Combining Remote Sensing Image with DEM to identify Ancient Minqin Oasis, northwest of China

摘要

The developing and desertification process of Minqin oasis is representative in the whole arid area of northwest China.Combining Remote Sensing image with Digital Elevation Model (DEM) can produce the three-dimensional image ofthe research area which can give prominence to the spatial background of historical geography phenomenon'sdistribution, providing the conditions for extracting and analyzing historical geographical information thoroughly. Thisresearch rebuilds the ancient artificial Oasis based on the three-dimensional images produced by the TM digital RemoteSensing image and DEM created using 1:100000 topographic maps. The result indicates that the whole area of theancient artificial oasis in Minqin Basin over the whole historical period reaches 32 1km~2, in the form of discontinuoussheet, separated on the two banks of ancient Shiyang River and its branches, namely, Xishawo area, west to modernMinqin Basin and Zhongshawo area, in the center of the oasis. Except for a little of the ancient oasis unceasingly usedby later people, most of it became desert. The combination of digital Remote Sensing image and DEM can integrate theadvantages of both in identifying ancient oasis and improve the interpreting accuracy greatly.