Zheng, D., D.O. Wallin and Z. Hao. 1997. Use of remote sensing to detect rates and patterns of landscape change in the Changbai Mountain area of China and Korea: 1972-1988. Landscape Ecology 12(4): 241-254.

Satellite imagery was used to quantify rates and patterns of landscape change between 1972 and 1988 in the Changbai Mountain Reserve and its adjacent areas in the People's Republic of China and North Korea. The 190,000 ha Reserve was establiched as an International Bioshpere Reserve by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1979. It is the most important natural landscape remaining in China's temperate/boreal climate. The images used in this analysis cover a total area of 967,847 ha, about three-fourths of which is in China. Imagery from 1972 and 1988 was classified into two broad cover types (forest and non-forest). Overall, forests covered 84.4% of the study area in 1972 and 74.5% in 1988. Changes in forest cover within the Reserve were minimal. The loss of forest cover outside the Reserve appears to be strongly associated with timber harvesting. Landscape patterns in 1988 were more complex and more fragmented than in 1972. The rates and patterns of forest-cover loss were quite different in China and North Korea. In North Korea, extensive cutting appears to have occured prior to 1972 and this has continued through 1988 while in China, most cutting appears to have occured since 1972.