Evaluation of concordance between environment and economy in Qinghai Lake Watershed, Qinghai- Tibet Plateau

Qinghai Lake Watershed （QLW） is a hot place of a series of ecological restoration and environmental remediation programs nowadays.However,little information is available on change of ecosystem service and economic practice in this area.As ecosystem service and natural capital are closely related with social and economic development,an index of concordance between environment and economy （ICEE） has been proposed to compare the annual variation rate of ecosystem service value （RESV） with that of gross domestic product （RGDP）.Using this Index,we have assessed concordance between environment and economy （CEE） for the QLW in the period 1977-2004.The result showed that from 1977 to 2004,the ecosystem service value in the QLW descended from 128.81×10 8 yuan to 127.32×10 8 yuan;In contrast,the GDP increased from 0.931×10 8 yuan to 8.856×10 8 yuan.The values of the I CEE were -1.14,-0.22,and -0.14 in the stages of 1977-1987,1987-2000 and 2000-2004,respectively.The result indicated that during the first stage 1977-1987,the relationship between environment and economy in the QLW was not concordant but at a high conflict;from 1987 to 2004,there was a low conflict between environment and economy,and the CEE appeared to increase slowly.Analysis of the assessment results showed that the national policies and industrial adjustment practice play an important role in the CEE changes.

Climate change and sandy land development in Qinghai Lake Watershed,China

The Qinghai Lake Watershed,containing the largest saline lake in northwest of China,has suffered from severe sandy land development in recent years.This paper analyzcs its daily precipitation,temperature,and wind from 1958 to 2001,and the spatial and temporal distributions of sandy land through the interpretation of remote sensing images covering four years(1977,1987,2000,and 2004).Results showed that since the middle of the 1960s,the daily precipitation(P)of 0<P≤5 mm decreased,while the P>20 mm increased significantly(S<0.05)in their annual total amounts and days.The maximum daily precipitation also increased significantly.Both the maximum dry spell and the total dry spell of more than ten days had a significant upward trend.Since the beginning of the 1960s,all the extremely high,extremely low and mean temperatures increased signifi-cantly(S<0.01),at a rate of 0.1℃/10a,0.2℃/10a,and 0.2℃/10a,respectively.The days with extremely high temperature had a significant upward trend,while the days with extremely low temperature had a significant downward trend.The Qinghai Lake was significantly shrinking(S<0.01)and provided abundant sediments for Aeolian erosion.The NNW wind prevailed in the watershed,and the largest scale wind was from the west and concentrated on the dry months.As a result,the sandy land was mainly born on the east bank of Qinghai Lake.The total sandy land area in the watershed had grown from 587.4 km^(2),660.7 km,697.6 km^(2) to.805.8 km^(2),accordingly,its area percentage growing from 2.0%,2.2%,2.4% to 2.7%,respectively.