We selected the frontier zone of the Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region (LRGR) as study area, based on data collection of LUCC
monitored by remote sensing and other related information got by common investigation ways, used spatial information processing
technique and analysis method, and explored the LUCC landscape’s characteristic and its spatial expansion effect in this special
area. The purpose of this study is to find out the landscape pattern and its changing trend, and to provide background information
for ecology security management in frontier zone of the LRGR. The primary results are as follows: the LUCC pattern in study
area exhibits that the forest is the predominant cover type as landscape matrixes, while other types are patches or mosaic
elements. Under this pattern, because of transformation in different types with the time change, they are influenced either
by natural environment condition, or by human action. All of the counties or cities along the frontier zone of the LRGR, when
considering their different levels of the natural environment conditions, social economic development status and management
manner, show that the LUCC spatial expansion pattern is of sub-region convergency characteristics which is different from
that of considering the distance length resistance only.
Keywords Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region (LRGR) - frontier zone - LUCC analysis - spatial expansion - landscape pattern
Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2003CB415100) and the Key Project of Natural Science
Foundation of Yunnan Province (Grant No. 2003C0002Z)