Evaluating the stability of artificial sand-binding vegetation by combining statistical methods and a neural network model.

The stability of artificial sand-binding vegetation determines the success or failure of restoration of degraded ecosystem, accurately evaluating the stability of artificial sand-binding vegetation can provide evidence for the future management and maintenance of re-vegetated regions. In this paper, a novel data-driven evaluation model was proposed by combining statistical methods and a neural network model to evaluate the stability of artificial sand-binding vegetation in the southeastern margins of the Tengger Desert, where the evaluation indexes were selected from vegetation, soil moisture, and soil. The evaluation results indicate that the stability of the artificially re-vegetated belt established in different years (1956a, 1964a, 1981a, and 1987a) tend to be stable with the increase of sand fixation years, and the artificially re-vegetated belts established in 1956a and 1964a have almost the same stability, but the stability of the artificially re-vegetated belt established in 1981a and 1987a have a significant difference. The evaluation results are reliable and accurate, which can provide evidence for the future management of artificial sand-binding vegetation.