This paper studies the sand burial process of desert highways and the degradation process of protection zones by introducing desert highways and their protection zones into an aeolian dune field model. Our results show that with time increasing, transverse dunes or barchan chains have formed in the upwind area, accompanied by an increase in sand volume. In the downwind direction, an empty area without sand sources will appear. If the protection zones are not maintained, the upwind protection zones will be buried by sand, lose their sand-fixing function, and cause sand particles in these areas to start to be transported. These areas mainly appear at the arms of upwind crescent dunes. Moving sand particles in the upwind direction not only deposit on the highway, but also bury the downwind protection zones. Finally, a channel for sand particle transport is formed at the arms of barchan dunes. Quantitatively, the decrease in vegetation coverage leads to an increase in the proportion of sandburied area (Rra) and a decrease in the average thickness of sand-buried sand sources (Hrs); the increase in the size of the protected area leads to an increase in Rra; an increase in frictional wind speed leads to a decrease in Rra and an increase in Hrs; vegetation height and highway height mainly affect the dimensionless sand volume in the protected zones and the proportion of sand-buried areas in the protected areas. The method provides an approach for the design and maintenance of desert highway protection zones.