The Process of Aeolian Desertification in the Past 50 Years in Northern China and its Preventive Strategies and Measures

Aeolian desertification is one kind of desertification or land degradation in northern China.In the past 50 years,the quickening process of aeolian desertification has caused the major environmental and socio-economic problems.According to the remote sensing monitoring and evaluating in an area of 250×104 km2,the aeolian desertified land has covered an area of 38.57×104km2,which covers mostly the interlacing agro-pastoral region,grassland,semiarid rain-fed cropland and oasis-irrigated cropland.A comparison of the collected data in 1950,1975,1987 and 2000,we can conclude that the process of desertification in northern China has accelerated for nearly five decades,as indicated in its annual expansion of 1,560 km2 from the 1950s to 1975,2,100 km2 from 1975 to 1987 and 3,600 km2 from 1987 to 2000.But in recent years,aeolian desertification has slowed down due to the efforts of the governments and the local people,about 1,280 km2 annually on the decrease.China has made some progress in understanding and combating the process of aeolian desertification through many years of hard work.Through an analysis of the related research and especially the achievements obtained in northern China,this paper proposes the future strategies and measures for preventing aeolian desertification.