Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 5.10 Conversion from
grassland to other land use
types between 2010 and 2040
of the overgrazing areas in
Northwest China
5.3.2 Results
5.3.2.1 Forecast of Future Grassland Degradation in Overgrazing
Areas of Northwest China During 2010-2040
The grassland in Northwest China mainly concentrates in the southern and middle
part of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Province, the northeast of Gansu Province and
southern part of Shaanxi Province, accounting for about 35 % of the total area of
overgrazing areas in Northwest China. This study stimulates the grassland change
in overgrazing areas of Northwest China from 2010 to 2040, and the results
indicated that the grassland degradation is still severe in the future 30 years
because of the increasing population and unreasonable use of the grassland, and
the conclusion is coherent with that of previous study (Wu et al.
2013
). The main
conversion will be between grassland and croplands, bare land and urban land.
This study also statistically analyzes the number of grid cells converting from
grassland into other land types between 2010 and 2040. The result indicates that
there will be 55 grids converting from grassland into other land types from 2010 to
2040 in the study area (Fig.
5.10
). About 48 % of the converted grassland will
convert into croplands, which mainly distributed in the southeast part of Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region, northwest part of Shaanxi Province, and northeast
