Abstract: The Yalu River Estuary is an important part of waterbird migration corridor in the Northeast Asia-Australasia Flyway. Based on Landsat MSS/TM/OLI remote sensing images, the land cover datasets of Yalu River Estuary in six periods from 1980 to 2020 were obtained by a combination of objectoriented and random forest classifications. By analyzing wetland area, landscape metrics, wetland centroid migration, we compared the differences between China and North Korea, by quantitatively comparing the impacts of human activities on wetland landscape change. Results showed that: (1) Over the past 40 years, total wetland area in the Yalu River Estuary experienced a decreasing trend, with a high wetland loss rate (15%) on the Chinese side and a low wetland loss rate on the North Korean side (12%). (2) The changes of landscape metrics suggested that wetlands in the Yalu River Estuary tended to be fragmented and the connectivity between landscapes decreased. (3) Consistent expansion of cultivated land and artificial surface was the main driving force for wetland loss. (4) During the four decades, the centroid of wetland landscape moved 1.4 km seaward. The conservation effectiveness of coastal wetlands over the Yalu River Estuary should be improved. Our findings could facilitate management, development and biodiversity conservation of estuarine wetland ecosystems.

Key words: remote sensing, area of wetlands, landscape pattern, transboundary, Yalu River Estuary.