J.Geogr.Sci.2023,33(3):508-528DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-023-2094-x©2023SciencePressSpringer-VerlagRegulationfactorsdrivingvegetationchangesinChinaduringthepast20yearsZHAOHaixia1,2,GUBinjie1,LINDLEYSarah3,ZHUTianyuan1,FANJinding41.NanjingInstituteofGeographyandLimnology,CAS,Nanjing210008,China;2.ChinaResources&EnvironmentPolicyAcademy,Nanjing210095,China;3.SchoolofEnvironment,EducationandDevelopment,TheUniversityofManchester,ManchesterM139PL,UnitedKingdom;4.SchoolofEnvironmentalScienceandEngineering,SuzhouUniversityofScienceandTechnology,Suzhou215009,Jiangsu,ChinaAbstract:Vegetationchangeisofsignificantconcernbecauseitplaysacrucialroleintheglobalcarboncycleandclimate.Manystudieshaveexaminedrecentchangesinvegetationgrowthandtheassociateddrivers.Thesedriversincludebothnaturalandhumanactivities,butfewstudieshaveidentifiedtheregulationfactors.Byemployingnormalizeddifferencevegetationindex(NDVI)data,weanalyzedthespatiotemporalpatternofvegetationchangeinChinaandthenexploredthedrivingfactors.ItwasfoundthattheoverallgreeningofChinahasimprovedsignificantly,especiallyintheLoessPlateauandsouthwestChina.TheYangtzeRiverDeltaandBohaiRim,however,havenotseenasmuchgrowth.Naturalconditionsareconducivetovegetationgrowth.Althoughsocioeconomicdevelopmentwillbemorebeneficialforvegetationrestoration,thecurrentlevelandspeedofdevelopmenthaveanegativeeffectonvegetation.Theregulationfactorsareconsideredseparatelysincetheyaffectbothdirectlyandindirectly.Regulationfactorshaveacceleratedvegetationgrowth.Byunderstandingthefactorsaffectingthecurrentvegetationgrowth,wecanprovideaguideforfuturevegetationrecoveryinChinaandothersimilarcountries.Keywords:vegetationchange;NDVI;regulationfactors;climatechange;China1IntroductionVegetationisavitalcomponentthatmaintainsthestabilityofterrestrialecosystemslinkingtheatmosphere,water,andsoil(Fuetal.,2017;Zhaoetal.,2018).Vegetationisviewedasasensitiveindicatorofclimatechange(Smithetal.,1997);therefore,monitoringvegetationchangeisvaluableforstudyinggl...
