Ecological and landscape design of farmland shelterbelt in land consolidation

The quick and effective improvement of farmland shelterbelts has become an urgent task for ecological landscape design in land consolidation. On the basis of field investigation, the spatial arrangement and composition of present shelterbelts were determined in farmlands in this study. Major parameters of the shelterbelts like porosity, effective protection distance and ground area were analyzed and important functional areas and landscape structures including advantage landscape space, landscape node, important landscape axis, were identified in the experimental area. A new shelterbelt system based on ecological landscape process was designed, which could much better support the ecological functions of the investigated landscape. The new design included an improved plant composition and structure, and minimized the required land area for the construction of shelterbelts. The results of this study showed that a careful shelterbelt design, which also considered present landscape features and was inherent ecological processes, achieved an effective improvement of deteriorated farmlands. This research provides methods to design ecological landscape of farmland shelterbelt in land consolidation.