Analysis of China grassland dynamic based on RS and GIS

We monitor dynamic of china grassland from 1995 to 2000 by using TM datum based RS and GIS technology. The datum are extracted from LANDSAT TM image. The task of image classification is mainly taken on by experts with the help of relief map, navigation photo etc, thus grassland coverage could be acquired. With the high and middle cover grassland area increasing, but the area of low cover grassland is much decreasing. The area of west china grassland is decreasing, such as Shanxi,Qinghai,Gansu province etc, especially inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. There exists huge gap between west china and east china in grassland change. The change degree of west china grassland is great than east china's. Human activities have great impact on grassland change. The main shifting is farmland and urban, which shows economy gap between west china and east china. Meanwhile, there is heavy degradation in grassland change, especially in west china.