Remote Sensing Monitoring Research of Multi-Temporal Desertfication Based on Spectral Mixture Analysis: A Case Study of Wuda, Inner Mongolia, China

Using three TM images of 1991, 2004 and one OLI image of 2014 as data sources, we extracted dynamic change information of desertification land during 23 years in Wuda district in Inner Mongolia, discussed spatio-temporal evolution processes of desertification land of this area aiming to provide decision-making references for desertification control and eco-environmental restoration and reconstruction. Abundance Maps of sand, vegetation, water and low albedo were derived based on linear spectral mixture analysis (SMA). Owing to the nice correlation between vegetation abundance and vegetation coverage, vegetation abundance was used to extract desertification land types. The results show that, during the past of 23 years, the total desertification area decreased by 114.23 square kilometers, particularly for the extremely severe desertification. The reducing desertification land mostly transformed into non-desertified land, such as water, coal and residential region, due to human intensive development activities.