Analysis of Rocky Desertification Monitoring Using MODIS Data in Western Guangxi, China - Advances in Data, Methods, Models and Their Applications in Geoscience - page 306

e

Fig. 4. The RD extent mapping in 2000 (a) 2003 (b), 2006 (c), 2008 (d) and 2010(e)

Compared the results from 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, and 2010, it is clearly found that the good
protected area has decreased from 2000 to 2006, and increased again from 2006 to 2010 in
west part of the study area; the mild and moderate RD area is increasing dramatically in
middle and north part of the study area. Nevertheless, intense RD area is seldom noted in
all years, which may indicate that the environment of the study area does not deteriorate
very badly. A change table of class statistics was made as shown in Table 2, which gives the
percentages of each class in the whole area. It is clear that good protected area decreased
from 2000 to 2006 and increased again from 2006 to 2010, while intense and moderate areas
are relatively stable, and mild area decreased remarkably from 2006 to 2010. This indicates
that many mild areas have been converted to good protected lands since 2006 due to
governmental land protection policies.

intensity moderate mild good protected

percent 0.12% 1.15% 37.98% 60.76%

2000

area(km 2 ) 85.71 847.40 28104.77 44962.13

percent 0.21% 6.15% 66.79% 26.86%

2003

area(km 2 ) 151.98 4548.10 49422.80 19877.12

percent 0.20% 3.91% 72.45% 23.44%

2006

area(km 2 ) 145.59 2892.45 53613.76 17348.20

percent 0.35% 3.73% 57.49% 38.44%

2008

area(km 2 ) 257.39 2756.87 42542.88 28442.86

percent 0.33% 1.68% 46.47% 51.52%

2010

area(km 2 ) 247.24 1242.65 34387.04 38123.07

Table 2. The RD extent in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, and 2010