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Lanzhou City is located in the semi-arid region of northwest China, which experiences serious desertification. Moreover, the high intensity of land development, with the accelerated industrialization and urbanization, causes increasingly aggravated conflict between humans and the environment. Exploring the response of the ecological environment quality to the natural environment and anthropogenic activities is important to protect the sustainable development of urban economic construction and the environment. Based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, this paper constructed a modified Remote Sensing Ecological Index (MRSEI) model which could reflect the ecological environment quality by integrating the desertification index (DI) into the Remote Sensing Ecological index (RSEI) model. This paper explores the spatiotemporal variation in the environmental quality from 2000 to 2020 in Lanzhou, China, and analyzes the natural and anthropogenic factors affecting the environment quality in terms of temperature, precipitation, gross domestic product (GDP), land use, night lighting, and population. The results showed that the mean value of MRSEI ranged from 0.254 to 0.400. The area undergoing fast growth in ecological quality was in the northwestern part of Lanzhou, and the area of decrease was in the central part. Various factors have different degrees of influence on the ecosystem, with temperature, precipitation, and land use having a greater impact, and GDP and population having a limited impact. Precipitation and temperature showed a strong impact when interacting with other factors, demonstrating that precipitation and temperature were also key factors affecting MRSEI. Overall, climate change and the implementation of ecological restoration projects have led to an improvement in the quality of the ecological environment in Lanzhou. This study provides a reference for understanding the spatiotemporal changes in the ecological environment in semi-arid Lanzhou and is conducive to formulating proper protection strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land desertification is one of the serious ecological and environmental problems facing mankind today, which threatens the survival and development of human society. China is one of the countries with the most serious land desertification problems in the world. Therefore, it is of great theoretical value and practical significance to carry out accurate identification and monitoring of land desertification and its influencing factors in ecologically fragile areas of China. This is conducive to curbing land desertification and ensuring regional ecological security. Minqin County, Gansu Province, located in northwestern China, is one of the most serious areas of land desertification, which is also one of the four sandstorm sources in China. Based on ENVINet5, this paper constructs a high-precision land desertification identification method with an accuracy of 93.71%, which analyzes the trend and reasons of land desertification in this area, provides suggestions for disaster prevention in Minqin County. and provides a reference for other similar areas to make corresponding desertification control policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C, N and P are the key biogenic elements of terrestrial ecosystems, and their biogeochemical processes regulate nutrient cycling and play a key role in restoring degraded ecosystems. In this paper, the grassland ecosystem under artificial restoration measures (Dactylis glomerata (DG), Lolium perenne (LP), Lolium perenne + Trifolium repens (LT)), and the natural restoration measures (NG) in a typical karst plateau desertification control area of southwest China, were taken as the research object. The C, N, and P concentrations and the ecological stoichiometry of the plant–soil–microorganism system in grasslands under different restoration measures in the karst desertification area were explored. We established the following findings: (1) Compared with NG, the C, N and P concentrations of plants and soil in DG, LP and LT were higher, and LT was the highest. (2) The microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) and microbial biomass phosphorus (MBP) concentrations in LT was also the highest. (3) The C:N ratio of plant and soil indicated that the N mineralization and nutrient release rate of DG, LP and LT were stronger than that of NG, and the plant growth of NG was most seriously limited by nitrogen. The N:P ratio in plant and soil indicated that the grassland was limited by P in the four treatments. (4) The result of correlation analysis showed that the cycling process of C, N and P in the plant–soil–microorganism system was coupled, and that the elements closely affected each other. In general, the effect of artificial restoration on a degraded ecosystem was relatively better than the natural restoration for increasing plant, soil and microbial nutrient concentrations, especially in the mixed-seed ecosystem of leguminous and gramineous forage. However, in the future, grassland management, appropriate N fertilizer or N-fixing plants and P fertilizer should be considered to improve the limitation of plant N and P, so as to realize the sustainable development of grasslands and the restoration of degraded ecosystems in the karst desertification control area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synergistically enhancing and realizing the value of grassland ecosystem services (ES) for economic activity is an important but challenging task for achieving sustainability in the karst desertification control (KDC). However, how to use grassland ES value characteristics in the KDC to make decisions on ES improvement, human well-being enhancement, and sustainable development remains unclear. In this paper, we took the contiguous region of karst desertification in Yunnan-Guangxi-Guizhou, China, a global hotspot, as the study area. Based on the valuation of the gross ecosystem product (GEP) and county economic intensity, we analyzed the structural and spatial characteristics of grassland GEP in the KDC using spatial analysis methods. We found that: (1) the grassland GEP in the KDC is mainly distributed in counties with low economic intensity (86.05% of the total number of counties) and vulnerable to losses caused by the livelihood of farmers; (2) the grassland GEP in the KDC is spatially small and scattered (the geographic concentration lies between 0.015 and 0.237), which makes it difficult to form industrial scale advantages; (3) the public product index (66.22–96.77%) and industry scale concentration (97.87–99.86%) of grassland GEP in the KDC are high, and most of the GEP is difficult to transform on the private market. Based on our findings, we proposed three corresponding recommendations for economic decision-making. The results of this study can provide a reference for economic decision-making regarding the management of grassland ES in karst areas with similar conditions and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, backfill mining has been selected as an effective approach to realize the green mining of underground coal resources, where backfill materials are the major factor in the development of backfill mining. In order to provide a better reference for further research and development of backfill mining, the experience and research achievements are reviewed in this paper. Firstly, the backfill materials that have been successfully applied in Chinese underground backfill coal mining are divided into two categories according to whether water is used during the backfill mining operation. Then, the primary considerations of each backfill material during its preparation, transportation and activation stages are discussed and evaluated. Finally, suggestions for backfill material exploration are proposed in terms of the future backfill mining of coal resources in Western China, where there is serious surface desertification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clues of climate change on the Alashan Plateau since the last glacial period (40 ka) are important for revealing the mechanism of desertification of middle-latitude deserts in the Northern Hemisphere (NH). Studies are still rare for the understanding of the specific relationship of climate changes between the Alashan Plateau and the global. Based on a systematic and comparative analysis of the existing research in China and the international academic community, this paper reviews the environmental evolution history of the Alashan Plateau since the last glacial period from the records of paleo-environment and geomorphological characteristics in different deserts of the plateau (e.g., Badanjilin, Tenggeli, and Wulanbuhe). From about 40 ka to the end of the last glacial maximum, the climate on the plateau was wetter than it is today, and to the end of the Pleistocene, the climate was generally dry and the aeolian activities were enhanced. However, the climate was arid during the whole last glacial period in the Wulanbuhe Desert, evidently different from the overall pattern of the plateau. The Tenggeli Desert was characterized by an arid climate in the early Holocene. The most controversial events for the Alashan Plateau are the drought events in the middle Holocene in the Badanjilin Desert. The role and impact of the westerlies and the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) systems on the climate change of the desert and even the whole plateau is a vexed question that brings different views in different periods. There is still a lack of definite evidence representing the events of global environmental change that occurred on the plateau during the discussed period. The distinctive morphology of dune mountains and the distribution of sand dunes are mutually indicative of the direction and energy of wind systems on the plateau. It is suggested that appropriate wind energy is the significant key to the desertification in these middle-latitude deserts on the plateau. From a global-scale review of climate change, the desertification of the modern-scale sandy desert landscapes on the Alashan Plateau is generally related to the global glacial period and the cold and dry climate during the past 40 ka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Desertification is one of the main obstacles to global sustainable development. Monitoring, evaluating and mastering its driving factors are very important for the prevention and control of desertification. As one of the largest deserts in China, the development of desertification in Otindag Sandy Land (OSL) resulted in the reduction in land productivity and serious ecological/environmental consequences. Although many ecological restoration projects have been carried out, the vegetation restoration of OSL and the impact mechanism of climate and human activities on desertification remain unclear. Methods: Taking OSL as the research area, this paper constructs the desertification index by using the remote sensing images and meteorological and socio-economic data, between 1986 and 2016, and analyzes the spatio-temporal evolution process and driving factors of desertification by using trend analysis and spearman rank correlation. Results: The results showed that: (1) Desertification in the OSL has fluctuated greatly during the past 30 years. Desertification recovered between 1986 and 1990, expanded and increased between 1990 and 2000, reduced between 2000 and 2004, developed rapidly between 2004 and 2007, and recovered again between 2007 and 2016; (2) The desertification of OSL is dominated by a non-significant change trend, accounting for 73.27%. In the significant change trend, the area of desertification rising trend is 20.32%, which is mainly located in the north and east, and the area of declining trend is 6.41%, which is mainly located in the southwest; (3) Desertification is the result of the superposition of climate and human activities. Climate change is the main influencing factor, followed by human activities, and the superposition effects of the two are spatio-temporal differences. Conclusions: These results shed light on the development of desertification in OSL and the relative importance and complex interrelationship between human activities and climate in regulating the process of desertification. Based on this, we suggest continuing to implement the ecological restoration policy and avoid the destruction of vegetation by large-scale animal husbandry in order to improve the situation of desertification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the monitoring of rocky desertification(RD) is concentrated in the karst area, whereas the study in red-bed areas is rare. In this paper, we present a multi-scale classification framework for RD monitoring based on spectral-spatial features. At the pixel scale, we explored several spectral indices based on spectral statistics and separability analysis of land cover samples. The homogeneous land covers were classified by the decision rules from the selected spectral indices (such as NDIOI, NRRI and NDGI); At the patch scale, RD classes were further distinguished by spatial decision rules based on multiple neighborhood features including proximity, linear density, and buffer distance. The method was applied on an OLI image over the red-bed area of northwestern Jiangxi, south central China, and validated using ground-based observations. The experimental results of verification and comparison are satisfactory. This work demonstrates a methodological supplement to the monitoring of red bed RD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gully erosion is a major threat to ecosystems, potentially leading to desertification, land degradation, and crop loss. Developing viable gully erosion prevention and remediation strategies requires regular monitoring of the gullies. Nevertheless, it is highly challenging to automatically access the monitoring results of the gullies from the latest monitoring data by training historical data acquired by different sensors at different times. To this end, this paper presents a novel semi-supervised semantic segmentation with boundary-guided pseudo-label generation strategy and adaptive loss function method. This method takes full advantage of the historical data with labels and the latest monitoring data without labels to obtain the latest monitoring results of the gullies. The boundary-guided pseudo-label generation strategy (BPGS), guided by the inherent boundary maps of real geographic objects, fuses multiple evidence data to generate reliable pseudo-labels. Additionally, we propose an adaptive loss function based on centroid similarity (CSIM) to further alleviate the impact of pseudo-label noise. To verify the proposed method, two datasets for gully erosion monitoring are constructed according to the satellite data acquired in northeastern China. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed method is more appropriate for automatic gully erosion monitoring than four state-of-the-art methods, including supervised methods and semi-supervised methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 20th century, the resources and environment in Northeast China have changed, and it is one of the typical regions that have short-term or high-intensity environmental impacts in the world. However, due to the excessive consumption of regional resources and strong environmental pollution to the atmospheric environment, development is being greatly affected. Maintaining the natural ecological environment has become a very urgent task. This paper studies the important ecological environment problems in Northeast China from the perspective of double carbon goals. The study points out that there are ecological problems in Northeast China, such as the lack of forest resources, the aggravation of desertification, the decline of black soil quality, and the shrinkage of wetlands, which are severe urban environmental protection problems. At the same time, affected by the trend of world environmental change, policy drivers in Northeast China, and some relatively new environmental pollution problems, the natural environmental quality of Northeast China will still have a significant decline in the future. The future development of Northeast China will be based on the perspective of double carbon goals, constantly improve the ecological environment monitoring system, strengthen the research of scientific and technological system, strengthen innovation, and vigorously develop circular economy and further improve the construction of basic systems. Through a series of ecological environment governance and the coordinated development of economy and ecological environment, the dual growth of economy and ecological environment in Northeast China will be realized, and the overall revitalization of the old industrial zone in Northeast China will be realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface air temperature is a critical element in the surface–atmosphere interaction, energy exchange, and water cycle. Multi-source fusion reanalysis products (hereafter referred to as reanalysis) have spatiotemporal continuity and broad applicability that can provide key data support for various studies such as glacier melting, soil freeze-thaw and desertification, ecosystem, and climate change in the alpine region of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). Surface air temperature observations collected at 17 weather stations in the High-cold region Observation and Research Network for Land Surface Process and Environment of China (HORN) over the period of 2017–2018 are implemented to evaluate the advanced and widely used surface air temperature reanalysis datasets, which include the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Fifth Generation Land Surface Reanalysis (ERA5L), the U.S. Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS), and China Meteorological Administration Land Data Assimilation System (CLDAS). Results are as follows: (1) Evaluation results of temporal changes and spatial distribution characteristics indicate that the three reanalysis datasets are consistent with in-situ observations in the alpine region of the QTP. CLDAS is more consistent with observations and can better describe details of temperature distribution and variation than ERA5L and GLDAS. (2) For the evaluation period, CLDAS is 0.53 °C higher than the in-situ observation, while ERA5L and GLDAS are lower than the in-situ observation by −3.45 °C and −1.40 °C, respectively. (3) The accuracy of CLDAS is better than ERA5L and GLDAS under different elevations and land covers. We resampled three reanalysis datasets with a spatial resolution of 0.25° and used the two most common interpolation methods to analyze the impact of spatial resolution and different interpolation methods on the evaluation results. We found that the impact is small. In summary, the three reanalysis datasets all have certain applicability in the alpine region of the QTP, and the accuracy of CLDAS is significantly higher than ERA5L and GLDAS. The results of the present paper have important implications for the selection of reanalysis data in the studies of climate, ecosystem, and sustainable development in the QTP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important part of the Earth's environmental system, sandy soils are particularly sensitive to changes in the climatic environment. As one of the four major desert regions in China, the MuUs desert has transformed from a desert to an oasis after more than half a century of ecological management. In this paper, we analyzed the spatial and temporal patterns of surface albedo, evapotranspiration, and fraction vegetation cover in the MuUs desert based on the Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) product with high spatial and temporal resolution and assessed the relationships between their variability and snow cover, air temperature, and precipitation. It is of great significance to understand the effect of desertification control and climate change after the conversion of land surface types in the MuUs region. The results show that the desertification control in the MuUs area has achieved remarkable results since 1982. The fraction vegetation coverage of the MuUs desert showed a significant increasing trend, with an interannual change rate of 1.32% each decade−1. The surface albedo of MuUs desert decreased significantly. Affected by vegetation and snow cover, it was lower in summer and higher in winter. The evapotranspiration showed a significant upward trend, higher in summer and lower in winter, which is significantly correlated with the changes in surface albedo, air temperature, and vegetation. In addition, the local-scale biophysical effects caused by vegetation change have influenced the climate of the MuUs region, manifested as the increase in precipitation and air temperature. In general, with the support of relevant policies and human construction projects, the overall ecological environment in the MuUs desert is developing in a good way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rocky desertification is one of the most critical ecological and environmental problems in areas underlain by carbonate rocks globally. Land cover and land use in the region affects large-scale ecosystem processes on a global scale, and many Earth system models rely on accurate land cover information. Therefore, it is important to evaluate current global land cover products and to understand the differences between them, and the findings of these studies can provide guidance to different researchers when using or making land cover products. Whereas there are many studies on the assessment of coarser resolution land cover products, there are few studies on the assessment of higher resolution land cover products (10 m). In order to provide guidance for users of 10 m data, this paper uses the rock deserted southwest region of China as the experimental area. We analyzed the consistency and accuracy of the FROM-GLC, ESA WorldCover 10 and ESRI products using spatial pattern consistency, absolute accuracy assessment of three validation samples, and analyzed their intrinsic relationships among classification systems, classification methods, and validation samples. The results show that (1) the overall accuracy of the FROM-GLC product is the highest, ranging from 49.47 to 62.42%; followed by the overall accuracy of the ESA product, ranging from 45.13 to 64.50%; and the overall accuracy of the ESRI product is the lowest, between 39.03 and 61.94%. (2) The consistency between FROM-GLC and ESA is higher than the consistency between other products, with an area correlation coefficient of 0.94. Analysis of the spatial consistency of the three products shows that the proportion of perfectly consistent areas is low at 44.89%, mainly in areas with low surface heterogeneity and more homogeneous cover types. (3) Across the study area, the main land cover types such as forest and water bodies were the most consistent across the three product species, while the grassland, shrubland, and bareland were lower. All products showed high accuracy in homogeneous areas, with local accuracy varied in other areas, especially at high altitudes in the central and western regions. Therefore, land cover users cannot use these products directly when conducting relevant studies in rocky desertification areas, as their use may introduce serious errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the complex geographical situation in China, in this paper, the area of land desertification is 98.5% of the total land desertification area in China. Based on the measured data of GIS and remote sensing images, we will discuss the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of land desertification in China by calculating standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and normalized vegetation index and establishing the CA model. The results show the following. (1) The trend of desertification in China has decreased as a whole, and the percentage of nondesertification has increased from 36.91% in 1991 to 44.46% in 2020, an increase of 7.55%. Extremely severe desertification increased from 21.72% to 24.25%, an increase of 2.53%. (2) The drought situation in the study area gradually improved, and the change trend of SPEI decreased by 74%. (3) In recent ten years (2011–2020), the vegetation grew well gradually, and it was in the best state in 2018. The NDVI index value increased by 5.9% compared with the average value in this decade. (4) The model designed by us works very well, and the results of simulating and testing the Three Rivers Source region are very little different from the actual situation, which meets our research requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Synergistic effects of surface and groundwater on desert riparian vegetation were analyzed. • The cautionary depth to groundwater for vegetation expansion in the lower Tarim River is 4.0–5.0 m. • Flooding by surface water (lateral water transfer coverage) acts as the main driver for the expansion of vegetation in arid areas. • A zonal ecological water transfer strategy helps to promote effective ecosystem restoration in the region. Restoring degraded ecosystems in drylands is challenging because of low precipitation and high evapotranspiration. Water availability determines the existence and spatiotemporal distribution patterns of key endangered species struggling to survive in the severely damaged desert riparian ecosystem of the lower Tarim River (LTR) in NW China. Ecological water flow restoration measures with high costs and uncertainties have been implemented since 2000. The key task for scientists is to assess the success and drawbacks of this restoration project and propose specific recommendations for stakeholders to optimize the ecological benefits of the project in a cost-effective manner. In this study, Landsat time-series data from 1990 to 2020 were used to extract vegetation index values from river corridors along the LTR and explore the spatiotemporal patterns of desert riparian forest (DRF) vegetation. Based on land use and surface water data, we extracted the interannual spatial distribution range of vegetation and surface water, and selected several sample plots to demonstrate the influence of surface water and groundwater on vegetation change trends. The study results showed the following. 1) From 1990 to 1999, the vegetation slowly degraded; from 2000 to 2012, the extent of vegetation restoration was approximately 1 km from the river; and from 2013 to 2020, the extent of vegetation restoration at the Yingsu and Karday sections increased to 4.5–6.0 km, while that at the Arghan and Yiganbujima sections remained within 1 km from the river. 2) The vegetation growth rate increased substantially and was spatially heterogeneous when the groundwater level reached 4.0–5.0 m and was influenced by surface water divergence; the average vegetation expansion rates per square km for P 1 –P 4 were 0.017 km2/a, 0.011 km2/a, 0.005 km2/a, and 0.002 km2/a, respectively. 3) Flooding by surface water was the main driver of vegetation expansion when groundwater was stable and elevations in surface vegetation area were often accompanied by the spreading of surface water. Surface water was significantly correlated with vegetation cover and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) (Water pixels–Vegetation cover [P 1 : R2 = 0.57, P < 0.001; P 2 : R2 = 0.45, P < 0.01]; Water pixels–NDVI [P 1 : R2 = 0.22, P < 0.05; P 2 : R2 = 0.40, P < 0.01]). The increase in surface vegetation has alleviated the desertification process in the LTR, and the survival of the poplar has been mitigated. The results of this paper can help decision makers to formulate reasonable ecological water conveyance strategies and realize sustainable management of DRF ecosystems in arid zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau (YGP) is a typical ecologically fragile region in southwest China. Water-erosion desertification (WED) is one of the most significant environmental and socio-economic issues on the YGP and has seriously restricted the socio-economic development of this region. However, the research on monitoring of the desertification trends in this region has been limited to long time-series Landsat imagery. The objectives of this research were to monitor the WED trends on the YGP using time-series Landsat imagery data from 1989 to 2016. In this paper, we present a multi-indicator rule-based method, which was used to map the WED on the YGP during this period. The results show that the addition of multiple indicators improved the WED classification accuracy to 90.61%. Overall, the following results were obtained by using the proposed method. (1) The slight desertification area on the YGP increased from 89,617.09 km2 in 1989 to 100,976.47 km2 in 2016 with an annual growth ratio (AGR) of 0.48%, the moderate desertification area increased from 80,276.65 km2 in 1989 to 90,768.39 km2 in 2016 with an AGR of 0.50%, and the severe desertification area increased from 8149.3 km2 in 1989 to 13,220.16 km2 in 2016 with an AGR of 2.39%. (2) The WED expansion on the YGP can be divided into three stages. Firstly, the total WED area increased slowly from 17.80×104 km2 in 1989 to 17.98×104 km2 in 2010 with an AGR of 0.05%. Then, the WED rapidly expanded from 17.98×104 km2 in 2010 to 20.28×104 km2 in 2013 with an AGR of 4.26%. Finally, the WED increased slightly from 20.28×104 km2 in 2013 to 20.50×104 km2 in 2016 with an AGR of 0.36%. The total areas of the different degrees of WED decreased in 1992, 1998, 2001, and 2004. (3) The driving factors of WED were analyzed based on the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model. We found that precipitation, vegetation area, and gross domestic product have key roles in the processes of desertification reversion and development. However, the regression coefficients between WED and these factors exhibited considerable spatial variations. The regression coefficients of the key driving factors showed different spatial distributions based on the GWR model in the YGP. The research results can provide scientific reference information for the prevention and control of WED in the YGP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land desertification and sandstorms have been affecting cities worldwide on the edge of sandstorms, so humans have been seeking for ways to strengthen their defenses against wind and sand. High water retention capacity can improve human well-being in sandy areas. Several measures and cases have been already developed. To systematically find the differences between different ecosystem restoration models according to integrated benefits (e.g., ecological, economic and social benefits), this paper proposes an effective technical methodology to quantitatively identify sand control projects in a certain area. With the Southern edge of Tengger Desert-Shapotou in China as an example, this paper uses land use change and NDVI change rates to identify areas of wind and sand management. In addition, this paper uses actual evaporation (ET), soil moisture (SM), temperature vegetation dryness index (TVDI) and sand fixation service to compare the advantages and disadvantages of two typical sand management models in China according to their wind and sand control benefits, resource conservation, as well as socio-economic benefits. As indicated by the results, the straw checkboard engineering model has sustainable ecological and socio-economic benefits in water retention, cost consumption, as well as wind and sand control. Besides, the afforestation model achieves higher ecological benefits in the short term, whereas it has higher operating costs and poor sustainability, which makes this model difficult in maintaining ecological stability. On the whole, both types of sand control projects show their advantages and disadvantages in wind and sand control functions, resource recycling and socio-economic benefits. Furthermore, fast-growing afforestation combined with straw checkboards is capable of sustainably resisting wind and sand attacks and preventing land desertification. Accordingly, the finding of this paper can be referenced widely for wind and sand control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most serious desertification in China occurs in the agro-pastoral ecotone of Northeast China and in the oases in Northwest China. It has resulted in the reduce of land productivity and serious ecological/environmental consequences. In this paper, we assessed the mechanisms of land desertification and the key strategies to monitor, control and mitigate land desertification in China, which will provide unique experiences and schemes to support academics and industrialists in other developing countries to reverse desertification. In aspect of monitoring desertification, satellite remote sensing can detect and characterize large-scale desertification, and in-situ field work can measure changes of soil physical & chemical properties induced by desertification. In aspect of desertification control and mitigation, the implementation of sustainable cultivation/grazing practices and wind-shelter forests are the key measures in Northeast China, while water use quotas and sustainable water management are the key measures in Northwest China. Finally, we suggested big-data-based water resource management, regional-climate-model-based agricultural planning, CO 2 storage with deep saline water recovery and desert geoengineering as possible solutions to future, large-scale reversal of deserts and desertification regions in China and other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arid region in the northern part of China is a bridge between China and neighbouring countries in the Silk Road Economic Belt, and the severe desertification in this region restricts its sustainable development. In this paper, MODIS data, including albedo, reflectance, normalized vegetation index, and land surface temperature, were selected in 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 to construct a decision tree to extract spatio‐temporal information of the desertified land in the arid area. The trend in desertification and transfer directions was analysed by the GIS method, and the dynamic characteristics of the desertification at different units (provincial administrative unit and typical sandy land) and with different topographic factors (slope and aspect) are discussed. Our conclusions include (a) desertification in the arid region in the northern part of China showed improvement overall and local deterioration. The deteriorating areas were located primarily in the western region of the Hunshandake Sandy Land, the tectonic zone of the Taklimakan Desert, and the Qaidam Basin; (b) the degree of desertification transfer occurred primarily at adjacent levels; (c) the desertified area in each province showed a different trend in fluctuation, and Maowusu Sandy Land recovered better among the 4 large sands; and (d) the desertified area was distributed primarily along 0o–3o slopes and showed a rapid decline at increased slopes. The change in the degree of desertification in each aspect largely was a general reversal, and the area of the north aspect was larger than that of other areas of aspects. This study provides some theoretical support for the control of desertification in the Silk Road Economic Belt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been widely accepted that high land use intensity contributes to sandy desertification in Northern China. However, it is surprising that it is even not easy to find an explicit definition and proper indicator for the term “land use intensity” in the sandy desertification related literatures. To better understand the association between sandy desertification and its driving factors, especially in the context of the synergistic roles of both climatic and anthropogenic variables, an indicator for land use intensity was developed in this paper for quantifying the relative role of land use output on different kinds of vegetation cover. The results indicated land use intensity increased rapidly from 1980 to 1995, obviously decreased from 1995 to 2000, and increased slowly after 2000 as a result of the continued increase of socioeconomic pressures and the fluctuating changes in vegetative cover. An ARDL model was established and applied to analyze the correlation between the area of bare sand land and land use intensity with the influence of annual precipitation in temporal dimension. The area of bare sand land was significantly affected by land use intensity in the long run. However, in the short run, the area of bare sand land was mainly impacted by the auto-correlation effect of itself in temporal dimension and by the annual precipitation. The improvement of the sand dunes obviously reduced the risk of sandy desertification under the condition of specific land use intensity. Before analyzing the correlation between land use intensity and sandy desertification, specific skills were applied to improve the model, including data interpolation and regression verification, since there would be regression biases resulting from the acquisition and processing of time-series data of different sources. Results showed that the area of bare sand land ( S t )and the land use intensity ( LI t ) were time-independent. Lag terms of these two variables were added to improve original model. Changes in socioeconomic pressures and ecological restoration projects had obvious influences on land use intensity. Along with the steady increase of socioecological pressures on land and the changes in vegetative cover resulting from various ecological protection strategies and ecological restoration projects, shifts in land use intensity followed a different trend with the population and the social-economic demands. Nonetheless, the continuous increase of socioeconomic demands will increase land use intensity in the long run, so that the risk of sandy desertification remains high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karst rocky desertification occurs after vegetation deteriorates as a result of intensive land use, which leads to severe water loss and soil erosion and exposes basement rocks, creating a rocky landscape. Karst rocky desertification is found in humid areas in southwest China, the region most seriously affected by rocky desertification in the world. In order to promote ecological restoration and help peasants out of poverty, the Chinese government carried out the first phase of a rocky desertification control project from 2006 to 2015, which initially contained the expansion of rocky desertification. Currently, the Chinese government is prepared to implement the second phase of the rocky desertification control project, and therefore it is essential to summarise the lessons learned over the last 10 years of the first phase. In this paper, we analyse the driving social and economic factors behind rocky desertification, summarise the scientific research on rocky desertification in the region, and finally identify the main problems facing rocky desertification control. In addition, we put forward several policy suggestions that take into account the perspective of local peasants, scientific research, and China's economic development and urbanisation process. These suggestions include promoting the non-agriculturalization of household livelihoods, improving ecological compensation, strengthening the evaluation of rocky desertification control and dynamic monitoring, and strengthening research on key ecological function recovery technologies and supporting technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Quantifying the restoration progress of ecological quality. • Ecological quality showed an increasing trend with an interannual change of 2.46%. • The spatial aggregation effect of ecological quality levels gradually diminishes. • Agricultural land has the most significant impact on regional ecological quality. Human uncontrolled land use is the main cause of ecosystem degradation and increased rock desertification in karst areas of Southern China. Landscape ecological quality assessment (LEQA) based on land use plays a significant role in promoting sustainable ecological restoration in karst rocky desertification areas. This paper selects the karst plateau canyon rocky desertification comprehensive control demonstration area in South China as the research object to accurately quantify the impact of ecological management on landscape ecological quality changes (LEQ). Based on the characteristics of the karst ecological environment, the basic theory of spatial heterogeneity and landscape pattern is applied to evaluate the ecological quality of the study area at three levels: landscape stability, landscape disturbance degree, and ecological restoration and reconstruction ability. The results showed that the comprehensive score of regional ecological quality increased from 0.539 to 0.662 from 2015-2020. However, the ecological quality level of unused land and mining areas was still poor, and unsound production activities such as ore mining were the main hindrances to improvements in landscape ecological quality. Areas of better ecological quality were mainly distributed to the north and south of the study area. Treatment measures such as returning farmland to forest and agroforestry effectively improved the ecological environment quality of these areas, but the ecological benefits brought by the treatment in different areas varied significantly. The current analysis results show that the land use-based landscape ecological quality evaluation method is applicable in karst areas with special ecological environments. This work provides a new quantitative research method for the unique ecological environment in karst areas; it can accurately identify trends in ecological environment quality changes and provide a basis for sustainable ecological restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • SIF data that characterizes the growth of sandy vegetation is more sensitive. • SIF can well capture the changes in surface moisture and groundwater. • Vegetation growth has a strong correspondence with SM and a relatively weak correlation with TWS. • Vegetation growth in the late period of the mutation year is generally better than that in the early period. • Similarities and differences of vegetation-moisture relationship in four sandy lands. Hulunbuir, Otindag, Horqin and Mu Us are the four greater sandy lands in China. They are typical ecologically fragile areas with limited ability to resist interference and are susceptible to changes in the external environment. With climate change in recent decades, these areas have experienced severe land desertification and decreased groundwater levels. The ecological environment is at risk of further deterioration, and continuous vegetation restoration and management should be adapted to the local climate and maintain the water balance with natural precipitation. This paper combines multi-source satellite observations to explore the relationship between vegetation growth and water supply. The results show four main points. (1) Although the vegetation growth in Otindag and Horqin had degraded before 2010, it improved after 2010. The vegetation growth and soil moisture (SM) of the four sandy lands both generally increased from 2003 to 2016. The SM of the Horqin increased significantly (84% anomaly > 1.4 × 10−2 cm3/cm3). Other than the Hulunbuir, the other sandy lands show a downward trend in terrestrial water storage (TWS), especially the Mu Us declined the most (97% anomaly < −40 mm). (2) Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has specific advantages in characterizing the sandy vegetation productivity and water composition changes compared to vegetation index (EVI) or gross primary productivity (GPP). (3) The regional pattern of the vegetation-moisture relationship is mainly affected by the precipitation-driven SM and depends on the types of underlying vegetation functions. (4) Both SM and TWS have approximately one-month persistence in the four sandy lands, especially the Mu Us has the longest persistence (0.94 months and 1.1 months). The persistence in the early period is generally longer than that in the late period, implying that the resilience of water components after the mutation year is stronger than before it. This study provides a scientific basis for the management and restoration of sandy lands. It is recommended that different vegetation restoration and protection strategies should be developed for specific sandy land moisture conditions in arid/semi-arid regions of northern China, which includes the improvement of water use efficiency to maintain soil moisture and the reduction of excessive groundwater uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first successful sand-control was achieved in the Mu Us Desert by local people in the 1950–1960s, and their experience and approach have been extended to the whole Ordos and Northern China since then. The objective of this paper is to assess comprehensively the effectiveness of sand-control in 15 counties in and around Mu Us using multitemporal satellite images and socioeconomic data. After atmospheric correction, Landsat TM and OLI images were harnessed for land cover classification based on the ground-truth data and for derivation of the GDVI (generalized difference vegetation index) to extract the biophysical changes of the managed desert and desertification. Climatic, socioeconomic, environmental and spatial factors were selected for coupling analysis by multiple linear and logistic regression models to reveal the driving forces of desertification and their spatial determinants. The results show that from 1991 to 2020, 8712 km2 or 63% of the desert has been converted into pastures and shrublands with a greenness increase of 0.3509 in GDVI; the effectiveness of sand-control is favored by the rational agropastoral activities and policies; though desertification occurs locally, it is associated with both climatic and socioeconomic factors, such as wind speed, precipitation, water availability, distance to roads and animal husbandry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Assessing the driving forces of sandy desertification is fundamental and important for its control. It has been widely accepted that both climatic conditions and land use have great impact on sandy desertification in northern China. However, the relative role and synergistic effect of each driving force of sandy desertification are still not clear. In this paper, an indicator named as SI was defined to represent the integrated probability of sandy desertification caused by land use. A quantitative method was developed for characterizing the relative roles of annual precipitation and land use to sandy desertification in both spatial and temporal dimensions at county level. Results showed that, at county level, land use was the main cause of sandy desertification for Naiman Banner since 1987–2009. In the case of spatial dimension, the different combination of land use types decided the distribution of sandy desertification probability and finally decided the spatial pattern of bared sand land. In the case of temporal dimension, the synergistic effect of land use and precipitation highly influenced the spatial distribution of sandy desertification. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Use of the fallout radionuclide cesium-137 (137Cs) as a tracer has been widely employed for assessment of soil losses and dating of deposited sediment; however, few studies have been conducted in karst environments using this technique. In this study, the 137Cs technique was employed to assess sediment deposition rates in a depression in a small catchment of southwest China. Information derived from the 137Cs measurement of sediment samples collected from a depression in a small catchment in southwest China was used to estimate the sediment deposition rate since 1963, and the rate of soil erosion in the study catchment was also discussed. The results presented in this paper indicated that the depression acted as a sink of soils being eroded from the upland slopes. The mean sediment deposition rate and specific sediment yield of the study depression since 1963 were estimated to be 0.37 cm y-1 (0.15 in yr-1) and 50.2 t km-2 y-1 (0.184 tn ac-1 yr-1), respectively. Analysis of the topographic characteristics of the catchment revealed that the rate of soil redistribution of the catchment was very close to the sediment deposition rate of the depression because no significant sediment accumulation occurred upstream of the depression and in the meantime, very few sediments drained out through the sinkhole with the runoff. Therefore, it was inferred that the rate of soil redistribution in the study area was 55.8 t km-2 y-1 (0.205 tn ac-1 yr-1). Overall, the results revealed that there was a low background rate of soil loss in the karst mountain area suffering from severe land desertification in Southwest China. Furthermore, the results illuminated the potential for use of the 137Cs technique to evaluate the sediment deposition and soil erosion rates in karst areas of southwest China, where limited information regarding soil erosion and sedimentation exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between vegetation in the Liangzhou Oasis in the Upper Shiyang River watershed (USRW) of west-central Gansu, China, and within-watershed precipitation, soil water storage, and oasis self-support. Oases along the base of the Qilian Mountains receive a significant portion of their water supply (over 90%) from surface and subsurface flow originating from the Qilian Mountains. Investigation of vegetation control on oasis water conditions in the USRW is based on an application of a process model of soil water hydrology. The model is used to simulate long-term soil water content (SWC) in the Liangzhou Oasis as a function of (i) monthly composites of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images of land surface and mean air temperature, (ii) spatiotemporal calculations of monthly precipitation and relative humidity generated with the assistance of genetic algorithms (GAs), and (iii) a 80-m-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) of the area. Modeled removal of vegetation is shown to affect within-watershed precipitation and soil water storage by reducing the exchange of water vapor from the land surface to the air, increasing the air’s lifting condensation level by promoting drier air conditions, and causing the high-intensity precipitation band in the Qilian Mountains to weaken and to be displaced upward, leading to an overall reduction of water to the Liangzhou Oasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The problem of historical desertification of the Mu Us desert, northern China has been paid considerable attention during the past several decades. Through the analysis of stratigraphic evidence, historical records and archaeological discoveries, this paper studied the problem using a multidisciplinary approach. The results show that two phases of serious desertification occurred during the last two millennia, one is during the mid-to-late Tang dynasty (about A.D. 800) and the other during the late Ming dynasty (about A.D. 1500–1600). Further investigation of the cause of each phase of desertification demonstrates that the former phase of desertification is closely related to abrupt climate change occurring in the mid-eighth century, but the latter, which started during the Ming dynasty and stopped at late 1980s, is not consistent with climatic causation. Therefore, we suggest that human activities contributed to the development of the latter phase of desertification. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Desertification is a serious threat to the ecological environment and social economy in our world and there is a pressing need to develop a reasonable and reproducible method to assess it at different scales. In this paper, the Ordos Plateau in China was selected as the research region and a quantitative method for desertification assessment was developed by using Landsat MSS and TM/ETM+ data on a regional scale. In this method, NDVI, MSDI and land surface albedo were selected as assessment indicators of desertification to represent land surface conditions from vegetation biomass, landscape pattern and micrometeorology. Based on considering the effects of vegetation type and time of images acquired on assessment indictors, assessing rule sets were built and a decision tree approach was used to assess desertification of Ordos Plateau in 1980, 1990 and 2000. The average overall accuracy of three periods was higher than 90%. The results showed that although some local places of Ordos Plateau experienced an expanding trend of desertification, the trend of desertification of Ordos Plateau was an overall decrease in from 1980 to 2000. By analyzing the causes of desertification processes, it was found that climate change could benefit for the reversion of desertification from 1980 to 1990 at a regional scale and human activities might explain the expansion of desertification in this period; however human conservation activities were the main driving factor that induced the reversion of desertification from 1990 to 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The RSDI is suitable for monitoring aeolian desertification. • The areas with significant restoration (34.1%) exceeded those with significant deterioration (6%) in the NSPB. • In the areas with significant restoration, 57.4% of the land was mainly affected by human activities. The northern sand-prevention belt (NSPB) is the key area for sand control in China, and the various ecological projects conducted there are important to the Chinese strategy for ecological security. In this paper, a new remote sensing-based desertification index (RSDI) based on principal component analysis was constructed from four aspects of vegetation greenness, surface moisture, soil grain size, and surface radiation. The overall evaluation accuracy of the index was 89.2%, and the kappa coefficient was 0.80, indicating high sensitivity to different degrees of aeolian desertification and suitability for multiscale research. The coefficient of variation, Mann–Kendall test, Theil–Sen median trend analysis, and residual analysis were used to analyze the spatiotemporal changes and driving forces of the RSDI in the NSPB from 2000 to 2020. The RSDI was used to compare aeolian desertification in different subregions, land use types, and ecological project areas. The important results are as follows: (1) the trend of the average RSDI was downward, but it increased significantly in 2008–2009 and 2013–2014; (2) the RSDI was characterized by relatively high volatility in 28.9% and moderate volatility in 27.1% of the area; (3) the areas with significant restoration (34.1%) greatly exceeded those with significant deterioration (6%), whereas 59.9% of the total area was stable; and (4) within the area with significant restoration, 57.4% was primarily affected by human activities, and 42.4% was primarily affected by climate change; however, most of the area with significant deterioration (71.1%) was affected by human activities. In general, the degree of aeolian desertification in the NSPB has decreased in the past 20 years and its ecological quality has continued to recover. However, unreasonable human activities still need to be reduced, and the ecological management of areas under serious threat of desertification needs to be strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Desertification around oases is the major obstacle for sustainable development of oases in arid regions of northwest China. An effective way of maintaining the stability of oases is to recover the relatively stable ecological zone between an oasis and desert from the destroyed ecological rift zone. This paper presents a typical case of successful efforts in ecological restoration and desertified land reclamation of oasis–desert ecotone. On the basis of stabilization of mobile dunes and agricultural use of reclaimed land, some successful techniques including established straw checkerboards and planting drought-tolerant indigenous shrubs, leveling sand dunes and drawing water for irrigation, closing dunes for grass reservation were carried out in 1975. In the restoration area, a stable artificial protective forest system had been developed. Pedological analyses indicate that the fine particle fraction (silt and clay content) in 0–10cm soil surface layer has been increased from 2.6% on the untreated mobile sandy land to 9.3–37.3% in the restoration areas, and correspondingly, soil organic C has been increased from 0.63 to 1.88–9.70gkg−1 during the 28 years of restoration period. In these 28 years, a 10cm depth of minero-organic topsoil in the irrigated Picea sylvestris forestland has been developed. It is also observed that sand transportation rate during sandstorm events has been significantly reduced. The increase of vegetation cover indicates a remarkable environmental improvement. Overall, the ecological restoration approach in this study is of practical significance for the rebuilding of rift zone ecosystem and maintenance of the stability of oasis in the arid regions of northwest China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: China has undertaken two of the world''s largest ecological rehabilitation projects—the Natural Forest Protection Program and the Sloping Land Conversion Program. This paper presents our historic perspective on the two projects, reports their preliminary impacts, and discusses the challenges in carrying them out, including the “top–down” administration, lack of interagency cooperation and long-term planning, and neglect of appropriate technical practices and market-based approaches. We argue that if properly implemented, these projects can contribute to China and the world in combating the pressing environmental problems of soil erosion, flooding, and desertification as well as climate change and loss of biodiversity. To implement the projects properly, however, major policy and technical changes must be made. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A comparison of structure and pattern of the soil seed bank was made between active and stabilized sand dunes in northeastern Inner Mongolia, China. The objective of this paper was to determine the significance of seed bank in vegetation restoration of sand dunes. The results showed that (1) average seed density decreased from stabilized sand dune to interdune lowland of stabilized sand dune, to interdune lowland of active sand dune, and to active sand dune; (2) horizontally, along the transect from interdune lowland to ecotone and to sand dune top, a ‘V’ shaped pattern was presented in the active dune system, and a reverse ‘V’ shaped pattern in the stabilized sand dune system; (3) vertically, the proportion (accounting for the total seeds) of seeds found in 0–20 mm soil profile decreased from stabilized sand dune to interdune lowland of stabilized sand dune, to interdune lowland of active sand dune, and to active sand dune. The same order was also found in 20–50 mm and 50–100 mm soil profiles; (4) the Sokal and Sneath similarity indices in the species-composition between soil seed bank and above-ground vegetation were ranked as: the stabilized sand dune (24%) > the interdune lowland of active sand dune (21%) > the interdune lowland of stabilized sand dune (18%) > the active sand dune (5%); and (5) vegetation restoration of active sand dunes depends on the dispersal of seeds from nearby plant communities on the interdune lowlands. Much effort must be made to preserve the lowlands, as lowlands are the most important seed reservoir in the active sand dune field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desertification in Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau is part of Chinese desertification. In the past decades, due to the climate warming, the climate condition in Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau has been relatively dry. This has resulted in permafrost degradation and other environmental problems. In addition, the vegetation and the soil layer were also destroyed by unreasonable economic activities. Cultivated and grassland lands have become deserted. Nowadays, the desertification is still expending. In this paper, the factors affecting the desertification in Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau were examined, and the desertification as well as its relationship with permafrost degradation was also discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Northern China has been long threatened by aeolian desertification. In recent years, all levels of the Chinese government have performed a series of ecological protection and sand control projects. To grasp the implementation effects of these projects and adjust policies in time, it is necessary to understand the process of aeolian desertification quickly and accurately. Remote sensing technologies play an irreplaceable role in aeolian desertification monitoring. In this study, the Zhenglan Banner, which is in the hinterland of the Hunshandake Sandy Land, was considered as the research area. Based on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images, ground survey data, and Landsat images called in Google Earth Engine (GEE), the aeolian desertified land (ADL) in 2000, 2004, 2010, 2015, and 2019 was extracted using spectral mixture analysis. A desertification index (DI) was constructed to evaluate the spatial and temporal dynamics of the ADL in the Zhenglan Banner. Finally, a residual analysis explored the driving forces of aeolian desertification. The results showed that (1) the ADL area in the Zhenglan Banner has been trending downwards over the past 20 years but rebounded from 2004 to 2010; (2) over the past 20 years, the area of slightly, moderately, and severely desertified land has decreased at annual rates of 0.4%, 2.7%, and 3.4%, respectively; (3) human activities had significantly positive and negative impacts on the aeolian desertification trend for 20.0% and 21.0% of the study area, respectively, but not for the rest. This paper explored new techniques for rapid aeolian desertification monitoring and is of great significance for controlling and managing aeolian desertification in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind resource assessment has important economic and ecological implications. Many developing countries in arid and semiarid areas are caught in a dilemma between the development of wind energy and the threat of sandy desertification. Sand-driving winds are momentous for both generating wind energy and aeolian research. The estimation for the probability of sand-driving winds has been rarely studied. The ability of the two-parameter Weibull distribution to estimate high wind velocities is questioned and parameters appear to have no practical significance. Drift potential (DP) is a way of evaluating potential sand transport volume by sand-driving winds, but the relationship between DP and the wind energy of sand-driving winds has been rarely studied. In this paper, a function was constructed from the expressions of DP and the two-parameter Weibull probability distribution to improve the estimation of sand-driving winds. This is simple and applicable to arid and semiarid areas worldwide. The mean wind velocity and the mean wind power density at a height of 10 m around the Badain Jaran Sand Sea in China, are in the range between 2.64 and 4.79 m·s−1, and 27.61–165.61 W·m−2, respectively. The mean wind power density of sand-driving winds accounted for half or more of the total mean wind power density. The relationship among DP , the wind power density of sand-driving winds and the probability of sand-driving winds, was proved theoretically. Gentle winds and strong winds are distinguished by the drift wind velocity at which potential sand transport activities (potential lost wind power density) reach their maximum. The scale parameter dominates the mean and median wind velocity, and represents the effect of convection. The shape parameter characterizes the atmospheric stability. These results provide a basis for the wind energy development, improve the understanding of aeolian activities, and have implications for sand control engineering. • A function was constructed to estimate sand-driving winds, applicable worldwide. • The relationship between drift potential (DP) and wind energy was given theoretically. • Sand transport activity reaches its maximum at the drift wind velocity. • The drift wind velocity distinguishes gentle winds and strong winds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We propose ICTP to coordinate between tourism development and ecological protection. • Areas with higher ICTP are more prone to nature-based tourism vs. ecological protection conflicts. • Considerable proportion of studied areas (ca. 13.79%) have very high ICTP. • These areas are characterized with both high landscape attractiveness and high ecological sensitivity. Developing spatial regulation strategies is important for nature-based tourism, and this procedure could be more rational and scientific with the understanding of the spatial distribution of conflicts tendency between tourism development and ecological protection. In this study, we developed an Indicator of Conflict tendency between nature-based Tourism development and ecological Protection (ICTP), based on the combination of landscape attractiveness and ecological sensitivity. By integrating land cover, topography, climate and other datasets, this paper presents the spatial distribution of the ICTP in the study area in China. The results show that most areas of China have a low or medium ICTP. Areas with very high ICTP account for 13.79% of the studied areas, including the central part of the Inner Mongolia Plateau, northern part of the Loess Plateau, southwestern part of the Northeast Plain, north and south sides of Tianshan Mountains, coast of Bohai Bay and coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province. These areas are mainly confronted with problems of desertification, salinization and soil erosion. 11.09% of studied areas have very low ICTP, mainly located in the Tarim Basin and western part of Inner Mongolia Plateau, characterized by low landscape attractiveness and low ecological sensitivity. Our results can inform decision makers with regard to where are most likely to suffer from ecological problems caused by nature-based tourism activities, and to which types of problems that are likely to arise. Such information can help decision makers forecast the developmental trend of the relationship between nature-based tourism development and ecological protection, further determine the degree of control on nature-based tourism. The study developed the basic framework for measuring the conflict tendency of nature-based tourism development and ecological protection, which can inspire researchers to think about factors that should be considered when measuring such tendency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding ways to identify the coupled relationship between changes in the quantity and quality of ecologically functional land (EFL) is essential for sustainable ecosystem management. However, this coupled relationship has been ignored in the literature. This paper proposes a quality-based quantity (QBQ) method to evaluate the spatiotemporal change in EFL in China. Three Landsat images spanning 20 years were used to investigate the gains and losses of EFL. We compared the differences and linkages between the net change and QBQ change of EFL at the county scale. Continuous EFL loss and growing fragmentation were observed in China. From 1995 to 2015, the main cause of EFL loss was desertification, followed by farmland occupation and construction land consolidation. It should be noted that the EFL loss from 2005 to 2015 was much higher than that from 1995 to 2005. The main gain in EFL was from desert land exploitation, followed by farmland return and construction land consolidation. In particular, grassland degradation was the most severe ecological problem in western China. The QBQ change in EFL showed a more severe situation than did the quantity change. The dynamic processes associated with quantity change and their effects on landscape were well reflected in the QBQ change. These results indicated that the EFL degraded in both quantity and quality in China between 1995 and 2015. EFL conservation policies should focus not only on the dynamic losses and gains in quantity but also on the changes in quality linked to landscape patterns. • Three Landsat images spanning 20 years were used to investigate the gains and losses of ecologically functional land (EFL) in China. • A quality-based quantity (QBQ) method was proposed to evaluate the spatiotemporal change in EFL. • Continuous EFL loss and growing fragmentation were observed between 1995 and 2015. • It advances our understanding of how both the quantity and the quality of land use change are involved in ecological degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]