Study on the Change in Vegetation Coverage in Desert Oasis and Its Driving Factors from 1990 to 2020 Based on Google Earth Engine

Abstract

Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC) is an important indicator to evaluate the quality of the regional ecological environment. Alar City is a typical desert oasis region. Investigating the spatial and temporal changes in its vegetation cover at different stages is a guide to the ecological balance and sustainable green development of the Tarim River basin. Based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform, this study analyzed the spatial and temporal characteristics and trends of vegetation cover changes in Alar City from 1990 to 2020 using the Hurst index and coefficient of variation. The results show that the spatial distribution of vegetation in the study area in the last 30 years shows a wave-like characteristic with an overall apparent upward trend. The vegetation cover in the study area is predominantly increasing and the spatial distribution shows a phased and regional character. Compared with 1990, there is a significant increase in the area of cultivated land in 2020. Among them, the areas of vegetation growth mainly occur in the basin around the Tarim River. Human activities have weakened the influence of natural factors on FVC. The results of the study suggest that the GEE platform can be an effective tool for permanently monitoring vegetation.

Keywords

• desert oasis
• vegetation coverage
• Google Earth Engine
• Hurst index
• coefficient of variation
• change detection