Vegetation Mapping for Regional Ecological Research and Manage-ment: A Case of the Loess Plateau in China

• Published in: 中国地理科学（英文版） 2020, Vol.30 (3), p.410-426
• Main Authors: LIU Yuanxin, LYU Yihe, BAI Yingfei, ZHANG Buyun, TONG Xiaolin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1002-0063

Vegetation maps are fundamental for regional-scale ecological research. However, information is often not sufficiently up to date for such research. The Loess Plateau is a key area for vegetation restoration projects and a suitable area for regional ecological re-search. To carry out regional vegetation mapping based on the principles of hierarchical classification, object-oriented methods, visual interpretation, and accuracy assessment, this study integrated land cover, high-resolution remote sensing images, background environ-mental data, bioclimate zoning data, and field survey data from the Loess Plateau. To further clarify the implications of vegetation map-ping, we compared the deviation of the 2015 vegetation map of the Loess Plateau (VMLP) and the widely used vegetation map of China (VMC) (1 : 1000000) for the expressed vegetation information and the evaluation of ecosystem services. The results indicated that 1) the vegetation of the Loess Plateau could be divided into 9 vegetation type groups and 18 vegetation types with classification accuracies of 87.76％ and 83.97％, respectively; 2) the distribution of vegetation had obvious zonal regularity; 3) a deviation of 29.56 × 104km2 occurred when the vegetation coverage area was quantified with the VMC; 4) the vegetation classification accuracy affected the ecosys-tem service assessment, the total water yield of the Loess Plateau calculated by the VMC and other required parameters was overesti-mated by 2.2 × 106 mm in 2015. Because vegetation mapping is a basic and important activity, that requires greater attention, this study provides supporting data for subsequent multivariate vegetation mapping and vegetation management for conservation and restoration.