Spatiotemporal patterns and targeted management in a fragile arid irrigation district: insights from decadal RSEI on GEE in the Hetao Plain

This study evaluated environmental quality variation over time and space (2013–2022) throughout the arid Hetao Plain irrigation-urban zone using the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) and the GEE. Landsat 8 imagery was analyzed, integrating greenness, wetness , heat, and dryness from PCA. Results show that RSEI exhibited a fluctuating increase (0.406 to 0.50), but dropped sharply in 2018 (RSEI=0.399) due to excessive agricultural activity. Wetlands maintained high quality, with wetness as the dominant factor. Desert areas along the Yellow River and urban zones showed severely suppressed quality due to dry-heat stress. The study confirms RSEI's effectiveness for arid irrigation districts and proposes a targeted management paradigm: "core wetland conservation - desert restoration - urban heat island mitigation" to support agricultural ecological safety in the Yellow River Basin.