Spatial-temporal differentiation and driving factors of vegetation coverage in Ningxia Helan Mountain based on geodetector

Abstract

Monitoring the regional changes in vegetation coverage and analyzing its driving factors are beneficial to realizing the sustainable development of ecological environment. Based on Landsat 5/8 remote sensing images from 1989 to 2021, vegetation coverage of Helan Mountain in Ningxia was estimated by pixel dichotomy model. In addition, the influence of 10 factors, including environmental factors and human factors, on the spatial-temporal variations of vegetation coverage was quantified by geodetector. The results showed that average vegetation coverage was 35.8% in the study area from 1989 to 2021. On the temporal scale, it showed an increasing trend, with an average increasing rate of 0.043·(10 a)-1. On the spatial scale, vegetation coverage presented a distribution characteristic of decreasing from southwest to northeast. 58.1% of vegetation coverage in the study area would continue to improve in the future, but 30.7% of vegetation would have the potential risk of degradation. Precipitation was the dominant environmental factor driving the distribution of vegetation. Compared with single factor, the interaction between environmental factors and human factors had a stronger impact on vegetation coverage, while the interaction between precipitation and other factors played a leading role.