The Key Role of Water Resources Management in Ecological Restoration in Western China

Abstract

The interactions of nature and society are intimately reflected in the degradation of the vast, yet diverse, landscapes and ecosystems of arid western China. The development of agriculture, especially irrigation, has altered rivers, soils and ecosystems so much that major ecological rehabilitation and restoration efforts have been needed since 1950. The catchments of the Tarim River in southern Xinjiang (the Tarim Basin) and of the Black River (Hei He) in Gansu Province and western Inner Mongolia provide examples of the benefits, difficulties and conflicts involved in dryland water management. In the early stages of the human development of these catchments, agriculture depending on irrigation using water from these inland rivers was encouraged. The over‐exploitation of these water resources led to such ecological problems as desiccation of lakes, drying out of rivers, degradation of soils and vegetation and lowering of groundwater levels, with consequent environmental and economic impacts. Since 1990 several high‐cost, national projects to re‐establish ecosystems have been initiated. Water is now released from dams in the headwaters of the rivers in order to restore water flows to the dried out lake basins. Such schemes have inevitably led to social problems and difficulties for the people who depended on the water from the dams for local irrigation. The contrasts in adjustments and attitudes over the use of water for agriculture and other economic activities, as opposed to schemes of restoration of ecosystems and ecological engineering, stem largely from two issues; inconsistent provision of information from the scientific community, and differing ideologies, namely environmental protection versus economic development.

Drivers of Unsustainable Land Use in the Semi‐Arid Khabur River Basin, Syria

“…These authors also note the possibility that some of the stringent measures proposed might cause social unrest, especially if the farmers are not fully engaged in policy decisions and trained in best practices. A similar point has been made by Yang et al . (2006) in regard to agriculture in western China.…”

Rehabilitation of degraded dryland ecosystems – review

“…Drescher 1995;Yang et al 2006;Sternberg 2008;Le Polain de Waroux and Lambin 2012;Zhang et al 2014); however, dryland rehabilitation experiences or research at landscape level are much less common (e.g. Dorrough and Moxham 2005;Ravi et al 2009) and often refer to protected landscapes (e.g.…”

Provenance and Geochemical Characteristics of the Silt and Clay Fraction in the Taklamakan Desert, Northwestern China

“…Around the Taklamakan Desert, there are variously degraded lands, with surface features affected by varying degrees of wind erosion, and from which silt and clay can be winnowed (Zhu et al, 1981;Wang et al, 2005;Yang, 2002;Yang, Liu, e al. 2006;Yang, Preusser, et al, 2006;Yang, Dong, et al, 2006;Zu et al, 2008) (Figure 1). In this paper, the term ''degraded land'' is used to refer to the belt of vegetation and dry lake landforms affected by wind-blown …”