Space-Time Characteristics of Vegetation Cover and Distribution: Case of the Henan Province in China

Jingzhong Li, Yongmei Liu, Mingming Cao and Bing Xue
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Jingzhong Li: College of Urban and Environmental Science, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Yongmei Liu: College of Urban and Environmental Science, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Mingming Cao: College of Urban and Environmental Science, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Bing Xue: Lab for Urban & Environmental Computation, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: Vegetation indicators and spatial distribution characteristics are the core and basis to study the complex human-natural coupled system. In this paper, with Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 remote sensing data, we quantitatively estimated vegetation coverage in Henan Province, China. According to the urbanization rate, altitude, slope degree, and slope exposure, we analyzed spatial and temporal variation laws of vegetation coverage under the action of different factors to provide a reference for the improvement of the ecological environment and the quality assessment of Chinese granary. From 2000 to 2013, the vegetation coverage in Henan Province declined by 30.49% and the ecological environment deteriorated. The spatial change of vegetation coverage was evenly distributed in Henan Province. The vegetation coverage was increased in the west, south, and southwest parts of Henan Province and slightly decreased in the central, east, and the eastern part of Taihang Mountain. Vegetation coverage in a city was related to its population urbanization rate. The population urbanization rate was often negatively correlated with the vegetation coverage. According to the results of terrain factors based analysis, the low-altitude areas were in a good vegetation cover condition with the high vegetation coverage grade; the areas with a smaller slope degree had the large vegetation coverage and the coverage decreased with the increase in the slope degree; the coverage showed no significant difference between sunny and shady slopes and was less limited by light, temperature, and humidity.

Keywords: vegetation coverage; terrain factor; spatial and temporal variation; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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