| The fractal theory and information entropy have provided a new approach for study of some geographical phenomena, such as instability and complex structure and orderlies, and it has a broad prospect for application in land use landscape pattern study.Guided by the fractal theory and information entropy and the techniques of remote sensing and technology support of GIS, the patch fractal dimension and stability index and Shannon entropy of landscape were calculated in the farming-pastoral region of northern Shaanxi, and based on calculation, change in fractal character and information entropy of the land use landscape structure in the region was analyzed.The results showed that: from 1986 to 2003, great changes of land use landscape took place in the region; the characters showed that woodland, construction land area increased intensively, but cultivated land, water body, unusable land and sandy land area decreased consistently.The fractal dimension D of each landscape type has a decreasing tendency, on the contrary, its stability index tends to be increasing, which show that the structure of land use landscape tends to be simple and the stable on space.The information entropy of landscape structure in the study area has been rising in general since 1986, indicating a decrease in orderliness of land use system. |