Acta Geographica Sinica ›› 2019, Vol. 74 ›› Issue (3): 504-519.doi: 10.11821/dlxb201903008

• Climate Change and Surface Process • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The spatial-temporal patterns of the impact of human activities on vegetation coverage in China from 2001 to 2015

Jianbang WANG1(), Jun ZHAO1(), Chuanhua LI1, Yu ZHU2, Chongyang KANG1, Chao GAO1   

  1. 1. College of Geography and Environment Sciences, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
    2. Institute of International Rivers and Eco-security, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
  • Received:2017-12-08 Revised:2018-12-07 Online:2019-03-25 Published:2019-03-19

Abstract:

Based on MODIS-NDVI and climate data, using an artificial influence model based on coefficient of variation to quantitatively calculate the human impact of vegetation cover(NDVIH) in China from 2001 to 2015, Sen+Mann-Kendall model and Hurst index were used to analyze the spatial-temporal feature and the future trends. It was found that: (1) In the year from 2001 to 2015, the Spatial Differentiation of NDVIH in China was more obvious from southern part to northern part, with an average annual mean value of -0.0102, the vegetation coverage decreased slightly under human activities, the negative impact area accounting for 51.59% which is slightly larger than the positive impact area. (2) The interannual variation of NDVIH in China is obvious, showing the negative impact volatility decreased, the rate of decline is 0.5%/10a; among which the positive and negative effects all showed an increasing trend, the positive growth rate (0.3%/10a) is much larger than the negative impact (0.02%/10a). (3) During 2001-2015, the center of gravity of positive impact has moved to the northeast, the center of gravity of negative impact has moved to the southwest, vegetation cover in northeastern China has improved under the influence of mankind, and human activities in the southwest have increased the degree of vegetation destruction. (4) The proportion of "negative impact reduction" and "positive impact increase" trend of NDVIH in China appeared to be the largest which accounting for 28.14% and 25.21% of the total, and the ecological environment is improving. (5) The reverse characteristics of NDVIH change were stronger than the same characteristic in China, mainly showed a negative impact which decreased at the first and then increased with the rate of 15.59% of the total area.

Key words: vegetation cover, human impact, spatial distribution, trend