Abstract
The changing patterns of watersheds in a landscape, driven by human activities, play an important role in non-point source pollution processes. This paper aims to improve the location-weighted landscape contrast index using remote sensing and GIS technology to account for the effects of scale and ecological processes. The hydrological response unit (HRU) with a single land use and soil type was used as the smallest unit. The relationship between the landscape index and typical ecological processes was established by describing the influence of the landscape pattern on non-point source pollution. To verify the research method, this paper used the Yanshi River basin as a study area. The results showed that the relative intensity of non-point source pollution in different regions of the watershed and the location-weighted landscape contrast index based on the minimum HRU can qualitatively reflect the risk of regional nutrient loss.
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The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions.
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Supported by the National Key R&D Programs of China (Nos. 2017YFB0504201, 2015BAJ02B), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61473286, 61375002), and the Natural Science Foundation of Hainan Province (No. 20164178)
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Zhang, X., Liu, Y. & Chen, Y. Development of a location-weighted landscape contrast index based on the minimum hydrological response unit. J. Ocean. Limnol. 36, 1236–1243 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-018-7069-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-018-7069-x