Thirty years ago, Mongolia’s Gobi Desert was intact, roadless and had low traffic, and it was a refuge for many endangered and rare species. A large mining boom and significant livestock grazing are currently putting pressure on the desert. Mining products were transported by trucks on dirt (gravel) roads between 2000 and 2012. Emphasizing its importance in the Mongolian economy, a paved road was constructed in 2012 along the dirt road. Unfortunately, vegetation along the paved road was removed without restoration. In the desert, locals continue to use, create and extend dirt roads. The impact of these roads on the vegetation has yet to be studied. We estimated the spatial extent of the dirt-road corridors in three time intervals (the years 2010, 2015 and 2020) and evaluated the vegetation along both paved and dirt roads at three distances (100, 500, and 900 m) from the road. Within ten years, the length of paved roads and soil dirt roads nearly doubled, although the majority of them were developed and created between 2015 and 2020. A single track makes up around 42 percent of the soil road, whereas the remaining 58 percent are roads consisting of three to four tracks with an average width of 26.5 m. The vegetation along the paved road was lower in terms of species richness, canopy cover, and the basal gap between perennial plants and biomass, compared to the soil road. Although the effects of soil roads on the vegetation along the roads is less negative than the effects of the paved road, the corridors formed along the soil roads span a non-negligible area of pastureland in the region. The vegetation along the already-constructed paved road in the desert should be artificially reclaimed with the aim of expediting natural revegetation. Moreover, a “new legislation” is required to prevent continued degradation due to the ongoing creation and extension of soil road corridors by local populations in the desert.

Mongolia is a massive, semi-arid country in Central Asia with a huge territory of 1,500,000 km2, with rangeland making up around 75% of the country's territory. These rangelands have supported herders and grazing animals for millennia. The transition from nomadic to stationary livestock husbandry in Mongolia’s rangeland has resulted in major changes in vegetation communities due to increased livestock numbers. The primary objective of this study is to examine the impacts of grazing on the vegetation of rangelands in the desert steppe ecosystem. The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of livestock grazing by measuring vegetation standing crop biomass, vegetation cover, and species' richness. The study was carried out in Khanbogd soum (district), Umnugovi aimag, the southern province of Mongolia. To assess the grazing impact, we sampled fourteen winter camps of herders who are members of the four herder groups, who were located at 1000 m and 2000 m from each. In total, we sampled 28 plots in two consecutive years. Our results indicate that aboveground biomass, cover, and species' richness did not differ with increasing distance from winter camps. Similar grazing pressures were shown at 1,000 and 2,000 meters away from the winter camps as well.

Mongolia’s arid landscapes and sparse population pose unique transportation challenges, particularly in Umnugovi aimag (province), where over 90% of roads remain unpaved. Informal dirt tracks, which were made because there weren't enough paved roads, have damaged the environment by causing soil erosion, loss of vegetation, and habitat fragmentation. This study applies advanced remote sensing techniques, including machine learning classification and GIS-based analysis, to quantify the spatial extent of paved and unpaved roads in the desert steppe of Khanbogd, Tsogttsetsii, and Sevrei soums (sub-district). High-resolution Sentinel-2 imagery (2010–2025) was processed to extract road networks and calculate their surface areas. Results indicate rapid road expansion, with Tsogttsetsii’s road area increasing from 324 ha in 2015 to 1,105 ha in 2024, at an average annual growth of 86.35 ha. Road expansion in Sevrei soum, a non-mining control area, was higher due to wider pastoral corridors. Findings highlight the importance of integrated infrastructure planning that mitigates environmental impacts through dust control, wildlife corridors, and pastureland conservation. This study provides a methodological framework for assessing road-induced landscape transformation in arid regions, contributing to sustainable transportation and land-use policy development.

Since 2005, the mining sector has been a vital part of Mongolia's economy. This sector is one of Mongolia's most important sources of revenue. Primary outputs of Mongolia's mining industry are copper, gold, and coal. On the other hand, mining has a negative impact on the environment causing soil erosion, noise pollution, water pollution, and biodiversity loss. The Oyu Tolgoi copper mine is located in a semi-arid zone in the Mongolian Gobi. The impact of mining was investigated by sampling eight plots both in and out of this giant mining site. Vegetative cover, species richness, biomass, and basal gap of perennial plants were compared within and outside the perimeter of the Oyu Tolgoi mining site. The mining sites have a harmful impact on the environment. According to our findings vegetation cover, species richness, biomass, and perennial plant gaps were not different between the paired plots outside and inside of the mining site. Mining activities had little effect on vegetation, according to the findings.