LUCC IN CHINA OVER THE LAST HALF CENTURY: CONVERSION OF CORONA INTO NDVI IMAGERY

摘要

It is only by using the first collection of intelligencernsatellite imagery acquired by CORONA, that time seriesrnof NDVI imagery can go back for a time lapse of 48rnyears. This is an exceptionally long time period if notrnthe longest, for which remote sensing imagery can bernused to estimate land use change (LUCC), for specificrnregions on the globe. Essentially China and the formerrnUSSR can be documented using CORONA satellite datarnallowing a multi-temporal coverage of a time period ofrn48 years. Typical, - for many regions of the globe – isrnthat a 50 year time span represents the principal timernperiod in which many anthropogenic induced land usernchanges have taken place (from the early sixties). In thisrnstudy we give an account of the LUCC which has takenrnplace in the Xinjiang province in North-western Chinarnover the last 44 years. This province contains thernlongest inland water basin on the globe, e.g. that of thernTarim river and is a major cotton producer in China. Werncould demonstrate that over the last 44 years the riverrnbasin has undergone drastic land use changes.