Eco-environmental changes and causative analysis in the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, China

Wang Genxu () and Cheng Guodong
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Wang Genxu: Geology Department of Lanzhou University
Cheng Guodong: Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, CAS

Environment Systems and Decisions, 2000, vol. 20, issue 3, 221-232

Abstract: Abstract In the most recent four decades the eco-environment in the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers has been continuously getting worse, this is mainly manifested in the serious vegetation degradation, rapidly developing desertification, lake shrinkage and salinization, wetland degradation and biodiversity reduction. This paper attempts to give a quantitative analysis to such eco-environmental changes and explore their causes. The main factors responsible for such changes are climate change and the alterations of glacial snow accumulation and the freeze-thaw processes of the frozen soil, as well as overgrazing and rodent damage. The eco-environmental changes in the source regions not only influence the social-economic development of these regions but also have affected, or are affecting, the whole river basins' social-economic development.

Keywords: source region; eco-environment; degradation; causative analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
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DOI: 10.1023/A:1006703831018

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