A holistic approach towards assessment of severity of land degradation along the Great Wall in northern Shaanxi Province, China.

摘要: The farming and grazing interlocked transitional zone along the Great Wall in northern Shaanxi Province is particularly vulnerable to desertification due its fragile ecosystem intensive human activity. Studies reveal that both a natural anthropogenic process. Four indicators (vegetative cover, proportion of drifting sand area, rate, population pressure) were used assess severity GIS. first three factors derived from multitemporal remote sensing land inventory data. last factor was calculated census It found overall degradation study area has worsened during two decades with severely, highly moderately degraded accounting for 84.2% total 1998. While affected by increased, rate also accelerated 0.74 0.87%. Risk on an average, 155% since 1985. Incorporation analysis provides realistic assessment risk desertification.