Qingrun Lin

4. Discussion 4.1. Spatio-Temporal Changes in Land Use Since 1990, land use change in the Mongolian part of the Selenga River Basin has been more dramatic than in the Russian part, and the frequent occurrence of desertification has caused great damage to the ecological environment, which is primarily related to the expansion of the mining industry, the development of agriculture and the drastic changes in the climate []. The barren land area is expected to gradually decrease in the future.

Abstract : During the past several decades, desertification and land degradation have become more and more serious in Mongolia. The drivers of land use/cover change (LUCC), such as population dynamics and climate change, are increasingly important to local sustainability studies. They can only be properly analyzed at small scales that capture the socio-economic conditions.