沙漠研究 24-1, 13-15 (2014)
Ἃ₍◊✲ 24-1, 13 - 15 (2014)
Journal of Arid Land Studies
Journal of Arid Land Studies－ DT11 Refereed Paper －㸫DT11 Refereed Paper㸫

Aeolian Desertification in Northern China
Tao WANG*1)
Abstract: Aeolian desertification is land degradation through wind erosion mainly caused by excessive human activities in arid,
semiarid and part of sub-humid regions in Northern China. To compare the analyses, results of remote sensing data in late 1950,
1975, 1987, 2000 and 2010 was conducted. We can summarize that the development of aeolian desertified land in Northern China
has been accelerated for the last 5 decades, as its annual expanded rate was 1,560 km2 between 1950 and 1975, 2,100 km2 between
1975 and 1988, 3,600 km2 from 1988 to 2000 and -1375 km2 from 2000 to 2010. The whole situation of desertification wasdepraved before 2000 and was improved after 2000. China has made much progress in understanding and combating aeolian
desertification through many efforts and projects for decades. One such project is the National Project of Grain for Green Programand 1060 counties in 22 provinces have been included in this project. The objective is to reclaim 3.67 million ha of land farming anddegraded steppe, and 5.13 million ha of aeolian desertified land suited to reforestation and vegetation will be rehabilitated. There areabout 8 million ha of lands under the threats of aeolian desertification that will be brought under control in the next ten years and about
26.67 million ha of windbreaks will be planted. This paper is intended to analyze the process of aeolian desertification and tointroduce the idea and method for combating aeolian desertification in Northern China.
Key Words: Aeolian desertification, Landuse, Northern China, Policy and measure

1. Introduction
Desertification and land degradation is a very serious
environment and socio-economic problem facing the world
today. According to the UNCCD and many research resultsin China, desertification can be classified into several major
types, namely aeolian desertification (wind erosion), soil-watererosion and salinization, etc. One of the main manifestationsof desertification in Northern China is aeolian desertification.
Since the 1950s scientists in China have conducted a series ofresearches on natural conditions, resources, sand movement,
wind erosion and its control on farmlands and grasslands, andrational use of water and land resources in desert anddesertified regions. These research efforts and techniquepopularization works established a solid basis for launchinglarge-scale land desertification studies in Northern China (Zhuet al., 1980; Zhu and Liu, 1989; Zhu and Wang, 1992; Wangand Zhu, 2001; Wang, 2011). Through remote sensing
monitoring, field investigation and statistical analysis, wefound that from 1950s to 1970s aeolian desertification in
Northern China developed at an annual rate of 1560 km2, ofwhich aeolian desertified land occupied 33.4×104 km2 (Zhuand Wang, 1990).
The research and practices in land degradation of regions inNorthern China over the past 30 years defined the aeolian
desertification as land degradation characterized by winderosion mainly resulting from the excessive human activities in* Corresponding Author: wangtao@lzb.ac.cn

arid, semiarid and part of sub-humid regions in Northern China.
In this respect, the man-land relation and their interaction must
be stressed, i.e. only the land degradation resulted from theadverse effects of human activities and the interaction ofwind-dominated external agents is called aeolian
desertification. In fact, the human impact on aeolian
desertification is much more significant compared to naturalcauses. The process of aeolian desertification is primarily
caused by changes of the landuse from rangeland to farmland
and increase of landuse intensity (over-cultivation,over-grassing and over-fuelwood collection). The landcover/vegetation has been destroyed by human activities that haveaccelerated the development of aeolian desertification.

2. Monitoring of Aeolian Desertification from 1975 to2010 in Northern China
Because aeolian desertification is a gradual process of landdegradation, satellite image data is a useful tool for monitoring
this process over long periods in large areas, particularly whencombined with field investigation and verification. To further
determine the modern development of desertification innorthern China, we used Landsat MSS images mainly acquired
from 1975, Landsat TM images mainly acquired from 1990,
2005 and 2010, and Landsat ETM images mainly acquired
from 2000 to derive the desertified land databases; the actual
image choice and year depended on the availability of suitable
Landsat image data (e.g., cloud-free images). By overlaying㸦Received, September 14th, 2013; Accepted, March 9th, 2014㸧

320 W. Donggang Road, Lanzhou,730000, China
1) Key Lab. of Desert and Desertification, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese of Academy Sciences

14Table 1. Changes in aeolian desertified land in Northern China from 1975 to 2010 (km2).
1975 ˉ1990s
Decade

1975s

1990s

1990s-2000s
2000s

AnnualChangechange2000-2005s
2005s

AnnualChangechange2005-2010s
2010s

AnnualChangechangeBeijing

11.53

11.8

0.28

0.02

10.95

-0.85

-0.09

8.06

-2.89

-0.58

Tianjin

4.98

4.98

00

5.25

0.27

0.03

5.21-0.05

-0.01

Hebei

1728.39

1978.98

250.5916.71

2076.85

97.87

9.79

1991.32-85.53

Shanxi

37.17

44.71

7.54

0.5

50.51

5.8

0.58

20.39

-30.12

Inner Mongolia

Change3.62

1975-2010s

AnnualchangeChangeAnnualchange

-4.44

-0.89

-7.91

-0.23

3.35

-1.85

-0.37

-1.63

-0.05

-17.111777.64-213.68-42.74

49.25

1.41

-6.02

10.83

-9.56

-1.91

-26.34-0.75
1422.72

201153.92

227235.14

26081.22

1738.75

256661.66

29426.52

2942.65253048.93-3612.73-722.55250949.11-2099.83-419.9749795.19

Liaoning

194.25358.56164.31

10.95

798.44439.8843.99

799.320.87

0.17

779.89-19.43-3.89

585.64

16.73

Jilin

6088.887537.97

1449.09

96.61

9117.06

1579.08

157.918898.53-218.53-43.718770.1-128.42-25.682681.22

76.61

Heilongjiang

3607.094929.671322.5988.17

6575.62

1645.95

164.595012.01-1563.61-312.724659.18-352.83-70.571052.09

30.06

Shandong

572.21517.4-54.81-3.65

417.75-99.65-9.97

223.38-194.37-38.8765.41-157.97-31.59-506.8-14.48Henan

301.6370.34-231.3-15.42

65.7

-4.63

-0.46

59.39

-6.32

-1.26

12.15

-47.24-9.45-289.48-8.27

Sichuan278.33378.09

99.76

6.65

534.56156.47

15.65

360.1

-174.45-34.89264.39-95.72-19.14-13.94-0.4

Shaanxi

11741.02

11848.01

107

7.13

11943.06

95.05

9.5

11666.93-276.13-55.2311259.89-407.04-81.41-481.13-13.75-10.61Gansu

12050.812412.2

361.4

24.09

12058.52-353.68-35.3711848.7-209.82-41.9611679.44-169.25-33.85-371.36

Qinghai

31214.18

33020.95

1806.77

120.4535458.26

2437.31243.7334805.62-652.64-130.53

33265.12-1540.49-308.12050.94

58.6

Ningxia

4683.844933.3249.4616.63

4855.89-77.41-7.74

4722.34-133.55-26.714602.64-119.7-23.94

-81.2

-2.32

Xinjiang

47762.22

49986.65

2224.43148.3

49053.58-933.07-93.3148037.04-1016.53-203.3147832.72-204.32-40.86

70.51

2.01

Total

321430.44355268.75

33838.32

2255.89389683.67

34414.91

3441.49

381507.25-8176.42-1635.28

375935.48-5571.77-1114.35

54505.05

1557.29

data from consecutive years, we obtained databases of thedynamics of desertification from 1975 to 1990, 1990 to 2000,
2000 to 2005 and 2005 to 2010.
We found that from 1975 to 1990, the area of aeolian
adesertification increased about 3.39×104 km2, from 33.4×104
km2 to 35.53×104 km2 and at an average annual rate of
0.23×104 km2. From 1990 to 2000 aeolian adesertification
increased to 38.97×104 km2, representing an increase of
3.44×104 km2 and an average annual increase of 0.34×104 km2.
From 2000 to 2005 the area of aiolian desertified landdecreased about 0.82×104 km2 (so the total area reached to38.15×104 km2) and decreased at an average annual rate of
0.16×104 km2. From 2005 to 2010, the area continued todecrease, reached to 37.59×104 km2 (decrease of 0.56×104km2), at an average annual rate of 0.11×104 km2 (Table 1).

3. Combating Aeolian Desertification in Northern
China
China made a lot of progresses in understanding andcombating the process of aeolian desertification through manyefforts since the 1950’s and has invested in several projects.
According to the natural and economic conditions of arid andsemiarid regions and the processes of aeolian desertification in
China as well as some typical experiences and models,
combating aeolian desertification should consider thoroughly
the ecological, economic and social benefits, and should also
follow the ecological principles of moderate utilization andmulti-complementation to contain landuse (Wang, 2004). In
order to improve the ecosystem of the whole arid and semiarid
regions we should work to develop a comprehensive plan andadopt a long-term strategy to combat desertification.
Specifically regarding economic development, farmers should
be encouraged to adopt the principle of diversified production
dominated by forestry. In the meanwhile population growth
should be effectively controlled. The arrangement ofdesertification combating projects can be divided into three key
steps: research organizations mainly undertake aeolian
desertification controlled studies in the experimental plots;
research organizations in cooperation with production
departments conduct experiments in the demonstration plots;
production departments and local people popularize successfultechniques. In the mixed farming-grazing region where thedistribution of residential areas, cropland and grassland isscattered, with ecological household as an unit such measures
as prohibiting grazing, readjusting rainfed farming-dominatedlanduse structure, increasing forest and grassland area,
intensive management to the land with better water and fertility
conditions, establishing farmland forest net and patchy forest(shrub) in interdune depressions are adopted to control aeolian
desertification spread. This will also contribute to economicdevelopment. In the grazing grasslands a rational stocking
rate and rotational grazing system should be established. Inaddition, efforts should be made to construct artificial grasslandand forage base, strategically arrange drinking water wells,
define grazing density and build roads. In the arid zone, acomprehensive plan should be developed with basin as an
ecological unit, to formulate a strategic water allocation plan,
construct farmland forest nets inside oases and sandbreaktree-shrub belt around the oases.
These efforts, incombination with mechanical fence and sand-fixing plants
inside fences grids, will form a perfect protective system. In
addition, the transport lines in the dense sand dune regions
should be protected by mechanical sand fences and sand-fixing
plants, with emphasis on fixation in combination with block.
Since 2000, the central government has invested total of
217.22 billion Chinese Yuan, and had implemented a series of
ecological construction projects, focusing on natural resources
conservation, returning farmland to woodland or grasslandforest, sandstorm source control surrounding Beijing andTianjin Area, construction of Three-North Shelterbelt System,
wildlife protection and nature reserve construction, wetland

15protection and restoration, etc. These projects greatly
accelerated the western region’s ecological protection andconstruction process. According to the announcement ofChina’s State Forestry Administration, the forest coverage inthe western region in 2008 had increased by 6.7% and reached
to 17% compared with 10 years ago. After implementationof the western development strategy in the last 10 years, 30.65
million ha of planted forests have been added to the westernregion. As the seventh national forest resources inventory
data issued in 2011, forest reserves in the western region
amounted to 8.27 billion cubic meters, compared with the fifth
inventory10 years ago, and increased by nearly 1.3 billion
cubic meters. The increase of forest cover effectively
controlled soil erosion and aeolian desertification. Shaanxi,Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and other provinces acrossthe country were the first to achieve the historic change fromthe “sand advances and human retreating” to the “humanadvancing and sand retreating”. In Mu Us Sandy Land, thelocal government and people had achieved a new phase ofcontrol and use of the aeolian desertified land. About 0.15
million km2 of soil erosion on the Loess Plateau werecontrolled and annual silt and sand sediment into the Yellow
River was reduced by more than 300 million tons.
The biggest National Project is the “Grain for GreenProgram” (1997-2012) which included 1060 counties in 22provinces. The objective was to withdraw 3.67 million ha ofdry land farming and degraded steppe and to rehabilitate 5.13
million ha of aeolian desertified land suited to reforestation andrevegetation. There are about 8 million ha of lands under thethreat of aeolian desertification that will be brought undercontrol in the next 10 years and 26.67 million ha of windbreaks
will be planted. The total financial input is estimated at 75
billion Yuan (11 billion US$) provided entirely from the central
Chinese government. Thanks to many efforts from centre
and local governments, local people in the aeolian desertified
regions for many years, aeolian desertification has been
reversed distinctly. In fact, aeolian desertification has
decreased 1280 km2 annually during last 10 years.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Key Basic
Research Programs (2009CB421308).

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