Landscape change and human activity analysis on desertification process in Northern China

The landscape change of desertification process and human activity impacts on desertification had been analyzed on the case of Yanchi County in Northern China. It is helpful to understand the process of desertification, and can help to understand how human activities contribute on the landscape change that caused to desertification. The results show that the landscape change of desertification process is mainly represented as grassland change to farmland and deserted grassland, and then change to desertifed land or sand land. Human activities can dramatically change land-use patterns and the landscape. Due to this paper´s analysis, households´ economic behaviors should be the most important human factors causing desertification in Northern China. As the case study of Yanchi County, the human activity factor contribution rate can be more than 60% or even more than 70%. However, human activity can often be affected by state policies, so that cause to negative or positive effects on desertification process.