Spatio-temporal evolution of rocky desertification and its driving forces in karst areas of Northwestern Guangxi, China

Rocky desertification (RD) is a process of land degradation that often results in extensive soil erosion, bedrock exposure and considerable decrease of land productivity. The spatio-temporal evolution of RD not only reflects regional ecological environmental changes but also directly impacts regional economic and social development. The study area, Hechi, is a typical karst peak cluster depression area in southwest China. Remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS) and statistical techniques were employed to examine the evolution, including the identification of driving forces, of karst RD in the Northwestern Guangxi. The results indicate that RD became most apparent between 1990 and 2005 when areas of various types of RD increased. Within the karst RD landscape, slight RD was identified as the matrix of the landscape while potential RD had the largest patch sizes. Extremely strong RD, with the simplest shape, was the most influenced by human activities. Overall the landscape evolved from fragmented to agglomerate within the 15-year timeframe. Land condition changes were categorized as five types; desertified, recovered, unchanged, worsened, and alleviated land. The largest turnover within the RD landscape was between slight and moderate RD. With regards to the driving forces all RD had been increasingly influenced by human activities (i.e., the stronger the RD, the stronger the intensity of human disturbances). Dominant impact factors of the RD landscape had shifted from town influence and bare rock land in 1990 to bare rock and grassland in 2005. Moreover, the impacts of stony soil, mountainous proportion and river density on RD increased over time, while that of others decreased. The significant factors included human activities, land use, soil types, environmental geology, and topography. However, only anthropogenic factors (human activities and land use) were reported as leading factors whereas the others acted simply as constraining factors.