Spatial and temporal variations of vegetation coverage and their driving factors following gully control and land consolidation in Loess Plateau, China

Abstract

Abstract Comprehensive management of the ecological environment and sustainable ecological development, such as the gully control and land consolidation (GCLC) project, may affect surface vegetation. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is a sensitive indicator of vegetation dynamics; however, an in-depth study that continually monitors the spatial and temporal variation of regional vegetation before and after the implementation of the GCLC project is still scarce. To address this issue, we analyzed the spatial and temporal variations of Landsat surface reflectance-derived NDVI data in the Jiulongquan watershed in Yan’an City, China, from 2010 to 2019, and examined the main driving factors for these variations. Results showed high overall vegetation coverage in the evaluated watershed. The NDVI was spatially varied and tended to be low in the gully area and high on the slope. From 2010 to 2019, the NDVI values exhibited an increasing trend, and the most evident changes were concentrated in the gully areas. The changes in NDVI were mainly driven by human activities rather than the evaluated climatic factors. This work indicates that the GCLC project had positive effects on the ecological and agricultural environment at a regional scale.