The Mu Us Sandy Land is located in the middle of the farming pastoral ecotone of northern China. The direction of the development of desertification has a direct impact on the economy and development of the northern region. Six remote sensing images acquired during 1990–2017 served as data sources. Using an ENVI 5.3 and ArcGIS 10.3 platform an analysis was conducted of the dynamic changes nearly 30 years in desertified land using a center of gravity moving model, annual change rate, a transfer matrix, and an aeolian desertification index; the factors driving desertification were discussed. The research shows that the time period can be divided into three stages of desertification: development (1990–2000), rapid reversal (2000–2010), and stable reversal (2010–2017). A total of 1680 km2 of desertification were managed over the three stages. Spatially, the distribution of the center of desertification from west to east includes mild, moderate, severe, and extreme desertification, which is consistent with the spatial distribution trends of desertified land in the Mu Us Sandy Land. By the end of 2017, the degree of desertification of the Mu Us Sandy Land was in the central area > northwest > southwest > east > south. Nearly 30 years, the wind speed has decreased year by year at the rate of 0.1 m s−1, which directly reduce the ability to winds to transport soil in the Mu Us Sandy Land and promoted the reversal of desertification. From 1990 to 2010, the climate tended to become warmer and drier. Environmental protection policies along with human intervention and control of desertification have played important roles in reversing desertification. From 2010 to 2020, under the general background of a warm-wet climatic tendency, rational use of sand resources and strengthening scientific control of desertification inducing factors are the keys to reversing desertification.

As the dominant shrub community plant in the Mu Us Sandy Land, S. vulgaris is the key factor of ecological environment restoration in the Mu Us Sandy Land, It is of great significance to explore the estimation and inversion of content based on spectrum for ecological environment evaluation and intervention in Mu Us Sandy Land. The SVC HR-1024 portable feature spectrometer and SPAD 502 chlorophyll meter were used to study Mu Us Sandy Land of S. vulgaris. The best band is screened by correlation matrix method, the best vegetation index is screened by Structural Equation Modeling model, and then the best inversion model is established by different mathematical modeling methods. Results revealed that the vegetation indices and chlorophyll content were correlated, combining the six vegetation indices revealed that 610–690nm and 700–940 nm were the bands with the highest correlation. In the selection of optimal vegetation index, NDVI, ratio vegetation index and mNDVI perform best and are suitable for subsequent modeling. Of the four models, the partial least squares model had the best fitting effect (R2 > 0.91). The univariate linear regression model had the simplest processing procedure, but its accuracy was unstable (R2 = 0.1–0.9). multivariate stepwise regression accuracy is also appropriate (R2 > 0.8). The stability of BP neural network modeling is not high. Compare the four methods, PLS and multivariate stepwise regression have their own advantages, and the accuracy is higher, you can make a choice according to the demand as the late modeling method.

Although scholars have conducted many studies on barchan dunes in deserts and sandy areas around the world, few studies have been conducted on the morphological characteristics and changes in movement patterns of barchan dunes in the Yamarak Desert, China. To assess the changes in and movement patterns of these dunes, As well as the impact on the wind-sand hazards and geohazards around the study area, we selected several typical barchan dunes of different sizes in the Yamarak Desert and measured and calculated their morphologies using a combination of a 3-D laser scanner (RIEGL VZ-2000) and remote sensing image interpretation. The results show that the average coverage of the barchan dunes in the Yamarak Desert was 37.19%. Moreover, 62.81% of this area was covered by interdune sites. The movement velocity of the barchan dunes in this study area was 0–20 m/a, with an average movement velocity of 8.45 m/a. Of these dunes, 44.18% were fast-dominated dunes, 37.20% were particularly fast-dominated dunes, and 18.62% were moderately fast-dominated dunes. The barchan dunes moved in the 95–130° direction, which was basically consistent with the main wind direction of the area. The determination and function fitting of the barchan dune morphology shows that the correlation coefficients between all of the morphological parameters are greater than 0.8, except for the degree of spread and the symmetry of the two wings. We suggest adding the influences of other factors affecting barchan dunes and dune chains in the Yamarak Desert in future studies and paying attention to new wind-sand hazards and geohazards in the downwind corridor.

Introduction: Most of the sand fixation technologies utilized locally and internationally are static or dynamic, making it challenging for a single sand fixation mode to function in a harsh environment. Therefore, the development of a sand fixation mode that combines resistance and consolidation has emerged as a trending topic in sand control research. Our team developed the wing bag sand barrier, which is a static and dynamic combination of sand fixation mode.Methods: In this study, we examined the characteristics of airflow velocity field and sand resistance near double-row wing bag sand barrier under different wind conditions to screen out the optimal mode of wing bag sand barrier. The analyses were conducted under nine configuration modes through the wind tunnel simulation experiment and the field experiment.Results: The inflection point of the airflow was always 5H on the windward side of the wing bag sand barrier, regardless of the wind speed. The protection range of the wing bag sand barrier with the same specifications was gradually weakened with the increase of the wind speed. However, there was an upward trend in both total sand accumulation and sand accumulation of each height layer. When the wind speed was slower than 8 m/s, the sand accumulation behind the barrier was mainly concentrated in the 0–10 cm height layer, and when the wind speed was 12 m/s, it was mainly concentrated in the 30–60 cm height layer. At the leeward side of the wing bag sand barrier, sand particles were rejected in the range of 0–30 cm; however, they were conducted in the range of 30–60 cm. The protective effect of the wing bag sand barrier simulated in the wind tunnel experiment was consistent with that of the field experiment.Discussion: For a wind speed of slower than 6 m/s, the recommended specification for the field-installed wing bag sand barrier was 25 cm × 20 cm or 30 cm × 20 cm. The specifications 25 cm × 20 cm and 25 cm × 25 cm were recommended at an inlet wind speed of 8 m/s. When the wind speed was greater than 12 m/s, the recommended specifications were 25 cm × 25 cm, 25 cm × 20 cm, and 20 cm × 25 cm.