the largest national wetland natural conservancy in China are located in the area. And over 100 ha saline land, which hampers agricultural development, in the area needs treatment and makes use of it. Nowadays the delta area is one of the rapidly changing places in China. The Chinese government has listed the development of the Yellow River delta area as the first priority project in "China's 21/sup st/ Century Agenda". Thus, this study uses Radarsat data acquired in 1997 and 2000, ERS-1 SAR data acquired in 1995, and Landsat MSS and TM data acquired in 1976, 1980, 1995, 1996 and 1999, for dynamic monitoring of land cover changes in the Yellow River delta, which provides valuable information about the historical evolution of the delta area and water-course changes. The results show that significant changes have happened, noticeably the expending of land into the sea and water-course changes, as well as land use status changes because of oil field development and regional economic development.