Comprehensive review on the research advances in the driving forces and their quantitative assessment for land desertification

This paper attempts to introduce the development and various research ideas that account for desertification under the definition of desertification and all the likely factors leading to the consequence of desertification.Starting from the academic stand of view,we have analyzed the impacts of all the likely influential factors responsible for the desertification.In our points of view,such factors in nature can be illustrated as the temperature change,the long-lasting drought,the wind and human intervention into such factors,as the population and livestock size,the land use patterns,the agricultural technologies and policies concerned.Desertification of itself is the degradation of the land quality in arid and dry sub-humid areas due to the above mentioned factors.Of such factors,the climate change and human activities can be regarded as the two chief driving forces responsible for the desertification process.And,it is the discrimination between the climate and human-induced desertification thathas become a serious challenge for the managementof desertified areas,which idea has begun to attract closer and closer public attention.Based on the above penetrating analysis,we have made a systematic review of the progress of the principal functions and the relative roles of the driving factors accounting for the desertification process.Therefore,this paper has described the well-used principal component analysis method and the residual trends(RESTREND)methods,including the principles,calculation process,approach to applications,research findings,the advantages and disadvantages due to their application,as well as the application of some other commonly used methods.Based on the analysis of the advances of the previous research achievements and the study of the currently existing problems in the field,we have put forward a newidea of ours thatwe should further consider the microscopic changes in the desertification process,strengthen the exploration of the influential factors from the perspectives of humanity and social economic development,in addition to improving data accuracy and database construction.It is of great significance to prevent from and control the desertificationmore effectively,so as to keep the sustainable development and the ecological safety of the areas concerned.