A dataset of desertification distribution in Mongolia in 2015

Abstract

Desertification is one of the most serious eco-environmental and socio-economic problems in the world. Mongolia is a hot area of global desertification because of its fragile ecological environment and serious land degradation. In this study, based on Google Earth Engine platform, we selected Landsat7 remote sensing images, normalized vegetation index (NDVI), surface albedo (Albedo), improved soil adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI) and topsoil grain size index (TGSI) as desertification discrimination indexes, and combined the geographical division with desertification inversion characteristic space models to complete the fine inversion of Mongolian desertification information. In this way, we obtained a dataset of desertification distribution in Mongolia in 2015. The quality and accuracy of this dataset are verified by referring to field survey data and high-resolution Google Earth images. The overall evaluation accuracy is 87.00% and the Kappa coefficient is 83.19%. This dataset directly reflects the spatial distribution of different degrees of desertification in Mongolia, and can provide detailed and reliable data support for the delineation of key areas for desertification control and the formulation of restoration strategies in Mongolia. It is of great significance for the ecological environment and green and sustainable development of the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor.