Wind Erosion Induced Soil Degradation in Northern China: Status, Measures and Perspective

Zhongling Guo, Ning Huang, Zhibao Dong, Robert Scott Van Pelt and Ted M. Zobeck
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Zhongling Guo: College of Resource and Environmental Sciences/Hebei Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Ecological Construction, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050024, China
Ning Huang: Key Laboratory of Mechanics on Disaster and Environment in Western China, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Zhibao Dong: Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Robert Scott Van Pelt: Wind Erosion and Water Conservation Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Big Spring, TX 79720 USA
Ted M. Zobeck: Wind Erosion and Water Conservation Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Lubbock, TX 79415, USA

Sustainability, 2014, vol. 6, issue 12, 1-16

Abstract: Soil degradation is one of the most serious ecological problems in the world. In arid and semi-arid northern China, soil degradation predominantly arises from wind erosion. Trends in soil degradation caused by wind erosion in northern China frequently change with human activities and climatic change. To decrease soil loss by wind erosion and enhance local ecosystems, the Chinese government has been encouraging residents to reduce wind-induced soil degradation through a series of national policies and several ecological projects, such as the Natural Forest Protection Program, the National Action Program to Combat Desertification, the “Three Norths” Shelter Forest System, the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Control Engineering Project, and the Grain for Green Project. All these were implemented a number of decades ago, and have thus created many land management practices and control techniques across different landscapes. These measures include conservation tillage, windbreak networks, checkerboard barriers, the Non-Watering and Tube-Protecting Planting Technique, afforestation, grassland enclosures, etc . As a result, the aeolian degradation of land has been controlled in many regions of arid and semiarid northern China. However, the challenge of mitigating and further reversing soil degradation caused by wind erosion still remains.

Keywords: soil degradation; wind erosion; northern China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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