Analysis of Spatial-Temporal Changes and Driving Forces of Desertification in the Mu Us Sandy Land from 1991 to 2021

Desertification is one of the most critical environmental and socioeconomic issues in the world today. Located in the transitional region between the desert and the Loess Plateau, the Mu Us Sandy Land is one of the nine most environmentally sensitive areas in the world. Remote sensing provides an effective technical method for desertification monitoring. In order to analyze the spatiotemporal distribution of desertification in the Mu Us Sandy Land from 1991 to 2021, the “MSAVI-Albedo” model was employed to extract desertification data in 1991, 2002, 2009 and 2021. The clustering characteristics of desertification were analyzed based on Moran’s I statistic. Subsequently, the driving forces in desertification changes were investigated using a geographical detector to analyze the influence of soil, meteorology, and topography on desertification. Additionally, the impact of meteorological and human factors on desertification change in the Mu Us Sandy Land was assessed. From 1991 to 2021, the degree of desertification of the Mu Us Sandy Land showed an overall decreasing trend, and the percentage of land classified as undergoing extremely severe, severe, moderate and mild desertification was improved by 86.11%, 81.82%, 52.5% and 37.42%, respectively. The proportion of land classified as undergoing extremely severe desertification decreased from 29.22% to 5.62%, and the proportion of land undergoing no desertification increased from 4.16% to 18.33%. At the same time, the desertification center shifted westward, and the desertification distribution showed a clustering trend. It is known that different factors affect the formation and distribution of desertification in the Mu Us Sandy Land in the following order: soil, meteorology, and topography. Over the past 30 years, the mean annual temperature and annual precipitation increased at rates of 0.01871 °C/a and 1.0374 mm/a, respectively, while the mean annual wind speed decreased at a rate of 0.00945 m/s·a. These changes provided more favorable natural conditions for vegetation growth and sand fixation. Human factors, such as economic development, agriculture and animal husbandry practices, and the policy of returning farmland to forest (grassland) also had a significant impact on the desertification process, leading to a year-by-year improvement in the ecological environment of the Mu Us Sandy Land.