|
Remote sensing technology has become one of the most effective means of acquiring land cover information, benefiting from its capability to provide dynamic, rich, and cost-effective data sources. Additionally, the changes in vegetation coverage are crucial for forest management, ecological conservation, and government planning. Thus, this study utilizes remote sensing image data to analyze the vegetation cover changes in Puyang, central China. During the period from 2002 to 2017, three scenes from the series Landsat, i.e. Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and Operational Land Imager (OLI), are used in the experiment. After that, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values are derived from these data. An empirical model is employed to classify the study area into five different vegetation cover levels, i.e., no vegetation, extremely low coverage, low coverage, moderate coverage, and high coverage. The proportions of each category in the study area are calculated in three satellite images, respectively. The experimental results indicate that the vegetation coverage of Puyang is low, emphasizing the need for further strengthening of environmental protection. Specifically, during the period from 2002 to 2009, there was a noticeable decline in vegetation coverage in Puyang, accompanied by a substantial increase in bare soil and built-up land areas. Then, in the subsequent period from 2009 to 2017, there was a significant rise in the proportion of areas with low vegetation coverage, indicating the tangible effectiveness of environmental protection measures. The analysis suggests that these changes are closely related to the economic transformation in Puyang. Hence, to better safeguard the ecological environment of Puyang, it is recommended that future environmental protection strategies place greater emphasis on enhancing vegetation coverage and promoting sustainable development.
|
