Simulation of potential vegetation based on GIS

The temperature and precipitation are the key climatic factors to control the vegetation distribution, which decides to the potential vegetation distribution somewhere. The Losses Plateau, because of the influence of mountainous terrain, hydrothermal conditions have been improved,and the vegetation condition has been improved remarkably accordingly. In this paper, the area of Mount Maxian is selected. The author adopts two kinds of index-water and thermal product index and Holdridge life zone system model, Based on the hydro-thermal combination, and using GRID module of ArcGIS to simulate the spatial distribution of the precipitation, temperature and evaporation, the author obtains the potential vegetation distribution of the study area. In this research area, because we lack meteorological site, the author employs statistical methods and DEM powerful spatial analysis function to derive the statistical models of the precipitation and temperature distribution. And then we use slope and aspect to make local regulation so as to get the precipitation and temperature distribution of the mountainous district. By using Hargreaves formula to calculate the potential evapotranspiration and the components mentioned above, and methods of water and thermal product index and Holdridge life zone model, two potential vegetation distribution map can be obtained.