TY - JOUR
T1 - Post-socialist cropland changes and abandonment in Mongolia
AU - Sankey, Temuulen Tsagaan
AU - Massey, Richard
AU - Yadav, Kamini
AU - Congalton, Russell G.
AU - Tilton, James C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Admin-
Funding Information:
This study was funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and U.S. Geological Survey Grant G13C00129.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
PY - 2018/9
Y1 - 2018/9
N2 - Large-scale cropland changes have significant implications for global and national food supply as well as degradation in land resources. We examined cropland dynamics at the national scale in Mongolia over the last three decades using Google Earth Engine cloud computing and 11,360 Landsat satellite images. Our overarching goal was to develop the first comprehensive, high-resolution maps of Mongolia's cropland extent for two nominal years: 1990 at the peak of the socialist era production and 2014 after major socio-political and economic regime changes. By comparing the two cropland maps, we estimate cropland changes and identify areas of post-socialist cropland abandonment. Our cropland classifications produce high overall accuracies (overall weighted, statistical accuracies of 98% and 97%, respectively), and the cropland area estimates compare well with county-level crop area statistics (R2 = 0.91, p value <.001). We estimate 38% cropland decline in Mongolia throughout the major crop regions but 18% increase in the central region due to increased concentration of crop production. The observed large-scale cropland abandonment would be expected to result in substantial land conversion to rangelands as well as land degradation in the abandoned fields, including soil erosion, increased contribution to desertification, and reduced species diversity. Future studies can monitor the long-term trajectory in the abandoned crop fields and recommend targeted restoration strategies.
AB - Large-scale cropland changes have significant implications for global and national food supply as well as degradation in land resources. We examined cropland dynamics at the national scale in Mongolia over the last three decades using Google Earth Engine cloud computing and 11,360 Landsat satellite images. Our overarching goal was to develop the first comprehensive, high-resolution maps of Mongolia's cropland extent for two nominal years: 1990 at the peak of the socialist era production and 2014 after major socio-political and economic regime changes. By comparing the two cropland maps, we estimate cropland changes and identify areas of post-socialist cropland abandonment. Our cropland classifications produce high overall accuracies (overall weighted, statistical accuracies of 98% and 97%, respectively), and the cropland area estimates compare well with county-level crop area statistics (R2 = 0.91, p value <.001). We estimate 38% cropland decline in Mongolia throughout the major crop regions but 18% increase in the central region due to increased concentration of crop production. The observed large-scale cropland abandonment would be expected to result in substantial land conversion to rangelands as well as land degradation in the abandoned fields, including soil erosion, increased contribution to desertification, and reduced species diversity. Future studies can monitor the long-term trajectory in the abandoned crop fields and recommend targeted restoration strategies.
KW - Google Earth Engine
KW - cloud computing
KW - cropland abandonment
KW - cropland extent
KW - decadal-scale change
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U2 - 10.1002/ldr.2997
DO - 10.1002/ldr.2997
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85047840523
SN - 1085-3278
VL - 29
SP - 2808
EP - 2821
JO - Land Degradation and Development
JF - Land Degradation and Development
IS - 9
ER -