Land Use Planning in Liaohe Conservation Area Based on Land Suitability Analysis

To protect the riverine integrity and meet people’s use for river, land use planning was made based on land suitability analysis in Liaohe Conservation Area. The river system was classified longitudinally and laterally based on the riverine physical features, e.g. sinuosity. The whole Liaohe main river was classified into 8 segments in the longitudinal direction and 4 zones in the lateral direction. Land use planning in Liaohe Conservation Area showed that there were altogether 11 land types, including land for riparian biodiversity conservation, land for river estuary wetland, land for production, land for water quality control into mainstream, land for dam flood-proof safety, land for river channel, land for high eco-function wetland, land for risk-reduction of danger works and danger section, land for ecological water surface landscape, land for reservoir wetland and land for urban landscape, respectively accounting for 38.71%, 22.56%, 12.17%, 7.85%, 4.20%, 3.62%, 3.22%, 2.79%, 1.89%, 1.88% and 1.12% of the whole area. Nearly 80 percent of the whole area was used for land related to aquatic habitat which could embody the function orientation of the river conservation area.