Remote Sensing-Based Life Cycle Analysis of Land Reclamation Processes: Case Study on Tianjin Binhai New Area

Land reclamation plays an important role in the development of coastal regions as it creates additional space that can be utilized for production and living spaces expansion and the construction of projects like ports, seafront industries, and coastal towns. In land reclamation, marine areas are enclosed and filled with stones to construct functional areas like industrial zones, townships, ports, and recreation areas. To address the need for further refinement in the monitoring of land reclamation developments in China, time series remote sensing images were used to continuously monitor land reclamation. Based on continuous monitoring of land reclamation processes using remote sensing images, the development of reclaimed land is divided into four stages according to life cycle theory, namely, growth, subsidence, stocking and consumption. Taking the Tianjin Binhai New Area as a case study, a method for the classification of land surface states according to their life cycle stages was constructed, and it was applied to analyze the duration of each life cycle stage in land reclamation development. It was found that time-series remote sensing images can be used in conjunction with the life cycle method to elucidate the development and land surface states of reclaimed land; this approach is therefore suitable for the monitoring and assessment of land reclamation developments. In 2015, the total reclaimed area in the Tianjin Binhai New Area was 22689.21 hm(2), with 44.99% and 34.44% of these lands being in the stocking and consumption stages, respectively. "Stock" lands are dominated by lands that have been idle for eight years or five years (3953.42 hm(2) and 3005.90 hm(2), respectively). The lands that first transitioned into the consumption stage in 2010, 2006 and 2008 account for the largest proportion of all "consumption" lands, at 19.67%, 19.36% and 19.11%, respectively.