Practices on Adaptation to Climate Change in Xinjiang, NW China

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region located at the Northwest China is the largest province with the area of 1.66 million square meters. Due to its hinterland of Euro-Asia continental, far away from the oceans and surrounded by huge mountains, Xinjiang is one of the arid centre in the world and main distribution of deserts in China. Its topographical feature of Two Basins Surrounded by Three Mountains divided the province into Northern Xinijang and Southern Xinjiang with bigger differences on precipitation and great evaporation. Annual average rainfall is around 150mm and evaporation higher than 2000mm, annual runoff is 88.4 billion m3 with unbalanced temporal and spatial distribution. Unique Mountain–Oasis–Desert Integrated Ecosystem led water become main environmental factor connected above three parts, however water is the most sensitive element to climate change in arid regions which brought a series of ecological issues such as glacier retreat, melt acceleration, drought, salinization, desertification and etc. Based on long term observation and location researches on ecosystem evolution, environmental degradation and climate change, many scientific achievements were required from these researches and put into the practical utilization which play significant role on ecosystem-based adaptation(EBA) to climate change, for example, water-saving and bio-saline agriculture, river basin management, rational utilization of water resources, desertification control and forest shelter construction along desert highway. Your research will be valuable for the whole world is the praise from Ibrahima Thiaw, UNEP Deputy Executive Director.

کلیدواژه ها:

Arid Land ، Climate Change ، Adaptation ، Xinjiang ،