Farmland Changes and Their Ecological Impact in the Huangshui River Basin

Hui Wei, Changhe Lu and Yaqun Liu
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Hui Wei: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
Changhe Lu: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
Yaqun Liu: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: The Huangshui River Basin (HRB) is the main grain production and key implementation region of the “Grain for Green Program” (GGP) of Qinghai Province, and has experienced a quick urbanization during the last 20 years. Therefore, identifying the farmland change and its ecological effects is significant for farmland and ecological protection in the HRB. To this end, this study analyzed the farmland change between 2000 and 2018, based on 1 m spatial resolution farmland data visually interpreted from Google Earth high-resolution images, and then estimated its ecological impact based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data of MODIS, using an ecological impact index of farmland change. The study found that: (1) The farmland area in the HRB decreased from 320.15 k ha in 2000 to 245.01 k ha in 2018, reduced by 23.47% or 1.48% per year, as mainly caused by ecological restoration and built-up land occupation; (2) from 2000 to 2018, the natural environment showed a greening trend in the HRB, with the mean NDVI increasing by 0.74% per year; (3) the farmland changes had a positive ecological effect, contributing 6.67% to the regional increase in the NDVI, but had a negative impact on grain production; (4) it is suggested to strengthen farmland protection by strictly controlling the urban land occupation and over-conversion of farmland in the HRB.

Keywords: farmland changes; NDVI; ecological impact; visual interpretation; Huangshui River Basin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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