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Spatial pattern of Karst rock desertification in the Middle of Guizhou Province, Southwestern China

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

Karst rocky desertification is a typical type of land degradation in the Southwestern China. It has great ecological and economical implications for the local people. Landsat images from the middle of Guizhou Province collected in 1974, 1993 and 2001 were used for change detection of the pattern of Karst rocky desertification. The results show the following findings: (1) Desertification area expanded drastically in 27 years, at an increasing rate about 116.2 km2/year. (2) High areas (900–1,500 m) are the most affected. (3) Areas with the slope <5° or >25° are also easily tend to be Karst rocky deserted. (4) The process of Karst rocky desertification is nearly irreversible. Few areas of Karst rocky desertification could be meliorated to non-desertification land. (5) Most of the degraded lands are located in the south and the central of the study region, and the meliorated land areas are sparsely located in the east and the west part of the region. All these findings would provide bases for the decision-making of the local government to improve the Karst rocky desertification

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by The Key Project (40335046) of National Natural Science Foundation of China and The Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (20040001038). The authors would express thanks to Ms. Li Zehui, Chinese Natural Resources Database for providing the data needed for this research. The authors are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and helpful suggestions. However, any errors or shortcomings in the paper are the responsibility of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Resources, Environment and Geography, Center for Land Study, Peking University, Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, The Ministry of Education, Room 3355, YiFu Building 2, Beijing, 100871, People’s Republic of China

    Qiu-Hao Huang & Yun-Long Cai

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  1. Qiu-Hao Huang
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  2. Yun-Long Cai
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Correspondence to Yun-Long Cai.

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Huang, QH., Cai, YL. Spatial pattern of Karst rock desertification in the Middle of Guizhou Province, Southwestern China. Environ Geol 52, 1325–1330 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-006-0572-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-006-0572-y

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