Abstract
The vegetation response to climatic factors is a hot topic in global change research. With the Support of ArcGIS and ENVI software, six sets of Landsat remote sensing images of the middle and lower reaches of the Shule River Basin were interpreted. Eight types of land use and land covers were obtained and the spatiotemporal characteristics of the land use/land cover changes (LUCCs) were analyzed using an intensity analysis to provide a basis for decision-making on the sustainable development of the basin. In the past 29 years, the area of cropland, construction land and shrubland had a net increase, while high-coverage grassland (HCG), medium-coverage grassland (MCG), low-coverage grassland (LCG), wetland and non-vegetation land all presented a net decrease. The area of artificial vegetation (cropland) presented an expanding trend and increased by 1105.56 km2 in total, while the natural vegetation (grassland, shrubland, wetland) showed a shrinking tendency and decreased by 917.69 km2. The intensity analysis revealed that the rate of LUCC in the period of 2000~2006 and 2006~2010 was relatively higher, although the rate of LUCC in other periods was much lower. The change intensities of MCG and HCG were greatest, followed by LCG, shrubland and wetland. Construction land and cropland were in third place, while non-vegetation land was in last place. The pattern of regional LUCC was generally stable except for cropland loss and the gain/loss change of other land-use/land-cover types was always in an active state. For spatial distribution, few changes were observed in the old irrigated area within the oasis. The LUCC was mainly concentrated in the oasis fringe area, natural vegetation cover area and emigrant arrangement regions.
Highlights
Since the mid-20th century, land use/land cover change (LUCC) research has become a popular issue in global change research and has entered the Global Land Project (GLP) stage
With the continuous increase of artificial vegetation area, natural vegetation shows a net decrease trend and the total natural vegetation area in the study period is reduced by 917.69 km2, with a decrease of −15.65%
The area of cultivated land, construction land and shrubland increased by 95.12%, 220.99% and 49.35%, respectively
Summary
Since the mid-20th century, land use/land cover change (LUCC) research has become a popular issue in global change research and has entered the Global Land Project (GLP) stage. Arid and semi-arid regions are fragile and sensitive to global changes and human activities and they are the focus of global change research [6,7,8]. As the scale of cultivated land continues to expand, natural vegetation shows a significant degradation trend [9,10,11,12] and other reports have indicated that since the 1980s, the vegetation in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world has shown a significant “greening” situation [13,14]
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