Abstract

Land degradation is a crucial issue in semi-arid and arid areas. The Heihe River basin is the second largest inland river basin in the arid regions of Northwest China. Land degradation is a serious passive problem for the socioeconomic development in this region. In this paper, we develop a land degradation model. Land Degradation Index (LDI), which integrates the main factors influencing land degradation. The factors are mainly those related to plant growth conditions: precipitation, potential evapo-transpiration (PE), vegetation fraction cover, slope and aspect, soil type, and land cover. We find that our model can be used to effectively monitor land degradation over this region.

Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call