Spatial Data Analysis of the Nomadic Grassland System in Arhorqin, Inner Mongolia, an Important Global Agricultural Cultural Heritage Site of FAO

Wang, Z. X.  Min, Q. W.

Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, State Key Laboratory of Resource and Environmental Information System, Beijing 100101, China

Abstract: On May 20, 2022, "Arukorqin Grassland Nomadic System" was recognized by FAO as "an important global agricultural cultural heritage system ". This brings the total number of "important global agricultural cultural heritage" to 67, including 18 in China. The heritage site of "Arukorqin Grassland Nomadic System" includes all Bayan Wendur Sumu in Arukorqin Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, including 23 Gacha (villages), one forest farm (Hanshan Forst), and one forest protection station, with a total area of 3375 km2. This data set is the spatial data part of heritage sites, including 7 categories: (1) spatial location and scope of heritage sites: Arhorqin Banner; Bayan Wendur Sumu; 23 Gacha, 1 forest farm, 1 forest protection station; (2) Grassland nomadic system division: winter and spring pasture, Hanshan forest, summer and autumn pasture; (3) Landform: 30 m-DEM and 10 m-Slope; (4) Land use: 8 categories; (5) 3 main rivers and 3 nomadic routes; (6) NDVI: Sentinel 2 satellite in July 2018, 10 m; (7) Classification of soil erosion intensity: classification of soil erosion intensity of forest, shrubbery, grassland and bare land. The data archive format is Shp and Tif. This data consists of 108 data files, with a data volume of 740 MB (compressed into 2 files, 565 MB).

Keywords: important global agricultural cultural heritage system; Arhorqin Banner; Bayan Wendur Sumu: Grassland nomadic system; Heritage sites; Soil erosion; Sentinel 2 satellite

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3974/geodb.2022.04.11

CSTR: https://cstr.escience.org.cn/CSTR:20146.14.2022.04.11

Dataset Availability Statement:

The dataset supporting this paper was published and is accessible through the Digital Journal of Global Change Data Repository at: https://doi.org/10.3974/geodb.2022.08.07.V1 or https://cstr.escience.org.cn/CSTR:20146.11.2022.08.07.V1.

1 Introduction

Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) is a new type of world heritage that FAO began to incubate in 2002, It is "conceptually equivalent to the world cultural heritage. It is a unique land use system and agricultural landscape formed under the long-term co evolution and dynamic adaptation of rural areas and their environment. This system and landscape has rich biodiversity, and can meet the needs of local social, economic and cultural development, and is conducive to promoting regional sustainable development [1-2]." To obtain GIAHS certification, you must have outstanding characteristics in five areas: food and livelihood security; Biodiversity and ecological functions; Traditional knowledge and adaptive technology; Agricultural culture, value system and social organization; Outstanding landscape and water and soil resource management [3-4].

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs launched the excavation and protection of "China's important agricultural cultural heritage" in 2012. By November 12, 2021, 138 "Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage of China"[1] certifications have been delivered in 6 batches; As of May 20, 2022, 18 Chinese heritages have been included in the FAO list of "Important Global Agricultural Cultural Heritage"[2].

Arukorqin grassland nomadic system, including the whole Bayan Wendur Sumu, Arukorqin Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, covers an area of 3375 km2. This heritage site was included in the list of "Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage in China" in 2014, and was recognized as "Important Global Agricultural Cultural Heritage" by FAO in 2022. The main body of the heritage land is a semi-arid continental climate. The interannual change of ecological conditions is large, and it is difficult to predict the grassland productivity. Under such natural security conditions, if family based animal husbandry (grazing) is adopted, some families may be unable to sustain their livelihoods. According to the seasonal and topographic conditions, it may be an inevitable choice for the local people to live by water and grass (nomadic) in a large space and time combination.

Of course, everything has two sides. The boundary of nomadic grassland is not very clear, and grazing management depends on traditional customs and internal consultation [5-6]. Although the grassland nomadic system can effectively alleviate the uncertainty brought by the changing climate in semi-arid areas to the animal husbandry, it also faces boundary disputes, large-scale fencing, and "tragedy of commons" caused by the unclear property rights of the grassland in the nomadic system [7-9]. With the increasing popularity of the heritage site, future tourism and production activities will bring new opportunities and challenges to the development and protection of the heritage site, so solid scientific research is needed [10].

This data set is the spatial data part of the grassland nomadic system in Arhorqin, including 7 categories, which can support the management and research of heritage sites.

2 Metadata of the Dataset

Metadata for the "Spatial Dataset of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System - The Nomadic System of the Ar Horqin Grassland in Inner Mongolia" is listed in Table 1 ^[11].

3 Spatial Data of Heritage Sites

3.1 Overview of the Heritage Site

The heritage site is located in Bayan Wendur Sumu, Arhorqin Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (Fig. 1a), including 23 Gacha (administrative villages), 1 forest protection station (Genpi Temple), and 1 national nature reserve (Hanshan Forest) (Fig. 1b), with a total area of 3375 km2. Based on the 25 units, the nomadic division of the grassland nomadic system in Arhorqin is: "Hanshan Forest" in the middle; 21 Gacha and 1 forest protection station in the south belong to "Winter Spring Pasture"; North Talin Hua Gacha and Yatu Te Gacha belong to "Summer and Autumn Pasture" (Figure 2). In 2018, there were 5533 households with a total population of 15103. By the end of June 2018, the total number of livestock on hand was 2.556 million (456,000 large livestock and 2.047 million sheep); At the end of December, the total number of livestock on hand was 1.792 million (305000 large livestock and 1.443 million sheep).

The landform of the heritage site is characterized by open valleys and hills in the southern winter and spring pastures, low mountains and medium mountains in the central and northern Hanshan Forest, and Inner Mongolia plateau in the northern "summer and autumn pastures". The altitude of the heritage site spans 414-1650m (Figure 2a).

Slope: most of the pastures are gentle in winter and spring area; The altitude of Hanshan Forest is high, and most slopes are above 16 degrees; Most pastures in Summer and Autumn Area is above 1000m, but most slopes are below 25 degrees (Fig. 2b)

Table 1  Metadata for Spatial Dataset of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System - The Nomadic System of the Ar Horqin Grassland in Inner Mongolia

3.2 Land Use and Nomadic System of Heritage Sites

3.2.1 Land use (Figure 3, Table 2)

According to 2018 land use data (finest, so far), the total area of the heritage site is 337523.4 hm2: grassland 51.32%, forest 26.96%, shrub 15.07%. Among them, the area of "Winter and Spring Pasture" in the south is the largest, 195699.68 hm2; The area of "Hanshan Forest Farm" in the middle is 84910.68 hm2; The area of "Summer and Autumn Pasture" in the north is the smallest, 56913.04 hm2.

(1) Winter spring pasture: the proportion of grassland, forest and shrub forest is close to that of the whole heritage site. Although the proportion of "farmland" and "construction land" is less than 4%, this is the most obvious feature of the region, reflecting the relatively developed economy of winter and spring pastures.

(2) Summer and autumn pasture: it has the advantages of wilderness and biodiversity. First, because the land directly affected by human activities only accounts for 1.33% (0.73% of farmland, 0.17% of buildings, 0.43% of roads), while the proportion of other landscapes with more natural characteristics is as high as 98.67%. This makes the region have a resource that is scarce in modern society - wilderness or nature, which is of great significance to the development of ecotourism. This kind of wilderness has improved the diversity of ground plants: there are nearly 300 species of herbage plants, including more than 30 kinds of medicinal plants commonly used by Mongolian people. The livestock products produced by the Summer and Autumn Pastures with diversified herbivores as the main raw materials have better quality. This natural and diversified herbivorous resource, as well as the length of feeding time, is also an important indicator for the selection of high-quality mutton in Europe [13].

(3) Hanshan Forest. As grazing is prohibited in this area, this area mainly provides ecological services: providing water conservation, water and soil conservation, and biodiversity provenance for the north and south pastures; It provides three safe passages for nomadic travel, ensuring grazing and rest on the way; In winter and spring when forage resources are scarce, appropriate grazing can be carried out in the "experimental area" at the outermost periphery of the nature reserve; The forest ecosystem of Hanshan Mountain and the summer and autumn pastures have their own characteristics and complement each other, which is a complete system for the future development of ecotourism

3.2.2 Main roads and nomadic routes (Figure 4)

The roads related to nomadism in the heritage site are mainly as shown in Figure 4: at the end of May and the beginning of June every year, 21 Kacha in Winter Spring Pasture start to organize cattle and sheep for transfer, set out at each Kacha distribution center, and go north along the road. When crossing Hanshan Forest Farm, it is mainly divided into three routes: east line, middle line and west line. After entering the summer and autumn pastures, continue to move to their respective grazing areas according to the traditional grazing areas. In addition, in addition to the traditional conventions, more detailed spatial zoning map is required for the cattle and sheep of 21 Gacha (forest protection station) in Winter Spring Pasture to make better use of the grassland of 2 Gacha in Summer and Autumn Pasture for fine management.

Table 2  Area and percentage of 8 land cover types in Aqi nomadic area

3.3 Land degradation assessment of nomadic system

3.3.1 Basic considerations for land degradation assessment of nomadic system

(1) Scope of assessment: land degradation assessment is only conducted for four land uses directly related to nomadic system, namely "forest, shrubbery, grassland and bare land".

(2) Assessment indicators and methods: The "Classification and Grading Standards of Soil Erosion" [14] of the Ministry of Water Resources was selected as the quality indicator of grazing land. As the heritage site is located in the crisscross area of water erosion and wind erosion, the grazing land is first classified into water erosion and wind erosion, and then the "Max" of the pixel is represented by a more serious level.

(3) Time representativeness of assessment: vegetation coverage data (replaced by Sentinel 2 NDVI) is required for both water erosion assessment and wind erosion assessment. NDVI closely follows the increase of precipitation, so it is necessary to make a compromise: NDVI is better (not necessarily the largest), and it is sufficient to use sunny data to synthesize the whole pastoral area. The comparison results show that there are many clouds and fogs in August 2018, and it is impossible to obtain enough sunny data; In September, the vegetation coverage in the north of Hanshan Forest Farm has decreased significantly. July is the best month, so July 2018 is taken as the reference Year (Figure 5).

Figure 5  NDVI of heritage site in 2018 (Sentinel 2 satellite, July and September 2018)

3.3.2 Soil Erosion Assessment Results

(1) Water erosion

All Pastures: no erosion accounted for 32.23%, and slight erosion accounted for 50.49%, accounting for 82.72% in total. Moderate erosion is 15.86%, and severe erosion is 1.42%. The grazing land is mainly subject to slight hydraulic erosion.

3 Pastures: Zone: In terms of "slight and below water erosion", Hanshan Forest accounts for 94.10%, with the highest quality; The southern winter spring pasture accounts for 80.79%, with medium quality; The proportion of summer and autumn pastures in the north is 71.75%, which is the worst among the three pastural areas. (Figure 6a, Table 5)

(2) Wind erosion

In all nomadic areas, "no erosion" accounts for 37.25%, and "slight erosion" accounts for 36.15%. (Figure 6b, Table 6)

In 3 nomadic areas: In term of "the proportion of mild and below wind erosion in the area of the whole region", the Winter Spring Pasture in the south is 70.26%, the Summer Autumn Pasture in the north is 49.18%, and the Hanshan Forest is 96.07%.

Summer and Autumn pastures: since the grassland in summer and autumn pastures accounts for 90.22%, the degree of wind erosion of the grassland can reflect the quality of pasture. The proportion of grassland free from wind erosion is only 7.68%, the proportion of light wind erosion is 41.47%, the proportion of moderate wind erosion is 47.60%, and the proportion of "strong and above wind erosion" is 3.24%.

(3) Max soil erosion (Figure 6c, Table 7)

Nomadic system: in all pastures, "no erosion" accounts for 19.94%, and slight erosion accounts for 47.39%, accounting for 67.33% in total. Moderate erosion accounts for 31.80%, and "strong and above erosion" accounts for 0.86%. As it is the first level of water erosion and wind erosion, the proportion of "mild and lower soil erosion" decreases.

Three pastoral areas: in terms of the proportion of "Slight and below soil erosion (best grass)", Winter Spring Pasture accounts for 63.58%, central Hanshan Forest accounts for 91.73%, and northern Summer and Autumn Pasture accounts for 42.59%.

Figure 6  Land Erosion Intensity of Pasture in the Heritage Site

Table 5  Classification of water erosion of grassland in nomadic system of heritage site(%)

Table 6  Classification of Wind Erosion of Grassland (%)

Northern summer and autumn pasture: only 5.39% of the pasture land in summer and autumn pasture is not eroded, 37.20% is slightly eroded, and 51.14% is moderately eroded. This shows that the quality of pastures in summer and autumn poor is poor, and the pressure of grassland restoration is great in the future.

3.4 Ground investigation (Figure 7)

In order to verify the applicability of soil erosion assessment, we visited the west line (Hundulun area) and the middle line (Tallinghua area) of the summer and autumn pastures in July 2019, our findings are summarized below.

Table 7  Max of (Water,Wind) Soil Erosion Severity of Pasture in Nomadic System (%)

3.4.1 Slope system

The 10 m data of Sentinel 2 satellite can easily quantitatively describe the areal erosion of different degrees. Including grassland in different states; From no erosion to moderate erosion and severe erosion to rocky desertification. However, Sentinel 2 satellite failed to detect gullies developed on the slope and deep parent material layer, which may directly form gullies in the rainstorm season (Fig. 7a - Fig. 7d). Most gullies are less than 5m wide, 3-4 m deep and more than 10m long.

Figure 7  Main Types of Soil Erosion in Summer and Autumn Pastures

3.4.2 Land degradation in gully and flat land systems (Figure 7)

The flood and sediment of the slope system converge into the valley, and the most direct impact is on the road system: water and soil loss may wash the pavement (Figure 7d), break the road (Fig. 7e), and wash out the subgrade (Fig. 7f). Sediment may also bury the road (Fig. 7g).

In flat areas, some "drivers drive at will on the grass" damage the grass. For example, in Hundulun Ranch, more than 20 pairs of parallel ruts were found (Fig. 7h) in grassland. 

4 Discussion and Conclusion

4.1 This Dataset

Arukorqin grassland nomadic system will face more development opportunities and challenges after it is selected as the FAO "Global Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage System" in May 2022. This data set is the spatial data part of the 2019 application document, which can be used as the baseline data for future research. In addition to the basic spatial data, the land degradation of nomadic systems was mainly assessed. According to the classification and grading standards of soil erosion of the Ministry of Water Resources of China, the soil erosion assessment was conducted on the pastures of the heritage sites using Sentinel 2 satellite data in July 2018。

(1) The moderate and above water erosion and wind erosion account for 17.28% respectively. The moderate and above soil erosion accounts for 32.67% of the total grazing land.

(2) The proportion of "moderate and above soil erosion" of the three pastures in the total pastures is 36.42% in winter and spring, 57.41% in Summer and Autumn Pasture, and 8.27% in Hanshan Forest Farm. This shows that the grassland degradation in summer and autumn pastures is relatively serious.

4.2 Future Spatial Data Development

Now, when the cattle and sheep from 23 Gacha in winter and spring come to the summer and autumn pastures, how to use the two Gacha pastures mainly depends on the village rules and regulations formed over the years, and there is no clear grassland boundary. In the future, in order to achieve the balance between grass and livestock on a fine scale, it is necessary to develop a clearer division of summer and autumn pastures.

Author Contributions

Wang Z. X. was responsible for the case spatial dataset and completed the first draft of the paper. Min Q. W. refine the text.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Wang, B., Qian, H. Y, Fang X. Y, etc. of the government of Arhorqin Banner for their strong support field investigation.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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