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1. This is the dataset described by the data paper "A national urban land use/cover change dataset in China, 2000-2018" submitted to Earth System Science Data (ESSD). 2. The dataset includes the following subsets, i.e. urban boundary (named as "Urban_Year.tif", like "Urban_2000.tif"), urban green space fraction (named as "UGS_Year_Province.tif", like "UGS_2000_Anhui.tif"), urban impervious surface area fraction (named as "UISA_Year_Province.tif", like "UISA_2000_Anhui.tif"). 3. The urban impervious surface area and urban green space datasets are showed by the percentage in a grid. In order for data storage, the data were amplified by 1000 times and converted into integer storage. 4. The detail information of datasets is listed in description.xlsx 5. Some sample mapping were listed in Samples.zip. 6. If you have any questions, please contact Wenhui Kuang (kuangwh@igsnrr.ac.cn). Related publications with this dataset. (1) Kuang W H. 70 years of urban expansion across China: Trajectory, pattern, and national policies. Science Bulletin. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2020.07.005 (2) Kuang W H, Dou Y Y. Investigating the Patterns and Dynamics of Urban Green Space in China's 70 Major Cities Using Satellite Remote Sensing. Remote Sensing. 2020, 12, 1929; doi:10.3390/rs12121929 (3) Kuang W H. Mapping global impervious surface area and green space within urban environments. Science China Earth Sciences. 2019, 62(10), 1591-1606. (4) Kuang W H. National urban land-use/cover change since the beginning of the 21st century and its policy implications in China. Land Use Policy. 2020. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104747, {"references":["Kuang W H. 70 years of urban expansion across China: Trajectory, pattern, and national policies. Science Bulletin. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2020.07.005","Kuang W H, Dou Y Y. Investigating the Patterns and Dynamics of Urban Green Space in China's 70 Major Cities Using Satellite Remote Sensing. Remote Sensing. 2020, 12, 1929; doi:10.3390/rs12121929","Kuang W H. Mapping global impervious surface area and green space within urban environments. Science China Earth Sciences. 2019, 62(10), 1591-1606.","Kuang W H. National urban land-use/cover change since the beginning of the 21st century and its policy implications in China. Land Use Policy. 2020. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104747","Kuang W H, Liu A L, Dou Y Y, et al. Examining the impacts of urbanization on surface radiation using Landsat imagery. GIScience & Remote Sensing. 2019, 56(3): 462-484.","Kuang W H. New Evidences on Anomalous Phenomenon of Buildings in Regulating Urban Climate from Observations in Beijing, China. Earth and Space Science. 2019, 6(5): 861-872."]}

Drastic rice paddy expansion and rapid upland crop loss have occurred over high latitudes in China, which would affect national food security. Different agro-ecosystems (i.e., state farms guided by the central government for agriculture and private farms guided by individual farmers for agriculture) could lead to different agricultural land use patterns; but this topic has not been investigated, which has limited our understanding of the dynamics of cropping patterns (i.e., rice paddies and upland crops) under different agro-ecosystems and their effect on total grain production. Thus, this study examined these issues over high latitudes in China. The results showed that: the developed methodology for determining cropping patterns presented high accuracy (over 90%). Based on the cropping pattern data, first, a satellite evidence of substantial increase in rice paddies with the loss of upland crops was found, and the large-scale conversion from upland crops to rice paddies has become the principal land use changes during the period of 2000–2015. Second, the new phenomenon was observed with rice paddies in state farms expanding at faster rates (at proportions of 12.98%–70.11%) than those in private farms (4.86%–30.48%). Third, the conversion of upland crops into rice paddies contributed 10.69% of the net increase in grain, which played a significant role in ensuring food security. The study provided new evidence of different changes in cropping patterns under different agro-ecosystems, thereby affecting rice cropping pattern and total grain production. This information is important for understanding and guiding the response to food sustainability and environmental issues.

Urban impervious surface area (UISA) and urban green space (UGS) are two core components of cities for characterizing urban environments. Although several global or national urban land use/cover products such as Globeland30 and FROM-GLC are available, they cannot effectively delineate the complex intra-urban land cover components. Here we proposed a new approach to map fractional UISA and UGS in China using Google Earth Engine (GEE) based on multiple data sources. The first step is to extract the vector boundaries of urban areas from China's Land Use/cover Dataset (CLUD). The UISA was retrieved using the logistic regression from the Landsat-derived annual maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The UGS was developed through linear calibration between reference UGS from high spatial resolution image and the normalized NDVI. Thus, the China's UISA and UGS fraction datasets (CLUD-Urban) at 30-meter resolution are generated from 2000 to 2018. The overall accuracy of national urban areas is over 92 %. The root mean square errors of UISA and UGS fractions are 0.10 and 0.14, respectively. The datasets indicate that total urban area of China was 7.10 ×104 km2 in 2018, with average fractions of 70.70 % for UISA and 26.54 % for UGS. The UISA and UGS increased with unprecedented annual rates of 1,492.63 km2/yr and 400.43 km2/yr during 2000–2018. CLUD-Urban can enhance our understanding of urbanization impacts on ecological and urban dwellers’ environments, and can be used in such applications as urban planning, urban environmental studies and practices. The datasets can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3778424 (Kuang et al., 2020).

Development of Xiong'an New District (XND) is integral to the implementation of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) Integration Initiative. It is intended to ease the non-capital functions of Beijing, optimize regional spatial patterns, and enhance ecosystem services and living environment in this urban agglomeration. Applying multi-stage remote sensing (RS) images, land use/cover change (LUCC) data, ecosystem services assessment data, and high-precision urban land-cover information, we reveal the regional land-cover characteristics of this new district as well as across the planned area of the entire BTH urban agglomeration. Corresponding ecological protection and management strategies are also proposed. Results indicated that built-up areas were rapidly expanding, leading to a continuous impervious surface at high density. Urban and impervious surface areas (ISAs) grew at rates 1.27 and 1.43 times higher than that in the 2000s, respectively, seriously affecting about 15% area of the sub-basins. Construction of XND mainly encompasses Xiongxian, Rongcheng, and Anxin counties, areas which predominantly comprise farmland, townships and rural settlements, water, and wetland ecosystems. The development and construction of XND should ease the non-capital functions of Beijing, as well as moderately control population and industrial growth. Thus, this development should be included within the national ‘sponge city’ construction pilot area in early planning stages, and reference should be made to international low-impact development modes in order to strengthen urban green infrastructural construction. Early stage planning based on the existing characteristics of the underlying surface should consider the construction of green ecological patches and ecological corridors between XND and the cities of Baoding, Beijing, and Tianjin. The proportion of impervious surfaces should not exceed 60%, while that of the core area should not exceed 70%. The development of XND needs to initiate the concept of ‘planning a city according to water resource amount’ and incorporate rainwater collection and recycling.

China had implemented the national strategies for Major Function-oriented Zones (MFOZs) to realize the goal of national sustainable development since 2010. This study analyzed and compared spatio-temporal characteristics and differences in built-up area for China’s MFOZs using a China’ s Land Use Database (CLUD) derived from high-resolution remotely sensed images in the periods of 2000–2010 and 2010–2013. To sum up: (1) The percentage of built-up area in each of the MFOZs was significantly different, revealing the gradient feature of national land development based on the distribution of the main functions. (2) Annual growth in built-up area in optimal development zones (ODZs) decreased significantly during 2010–2013 compared with the period 2000–2010, while annual growth in built-up area in key development zones (KDZs), agricultural production zones (APZs) and key ecological function zones (KEFZs) increased significantly. (3) In ODZs, the average annual increase in built-up area in the Yangtze River Delta region was significantly higher than in other regions; the average area increase and rate of increase of built-up area in KDZs was faster in the western region than in other regions; average annual area growth of built-up area in APZs in the northeast, central and western regions was twice as high as the previous decade on average; the annual rate of change and increase in the dynamic degree of built-up area were most notable in KEFZs in the central region. (4) The spatial pattern and characteristics of built-up area expansions in the period 2010–2013 reflected the gradient feature of the plan for MFOZs. But the rate of increase locally in built-up area in ODZs, APZs and KEFZs is fast, so the effective measures must be adopted in the implementation of national and regional policies. The conclusions indicated these methods and results were meaningful for future regulation strategies in optimizing national land development in China.

Urban land use/cover and efficiency are important indicators of the degree of urbanization. However, research about comparing their changes at the megaregion level is relatively rare. In this study, we depicted the differences and inequalities of urban land and efficiency among megaregions in China using China’s Land Use/cover Dataset (CLUD) and China’s Urban Land Use/cover Dataset (CLUD-Urban). Furthermore, we analyzed regional inequality using the Theil index. The results indicated that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Great Bay Area had the highest proportion of urban land (8.03%), while the Chengdu-Chongqing Megaregion had the highest proportion of developed land (64.70%). The proportion of urban impervious surface area was highest in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Great Bay Area (75.16%) and lowest in the Chengdu-Chongqing Megaregion (67.19%). Furthermore, the highest urban expansion occurred in the Yangtze River Delta (260.52 km2/a), and the fastest period was 2000−2010 (298.19 km2/a). The decreasing Theil index values for the urban population and economic density were 0.305 and 1.748, respectively, in 1980−2015. This study depicted the development trajectory of different megaregions, and will expect to provide a valuable insight and new knowledge on reasonable urban growth modes and sustainable goals in urban planning and management.

Accurate urban land-cover datasets are essential for mapping urban environments. However, a series of national urban land-cover data covering more than 15 years that characterizes urban environments is relatively rare. Here we propose a hierarchical principle on remotely sensed urban land-use/cover classification for mapping intra-urban structure/component dynamics. China's Land Use/cover Dataset (CLUD) is updated, delineating the imperviousness, green surface, waterbody and bare land conditions in cities. A new data subset called CLUD-Urban is created from 2000 to 2015 at five-year intervals with a medium spatial resolution (30 m). The first step is a prerequisite to extract the vector boundaries covered with urban areas from CLUD. A new method is then proposed using logistic regression between urban impervious surface area (ISA) and the annual maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) value retrieved from Landsat images based on a big-data platform with Google Earth Engine. National ISA and urban green space (UGS) fraction datasets for China are generated at 30-meter resolution with five-year intervals from 2000 to 2015. The overall classification accuracy of national urban areas is 92 %. The root mean square error values of ISA and UGS fractions are 0.10 and 0.14, respectively. The datasets indicate that the total urban area of China was 6.28 × 104 km2 in 2015, with average fractions of 70.70 % and 26.54 % for ISA and UGS, respectively. The ISA and UGS increased between 2000 and 2015 with unprecedented annual rates of 1,311.13 km2/yr and 405.30 km2/yr, respectively. CLUD-Urban can be used to enhance our understanding of urbanization impacts on ecological and regional climatic conditions and urban dwellers' environments. CLUD-Urban can be applied in future researches on urban environmental research and practices in the future. The datasets can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2644932.

Urban impervious surface (UIS) and urban green space (UGS) fractions in a city are essential indicators in supporting urban planning and management. However, little is known about the dynamics of urban expansion and the resultant UIS/UGS fraction in different size cities in China over time. We comparatively analyzed the urban expansion, UIS/UGS, and their dynamics among 318 different size cities during 1990–2015 derived from the China Land Use/cover Datasets (CLUDs) and the UIS/UGS datasets. The results indicate that the urban expansion area for the 318 cities increased by 2.32 × 104 km2 during 1990–2015, with an average growth percentage of 4.37%. Megacities experienced dramatic expansion between 1990 and 2000, and the urban expansion of large and medium cities increased rapidly in the following decade. During 2010–2015, the urban expansion of small cities notably increased. Meanwhile, the proportion of the UIS fraction in newly expanded urban land continuously decreased during 1990–2015. Compared to the other three size cities, the proportion of the UGS fraction in megacities was the highest (24.55%) in 1990 and then increased (27.99–31.97%) in newly expanded urban land during 1990–2015 due to ecological construction. Thus, more attention should be paid to the dynamics of urban expansion, especially in small cities. The proportions of UGS in large, medium, and small cities are relatively low, and urban environment needs to be improved for greenness and livability in the future.

Assessing the impacts of land use/cover change (LUCC) on the aeolian process is crucial for improving regional ecosystem services and sustainable development. The objective of the study were to 1) examine the spatiotemporal patterns of the soil wind erosion modulus (SWEM) in China from 1990 to 2015, and 2) reveal the contributions of LUCC to SWEM dynamics. The annual SWEM derived by the revised wind erosion equation (RWEQ) was analyzed at regional and sub-regional scales using statistical analysis. The impacts of various LUCCs on SWEM were further assessed in each county. The results showed that the regions that experienced severe wind erosion (SWEM > 50 t/(ha·a)) accounted for 8.91% of all of China. The average SWEM generally decreased by half from 1990 to 2015. Large SWEM differences were found among various land use/cover types. The SWEM from desert was two times or higher than that from sparse grass, cropland, and woodland; moreover, that of dense grass was the lowest in arid/semiarid areas. The conversion of grassland/woodland to cropland and desert expansion during 1990–2000 induced a net increase in total soil wind erosion of approximately 1205 × 104 t. With the implementation of ecological projects starting in the early 2000s, woodland/grassland was reconverted from cropland, and the eco-restoration of sparse grass and desert induced a net decrease in wind erosion of 278 × 104 t. All these indicated that anthropogenic activities in ecological projects had positive impacts in terms of reducing aeolian erosion intensity. We suggest that eco-restoration should be protected and consolidated in the future. Adaptive management is required to control wind erosion and improve ecosystem services and human wellbeing for people in China.

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) strongly influence regional and global climate by combining both biochemical and biophysical processes. However, the biophysical process was often ignored, which may offset the biogeochemical effects, so measures to address climate change could not reach the target. Thus, the biophysical influence of LULCC is critical for understanding observed climate changes in the past and potential scenarios in the future. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the mechanisms and effects of large-scale LULCC on climate change through changing the underlying surface, and thus the energy balance. The key scientific issues on understanding the impacts of human activities on global climate that must be addressed including: (1) what are the basic scientific facts of spatial and temporal variations of LULCC in China and comparative countries? (2) How to understand the coupling driving mechanisms of human activities and climate change on the LULCC and then to forecasting the future scenarios? (3) What are the scientific mechanisms of LULCC impacts on biophysical processes of land surface, and then the climate? (4) How to estimate the contributions of LULCC to climate change by affecting biophysical processes of land surface? By international comparison, the impacts of LULCC on climate change at the local, regional and global scales were revealed and evaluated. It can provide theoretical basis for the global change, and have great significance to mitigate and adapt to global climate changes.

The past two decades saw rapid and massive urbanization and industrialization in China. Despite much research has been reportedly done at local and regional scales, little has been reported on the trajectories, patterns, and drivers of these two intertwining processes at the national level. This is mainly due to the fact that until recently, high resolution spatial data of land use and land cover change were not available at national level. The research reported in this paper aimed to fill this knowledge gap. Employing the China Land Use/Cover Dataset (CLUD), a national land use/cover change database our research team developed over the past decade, we analyzed the two intertwining processes at a 5 year interval from 1990 to 2010 to identify their trajectories, spatiotemporal patterns, and driving forces. Among out key findings are that (1) the nation's urban and industrial land areas increased from 4.85 × 104 km2 in 1990 to 9.08 × 104 km2 in 2010; (2) compared to those in the 1990s, the expansion rates of urban land and industrial land in the 2000s were respectively 2.15 and 5.79 times higher; (3) the expansion rates varied significantly across regions, revealing a distinctive spatial pattern with coastal regions being the fastest and the northeastern the slowest; (4) national development strategies and regional land-use policies had prominent impacts on land expansions; while (5) socioeconomic factors along with local and regional land-use policies explained the regional variations.

Evaluation of influences of the Beijing–Tianjin Sand Source Control Project on soil wind erosion and ecosystem services is imperative for mastering the benefits and drawbacks of the program, as well as for distinguishing more reasonable estimations to evaluate regional sustainable development. Within the Beijing–Tianjin Sand Source Region, we quantified the spatiotemporal patterns of land use/cover changes (LUCCs), soil wind erosion modulus (SWEM), and essential ecosystem services throughout 2000–2015 by utilizing field investigations, remotely sensed data, meteorological data, and modeling. The influences of ecological projects on wind erosion and ecosystem services has been subsequently assessed by using those modifications brought on via the LUCCs (e.g., conversion from cropland to grassland/woodland) during the ecological construction. The results indicated that the SWEM showed a decline and ecosystem services which included carbon storage, water retention, and air quality regulation exhibited growth driven by using both local climate exchanges and human activities such as ecological projects. Excluding the effects of climate factors, the LUCCs stemming from ecological projects caused a total SWEM decrease of 3.77 million tons during 2000–2015, of which approximately 70% was prompted by the way of the transition from desert to sparse grassland. And from this transition, ecosystem services including both water retention and aboveground net primary productivity manifest a general increase. The sub-regions of desert grassland in Bayannur, Ordos Sandy Land, and Otindag Sandy Land were hot spots for wind erosion declines and ecosystem service enhancements induced by the ecological projects. We recommend that endeavors be coordinated toward the scientific management of the degraded lands and distribution of the local populace, as well as the implementation of diverse measures in the expected hotter and drier future.

Urban land cover has major impacts on a city’s ecosystem services and the inherent quality of its urban residential environment. The spatio-temporal distribution of impervious surface area and green areas in Chinese cities has exhibited a significantly marked difference in comparison with USA cities. This study focused on monitoring and comparing the spatio-temporal dynamics, land cover patterns and characteristics of functional regions in six Chinese (n=3) and USA (n=3) cities. The study data were collated from Landsat TM/MSS imagery during the period 1978–2010. Results indicate that Chinese cities have developed compactly over the past three decades, while development has been notably dispersed among USA cities. Mean vegetation coverage in USA cities is approximately 2.2 times that found amongst Chinese urban agglomerations. Land use types within Chinese cities are significantly more complex, with a higher density of impervious surface area. Conversely, the central business district (CBD) and residential areas within USA cities were comprised of a lower proportion of impervious surface area and a higher proportion of green land. Results may be used to contribute to future urban planning and administration efforts in both China and the USA.

Land-use/land-cover changes (LUCCs) have links to both human and nature inter- actions. China's Land-Use/cover Datasets (CLUDs) were updated regularly at 5-year inter- vals from the late 1980s to 2010, with standard procedures based on Landsat TM\ETM+ im- ages. A land-use dynamic regionalization method was proposed to analyze major land-use conversions. The spatiotemporal characteristics, differences, and causes of land-use changes at a national scale were then examined. The main findings are summarized as fol- lows. Land-use changes (LUCs) across China indicated a significant variation in spatial and temporal characteristics in the last 20 years (1990-2010). The area of cropland change de- creased in the south and increased in the north, but the total area remained almost un- changed. The reclaimed cropland was shifted from the northeast to the northwest. The built-up lands expanded rapidly, were mainly distributed in the east, and gradually spread out to central and western China. Woodland decreased first, and then increased, but desert area was the opposite. Grassland continued decreasing. Different spatial patterns of LUC in China were found between the late 20th century and the early 21st century. The original 13 LUC zones were replaced by 15 units with changes of boundaries in some zones. The main spatial characteristics of these changes included (1) an accelerated expansion of built-up land in the

The impervious surface area (ISA) at the regional scale is one of the important environmental factors for examining the interaction and mechanism of Land Use/Cover Change (LUCC)-ecosystem processes-climate change under the interactions of urbanization and global environmental change. Timely and accurate extraction of ISA from remotely sensed data at the regional scale is challenging. This study explored the ISA extraction based on MODIS and DMSP-OLS data and the incorporation of China’s land use/cover data. ISA datasets in Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Metropolitan Area (BTTMA) in 2000 and 2008 at a spatial resolution of 250 m were developed, their spatiotemporal changes were analyzed, and their impacts on water quality were then evaluated. The results indicated that ISA in BTTMA increased rapidly along urban fringe, transportation corridors and coastal belt both in intensity and extents from 2000 to 2008. Three cities (Tangshan, Langfang and Qinhuangdao) in Hebei Province had higher ISA growth rates than Beijing due to the pressure of population-resources-environments in the city resulting in increasingly transferring industries to the nearby areas. The dense ISA distribution in BTTMA has serious impacts on water quality in the Haihe River watershed. Meanwhile, the proportion of ISA in sub-watersheds has significantly linear relationships with the densities of river COD and NH3-N.

The rapid expansion of impervious surface areas (ISA) threatens soil organic carbon (SOC) pools in urbanized areas globally. The paucity of field observations on SOC under ISA (SOCISA), especially in dryland areas has limited our ability to assess the ecological impacts of ISA expansion. Based on systematically measured SOCISA (0–80 cm depth) of a dryland city and land-use and land-cover change data derived from remotely sensed data, we investigated the magnitude and vertical/horizontal patterns of SOCISA and mapped the impact of ISA expansion on SOC storage. The mean SOCISA in the city was 5.36 ± 0.51 kg C m−2, lower than that observed in humid cities but much higher than that assumed in many regional carbon assessments. SOCISA decreased linearly as the soil depth or the horizontal distance from the open area increased. SOCISA accounted for over half of the city’s SOC stock, which decreased by 16% (primarily in the converted croplands) because of ISA expansion from 1990 to 2010. The impacts of the ISA expansion varied spatially, depending on the land- use and converted land-cover type.

Dynamic urban expansion simulation at regional scale is one of the important research methodologies in Land Use/Cover Change (LUCC) and global environmental change influenced by urbanization. However, previous studies indicate that the single urban expansion simulation for future scenarios at local scale cannot meet the requirements for characterizing and interpreting the interactive mechanisms of regional urbanization and global environmental change. This study constructed a regional Dynamic Urban Expansion Model (Reg-DUEM) suitable for different scenarios by integrating the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Cellular Automaton (CA) model. Firstly we analyzed the temporal and spatial characteristics of urban expansion and acquired a prior knowledge rules using land use/cover change datasets of Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan metropolitan area. The future urban expansion under different scenarios is then simulated based on a baseline model, economic models, policy models and the structural adjustment model. The results indicate that Reg-DUEM has good reliability for a non-linear expansion simulation at regional scale influenced by macro-policies. The simulating results show that future urban expansion patterns from different scenarios of the metropolitan area have the tremendous spatio-temporal differences. Future urban expansion will shift quickly from Beijing metropolis to the periphery of Tianjin and Tangshan city along coastal belt.

Rapid urbanization has occurred in northwestern China, threatening the sustainability of its fragile dryland ecosystems. A lack of precise urban land-cover information has limited our understanding on the urbanization in the dryland. Here, we examined urban land-cover changes from 2000 to 2014 in 21 major cities that comprise over 50% of the developed land in arid China, using Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus and Operational Land Imager data, and a hybrid classification method. The 15-m resolution urban land-cover products (including impervious surfaces, vegetation, bare soil, and water bodies) had an overall accuracy of 90.37%. Based on these new land use products, we found the urbanization in arid China was characterized by the dramatic expansion of impervious surface (+13.23%) and reduction of bare soil (−13.41%), while the proportions of vegetation (+0.27%) and water (−0.10%) remained stable. The observed dynamic equilibrium of vegetated ratio implies an increasing harmonization of urbanization and greening, which was particularly important for the sustainability of fragile urban ecosystems in arid regions. From an economic perspective, gross domestic product and population were significantly correlated with impervious surfaces, and oasis cities displayed a stronger ability to attract new residents than desert cities.

Understanding the historical change of agricultural landscape patterns is the basis for promoting the sustainable development of cultivated land, as well as appropriate decision-making. In order to analyze spatio-temporal changes of cultivated land in Sanjiang Plain, from 1985–2015, Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Operational Land Imager (OLI) were used to reconstruct satellite data of land use and land cover. Additionally, twelve landscape indices were selected to analyze landscape pattern changes and to compare the differences of cultivated landscape changes between the agricultural region and the reclamation region. Studies suggested that during the past 30 years, cultivated land in the study area grew rapidly, with a rapid growth of paddy fields and a slow reduction of dry farmland. This trend was more obvious in the reclamation region than it was in the agricultural region, where both dry farmland and paddy fields showed a growth trend in the past 30 years. Our study showed that paddies have become the dominant agricultural landscape and that fragmentation of paddy fields has decreased, while dry farmland has increased over the past 30 years, within the entire study area. Different management modes have caused major differences between the agricultural region and the reclamation region.

Urban expansion has been the dominant characteristics in land use and land cover change in recent decades in China. Meteorological stations' observation environments are affected by urban heat island effect due to urban expansion, which leads to overestimation in the records of air temperature and influences the researches based on them. In this study, the underlying surface surrounding 756 meteorological stations across China was identified based on remote sensing images over a number of time intervals to distinguish the rural stations that became urban stations. 608 stations with continuous observation records during 1978 to 2007 are picked out, among which there are 58 urban stations. Annual and seasonal change characteristics of air temperature are analyzed based on these stations' records. It was concluded that the change rate of urban stations' annual mean air temperature is higher than the others' especially the minimum air temperature. The difference in air temperature of urban stations reduces more due to the minimum air temperature's greater rise. Air temperature in winter, spring and autumn show more apparent rising trend than in summer.

China has experienced an unprecedented urbanization and industrialization in the past decades. In this research, we examined the dynamics of construction lands and impervious surface areas (ISA) based on land use/cover change and ISA datasets between 2000 and 2008, which were provided by the national resources and environmental remote sensing information platform. The results indicated that the construction areas and ISA increased by 3468.30 and 2212.24 km 2 /a in this period primarily due to the implementation of national macro-development strategies and fast-growing economy. In 2008, ISA accounted for 0.86% of the total land area in China. Urban land areas increased by 43.46% between 2000 and 2008. The annual growth rate of 1788.22 km 2 /a in this period was 2.18 times that in the 1990s. In particular, urban ISA increased by 53.30% between 2000 and 2008 with an annual growth rate of 1348.85 km 2 /a. During the 8 years, the ISA in China increased rapidly, especially in the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Metropolitan Region, Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, and the western China region. The increasing ISA may influence potentially water environmental quality in the major basins. In particular, the number of subbasins having ISA of greater than 10% increased considerably, which were primarily distributed in the Haihe River, Yangtze River and Pearl River basins. In 2008, 14.42% of the basin areas were affected by the increased ISA.