Year of publication
2008
Excerpt
MAIN POINTS
1. Land degradation is a global environment and development issue.
2. Land degradation and improvement is inferred from long-term trends of productivity when other factors that may be responsible (climate, soil, terrain and land use) are accounted for.
3. In China, over the period of 1981-2003, net primary productivity increased overall.
4. Twenty one per cent of degrading area is cropland - about 24 per centof the arable; 40 per cent is forest and 31 per cent is grassland and scrub.
5. About 35 per cent of the China’s population (457 million out of 1317 million) depends on the degrading land.
6. Eight per cent of the country shows an increase in climate-adjusted net primary productivity over the period 1981-2003, mostly in the north of the country.
7. Dryland in north China has experienced a thousand years of land degradation.
Key words: land degradation/improvement, remote sensing, NDVI, rain-use efficiency, net primary productivity, land use/cover, China
1. Land degradation is a global environment and development issue.
2. Land degradation and improvement is inferred from long-term trends of productivity when other factors that may be responsible (climate, soil, terrain and land use) are accounted for.
3. In China, over the period of 1981-2003, net primary productivity increased overall.
4. Twenty one per cent of degrading area is cropland - about 24 per centof the arable; 40 per cent is forest and 31 per cent is grassland and scrub.
5. About 35 per cent of the China’s population (457 million out of 1317 million) depends on the degrading land.
6. Eight per cent of the country shows an increase in climate-adjusted net primary productivity over the period 1981-2003, mostly in the north of the country.
7. Dryland in north China has experienced a thousand years of land degradation.
Key words: land degradation/improvement, remote sensing, NDVI, rain-use efficiency, net primary productivity, land use/cover, China