干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

At Inner Mongolia, livestock grazing in grassland has a history of a few thousand years. The number of livestock grazing is increasing rapidly in this area because the demand for wool and meat is greater and greater, along with the increase in income and population in China. As a result, the over-grazing is continuing, and land degradation is advancing in the grassland.

The land degradation process is related to biomass declining and to the change in botanical composition. We intend to develop an effective spectral index which can detect grass biomass and botanical composition.

This study consists of satellite image analyses accompanied by ground verification experiments. Spectro-radiometric measurements of steppe vegetation using a portable radiometer were performed in order to get the relationships between spectral characteristics and grassland conditions. At the same time, vegetation status and soil conditions were also investigated.