Journal of Mountain Science

The Zoige wetland is the biggest alpine wetland in the world, and an important water resource of the Yellow River. Due to natural and human factors, the Zoige wetland has been seriously degraded. Existing studies on the Zoige wetland mainly focus on the macro features of the wetland, while the influence of the surrounding faults on the Zoige wetland degradation is rarely studied. This study uses terrain data to analyze the cover change and the water loss caused by the Wqie-Seji fault based on the distributed hydrological model. The simulated water loss demonstrates that the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is the most important factor for inducing water loss. The fault is also a factor that cannot be neglected, which has caused 33% of the wetland water loss. Therefore, it is of importance to study the influence of the fault on the wetland degradation.