Social impacts of extreme drought event in Guanzhong area, Shaanxi Province, during 1928–1931

Xu-Dong Chen, Yun Su () and Xiu-Qi Fang
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Xu-Dong Chen: Beijing Normal University
Yun Su: Beijing Normal University
Xiu-Qi Fang: Beijing Normal University

Climatic Change, 2021, vol. 164, issue 3, No 3, 19 pages

Abstract: Abstract Case studies on the impacts of extreme weather events at different spatial and temporal resolutions can help further the understanding of the impacts of climate change and serve as references for coping with future climate change challenges as well. We reconstructed the monthly time series data on social impacts of an extreme drought event in the Guanzhong area, Shaanxi Province, China, using newspaper records from 1928 to 1931. Changes in food substitutions, food prices, social unrest, and social resilience are analyzed to show how the drought affected the area. The results show that (1) the evolution of social impacts of the drought can be divided into five stages, and the variation in the impact magnitude is strongly influenced by the summer and autumn harvests; (2) the cumulative effects of the persistent drought are observed, and the level of social resilience declined rapidly and nonlinearly; and (3) there are two kinds of spreading patterns of drought’s impacts across natural, supporting, and humanity systems: hierarchical propagation and cascading effects. They act over different spatial and/or temporal scales and could provide the inspiration for the strategies designed to mitigate the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events today.

Keywords: Extreme drought event; 1928–1931 drought; Guanzhong area; Social impacts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/s10584-021-02978-5

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