Spatial-Temporal Analysis of the Coastline Changes in Fujian Province, China from 1995 to 2015

Coastline is the connection line between the land and the sea, and its extraction and analysis are of great significance to the coastal zone resources and environmental protection. Using remote sensing and Geographic Information Sysytem (GIS), coastline change from 1995 to 2015 in the Fujian Province, China, was extracted. The temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of coastline length, type and spatial location in the Fujian Province, China were analyzed. The coastline length continued to increase from 1995.29 km to 3555.036 km. The overall change intensity in 2010-2015 was the highest, reaching 0.87%, followed by 1995-2000. The smallest change occurred in 2005-2010. Based on the intensity changes in the six coastal cities of Fujian Province, Zhangzhou City showed the strongest coastline change. Except for the stability in 2000-2005, the changes that occurred during other years were larger. Fuzhou is the city with the smallest coastline changes, which have remained balanced for 25 years. Overall, the length of the rocky coastline and the sandy coastline generally show a downward trend, while the artificial coastline and the muddy coastline generally show an upward trend.