Mongolia’s Selenga sub-basin of the Lake Baikal basin is spatially extensive, with pronounced environmental gradients driven primarily by precipitation and air temperature on broad scales. Therefore, it is an ideal region to examine the dynamics of the climate and the hydrological system. This study investigated the annual precipitation, air temperature, and river discharge variability at five selected stations of the sub-basin by using Mann-Kendall (MK), Innovative trend analysis method (ITAM), and Sen’s slope estimator test. The result showed that the trend of annual precipitation was slightly increasing in Ulaanbaatar (Z = 0.71), Erdenet (Z = 0.13), and Tsetserleg (Z = 0.26) stations. Whereas Murun (Z = 2.45) and Sukhbaatar (Z = 1.06) stations showed a significant increasing trend. And also, the trend of annual air temperature in Ulaanbaatar (Z = 5.88), Erdenet (Z = 3.87), Tsetserleg (Z = 4.38), Murun (Z = 4.77), and Sukhbaatar (Z = 2.85) was sharply increased. The average air temperature has significantly increased by 1.4 °C in the past 38 years. This is very high in the semi-arid zone of central Asia. The river discharge showed a significantly decreasing trend during the study period years. It has been apparent since 1995. The findings of this paper could help researchers to understand the annual variability of precipitation, air temperature, and river discharge over the study region and, therefore, become a foundation for further studies.
The Ugii Nuur Lake is not only one of the small hydrologically closed lakes located in the Orkhon River Basin in Central Mongolia but also the most vulnerable area for global climate change. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impacts of recent global climate change on the water surface area. The data we analyzed were various measured hydro-meteorological variables of the lake basin and the lake surface area, which was estimated from Landsat series satellite data from 1986 to 2018. The methods we used were Mann-Kendall (MK), Innovative trend analysis method (ITAM), Sen’s slope estimator test, correlation, and regression analysis. The variation of lake water surface area has a strong positive correlation with the change of the lake water level (r = 0.95). The Mann-Kendall trend analysis has indicated that under a significant decrease in total annual precipitation ( Z = −0.902) and inflow river discharge ( Z = −5.392) and a considerable increase in total annual evaporation ( Z = 4.385) and annual average air temperature ( Z = 4.595), the surface area of the Ugii Nuur Lake has decreased sharply ( Z = −6.021). The total annual evaporation (r = −0.64) and inflow river discharge (r = 0.67) were the essential hydro-meteorological factors affecting the surface area of the Ugii Nuur Lake. The lake surface area decreased by 13.5% in 2018 compared with 1986. In the near future, it is vital to conduct scientific studies considering the volume of lake water, groundwater, and the anthropogenic impact.
Natural landscape aesthetic is the natural resource that is essential for maintaining mental and physical health of humans. Therefore, a natural landscape is the source of human life. The aim of this study was to assess the natural landscape aesthetic of Uvs province, Mongolia, using a combination of the spatial multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM) and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) based on Boolean and fuzzy logic. Ten different criteria were used for the analysis. We developed the aesthetic landscape assessment tier for Uvs province to evaluate each natural beauty indicator in five stages. The result shows that 13.2% of the area of Uvs province was highly suitable, 39.4% was suitable, and 46.7% was unsuitable for recreational purposes. The landscape aesthetic potential of Uvs province was mapped. The landscape aesthetic assessment for recreational purposes is possible using GIS and remote sensing technology based on a combination of the multi-criteria decision output and the proposed matrix. Future work should focus on other regions of Mongolia. The developed method of landscape aesthetic evaluation for recreational purposes can be used in land management.
Ugii Lake is a freshwater lake located in the steppe region of Mongolia and is an important breeding and staging area for a wide variety of waterfowl. Remote sensing and geographic information system techniques were used to estimate fluctuations in the surface area and water balance of Ugii Lake. To estimate the changes in lake water balance, lake water fluctuations should be analyzed using the most accurate methods. A different water extraction technique was applied, and the results were compared with field surveys conducted in May, July, and September 2020. The lake surface area using both NDWI and MNDWI-1 showed a strong, positive correlation (R=0.93, R=0.94, p < 0.01) with the water level of Ugii Lake. A topographic map of Ugii Lake was provided by the project (P2018-3568) conducted in August 2019 and used to estimate the volume of Ugii Lake in ArcGIS 10.1. This result was consistent with that of a previous study by JICA in 2005. Finally, the water balance of Ugii Lake was estimated, and the results proved that the influence of both surface and groundwater on Ugii Lake are valuable parameters, which are completely dependent on hydrological regime changes mostly due to local climate change in steppe regions. This study provides valuable insight into the most suitable water extraction methods for lakes in semi-arid steppe regions in Mongolia.
Wildfire is a natural disaster that harms human and animal habitats and the socio-economy. Remote sensing techniques are commonly used in the research of natural disasters, natural resources and monitoring. Timely and accurate estimation of the location of forest fires is particularly important for post-fire management and decision-making. Sentinel-2 satellite images of the European Space Agency ‘ESA’ were used to estimate the area affected by forest fires at Bayan-Uul and Bayandun soums in Dornod province, and classified the burn severity levels and comparison with other influencing factors in this study. The normalized burn ratio ‘NBR' and indices on pre-fire and post-fire were calculated. The total burned area was calculated as 58,131.6 ha, and low, moderate-low, moderate-high, and high burn severity levels cover 15,423.7 ha (26.3%), 29,529.4 ha (50.4%), 13,160.2 ha (22.5%), and 18.3 ha (0.03%), respectively. The 87.6% of the burned area is situated in Mongolian territory, while the remaining area (12.4%) belongs to the Russian Federation. Comparing 10 natural and geographical factors that can influence the burn severity and calculating the correlation coefficients by Pearson. Four of them related a positive lower, and six of them related negative lower. The weak relationships of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ‘NDVI’, elevation were 0.4 and 0.23. However, the precipitation correlation was -0.22 (negative weak). The distribution of wildfire is strongly influenced by the wind, and the correlation coefficient demonstrates a negative correlation with no effect on combustion. The conditions of socio-economic and ecological disastrous consequences such as loss of plant species and resources, changes in plant structure, depletion of pasture resources, extinction of rare animals and plants, reduction of forest resources, and large-scale air pollution resulting in the loss of human and animal in post-fire. Therefore, this research is important to due for studying the burning, distribution and, coverage area of the fire, and create conditions for the prevention of future risks.
An improved classification of the origin of lake depressions due to geological, geomorphological factors and climate change is a requirement of the day in Mongolia. We present a new holistic classification using comparative analysis method. This study suggests a two-tier classification in terms of origin and morphological feature of the lakes, which replaces the previous one-tier classification. Mongolia has identified 11 main and 26 subtypes of origin, and 8 main types of morphology, based on the features of 32 lake depressions. The result of the study shows that the lakes of Mongolia developed in 3 stages, first, affected by tectonic movement, followed by glacial and finally, owing to other exogenic factors. This morphological classification study will create the basic conditions for preserving and using these lakes more efficiently and ecologically in the future by making the classification of the origin of lake depression.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.