Vegetation change monitoring and analysis in the Kumtag desert research area

Based on the study on the vegetation index reflecting vegetation cover as well as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the dimidiate pixel model, a remote sensing quantitative model for the vegetation cover in the Kumtag desert research area was built, and the data reflecting the variation in the vegetation cover in the Kumtag desert research area in the four periods (1975, 1990, 2000 and 2007) covering the past thirty-two years were acquired. The results showed that the vegetation cover area in the Kumtag desert research area has kept increasing from 1975 to 2007, specifically, the area rose from 4,182.92km2 in 1997 to 4,385.64km2 in 2007. The spatial distribution characteristics of the vegetation cover in the Kumtag desert research area indicated that the natural and environmental conditions, artificial influence factors and the ecological change and adaptive faculty of plant communities have great influence on the regional distribution of vegetation.