Land cover change in global drylands: A review

Hui Wang; Yanxu Liu; Yijia Wang; Ying Yao; Chenxu Wang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160943

Land cover change in global drylands: A review

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Mar 10:863:160943. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160943. Epub 2022 Dec 14.

Authors

Hui Wang¹, Yanxu Liu², Yijia Wang³, Ying Yao³, Chenxu Wang³

Affiliations

¹ School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China; State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: yanxuliu@bnu.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.

PMID: 36526201
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160943

Abstract

As a sensitive region, identifying land cover change in drylands is critical to understanding global environmental change. However, the current findings related to land cover change in drylands are not uniform due to differences in data and methods among studies. We compared and judged the spatial and temporal characteristics, driving forces, and ecological effects by identifying the main findings of land cover change in drylands at global and regional scales (especially in China) to strengthen the overall understanding of land cover change in drylands. Four main points were obtained. First, while most studies found that drylands were experiencing vegetation greening, some evidence showed decreases in vegetation and large increases in bare land due to inconsistencies in the datasets and the study phases. Second, the dominant factors affecting land cover change in drylands are precipitation, agricultural activities, and urban expansion. Third, the impact of land cover change on the water cycle, especially the impact of afforestation on water resources in drylands, is of great concern. Finally, drylands experience severe land degradation and require dataset matching (classification standards, resolution, etc.) to quantify the impact of human activities on land cover.

Keywords: Climate change; Ecological effect; Global dataset; Human activity; Land cover classification; Spatiotemporal characteristic.

Publication types

Review