Suggestions for Revegetation over the Next 30 Years Based on Precipitation in the Three North Region of China

Yu Xiao, Gaodi Xie, Chunxia Lu, Changshun Zhang, Jie Xu, Jingya Liu, Keyu Qin, Yiqiu Li, Chaoxuan Xu, Caixia Zhang, Yangyang Wang, Shuang Gan, Jia Liu and Liqiang Ge
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Yu Xiao: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Gaodi Xie: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Chunxia Lu: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Changshun Zhang: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Jie Xu: School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
Jingya Liu: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Keyu Qin: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Yiqiu Li: School of Geographic and Environments Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China
Chaoxuan Xu: ShaoXing Urban Planning and Design Institute, Shaoxing 312099, China
Caixia Zhang: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Yangyang Wang: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Shuang Gan: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Jia Liu: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Liqiang Ge: National Research Center for Geoanalysis, Beijing 100037, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 22, 1-18

Abstract: Afforestation in the Three North Region (TNR) of China has received wide concern due to the low survival rate and threats to water security associated with the lack of available precipitation for vegetation. It is crucial to provide a spatial layout for revegetation according to the available precipitation to achieve the vegetation cover target. This study investigated the spatial pattern of precipitation, determined the suitable vegetation distribution based on the ecological water requirements and precipitation, and proposed an optimized revegetation scheme by comparing the actual and suitable vegetation patterns. The results indicated that the actual vegetation that matched the pixel-level precipitation accounted for 67.24% of the total vegetation area in the TNR. However, 18.50% of the actual forest, 21.82% of the actual shrublands, and 19.95% of the actual grasslands were overloaded with respect to precipitation. The total suitable vegetation area was reduced slightly compared to the actual vegetation area. There is still some potential for the revegetation of forest and shrublands, mainly those in the eastern and south-eastern parts of the TNR. The optimized revegetation area in the TNR was 3.04 × 10 6 km 2 , including a maintenance management type of 2.19 × 10 6 km 2 , an upgrade type of 0.49 × 10 6 km 2 , and a degradation type of 0.37 × 10 6 km 2 . Maintenance management (natural restoration) and transformation to vegetation types with lower ecological water requirements were recognized as important revegetation practices in the TNR. This study provides guidelines to adjust the Three North Shelterbelt Project policies based on precipitation data to reduce the negative impact of revegetation on the hydrological cycle.

Keywords: precipitation; threshold; optimizing scheme; the Three North Shelterbelt Program (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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