Spatial and Temporal Changes in Vegetation Cover in the Three North Protection Forest Project Area Supported by GEE Cloud Platform

Abstract

The alterations in vegetation cover in the Three North Protection Forest Project area influence its ecological and environmental management. It helps to study soil erosion, environmental change, and ecosystem protection to provide basic data support. Based on the Google Earth Engine cloud platform, this paper selects MODIS 3Q1 data from 2000–2020 and uses the image element dichotomous model to estimate the fractional vegetation cover (FVC) of the Three North Protection Forest Project area, evaluates the stability and temporal and spatial variation of FVC, investigates the coupling relationship between the FVC and temperature and rainfall through evaluation indexes such as the slope of inter-annual variation and partial correlation coefficient, and then analyzes the influence of land use changes on the FVC. The results show that the fractional vegetation cover of the Three North Protection Forest Project area as a whole has increased significantly over the past 20 years, the medium and high vegetation coverage areas have reached 36.4%, the high vegetation FVC has increased from 20.66% in 2000 to 21.59% in 2020, and the vegetation activity is increasing. The vegetation cover is significantly affected by the topographic effect, with the vegetation cover improving relatively well at slopes between 5–13° and elevations ranging from 2000–2500 m. The overall positive correlation between vegetation and temperature and vegetation and precipitation in the study area was 54.08% and 70.04%, respectively, and precipitation was the key factor influencing vegetation growth in the research region. Human activities have a stronger effect on vegetation construction than destruction, and this study contributes to the evaluation of the benefits of the Three North Protection Forest Project and the understanding of human influence on environmental change.