Shi, K.; Yang, Q.; Li, Y. Are Karst Rocky Desertification Areas Affected by Increasing Human Activity in Southern China? An Empirical Analysis from Nighttime Light Data. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2019, 16, 4175.
Shi, K.; Yang, Q.; Li, Y. Are Karst Rocky Desertification Areas Affected by Increasing Human Activity in Southern China? An Empirical Analysis from Nighttime Light Data. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 4175.
Shi, K.; Yang, Q.; Li, Y. Are Karst Rocky Desertification Areas Affected by Increasing Human Activity in Southern China? An Empirical Analysis from Nighttime Light Data. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health2019, 16, 4175.
Shi, K.; Yang, Q.; Li, Y. Are Karst Rocky Desertification Areas Affected by Increasing Human Activity in Southern China? An Empirical Analysis from Nighttime Light Data. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 4175.
Abstract
Due to remarkable socioeconomic development, an increasing number of karst rocky desertification areas have been severely affected by human activities in southern China. Effectively analyzing human activities in karst rocky desertification areas is a critical prerequisite for managing and restoring areas with tremendous negative impacts from desertification. At present, a timely and accurate way of quantifying the spatiotemporal variations of human activities in karst rocky desertification areas is still lacking. In this communication, we attempted to quantify human activities from the corrected NPP-VIIRS nighttime light data from 2012 to 2018 based on statistical analysis. The results show that a significant increase of night lights could be clearly identified during the study period. The total nighttime lights (TL) related to severe karst rocky desertification (S) were particularly concentrated in Guizhou and Yunnan. The nighttime light intensity (LI) related to the S areas in Chongqing were the strongest due to its rapid socioeconomic development. The annual growth rate of nighttime lights (GL) has been slow or even negative in Guangdong because of its various karst rocky desertification restoration programs. This communication could provide an effective approach for quantifying human activities and provide useful information about where prompt attention is required for policy-making on the restoration of the karst rocky desertification areas.
Keywords
nighttime light data; human activities; karst rocky desertification; environmental impact; China
Subject
Social Sciences, Geography, Planning and Development
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
