Human-Induced Landcover Changes Drive a Diminution of Land Surface Albedo in the Loess Plateau (China)

Zhai, Jun; Liu, Jiyuan; Huang, Lin; Qin, Yuanwei

doi:10.3390/rs70302926

Cited by 33 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…As already shown in Sections 4.1 and 4.2, our results revealed changing ecological conditions, with the revegetation of barren and sparse land and transformation of sloped cropland to grass or woodland. Our results are analogous to a number of local remote sensing and landscape analysis studies, confirming an ecological and environmental enhancement also at larger scales [4,11,[67][68][69]. Studies investigating the net primary productivity (NPP), a crucial proxy for vegetation productivity and carbon fluxes, indicated a steady increase over the last decade [70,71] stemming from land conservation programs.…”

Section: Land Cover Classification and Dynamicssupporting

confidence: 60%

A River Basin over the Course of Time: Multi-Temporal Analyses of Land Surface Dynamics in the Yellow River Basin (China) Based on Medium Resolution Remote Sensing Data

et al. 2016

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Abstract:The Yellow River Basin is one of China's most densely-populated, fastest growing and most dynamic regions, with abundant natural resources and intense agricultural production. Major land policies have recently resulted in remarkable landscape modifications throughout the basin. The availability of precise regional land cover change information is crucial to better understand the prevailing dynamics and underlying factors influencing the current processes in such a complex system and can additionally serve as a valuable component for modeling and decision making. Such comprehensive and detailed information is lacking for the Yellow River Basin so far. In this study, we derived land cover characteristics and dynamics from the complete last decade based on optical high-temporal MODIS Normalized Differenced Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series for the whole Yellow River Basin. After filtering and smoothing for noise reduction with the use of the adaptive Savitzky-Golay filter, the processed time series was used to derive a large variety of phenological and annual metrics. The final classifications for the basin (2003 and 2013) were based on a random forest classifier, trained by reference samples from very high-resolution imagery. The accuracy assessment for all 18 thematic classes, which was based on a 30% reference data split, yielded an overall accuracy of 87% and 84% for 2003 and 2013, respectively. Major land cover and land use changes during the last decade have occurred on the Loess Plateau, where land and conservation reforms triggered large-scale recovery of grassland and shrubland habitat that had been previously covered by agriculture or sparse vegetation. Agricultural encroachment and urban area expansion are other processes influencing the dynamics in the basin. The necessity for regionally-adapted land cover maps becomes obvious when our land cover products are compared to existing global products, where thematic accuracy remains low, particularly in a heterogeneous landscape, such as the Yellow River Basin. The basin-wide novel land cover and land use products of the Yellow River Basin hold a large potential for climate, hydrology and biodiversity modelers, as well as river basin and regional governmental authorities and will be shared upon request.

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Section: Land Cover Classification and Dynamicssupporting

confidence: 60%

A River Basin over the Course of Time: Multi-Temporal Analyses of Land Surface Dynamics in the Yellow River Basin (China) Based on Medium Resolution Remote Sensing Data

et al. 2016

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“…In most regions of the Loess Plateau, a majority (60%) of annual precipitation (about 400 mm) falls between July and September. Annual evapotranspiration is typically 1400-2000 mm [27,28]. A vegetation gradient exists in the plateau, which transitions from forests in the southeast to woody steppe, steppe, and desert steppe in the northwest.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Accuracy Assessment and Inter-Comparison of Eight Medium Resolution Forest Products on the Loess Plateau, China

Yang

Dong

Liu

et al. 2017

IJGI

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Abstract:Forests play an important role in maintaining ecosystem services, especially in ecologically fragile areas such as the Loess Plateau (LP) in China. However, there is still great uncertainty in the spatial extent and distribution of forests in such a fragmented region. In order to examine the advantages and disadvantages of existing forest mapping products, we conducted a thorough accuracy assessment on the eight recent, medium resolution (30-50 m) products by using the LP in 2010 as the region of interest. These mapping products include Landsat and/or PALSAR images, including the forest products from GlobeLand30, FROM-GLC, Hansen, ChinaCover, NLCD-China, GLCF VCF, OU-FDL, and JAXA. The same validation data were used to assess and rank the accuracy of each product. Additionally, the spatial consistency of the different forest products and their dependence on the terrain were analyzed. The results showed that the overall accuracies of the eight forest products on the LP in 2010 were between 0.93 ± 0.003 and 0.97 ± 0.002 with a 95% confidence interval, and GlobeLand30 presented the highest overall accuracy (0.97 ± 0.002). Among them, the PALSAR-based products (OU-FDL and JAXA) indicated relatively high accuracies, while the six Landsat-based products showed a large diversity in the accuracy. According to the eight products, the total estimated forest area of the LP varied from 7.627 ± 0.077 to 10.196 ± 0.1 million ha with a 95% confidence interval. We also found that the consistency in the spatial distribution of forests between these maps: (1) increased substantially with increasing elevation until 2000m, but then decreased at higher elevations, and (2) showed mild variation along increasing slope, but had a slight rate of increase. Our findings implied that future forest mapping studies should consider topographical attributes such as elevation and slope in their final products. Our results are fundamental in guiding future applications of these existing forest maps.

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“…Farmers were either provided with direct financial compensation or received grain as replacement for each hectare of cropland they converted. The total area subjected to the GfG initiative reached 82,700 km 2 (1999-2006) and contributed to a significant increase in vegetation coverage by more than 10 % since 1999 (Zhou et al 2009;Miao et al 2012;Zhai et al 2015). Both programs can be considered successful implementations of PES schemes in China.…”

Section: Restoration and Conservation Management Efforts Toward A Mormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the Chinese government approved the extension to an additional 8 year cycle. Many scientific studies reveal changing and improving ecological conditions and show the successful recovery of grass-and woodland from barren and spare land (Chen et al 2009;Miao et al 2012;Liu et al 2013a;Zhai et al 2015).…”

Section: Restoration and Conservation Management Efforts Toward A Mormentioning

confidence: 99%

Social–ecological challenges in the Yellow River basin (China): a review

et al. 2016

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The human-environment relationship within the Yellow River basin has a long history, because favorable environmental circumstances allowed the early emergence of societies along the river banks, and hence, the Yellow River basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization. On the other hand, the Yellow River is ''China's sorrow'' due to the constant occurrences of flooding events throughout history. In recent decades, the Yellow River basin is facing a spectacular economic boom, but mainly achieved at the expenses of the environment by over-exploiting the natural resources provided within the basin, which causes various challenges on ecology and society. Water scarcity, pollution, and ecosystem degradation accompanied with biodiversity decline have been further aggravated by anthropogenic-induced climate change. To address the pressing socio-ecological challenges, various conservation and management plans and strategies have been issued, often consulted by international bodies. This article is a comprehensive overview of the current state and recent developments that have occurred in the Yellow River basin and presents and discusses current and pressing socio-ecological challenges. Additionally, we address different policy and management instruments that have been launched to ensure a long-term sustainable development within the basin.

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Human-Induced Landcover Changes Drive a Diminution of Land Surface Albedo in the Loess Plateau (China)

Cited by 33 publications

References 54 publications

A River Basin over the Course of Time: Multi-Temporal Analyses of Land Surface Dynamics in the Yellow River Basin (China) Based on Medium Resolution Remote Sensing Data

A River Basin over the Course of Time: Multi-Temporal Analyses of Land Surface Dynamics in the Yellow River Basin (China) Based on Medium Resolution Remote Sensing Data

Accuracy Assessment and Inter-Comparison of Eight Medium Resolution Forest Products on the Loess Plateau, China

Social–ecological challenges in the Yellow River basin (China): a review

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