Correspondence
Min Yan, International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable
Development Goals, Beijing 100094, China.
Email:
yanmin@aircas.ac.cn
Li Zhang, International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable
Development Goals, Beijing 100094, China.
Email: zhangli@aircas.ac.cn
Abstract: Oasis, as a predominant and distinctive resource in
arid regions, plays an important role in maintaining land stability,
human production and living activities. The research on oasis transition
dynamics and driving factors owns vital significance in supporting arid
regions sustainable development. As a typical mountain-desert-oasis
landscape, Turpan-Hami (Tuha) Basin in Xinjiang of China, exhibits
sophisticated interactions among different land types. In this study, we
inspected the spatio-temporal patterns and transition processes of the
oasis using a complex network during 1990 and 2020 in Tuha Basin. In the
oasis transition network, degree value, betweenness centrality, and
average path length were calculated to express the transition
relationship, key oasis type, and oasis structural stability,
corresponding. Six factors were selected to investigate the driving
forces for oasis transition behind climate change and human activities.
Our results showed that the oasis area of Tuha Basin, including natural
oasis and artificial oasis, all grew from 1990 to 2020, with the natural
oasis expanding more than the artificial oasis. The transitions between
oasis types became more frequent as the number of the nodes increased
throughout the study period. Grassland acted as the most important oasis
type in the network with the highest betweenness centrality, but its
importance declined due to the increasing complexity in the oasis
transition network from 1990 to 2020. The transitions between oasis
types became simpler and the oasis structural stability were
increasingly unstable. Through the driving analysis, the oasis changes
showed positive correlation with temperature (P -value <
0.05, r = 0.88), and urbanization and industrialization factors
prompted the transitions of built-up and cropland from grassland and
shrubland. Totally, preventing the degraded grassland and excessive
reclamation of land cover, protecting the shrubland and water resources
are suggested in this study to conduct a harmonious symbiotic
relationship between natural environment and human activities, and
promote the oasis sustainable development.
Keywords: Turpan-Hami Basin, complex network, oasis transition,
oasis structural stability, driving force, oasis sustainable development