Assessing spatial-temporal evolution processes and driving forces of karst rocky desertification

Karst Rocky Desertification (KRD) has become the most serious ecological disaster in Southwest China. We used the data of Thematic Mapper (TM) images from 1990, 1995, 2000, 2004, and 2011 and the 2016 Operational Land Imager (OLI) image. These sensing images were pre-processed by removing non-karst areas based on lithology and cutting away the land types impossibly generating KRD from land use maps. Then, we used a Classification And Regression Tree (CART) to classify the KRD. We want to improve the interpretation accuracy of KRD through the above steps. The results were as follows: (1) The KRD experiences the evolution process of 'first deterioration and then improvement'. The rate is -4.94 km(2).a(-1) over a period of 1990 to 2004, and the rate is 36.48 km(2).a(-1) from 2004 to 2016; (2) The most influential factors causing KRD formation are the lithology and the resident population density, with contribution rates of 30.17% and 25.86%, respectively.