Drought monitoring is crucial for assessing and mitigating the impacts of water scarcity on various sectors and ecosystems. Although traditional drought monitoring relies on soil moisture data, remote sensing technology has have significantly augmented the capabilities for drought monitoring. This study aims to evaluate the accuracy and applicability of two temperature vegetation drought indices (TVDI), TVDI_NDVI and TVDI_EVI, constructed using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) vegetation indices for drought monitoring. Using Guangdong Province as a case, enhanced versions of these indices, developed through Savitzky–Golay filtering and terrain correction were employed. Additionally, Pearson correlation analysis and F-tests were utilized to determine the suitability of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) in correlation with TVDI_NDVI and TVDI_EVI. The results show that TVDI_NDVI had more meteorological stations passing both significance test levels (P < 0.001 and P < 0.05) compared to TVDI_EVI, and the average Pearson’R correlation coefficient was slightly higher than that of TVDI_EVI, indicating that TVDI_NDVI responded better to drought in Guangdong Province. Our conclusion reveals that drought-prone regions in Guangdong Province are concentrated in the Leizhou Peninsula in southern Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta in central Guangdong. We also analyzed the phenomenon of winter-spring drought in Guangdong Province over the past 20 years. The area coverage of different drought levels was as follows: mild drought accounted for 42% to 64.6%, moderate drought accounted for 6.96% to 27.92%, and severe drought accounted for 0.002% to 1.84%. In 2003, the winter-spring drought in the entire province was the most severe, with a drought coverage rate of up to 84.2%, while in 2009, the drought area coverage was the lowest, at 49.02%. This study offers valuable insights the applicability of TVDI, and presents a viable methodology for drought monitoring in Guangdong Province, underlining its significance to agriculture, environmental conservation, and socio-economic facets in the region.

The Changtang Nature Reserve, located in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, plays a crucial role in researching ecological and environmental assessment on the plateau. However, the severe natural conditions in the Changtang Plateau have resulted in the absence of meteorological observation stations within the reserve, thereby leading to a lack of fundamental ecological and environmental research data. Remote sensing technology presents an opportunity for ecological monitoring in the Changtang Nature Reserve. In this study, remote sensing ecological indices (RSEI) were utilized to evaluate the ecological environment of the reserve from 2000 to 2020. The MODIS data reconstructed using the Savitzky-Golay filter on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform were employed. Principal component analysis was then conducted to construct the RSEI. The results reveal that the overall ecological environment quality in the Changtang Nature Reserve between 2000 and 2020 was relatively poor. Over the past two decades, the mean RSEI of the reserve exhibited a fluctuating trend of decrease and increase, indicating a deteriorating and subsequently improving ecological environment quality. Specifically, during the period of 2000–2010, the RSEI mean decreased from 0.3197 to 0.2269, suggesting degradation of the ecological environment, and the proportion of areas classified as fair and poor increased by 51.99%, while the proportion of areas classified as good and excellent decreased by 32.69%. However, from 2010 to 2020, it increased from 0.2269 to 0.3180, indicating an improvement in the ecological environment, and the proportion of areas classified as good and excellent increased by 6.11%, while the proportion of areas classified as fair and poor decreased by 2.91%. Spatially, the core zone demonstrated higher ecological environment quality compared to the experimental and buffer zones. The findings of this study provide comprehensive and accurate information about the ecological environment, which supports management, decision-making, and emergency response efforts in the Changtang Nature Reserve. Moreover, it offers a scientific basis for conservation and sustainable development strategies in the reserve. The quantitative assessment of the ecological environment dynamics contributes to the understanding of the reserve’s ecological dynamics and facilitates informed decision-making for effective conservation and management practices.

The Abuduo Fault is a Holocene left-lateral strike-slip fault located on the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, potentially connecting eastward with the Garzê–Yushu Fault. Due to its high-altitude setting, this fault remains poorly studied, and knowledge of its detailed surface geometry and slip rate is still insufficient. Using GF-7 and other multi-source remote sensing data, field surveys, semi-automatic offset extraction software, and radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dating, we determined the fault’s fine surface geometry, offsets, and slip rate. The results show that the fault can be divided into western, central, and eastern segments based on geometric discontinuities. The central segment consists of four right-stepping en echelon faults. The western and central segments are separated by a left-stepping compressional ridge with a step-over width of ~3.1 km, while the central and eastern segments are separated by a right-stepping pull-apart basin with a step-over width of ~9.4 km. Offsets generally increase from west to east. The western and central segments may exhibit stronger Late Quaternary activity, but this understanding remains to be further validated. Based on offset measurement and the dating of a typical offset gully, the Holocene slip rate of the western segment is estimated at 2.5–2.8 mm/yr.