Desertification is one of the most serious ecological environmental problems over the past several decades in the arid regions. The quantitative assessment of the desertification degree in sandy lands has also been an essential part of landscape ecology. Based on the character of relief, we proposed a new indicator system, i.e., Normalized Landscapes Index (NLI) to calculate the dynamic trend of the desertification process. The data from three periods of Mu Us sandy land and Kubuqi sandy land in Inner Mongolia were used to verify the accuracy of this method. The results show that, from 1990s to 2010s, the NLI change amount of fixed sandy land and semi-fixed sandy land all had positive values while bare sandy land and water had all negative values for both regions. Over the past 20 years, the desertification reversal phenomenon occurs in Mu Us with the desertification process (DP) of -0.36%, while a positive development of desertification in Kubuqi with the DP of 0.01%. The NLI dynamic degree of two sandy lands had the same trend as land use dynamic degree, while NLI was more accurate than the landscape dynamic degree. These findings can provide an important method for comparing the desertification process of the desert and also the meaningful information for prevention and control of desertification and sustainable development for the sandy lands in the arid regions.

荒漠化是过去几十年来在干旱地区最严重的生态环境问题之一。沙地荒漠化程度的定量评估也是景观生态学的重要组成部分。根据地貌特征，提出了一种新的指标体系，即归一化景观指数（NLI），以计算荒漠化过程的动态趋势。利用内蒙古Mu Us沙地和Kubuqi沙地三个时期的数据验证了该方法的准确性。结果表明，从1990年代到2010年代，NLI固定沙地和半固定沙地的变化量都为正值，而裸露的沙地和水在两个区域中都为负值。在过去的20年中，Mu Us中发生了荒漠化逆转现象，其沙漠化过程（DP）为-0.36％，而库布其地区的沙漠化则呈正发展，其DP为0.01％。两个沙地的NLI动态度与土地利用动态度具有相同的趋势，而NLI比景观动态度更准确。这些发现可以为比较沙漠化的沙漠化过程提供重要的手段，也可以为干旱地区沙地的沙漠化防治和可持续发展提供有意义的信息。