Data from: Spatiotemporal variations of vegetation and its determinants in the National Key Ecological Function Area on Loess Plateau between 2000 and 2015

China defined twenty-five National Key Ecological Function Areas in 2010, and adopted various measures to support ecosystem restoration in these areas. During the process of environment policymaking, it is important to observe the variation of vegetation and its driving factors. In this paper, we chose the National Key Ecological Function Area (NKEFA) on Loess Plateau as the study area. Based on MODIS-NDVI data between 2000 and 2015, the trend analysis was used to depict the change of NDVI and the stepwise regression analysis method was used to quantitatively assess its determinants. The results show that: (1) The vegetation coverage in study area was low in the northwest and high in the southeast, corresponding to the distribution of precipitation and temperature. (2) NDVI in the growing season increased remarkably from 0.2841 in 2000 to 0.4199 in 2015 with a linear tendency of 0.085/10a. 71.22% of the study area experienced an extremely significant increasing of NDVI, while only 0.03% of the total area suffered from significant decreasing of NDVI. (3) Compared to climatic factors, ecosystem conservation policies and labor transfer contributed more to the vegetation changes in the study area. In order to ensure ecological security and sustainable development in these areas, it is necessary to maintain the continuity of ecological compensation policy. Moreover, developing targeted eco-compensation policies and encouraging farmers to participate in non-farm employment are effective ways to reach a win-win outcome of reducing the ecosystem pressure and improving the welfare of rural households.中国于2010年划定了25个国家重点生态功能区（National Key Ecological Function Areas），并出台多项举措支持这些区域的生态系统修复工作。在环境政策制定过程中，监测植被变化及其驱动因素具有重要研究意义。本文选取黄土高原国家重点生态功能区（NKEFA）作为研究区域，基于2000-2015年的中分辨率成像光谱仪归一化植被指数（MODIS-NDVI）数据，采用趋势分析法刻画归一化植被指数的变化特征，并通过逐步回归法定量分析其驱动因素。研究结果如下：(1) 研究区植被覆盖呈现西北低、东南高的空间分布格局，与降水和气温的分布特征相匹配。(2) 生长季归一化植被指数由2000年的0.2841显著提升至2015年的0.4199，线性变化速率为0.085/10a。研究区内71.22%的区域归一化植被指数呈极显著上升趋势，仅0.03%的区域出现显著下降。(3) 相较于气候因子，生态保护政策与劳动力转移对研究区植被变化的贡献度更高。为保障上述区域的生态安全与可持续发展，需维持生态补偿政策的连续性。此外，制定针对性的生态补偿政策、鼓励农户参与非农就业，是实现减轻生态系统压力与提升农户福利双赢局面的有效路径。