Aeolian desertification monitoring in the Source Region of Yellow River by remote sensing technology

The Source Region of Yellow River locates in the hinterland of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is especially sensitive to global environment change because of its high elevation and cold environment. Under the influence of global warming, aeolian desertified land expanded rapidly in this area during the last decades. To assess the trends of aeolian desertification from 1975 to 2005, we employed remote sensing and GIS technology to monitor the extent of aeolian desertification at four times (1975, 1990, 2000, and 2005). The data sources included Landsat multi-spectral scanner (MSS) images acquired in 1975 with an 80-m spatial resolution, Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) images acquired in 2000 with a 30-m resolution, and Thematic Mapper (TM) images acquired in 1990 and 2005 with a 30-m spatial resolution. The remote sensing monitoring result shows that the area of aeolian desertification land increased rapidly between 1975 and 1990, kept stable between 1990 and 2000, and turned to decrease slightly between 2000 and 2005.