Analysis of Jiangsu tidal flats reclamation from 1974 to 2012 using remote sensing

Jiangsu has the most abundant tidal flat resources among China’s coastal provinces. To ease the conflict between the growing population and shrinking usable land and to promote regional sustainable development, large-scale coastal reclamation development activities have been performed in Jiangsu Province since 1949. The present study has integrated multi-source remote sensing images during 1974 to 2012 by using a Multi-point Fast Marching Method (MFMM) to extract the Jiangsu coastal reclamation areas for different time periods. The temporal and spatial patterns of the extent and elevation of the reclamation areas were analysed in order to determine the unused potential for future reclamation. It will provide information necessary to support the development and construction of tidal flats in Jiangsu. Results show that: (1) the reclaimed tidal flats along the Jiangsu coast cover more than 19.86×104 hm2, of which 13.97×104 hm2 is located in Yancheng, 4.84×104 hm2 in Nantong, and 1.05×104 hm2 in Lianyungang; (2) the average elevation of the reclaimed Jiangsu tidal flats has gradually decreased over the last 40 years, while those in Dongtai and Rudong have showed particularly accelerated decrease since the 1990s; and (3) in 2012, very few unused tidal flats two meters above the sea level are left along the Jiangsu coast, and mainly concentrated in Yancheng. As there are still reserving some coastal land resources between 0–2 m, providing us with a potential for future development. All of these findings may be useful for researchers and local authorities for the development and utilization of tidal flat resources in Jiangsu.