Study of spatial distribution of sandy desertification in North China in recent 10 years

Sandy desertification is a land degradation characterized by wind erosion, mainly resulted from the excessive human activities in arid, semiarid and part of sub-humid regions in North China. It is one of main kinds of desertification/land degradation as well as water-soil erosion and salinization in China. Rapid and continuous spread of sandy desertification during last 50 years has created a major environmental and socio-economic problem in North China. Remote sensing monitored results in 2000 showed that the sandy desertified land area has been 38.57 × 10⁴ km². The area of potential to slightly sandy desertified land is 13.93 × 10⁴ km², moderately land 9.977 ×10⁴ km², severely land 7.909 × 10⁴ k² and very severely land 6.756 × 10⁴ km². Sandy desertification mainly occurs in the semi-arid mixed farming-grazing zone and its northern rangeland zone, semi-arid dryland rainfed cropping zone and arid oasis-desert margin zone. The average annually developmental rate of sandy desertified land increased from 2,100 km² · a^-1 in 1976–1988 to 3,600 km² · a^-1 in 1988–2000. The basic status of sandy desertification in North China is “overall deterioration, while local rehabilitation”. Already achieved rehabilitation results and monitoring assessment show that about 60% of desertified land in North China can be restored under the conditions of rational land-use ways and intensity.