Abstract
The Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) intervening basin is one of the most important, ecologically fragile and sensitive areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Since the completion and operation of the TGR, the change of the ecological environment in this region—with vegetation as an indicator—has been a consistent focus of attention. Based on the six phases of land use data and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), temperature and precipitation data from 1998 to 2017, the change and trend of land use and vegetation cover in the TGR intervening basin were analyzed quantitatively by using a transition matrix, linear regression and partial correlation analysis. The area of unchanged land use type is 56,565 km2, accounting for 97.27% of the total area of the basin. The vegetation coverage with NDVI as the indicator showed a significant upward trend, with a growth rate of 7.5%/10a. The impact of temperature on vegetation was greater than that of precipitation on vegetation. The non-linear fitting curve of NDVI to temperature and precipitation rose with the time course of TGR impoundment, although the mechanism remains to be studied further. In general, climate change, ecological restoration measures, urbanization and reservoir impoundment did not significantly change the spatial distribution pattern of land use and the climate driving mechanism of vegetation growth in the TGR intervening basin.
Highlights
The Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, is the largest water conservancy project in the world
Accurate knowledge of the distribution changes of land use type is the first step in evaluating vegetation cover dynamics
It can be concluded that the reservoir impoundment, resettlement and ecological of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was calculated
Summary
The Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, is the largest water conservancy project in the world. The TGR intervening basin is located in the transition area of a mountain ecosystem and water ecosystem. Its ecological environment is inherently fragile and unstable and causes ecosystem degradation under interference. Previous studies have shown that the TGR intervening basin has been subjected to an array of natural environment changes such as regional extreme meteorological hydrological events [5,6], geological disasters and altered biodiversity [7,8]. The TGR intervening basin has been seriously disturbed by human activities. About 1.3 million people have been resettled due to the impoundment
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