ZENG Hui1(), REN Huazhong1,2(), ZHU Jinshun1, GUO Jinxin1, YE Xin1, TENG Yuanjian1, NIE Jing1, QIN Qiming1,2
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
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.
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