Land‐use change and land degradation on the Mongolian Plateau from 1975 to 2015—A case study from Xilingol, China

Abstract

Land degradation is a severe environmental problem on a regional and global scale that is often aggravated by intensive land‐use and climate change. The arid to semi‐arid Xilingol in Inner Mongolia, China, is an example of an area that has witnessed continuous land degradation for decades, in spite of numerous attempts to reverse this trend. In this study, land‐use and land‐cover change (LUCC) between 1975 and 2015 was investigated for Xilingol based on multi‐temporal remote sensing images. The aim of the study was to derive detailed information on LUCC over space and time as a basis for assessing ecological and social consequences of land degradation in a bid to develop better strategies for combating land degradation. Two main LUCC processes and two distinct phases were identified: During Phase 1 (1975–2000), the LUCC pattern was dominated by land degradation, affecting 11.4% (22,937 km2) of the total area. During Phase 2 (2000–2015), land restoration increased (12.0% or 24,161 km2) whereas degradation continued, resulting in a further 9.5% (19,124 km2) of degraded land. The transition pattern changed accordingly. Our findings show that, in spite of notable restoration successes in the past, grassland degradation continues to be the main ecological and environmental problem in Xilingol, requiring the continued attention of decision‐makers. Strategic land‐use management has already had a significant influence on LUCC in this area, leading to the expectation that science‐based land‐use strategies can be developed to further reduce land degradation in Xilingol.

Land use/land cover change along the Eastern Coast of the UAE and its impact on flooding risk

“…Due to anthropogenic activities, the Earth's surface is being significantly altered in some manner and man's presence on the Earth and his use of land has had a profound effect upon the natural environment, thus resulting in an observable pattern in the land use/land cover (LULC) change over time (Leh et al 2013;Rawat and Kumar 2015). These radical changes in LULC have attracted the attention of researchers to assess the drastic effects of these changes on different aspects of urban planning and the environment, including strategic land management, air quality standards, and flood risk reduction (Panahi et al 2010;Superczynski and Christopher 2011;Kaul and Sopan 2012;Apollonio et al 2016;Batunacun et al 2018;Al Abdouli et al 2019). The information obtained from studying and detecting LULC change can help policy makers and managers better understand the underlying relation of human-induced factors with the environment (Usman et al 2015;Liaqat et al 2017).…”

“…Land cover classifications serve an important role in physical and social sciences research on topics such as urbanization and soil mapping. LULC change has also become a central component in the current strategies for managing natural resources and monitoring environmental changes (Harika et al 2012;Batunacun et al 2018), particularly in vulnerable areas such as coastal zones. One of the major influences of the rapid pace of economic and population growth, especially in developing countries, is the change in LULC.…”

“…The results showed that larger parts of forest and fallow lands were converted into cultivated lands. Batunacun et al (2018) have used Landsat MSS, TM, ETM þ and OLI data for the years 1975,1990,2000,2005 and 2015 and Huan Jing-1 (HJ-1) scenes for the year 2009 to study land degradation in Xilingol, China. The research found that in spite of notable restoration successes in the past, grassland degradation continued to be the main ecological and environmental problem.…”

Impacts of land conversion and management measures on net primary productivity in semi-arid grassland

“…Due to the uneven distribution of precipitation, the vegetation gradually changes from meadow steppe in the east, to typical steppe in the middle, and desert steppe in the west (Figure 1(c)). The other obvious gradient is the transition of agro-pastoral in the south to animal husbandry areas in the north (Batunacun et al 2018). To reduce grazing pressure, different degrees of implementation of grassland bans have been launched in Xilingol grassland since 2001: full grazing bans on severely degraded grassland, initiating delaying grazing and grazing rotation on degraded and slightly degraded grassland, and rearing livestock in sheds (Batunacun et al 2018).…”

“…The other obvious gradient is the transition of agro-pastoral in the south to animal husbandry areas in the north (Batunacun et al 2018). To reduce grazing pressure, different degrees of implementation of grassland bans have been launched in Xilingol grassland since 2001: full grazing bans on severely degraded grassland, initiating delaying grazing and grazing rotation on degraded and slightly degraded grassland, and rearing livestock in sheds (Batunacun et al 2018). Furthermore, Xilingol has implemented the Grassland Ecological Compensation Policy (GECP), which divided the grassland into either a grazing ban zone or a forage-livestock balance zone according to its grassland condition and used subsidies to motivate herders to comply with these measures (Hu, Huang, and Hou 2019).…”