Abstract:
The analysis of patches showing changes in coastal areas of the Chinese mainland tends to encounter challenges such as low image resolution, long time intervals, and limited spatial coverage. This study aims to obtain high-frequency, accurate information on changes in coastal areas nationwide. This will facilitate the dynamic monitoring of marine resources and the implementation of relevant protection policies for coastal areas in China. To this end, using domestic high-resolution remote sensing data of 15 days (i.e., one cycle), as well as the iteratively reweighted multivariate alteration detection (IR-MAD) algorithm combined with visual interpretation, this study extracted patches reflecting 2020—2023 changes along the coasts of 11 provinces and cities in the Chinese mainland. Accordingly, this study analyzed their spatiotemporal characteristics, landscape patterns, and spatial correlation. The results indicate distinct directional changes in the patches. The patches reflecting changes from sea enclosure to reclamation exhibited the largest areas across various investigated areas. Except for Hainan Province, the area of this type of patches exceeded 1 000 km
2. The proportions of patches reflecting different types of changes gradually tended to be balanced. In the winter of 2022, the proportion of patches showing changes in the reclamation dropped below 50% for the first time. The aggregation degree of patches reflecting various types of changes showed increasing trends, suggesting that patches reflecting various changes will become more concentrated in the future. The centroids of these patches of various regions shifted in varying directions, and these patches exhibited significant spatial correlation within a 20 km range.