Reconstructing forest cover changes for the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River over the past millennium

Yang, Fan; He, Fanneng; Wang, Yafei; Zhou, Shengnan; Dong, Guanpeng

doi:10.1007/s10113-024-02183-x

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The natural vegetation underwent a transition from abundance to scarcity and, in some cases, disappearance [34]. The depletion of natural vegetation has resulted in escalated soil erosion, causing a swift augmentation of the sediment discharge [35]. This, in turn, has contributed to the continuous aggradation of the riverbed downstream and a heightened frequency of flooding, along with more frequent incidents of river breaches and diversions in the lower reaches [36].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wei et al (2019Wei et al ( , 2021 [50,51] combined available datasets and historical statistics to reconstruct the spatially explicit cropland for the North China Plain Area (10 km resolution, 17th century to the 1980s) and the Guanzhong Area in the YRB (1 km resolution, 1650 AD to 2016 AD). Yang et al (2024) [35] reconstructed forest coverage data, showing deforestation expansion from plains to surrounding hills and mountainous areas in the mid-to-lower reaches.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Summarizing the findings of the studies mentioned above, the research domain primarily encompasses specific regions within the contemporary YRB, encompassing the Loess Plateau [48,52], North China Plain [50,51], the middle and lower reaches [35,45], Hehuang Valley [46,47,53,54], and provinces [49]. The temporal scope spans from the mid-Holocene to recent centuries or a particular historical year.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Land Cover Change in the Yellow River Basin over the Past Millennium

Wang,

Yang,

2024

Land

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Investigating the ecological and environmental impacts stemming from historical land use and land cover change (LUCC) holds paramount importance in systematically comprehending the fundamental human-land relationship, a pivotal focus within geographical research. The Yellow River Basin (YRB), often referred to as the cradle of Chinese civilization, ranks as the fifth-largest river basin globally. Early inhabitants made significant alterations to the landscape, resulting in substantial damage to natural vegetation, giving rise to prominent regional ecological challenges. By now, the examination of historical LUCC in the YRB over the past millennium remains in the qualitative research stage, primarily due to the limited availability of high-confidence gridded historical LUCC data. This study aims to advance the current historical LUCC research in the YRB from primarily qualitative analysis to an exploration incorporating timing, positioning, and quantification. Based on reconstructed historical cropland, forest, and grassland grid data of 10 km × 10 km from 1000 AD to 2000 AD, the degree of cropland development and the depletion of forests and grasslands were calculated, respectively. Then, the kernel density method was employed for spatiotemporal analysis and interpretation of dynamic changes in land cover. Subsequently, a cartographic visualization depicting the migration trajectories of the land cover gravity centers was generated, allowing for an assessment of the distance and direction of the centroids’ movement of cropland, forest, and grassland. The results indicate that the cropland coverage in the YRB escalated from the initial 11.65% to 29.97%, while the forest and grassland coverage dropped from 63.36% to 44.49%. The distribution of cultivated land continually expanded outward from the southeast of the Loess Plateau and the southwest of the North China Plain. All three types of land cover experienced a westward shift in their gravity centers between 1000 and 2000 AD. Besides the population growth and technological advancements, the regime shifts induced by wars, along with land use policies in distinct periods, always served as the predominant factors influencing the conversion between different land covers. This research will present a paradigmatic regional case study contributing to the investigation of historical changes in land use and land cover. Additionally, it will offer historical perspectives beneficial for the advancement of China’s objectives in “Ecological Conservation and High-Quality Development of the Yellow River Basin”.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Land Cover Change in the Yellow River Basin over the Past Millennium

Wang,

Yang,

2024

Land

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Assessing Four Decades of Land Use and Land Cover Change: Policy Impacts and Environmental Dynamics in the Min River Basin, Fujian, China

Huang,

Shrestha,

Xie

et al. 2024

Land

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Land use and land cover change (LULCC) is crucial in sustainable land management. Over the past four decades, the Min River Basin (MRB) has experienced significant LULCC. This study investigated the dynamics of LULCC over these decades (1980–2020) and discusses the key drivers of land use change in different stages. First, we mapped and quantified changes (i.e., LULCC and landscape indices) in forests, croplands, urban areas, and water bodies from 1980 to 2020 using the China National Land Use/Cover Change (CNLUCC) and ArcGIS Pro 2.3. Second, by analyzing existing policies, we categorized four decades of LULCC trends from 1980 to 2020, delineating three distinct stages: (1) the Economic Restoration (ER) stage (1978–1989), when the ecological impacts of LULCC on forests, croplands, and water bodies received limited policy attention; (2) the Construction of Ecological Protection and Economic Development (EPED) stage (1989–2012), which saw a significant increase in forest coverage, primarily driven by various central and provincial environmental conservation policies, such as the Green for Grain and the “Three-Five-Seven Reforestation Project” in Fujian; and (3) the Ecological Civilization (EC) stage (2012–2020), in which policy focus shifted from expanding forest land areas to enhancing the quality of these areas. However, the cropland area has decreased due to urbanization policies and population migration from rural to urban areas, including the above-mentioned forest policies. Thus, this study highlights the complex relationship between different land use land cover policies, as some policies had synergistic effects between the policies and positive outcomes, while other policies showed conflicting outcomes. Our results emphasize the importance of integrated land and water resource management and provide insights for policymakers to balance development and environmental conservation policies in the MRB.

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Reconstructing forest cover changes for the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River over the past millennium

Cited by 2 publications

References 55 publications

Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Land Cover Change in the Yellow River Basin over the Past Millennium

Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Land Cover Change in the Yellow River Basin over the Past Millennium

Assessing Four Decades of Land Use and Land Cover Change: Policy Impacts and Environmental Dynamics in the Min River Basin, Fujian, China

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