Mapping Land Use/Cover Dynamics of the Yellow River Basin from 1986 to 2018 Supported by Google Earth Engine

Abstract

Changes in the land use/cover alter the Earth system processes and affect the provision of ecosystem services, posing a challenge to achieve sustainable development. In the past few decades, the Yellow River (YR) basin faced enormous social and environmental sustainability challenges associated with environmental degradation, soil erosion, vegetation restoration, and economic development, which makes it important to understand the long-term land use/cover dynamics of this region. Here, using three decades of Landsat imagery (17,080 images) and incorporating physiography data, we developed an effective annual land use/cover mapping framework and provided a set of 90 m resolution continuous annual land use/cover maps of the YR basin from 1986 to 2018 based on the Google Earth Engine and the Classification and Regression Trees algorithm. The independent random sampling validations based on the field surveys (640 points) and Google Earth (3456 points) indicated that the overall accuracy of these maps is 78.3% and 80.0%, respectively. The analysis of the land system of the YR basin showed that this region presents complex temporal and spatial changes, and the main change patterns include no change or little change, cropland loss and urban expansion, grassland restoration, increase in orchard and terrace, and increase in forest during the entire study period. The major land use/cover change has occurred in the transitions from forests, grasslands, and croplands to the class of orchard and terrace (19.8% of all change area), which not only increase the greenness but also raised the income, suggesting that YR progress towards sustainable development goals for livelihood security, economic growth, and ecological protection. Based on these data and analysis, we can further understand the role of the land system in the mutual feedback between society and the environment, and provide support for ecological conservation, high-quality development, and the formulation of sustainable management policies in this basin, highlighting the importance of continuous land use/cover information for understanding the interactions between the human and natural systems.

Decrease in Erosion‐Induced Soil Organic Carbon as a Result of Vegetation Restoration in the Loess Plateau, China

“…The annual maximum Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI) data was composited by the 8‐day composite data of Landsat NDVI provided by the United States Geological Survey. Using three decades of Landsat satellite imagery and incorporating physiography data, the land use/land cover data (Ji et al., 2021) was classified based on the Google Earth Engine platform and the Classification and Regression Trees algorithm, which be validated by 1,640 independent validation points collected in the field survey and Google Earth with 76% overall accuracy of 15 classes. Soil organic matter was acquired from global soil datasets based on the soil map of the world and various regional and national soil databases (Shangguan et al., 2014), and it was interpolated from 1000 to 90 m with the NEAREST algorithm.…”

“…NDVI was composited by the 8-day composite data of Landsat NDVI provided by the United States Geological Survey (https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/LANDSAT_LT05_C01_T1_8DAY_NDVI, https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/ datasets/catalog/LANDSAT_LE07_C01_T1_8DAY_NDVI, https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/LANDSAT_LC08_C01_T1_8DAY_NDVI). Landuse data for this research are included in this paper: Ji et al (2021). ER data for this research are included in this paper: Ren et al (2017).…”

“…Landuse data for this research are included in this paper: Ji et al. (2021). ER data for this research are included in this paper: Ren et al.…”

Research on fruit picking recognition based on deep learning

“…In recent years, due to the development of social demand and the support of relevant government policies, tourism agriculture has developed rapidly in China [1,2]. Set sightseeing, agriculture leisure, agriculture experience, fruit picking in one of the tourism picking orchard is an important part of tourism agriculture in China [3,4]. In the tourism picking orchards often need to monitor and supervise the picking behaviours of tourists, in order to facilitate the management of the picking activities for the overall arrangement, scientific planning and decision-making.…”

Land Use/Land Cover Change and Their Driving Factors in the Yellow River Basin of Shandong Province Based on Google Earth Engine from 2000 to 2020

“…As the only coastal province among the nine provinces along the Yellow River, Shandong Province takes a critical responsibility in implementing the outline of ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. With the growth in population and the rapid expansion of cities, great changes have taken place in the LULC of the Yellow River Basin in Shandong, which seriously threatens the sustainable development of the ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin [39]. However, there are few studies on LULC in the Shandong section, and the long-term LULC change process and its influencing factors are still unclear.…”