Wind erosion,or the transportation and deposition of sand into desert dunes and aeolian loess,is one of the most important aeolian activities.The progression of aeolian landforms expands arid and barren landscapes,leading to the degradation of adjacent areas.The Gonghe Basin,as a typical plateau with abundant sand sources,is highly sensitive to changes in the local climate conditions.In order to quantify the spatial-temporal variations in the aeolian landforms in the Gonghe Basin,we conducted field surveys and also analyzed twelve remote sensing(Landsat5 TM and Landsat8 OLI)images that sample the Gonghe Basin from 1989 to 2019.In the Gonghe Basin,we identified aeolian landforms such as climbing dunes on the windward slopes of the foothills,checkerboard dunes in the southeastern part of the basin,flat dunes,parabolic dunes and crescent dunes on the east and west sides of Longyangxia Reservoir,shrubby sandbanks on the valley slope in Shazhuyu,Tanggemu,and Indel,and sandy thickets at the bottom of the valley near the Dalian Sea,the Longyangxia Reservoir,and the tributaries of the Yellow River.From 1989 to 2005,the area of the aeolian regions expanded by 816.7 km2,with an annual conversion rate of 0.05%.From 2015 to 2019,the area of the aeolian regions shrunk by 2411.9 km2,with an annual conversion rate of−0.15%.The number and size of the fixed and semi-fixed dunes(e.g.the shrubby sandbanks on the valley slope and the sandy thickets at the bottom of the valley)were more stable than those of the mobile dunes(e.g.the checkerboard dunes,the flat dunes,the crescent dunes,the parabolic dunes,and the climbing dunes).The fixed and semi-fixed dunes were arranged in an irregular ring shape,and the location of the center of gravity of this ring did not change significantly from 1989 to 2019;in this time,the mobile dunes migrated to the northwest.
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