Automatic mapping afforestation, cropland reclamation and variations in cropping intensity in central east China during 2001–2016

•A new method for automatic detection of intra-vegetation changes.•It can simultaneously detect afforestation, cropland reclamation and variations in cropping intensity.•Vegetation is depicted by vegetation abundance, temporal dispersion/continuity, growing length.•Vegetation changes is tracked by dynamic trend of five temporal indices.•The efficiency was verified by its application in central east China.