Author(s): Xiaoya Deng; Pei Zhang; Haifeng Gao; Zhixuan Zhao
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Tarim River Basin; Land use/cover; National policy; Driving factors
Abstract: Abstract The Tarim River Basin has had a central role in the subsistence agroecosystems by providing vast biological resources for humans and their livestock in south of Xinjiang. In the recent decades, uncontrolled exploration of water and soil resources has changed the temporal-spatial pattern of water resource in TRB, which caused the areas of natural vegetation decreased. The present paper focuses on the changes in land use/cover in TRB, over the period 1995-2014, and seeks to interpret the changes in relation to differential land use and the driving factors. The result is a significant increase of the farmland areas at the expense of the grassland and unutilized land, which mainly resulted from economic interests. The farmland expansion increased the water resource stress. The expansion of Gobi desert caused ecosystem degradation in particular areas. Both changes in land use were correlated with the implementation of ‘A black and white’policy, ‘Providing aid for Xinjiang’policy, ‘Grain-for-Green’and the strategy of ‘Western Development’. Farmland should strictly controlled by local governments supervision, and coordinate ecological and economic development. Especially, the farmland in the transition zone between the oasis and desert should be restored to natural vegetation. Local governments should improve the management of water resources, particularly the management of groundwater.
Year: 2018