Improved vegetation cover increases summer atmospheric water vapor over northern China

Abstract

Northern China is an environmentally vulnerable region with a severe water shortage. Several ecological restoration projects since the 1980s have greatly increased vegetation coverage. This study aims to assess the impacts of the changes in vegetation coverage from 1982 to 2008 on the atmospheric precipitable water (PW) over northern China during the summer seasons (JJA) by using reanalysis (precipitable water) and satellite vegetation index data. Several statistical methods are utilized to explore the variations and coupling between vegetation cover and precipitable water. The results show that summer vegetation greenness within the semi-arid western part of northern China is closely linked to the summer PW after excluding the influences of the atmospheric circulations, and this vegetation accounts for as much as 30% of the total PW variance, and the impacts is positive. This study demonstrates the implications of large-scale ecological restoration projects to the hydrological cycle in an arid/semi-arid region. Copyright© (2013) by the Asian Association on Remote Sensing.