The main goal of the project is to assess the ability of geographical information systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) to monitor the health of rangeland in the foothill artemisia-ephemeral rangeland regions of Uzbekistan. These techniques for monitoring rangeland vegetation enable not only the identification of geographical areas, but also the use of this data to scale a physiologically based assessment of the influence of environmental conditions on vegetation. Rangeland currently covers 22.5 million ha of Uzbekistan’s land area, or 50% of the country’s total land area (Gintzburger et al. 2003). It was discovered that numerous anthropogenic influences had an impact on 40% of Uzbekistan’s natural rangelands (Mukimov et al. 2021).
The dry and semi-arid rangeland regions of Uzbekistan have been a place for human activity since antiquity. Because of this, dry and semiarid rangeland plants underwent natural selection under pressure from anthropogenic factors in addition to abiotic environmental constraints. The rangeland areas are disturbed and destroyed by heavy anthropogenic impact, which frequently causes rapid land degradation and desertification (Rajabov 2009). The main dominant Artemisia diffusa L. grows the entire year and subdominant species Poa bulbosa L. and Carex pachystylis L. grow during the rainy season in the artemisia-ephemeral rangeland area.
The desert rangelands are influenced by various factors: overgrazing of livestock (44%), uprooting (25%), shortage of water resources (15%), sand encroachment (10%), and cropping (5%), and industrial activities (1%) (Yusupov 2003). Rangeland health can be revealed by evaluating this area using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The summertime NDVI values in the Artemisia-ephemeral rangelands varied from -0.076 to 0.480. Less than 0.100 NDVI values of the rangelands were found to be in an unhealthy condition based on the results of the field sample. As a result, I advise that a strategic plan be developed to manage and safeguard rangeland for future usage.
