Sandy Desertification Status and Region Development in Shiyanghe River Basin

Based on TM image data and using remote sensing method we systematically monitored the desertification land status of the Shiyanghe River basin in 2000, and has also in situ investigated into its status. The following results have obtained: (1) The total area of sandy desertification land is {7 711.91} square kilometers. Farmland desertification, steppe desertification and fixed dunes activation and drifting sand intruding are the main sandy desertification types in the study area. In details, dune activation is the main type in lower reach and farmland sandy desertification is the main type in middle reach.(2) Most of the sandy desertification land in the lower reach developed into the process of very severe sandy desertification and most of the sandy desertification land in the middle reach into the process of latent and light sandy desertification.From the sandy desertification status, we concluded that the irrationally resource distributing among the different river reaches resulting from the unbalance economy development is the fundamental cause of desertification in the lower reach, and desertification of the lower reach will necessarily result in the environmental degradation of the middle reach.