Assessing the effect of desertification controlling projects and policies in northern Shaanxi Province, China by integrating remote sensing and farmer investigation data

Abstract

To combat desertification, the Chinese government has launched a series of Desertification Controlling Projects and Policies over the past several decades. However, the effect of these projects and policies remains controversial due to a lack of suitable methods and data to assess them. In this paper, the authors selected the farming-pastoral region of the northern Shaanxi Province in China as a sample region and attempted to assess the effect of Desertification Controlling Projects and Policies launched after 2000 by combining remote sensing and farmer investigation data. The results showed that the combination of these two complementary assessments can provide comprehensive information to support decision-making. According to the remote sensing and Net Primary Production data, the research region experienced an obvious desertification reversion between 2000 and 2010, and approximately 70% of this reversion can be explained by Desertification Controlling Projects and Policies. Farmer investigation data also indicated that these projects and policies were the dominating factor contributing to desertification reversion, and approximately 70% of investigated farmers agreed with this conclusion. However, low supervision and subsidy levels were issues that limited the policy effect. Therefore, it is necessary for the government to enhance supervision, raise subsidy levels, and develop environmental protection regulations to encourage more farmers to participate in desertification control.

Keywords

desertification control / policy assessment / remote sensing / farmer investigation / China

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Acknowledgements

This research was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 71573245 and 71103170), and the National Key Technologies R&D Program of China (2012BAC19B09).

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2016 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg