Estimating the Effect of Infrastructure on Vegetation Degradation in Eastern Mongolia Steppe Using Machine Learning and Remote Sensing

In the Eastern Mongolian Steppe Ecosystem, one of the major driving factors of human-induced land degradation is the expansion of road networks mainly due to intensifications of oil exploration and exploitation. Modern remote sensing data and machine learning techniques provide the possibility to detect and monitor long-term changes of land use such as dirt road and linear infrastructure in oil exploitation area. This study determined changes of land use/cover in the period 2005–2018 and estimated effects of dirt roads on surrounding grasslands ecosystems using multi-temporal satellite data with medium to high spatial resolution covering 20,000 km2 in eastern Mongolia. The ecological impacts of dirt roads and oil extraction sites were investigated using field vegetation photo-monitoring data, existing land use/cover maps and additional NDVI analysis. As a result, this paper describes current and historical land disturbance and its impact on grasslands ecosystem in Eastern Mongolia Steppe.