land use change

arid area

spatiotemporal analysis

Shiyang River Basin

Environmental management

Sustainable development

Geographical Information System (GIS)

The Shiyang River Basin has been regarded as an important ecological protective area in the Hexi corridor in northwest China. Landsat TM, ETM+, and OLI images in 1986, 2000, 2006, and 2015 were selected as basic data resources, and the circle layers and fan-shaped analysis were applied to extract change information and the characteristics of land use pattern change by a set of transfer and dynamic models. Results showed that urban and residential land expanded 176.7 km², which was about 48.57% in the past 30 years, and that the woodland and grassland decreased 7.24% and 1.39%, respectively. It was found that woodland mainly distributed in the range of elevation from 2,500 to 4,000 m, and unused land was distributed in the downstream plain, which was an average elevation of 1,500 meters below. Moreover, the area and spatial distribution of land use were influenced by human activities and resulted in fundamental changes of pattern. We found that spatiotemporal pattern analysis of land use cover was essential for understanding the structure and characteristics of urbanization and the local eco-environment.