Cultivated-land change in Mu Us Sandy Land of China before and after the first-stage grain-for-green policy

摘要

Mu Us Sandy Land (MUSL) of China, as a typical eco-fragile and farming-pastoral transitional region, shows great vulner-ability to disturbances from cultivation activity. In this region, the conflict between cultivation activity and environmental protection has not attracted great importance until the implementation of China's Grain-for-Green Policy (CGGP) since 2000. Here, using Landsat5 TM/Landsat7 ETM+ images from 1990, 2000, and 2010, we monitor the cultivation activity and land-use/cover changes (LUCC) resulting from cultivation activity in the MUSL region. Based on the data from im-ages, we developed a series of databases of cultivated activity-induced LUCC and use them to discuss comparatively the spatio-temporal evolution trends of cultivation activity before and after CGGP implementation. These results provide evid-ence for managers to evaluate the implementation effectiveness of governmental policy and the influence of cultivation activity on the ecological environment of the MUSL region.