Spatiotemporal evolution of desert landscape patterns in China: New characteristics, opportunities, and sustainable challenges

Abstract

As highly sensitive geographical units, deserts require timely monitoring of landscape pattern evolution. This study employed the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform and Landsat imagery, combined with deep learning, to analyse the spatiotemporal changes in China’s desert landscapes from 1980 to 2024. Findings reveal that over the 45-year period, desert landscapes exhibited a coexistence of expansion and partial reversal. Sandy area increased by 38,332.60 km², rising from 62.74 % to 67.42 % of the study region, while grassland area decreased by 42,537.31 km², representing a net loss of 5.57 %. The period 2000–2010 was marked by accelerated desertification, with an annual sandy area expansion rate of 0.725 % -45 times the rate before 2000. However, from 2010 to 2024, sandy area decreased for the first time, by 0.21 %, and the proportion of semi-fixed and fixed dunes increased to 6.61 %, indicating that ecological restoration has gradually become effective. Spatially, western and central deserts remain fragile and are dominated by mobile dunes, while eastern sandy lands show higher vegetation coverage due to engineering and agricultural interventions. Human activities (54.46 %) contributed more to landscape changes than climatic factors (45.54 %), though seasonal cropland may cause “false greening”, potentially overstating restoration success. Future desert management presents opportunities through solar energy and characteristic industries, but caution is needed to avoid secondary risks from photovoltaic projects. Sustainable development in China’s desert regions should therefore be guided by water availability and differentiated zonal strategies -for instance, balancing solar energy and specialty industry expansion with safeguards against photovoltaic-related risks -to reconcile ecological restoration with economic needs.

Keywords

Desert landscape / Driving factors / Sustainable development

References

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