Monitoring grass dynamic in China arid region supported by RS and GIS

This paper analyses grassland dynamics in China from 1995 to 2000 under different aridity based on remote sensing (RS) and a geographic information system (GIS) to discover the rule in it. The results show that the amount of grassland is reduced to 5.49×10⁴ hm². There is heavy grassland degradation in the arid region, especially at low cover grass. The main change is becoming farmland and grassland and grass resource having different degrees of degeneration. The main reason of grassland changing into farmland is population pressure; grassland degradation is caused by over grazing, etc. Because grassland lies in the west and north of China, its area reduction and grass cover decrease will lead to a worse north China environment. Moreover the grassland decrease will restrict regional economical development.