Analysis of Forest Resource Change in Mao’er Mountain Forest Farm Based on GIS

Abstract

This paper, based on the forest map of Mao’er Mountain in 1983 and forest inventory sub-compartment database of Mao’er Mountain in 2004, and with the support of geographical information system (GIS), presents the results of study of forest resource change in the periods, which reflected the change of forest type spatial distribution. Furthermore, this study focuses on the construction and present situation of dynamic forest resource by overlaying the forest resource distribution with DEM in which the vectorization of topographical maps was made by using the vector data for creating the digital elevation model (DEM). The results demonstrate that the area of study region decreased to 216 hm2; and the area of open forest land, new afforestation, non-standing forest, farmland and wetland were decreased; the area of forest land, rivers and lakes, agricultural land and the road land are increasing. Meanwhile, it also indicts that the construction of forest resources was not reasonable, in which the proportions of midlife and near-mature forest are larger, the stocks of midlife and near-mature forest increases, and the stock of mature forest decreased greatly. Finally, the study focuses on the forest resource spatial distribution by overlay analysis combined DEM with forest resources construction, which aimed to adjust the current unreasonable situation for the sustainable management of forest resources in the future.