What Drives Vegetation Evolution in the Middle Reaches of the Yellow River Basin, Climate Change or Human Activities?

Mengmeng Gao, Nan Yang () and Qiong Liu
Additional contact information
Mengmeng Gao: China Institute of Geological Environmental Monitoring, Beijing 100081, China
Nan Yang: China Institute of Geological Environmental Monitoring, Beijing 100081, China
Qiong Liu: China Institute of Geological Environmental Monitoring, Beijing 100081, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 22, 1-21

Abstract: The middle reaches of the Yellow River Basin (MYRB) are known for their significant soil erosion and fragile ecological environment, where vegetation growth is important. However, the vegetation’s reaction to climate change (CC) and human activity (HA), and the potential driving mechanisms underlying such changes in the MYRB, have not yet been clarified. Thus, based on remote sensing data, combined with trend analysis and the Hurst method and supplemented by the structural equation model (SEM) and residual analysis method, we aimed to conduct an analysis of the spatio-temporal evolution of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the MYRB from 2000 to 2020. Additionally, we explored how climate and human factors together affect the NDVI and quantified the proportion of their respective contributions to NDVI change. The NDVI exhibited a fluctuating upward trend in the MYRB. Moreover, approximately 97.7% of the area showed an improving trend, with nearly 50% of the area continuing to maintain an improving trend. Precipitation and temperature had positive effects on the NDVI, while vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and land use intensity (LUI) had negative effects. HA played a pivotal role in the vegetation improvement area with a contribution rate of 67.53%. The study revealed NDVI variations and emphasized the influence of HA on the NDVI in the MYRB. The findings are vital in comprehending the response mechanism of ecosystems and guiding reasonable environmental protection policies, which is beneficial for the sustainable development of the region.

Keywords: normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI); driving factors; residual analysis; structural equation model; middle reaches of the Yellow River Basin (MYRB) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/22/10122/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/22/10122/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:22:p:10122-:d:1525014

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().