4. The Recent Evolution of the Oasis Environment in the Taklimakan Desert, China

Numerous natural and anthropogenic factors have caused soil salinization, land surface degradation, and desertification in Keriya County in China’s Xinjiang region. Information from multi-temporal remotely sensed data such as the Soil Salinity Index (SSI) has contributed significantly to an understanding of these environmental changes. The approach to calculating SSI is based on the spectral bands of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) or Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). A soil salinity map of the Keriya County area was produced from Landsat ETM+ images, with an overall accuracy of 72.73% and kappa coefficient of 0.6689. The analysis of the recent evolution of the oasis of Keriya County was carried out by coupling climatic and socioeconomic data with information derived from multi-temporal remotely sensed data such as the SSI, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and different land use classes. Such analysis appeared to be very useful in identifying and monitoring changes occurring in the oasis ecosystem and for understanding the consequences of human-induced land degradation processes.