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Arid Land Geography ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (4): 539-549.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2022.322

• Surface Process and Ecological Environment • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Ecological quality evaluation of Gulang County in Gansu Province based on improved remote sensing ecological index

LUO Rongji,(),WANG Hongtao(),WANG Cheng   

  1. School of Surveying and Land Information Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, Henan, China
  • Received:2022-06-29 Revised:2022-09-21 Online:2023-04-25 Published:2023-04-28

Abstract:

Arid and semi-arid areas account for approximately 47% of China’s total land area. Most of these areas are deserts, with simple ecological structures and fragile ecosystems. To evaluate the ecological quality of arid and semi-arid areas more objectively and accurately, this study improves the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI), and proposes a drought remote sensing ecological index (DRSEI) suitable for arid areas, which is a coupling of five ecological factors, namely, soil-adjusted vegetation index, wetness, normalized difference built-up and soil index, desertification index, and land surface temperature. DRSEI is more sensitive to vegetation and has a higher resolution to impermeable water surfaces, land, and sandy land than RSEI, which is suitable for ecological quality assessment in arid and semi-arid areas. DRSEI was used to dynamically monitor and evaluate the ecological quality of Gulang County, Gansu Province, China from 1994 to 2020. The results show that the overall ecological quality of Gulang County improved from 1994 to 2020, increasing the vegetation coverage in the central and southeast regions and considerably improving the ecological environment. The northern Tengger Desert has poor ecological quality, whereas the eastern branches of the southern Qilian Mountains have excellent, good, and middle ecological quality. The quantitative evaluation of the ecological quality in the arid and semi-arid areas based on DRSEI is of great practical significance for guiding the ecological environment improvement and sustainable development in the arid and semi-arid areas in China.

Key words: DRSEI, ecological quality evaluation, principal component analysis, coefficient of variation, dynamic monitoring, Gansu Province