Land use change and analysis of environment impact of the buffer zone around Taihu Lake in Jiangsu Province

By interpretation of TM images respectively in 1990, 2000 and 2005, the map of current land use of the 5 km buffer zone around Taihu Lake in Jiangsu Province was compiled. Through overlaying, spatial analysis and statistic analysis supported by ArcGIS 9.2 software, the map of land use change rule and land cover in this area were showed, and the environmental impacts caused by the change of land use types were analyzed. It was shown that the change could bring a series of environmental issues, such as watershed soil erosion, industrial waste and pollutants flowing into the lake increase.