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Remote sensing strategies to characterization of drought, vegetation dynamics in relation to climate change from 1983 to 2016 in Tibet and Xinjiang Province, China

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Abstract

Due to various land cover changes, vegetation dynamics, and climate, drought is the most complex climate-related disaster problem in Tibet and Xinjiang, China. The purpose of the present study is to analyze the performance of the AVHRR Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the temporal and spatial differences of seasonal vegetation dynamics by correlating the results with rainfall and temperature data of NASA’s MERRA to examine the vegetation dynamics and droughts in Tibet and the Xinjiang Province of China. Our method is based on the use of AVHRR NDVI data and NASA MERRA temperature and precipitation during 1983–2016. Due to the dryness and low vegetation, NDVI is more useful to describe the drought conditions in Tibet and Xinjiang of China. The NDVI, TCI, VHI, NVSWI, VCI, TVDI, and NAP from April to October increased rapidly. While the NDVI, TCI, VHI, NVSWI, NAP, TVDI, and VCI are stable every month in September, again improve in October, and then confirm downward trend in December. The NDVI, TCI, VHI, NVSWI, NAP, VCI, and TVDI monthly values indicate that Tibet and Xinjiang province of China suffered from severe drought in 2006, 2008, and 2012 which were the most drought years. For monitoring drought in Tibet and Xinjiang province of China, the NDVI, TVDI, NAP, VCI, and NVSWI values were selected as a tool for reporting drought events during different growing seasons. Seasonal values of TVDI, NDVI, NAP, NVSWI, and VCI confirmed that Tibet and Xinjiang province of China suffered from severe drought in 2006, 2008, and 2012 and led the durations of severe drought. The correlation between NDVI, TCI, VHI, NAP, TVDI, and VCI showed a significantly positive correlation, while the significantly negative correlation between NVSWI and NDVI showed a good indication for the assessment of drought, especially for the agricultural regions of Tibet and Xinjiang province of China. This shows that the positive sign to support NAP, NVSWI, and TVDI is good monitoring of the drought indexes in Tibet and the Xinjiang province of China.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) Program (Grant No. 2019QZKK0302), the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT-17R50), Scientific research start-up cost of team construction funds of “Double First-Rate” guiding project of Lanzhou University (561120202, 561119204), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2019-33), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA2010010203).

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Author notes

  1. Haixing Zhang and Shahzad Ali these authors have contributed equally to this research work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730020, People’s Republic of China

    Haixing Zhang, Shahzad Ali, Qi Ma, Liang Sun, Ning Jiang, Qianmin Jia & Fujiang Hou

  2. Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730020, People’s Republic of China

    Haixing Zhang, Shahzad Ali, Qi Ma, Liang Sun, Ning Jiang, Qianmin Jia & Fujiang Hou

  3. Engineering Research Center of Grassland Industry, Ministry of Education, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730020, People’s Republic of China

    Haixing Zhang, Shahzad Ali, Qi Ma, Liang Sun, Ning Jiang, Qianmin Jia & Fujiang Hou

  4. College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730020, People’s Republic of China

    Haixing Zhang, Shahzad Ali, Qi Ma, Liang Sun, Ning Jiang, Qianmin Jia & Fujiang Hou

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  1. Haixing Zhang
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Contributions

The manuscript was reviewed and approved for publication by all authors. SA and FH conceived and designed the experiments. SA and ZH performed the experiments. SA, MQ, SL, and JN analyzed the data. SA, QJ, and ZH wrote the paper. SA, FH, QJ, ZH, MQ, SL, and JN reviewed and revised the paper.

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Correspondence to Shahzad Ali or Qianmin Jia.

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Zhang, H., Ali, S., Ma, Q. et al. Remote sensing strategies to characterization of drought, vegetation dynamics in relation to climate change from 1983 to 2016 in Tibet and Xinjiang Province, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 21085–21100 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12124-w

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