| Issue |
E3S Web Conf.
Volume 694, 2026
Third International Conference on Green Energy, Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Technologies 2025 (ICGEST 2025)
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 02010 | |
| Number of page(s) | 13 | |
| Section | Ecology and Eco Systems | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202669402010 | |
| Published online | 16 February 2026 | |
Geospatial analysis of the Khorezm oasis in terms of its vegetation cover and the impact of vegetation criteria on the desertification process
1 Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Urgench State University named after Abu Raykhan Beruniy, 220100 Khorezm, Uzbekistan
2 Department of Geodesy, Cartography, Cadastre, Technical faculty, Urgench State University named after Abu Raykhan Beruniy, 220100 Khorezm, Uzbekistan
3 Department of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, Urgench State Pedagogical Institute, 220100 Khorezm, Uzbekistan
4 Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Urgench State University named after Abu Raykhan Beruniy, 220100 Khorezm, Uzbekistan
5 Academic Lyceum of Urgench State University, 220100 Khorezm, Uzbekistan
6 Department of Geodesy, Cartography and Natural Resources, Faculty of Geography and Natural Resources, Karakalpak State University, 230100 Nukus, Uzbekistan
Abstract
Desertification is one of the main environmental problems in arid and semi-arid regions such as the Khorezm oasis. Desertification directly affects soil fertility and the living standards of local residents. In this study, we studied the role of vegetation cover in the desertification process in the Khorezm oasis. We analyzed vegetation characteristics using Sentinel-2 satellite data. Based on these indicators, we developed a Vegetation Quality Index (VQI) to assess vegetation cover, drought tolerance, erosion protection, and drought risk across the study area. The results of our study showed that vegetation degradation is spatially unevenly distributed across the oasis. Approximately 16.07% of the buffer zone and 4.71% of the oasis were identified as areas with very high desertification risk in terms of vegetation cover density. The drought resilience analysis showed that 40.17% of the oasis is moderately vulnerable, indicating the need for targeted measures for effective land management. Areas with relatively high erosion risk accounted for 41% of our study area, while fire risk was limited, with 3.2% of the oasis area identified as high risk.
Key words: Vegetation cover / Geospatial analysis / Remote sensing / Vegetation Quality Index (VQI) / Drought tolerance / Erosion resistance / Fire risk / Soil degradation
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2026
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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