干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Wetlands are important natural resources and one of the important living environments for human, wild animals and plants. They play an important role in maintaining the balance of regional ecological and sustainable economic development. The area of wetlands in arid and semi-arid areas is the basis of the maintenance of agriculture and oasis ecosystems. In recent decades, because of climate change and the influence of human activity, wetland area is reducing quickly in Yinchuan plain. In order to improve wetland protection and management, it is a must to monitor wetland dynamic change regulation in Yinchuan plain. In this paper, wetland change information is obtained by using multi-temporal remote sensing image dataset. Research results show that lake wetland and river wetland area decrease sharply, lake wetland decreased 4349.52 hm(2) from 1978 to 2006 and river wetland decreased 12215.18 hm(2) during the same period. However, paddy wetland area increase significantly, it increased 4208.68 hm(2) during the same period. The loss and degradation of wetlands are caused by the natural factors and human activities. The earths surface humid index wetness index is falling, namely earths surface is drier and drier in Yinchuan plain. The increase of population that needs more farmland, a large number of lakes are drained to reclaim farmland for producing more food. Industrial development consumes large amounts of water resources, causing local area groundwater levels to fall. By analyzing the underlying causes and consequences of loss and degradation of wetlands, we propose a set of sufficient scientific information for improving management, protection and restoration of wetlands.