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Climate Change, Water Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arid and Semi-arid Areas

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Social Ecology and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 8494

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zhenliang Yin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Interests: distributed hydrological modeling with specific focuses on hydrological processes simulation in the mountainous watershed; impacts of climate change on hydrological processes
Dr. Linshan Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Interests: identifying separate impacts of climate and land use/cover; change on hydrological processes; effects of climate change on ecohydrological processes
Dr. Meng Zhu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Qilian Mountains Eco-environment Research Center in Gansu Province, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Interests: soil organic carbon; digital soil mapping; land-use change simulation; remote sensing; machine learning; ecosystem services; climate change; water resources
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the arid and semi-arid areas, water resources are scarce and the ecological environment is fragile. The contradiction between water consumption for socioeconomic development and water demand for ecological environment protection is particularly prominent. The sustainable development of social economics in arid and semi-arid areas depends on the sustainable use of water resources. However, in the context of climate change, the hydrological cycle is undergoing important changes, for example, affected by rising temperature, the evapotranspiration will increase, the beginning dates of spring snow melt may advance, and affected by increased rainfall, the frequency of flood events and flood peak flow may increase, etc. Climate change has seriously affected the sustainable supply of water resources in arid and semi-arid regions. Therefore, the main purpose of the Special Issue ‘Climate Change, Water Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arid and Semi-Arid Areas’ is to discuss the effects of climate change on hydrological processes, runoff response to climate change, ecological water demand, water supply and social and economic sustainable development in arid and semi-arid regions. It will provide a reference for decision makers in arid and semi-arid regions to formulate elaborate integrated water resources management schemes and put forward climate change coping strategies. 

Dr. Zhenliang Yin
Dr. Linshan Yang
Dr. Meng Zhu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • climate change in arid and semi-arid regions
  • climate change impacts
  • runoff response to climate change
  • sustainable water resources
  • water and soil resource coupling
  • ecological environmental water demand
  • distributed hydrological modeling
  • water resources allocation
  • sustainable development in arid and semi-arid regions

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 3151 KiB  
Article
Attribution and Sensitivity Analysis of Runoff Variation in the Yellow River Basin under Climate Change
by Liang Chen, Mingxiang Yang, Xuan Liu and Xing Lu
Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 14981; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142214981 - 12 Nov 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1567
Abstract
The Yellow River Basin is a typical arid and semi-arid area, which is very sensitive to climate change. In recent years, it has become the area with the greatest shortage of water resources in China. In this study, a new two-way coupling model [...] Read more.
The Yellow River Basin is a typical arid and semi-arid area, which is very sensitive to climate change. In recent years, it has become the area with the greatest shortage of water resources in China. In this study, a new two-way coupling model of land surface and hydrology has been explored to analyze the impacts of climate change and human activities on the runoff. It is of great theoretical and practical significance for making better management countermeasures and strategies to cope with climate change in the Yellow River Basin. The results showed that: (1) the annual average precipitation in the basin was 470.1 mm, which was higher in the lower reaches than in the middle and upper reaches. The annual average temperature is 5.8 °C. The entire basin showed a remarkable warming speed. The annual average pan evaporation is 1067.3 mm showing a downward trend throughout the basin; (2) from 1987 to 2009, the contribution rate of climate change to runoff change has not fluctuated by more than 5%. Since 2010, the precipitation caused by climate factors has increased runoff by 12~15%. The impact of land use change on runoff has been increasing annually. The influence of projects on runoff change was the leading factor of runoff reduction in the Yellow River Basin, with the contribution rate around 50%; and (3) for every 10% decrease in precipitation, the runoff decreases by 13~15.7%. When the temperature rises by 1.0 °C, the runoff decreases by 2.1~4.2%. The runoff in the upper reaches of the Yellow River was most sensitive to precipitation and temperature changes. This showed that the runoff in the plateau and mountainous areas were highly sensitive to climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change, Water Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arid and Semi-arid Areas)
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21 pages, 3946 KiB  
Article
Impacts of Climate and Land-Use Changes on Hydrological Processes of the Source Region of Yellow River, China
by Mudassar Iqbal, Jun Wen, Muhammad Masood, Muhammad Umer Masood and Muhammad Adnan
Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 14908; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142214908 - 11 Nov 2022
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 1612
Abstract
Climate variability and land-use change are key factors altering the hydrology of a river basin, which are strongly linked to the availability of water resources and the sustainability of the local ecosystem. This study investigated the combined and individual impacts of land-use changes [...] Read more.
Climate variability and land-use change are key factors altering the hydrology of a river basin, which are strongly linked to the availability of water resources and the sustainability of the local ecosystem. This study investigated the combined and individual impacts of land-use changes (LUCs) and climate change (CC) on the hydrological processes in subbasins of the Source Region of the Yellow River (SRYR) through statistical methods and hydrological modeling based on two land-use maps for the period 1990 and 2010, and two climate periods, i.e., 1976–1995 and 1996–2014. The results revealed that the climate is anticipated to be warmer and wetter. Land-use changes were dominated by decreases in sparse grassland. However, the transformation of land-use changes varied spatially within sub-basins. The combined impacts of climate and land-use changes are more noticeable in the Maqu subbasin, where the decrease in runoff reached 18% (32.2 mm) and increase in evapotranspiration (ET) reached 10.4% (34.1 mm), followed by the Tangnaihai and Jimai subbasins. The changes in runoff and ET caused by LUC seemed to be adequate by comparison, and presented a 15.1–19.8% decline in runoff and 21.3–28% increase in ET relative to the totals. Overall, climate change has more influence on hydrological processes in all subbasins of the SRYR than LUC. It is, therefore, considered that the response to changes in hydrological processes in a subbasin can be attributed to changes in individual climate parameters and land-use classes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change, Water Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arid and Semi-arid Areas)
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12 pages, 3316 KiB  
Article
Effects of Climate Change and Human Activities on Aeolian Desertification Reversal in Mu Us Sandy Land, China
by Jiali Xie, Zhixiang Lu and Kun Feng
Sustainability 2022, 14(3), 1669; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031669 - 31 Jan 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2464
Abstract
The aeolian desertification in Mu Us Sandy Land (MUSL) in northern China have been paid much attention, but the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to desertification dynamics are still not clear. Based on the Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+ and OLI [...] Read more.
The aeolian desertification in Mu Us Sandy Land (MUSL) in northern China have been paid much attention, but the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to desertification dynamics are still not clear. Based on the Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+ and OLI images in 1975, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, we developed a database of aeolian desertification land distribution, discussed the spatial and temporal variation of aeolian desertification, and discovered the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to desertification reversal, using the trends of the potential net primary productivity (NPP) and the human-influenced NPP with meteorological data and MODIS NPP products. The results indicated that aeolian desertification developed firstly from 1975 to 2000, with serious and severe aeolian desertification land continually increasing, and then changed into a reversal state from 2000 to 2015, as the serious aeolian desertification land decreased, although the severe, moderate and light aeolian desertification land lightly increased. Human activities were the dominant factor in desertification dynamics in MUSL and had different contributions to aeolian desertification reversal in different periods. This study will improve our understanding of the processes of aeolian desertification. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change, Water Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arid and Semi-arid Areas)
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Graphical abstract

16 pages, 4755 KiB  
Article
Characteristic of Stomatal Conductance and Optimal Stomatal Behaviour in an Arid Oasis of Northwestern China
by Tuo Han, Qi Feng, Tengfei Yu, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaofang Zhang and Kuan Li
Sustainability 2022, 14(2), 968; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020968 - 15 Jan 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2247
Abstract
Stomatal conductance (gs), the process that governs plant carbon uptake and water loss, is fundamental to most Land Surface Models (LSMs). With global change accelerating, more attention should be paid to investigating stomatal behavior, especially in extremely arid areas. In [...] Read more.
Stomatal conductance (gs), the process that governs plant carbon uptake and water loss, is fundamental to most Land Surface Models (LSMs). With global change accelerating, more attention should be paid to investigating stomatal behavior, especially in extremely arid areas. In this study, gas exchange measurements and environmental/biological variables observations during growing seasons in 2016 and 2017 were combined to investigate diurnal and seasonal characteristics of gs and the applicability of the optimal stomatal conductance model in a desert oasis vineyard. The results showed that the responses of gs to environmental factors (photosynthesis active radiation, PAR; vapor pressure deficit, VPD; and temperature, T) formed hysteresis loops in the daytime. The stomatal conductance slope, g1, a parameter in the unified stomatal optimal model, varied in different growing seasons and correlated with the soil-to-leaf hydraulic conductance (KL). These results indicated the potential bias when using a constant g1 value to simulate gs and highlighted that the water-use strategy of oasis plants might not be consistent throughout the entire growing season. Our findings further help to achieve a better understanding of stomata behavior in responding to climate change and encourage future efforts toward a more accurate parameterization of gs to improve the modeling of LSMs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change, Water Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arid and Semi-arid Areas)
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