Impacts of the Syrian Civil War on vegetation

ZENG Hui; REN Huazhong; ZHU Jinshun; GUO Jinxin; YE Xin; TENG Yuanjian; NIE Jing; QIN Qiming

doi:10.6046/zrzyyg.2021233

2022 Vol. 34, No. 3

Article Contents

Article navigation > Remote Sensing for Natural Resources > 2022 > 34(3): 121-128

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ZENG Hui, REN Huazhong, ZHU Jinshun, GUO Jinxin, YE Xin, TENG Yuanjian, NIE Jing, QIN Qiming. 2022. Impacts of the Syrian Civil War on vegetation. Remote Sensing for Natural Resources, 34(3): 121-128. doi: 10.6046/zrzyyg.2021233

Citation:

ZENG Hui, REN Huazhong, ZHU Jinshun, GUO Jinxin, YE Xin, TENG Yuanjian, NIE Jing, QIN Qiming. 2022. Impacts of the Syrian Civil War on vegetation. Remote Sensing for Natural Resources, 34(3): 121-128. doi: 10.6046/zrzyyg.2021233

Impacts of the Syrian Civil War on vegetation

1. Institute of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China；
2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Spatial Information Integration and Its Application, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Received Date: 28 July 2021

Revised Date: 15 September 2022

Publish Date: 21 September 2022

Abstract

Abstract

Besides numerous casualties and economic losses, wars may cause damage to the environment. Using a long time series of satellite remote sensing data from 2001 to 2018, this study explored the response of vegetation growth to the environmental changes in Syria caused by the Syrian Civil War. The results are as follows. The vegetation index significantly decreased in regions that experienced the most intense conflict in the war. The land types changed slightly from 2011 when the war started to 2015 but changed significantly from 2015 to 2018, with the grassland area decreasing by 10.08% and the crop planting area decreasing by 21.87%. This study further explored the impacts of human activities on the vegetation status, revealing that both sides of the Euphrates River in the east and their extensional areas are most significantly affected by human activities. This study discovered the negative impacts of the war on vegetation growth and can be utilized as a reference for the research and strategy formulation on food security in areas with military conflicts.
- NDVI /
- time series /
- vegetation /
- Syrian Civil War

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References

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