The Land Resource Status And Controlling Strategy Of Land Degradation Of Shaanxi

The global land degradation has been a serious problem and drawn extensive attention from international bodies, national governments, research institutes, land administration agencies and the general public as it has not only caused ecological declination, soil fertility decrease and loss, but also brought serious threats to the agricultural sustainable development, even to the social-economic sustainable development and the well-being of human beings. China is especially a country with serous land degradation problem. Shaanxi, located in central China, comprises landforms of the Qingling and Bashan Mt., Guangzhong Plain, and the Loess Plateau and the Mu Us Desert in Yulin in the North of the province. The Loess Plateau in North Shaanxi has been stricken with serious soil and water loss problems and the farmland and grassland of Yulin has been threatened with desertification, and the forest in Qingling and Bashan Mt. been over deforested. Due to all these reasons, the land productivity has been decreasing dramatically. Shaanxi is a very typical region in China for research of the land resource status and controlling strategies of land degradation, which will accumulate information and experience for the controlling theory and practice. This paper, based on extensive field studies and data collection, studies the land resource status and land degradation controlling strategies of Shaanxi province. The results show that there are 4 generic ecological districts in Shaanxi, namely the windy and sandy grassland district along the Great Wall, the farming and husbandry district of the Loess Plateau, the agricultural district of Weihe River Plain and the deciduous and ever-green broad-leaf forest of the Qingling and Bashan Mt.. There are 10 ecological districts and 35 sub-districts. The windy and sandy grassland and hilly district in North Shaanxi, including Yuyang, Shengmu, Fugu, Hengshan, Jinbian, Dingbian, Suide, Mizhi, Jiaxian, Wubu, Qingjian, Zizhou, Zichang, Ansai, Zhidan and Wuqi, etc., are ecologically extremely sensitive, while the counties and districts of Baota, Yanchang, Yanchuan, Ganquan, Fuxian, Luochuan, Yichuan, Huanglong, Huangling are ecologically highly sensitive. Both of the groups have serious soil and water loss problem. The gully areas of the Loess Plateau north to the Wei River, namely Longxian, Qianyang, Changwu, Bingxian, Xunyi, Yijun and Tongchuang outskirts, are also highly sensitive areas as there are intensive farming acitivities, with serious soil erosion problems. Taibai, Meixian, Zhouzhi, Huxian, Lingtong District, Baqiao District, Linwei District etc. in the north slope of Qingling are important areas for bio-diversity protection and water conservation and ecologically sensitive; Fuping, Yangxian, Ningshan, Liuba, Zhashui, Mianxian and Zhengping in the Qingling and Bashan Mt. are also important areas for bio-diversity protection and water conservation and Shangzhou, Luonan, Ningqiang, Lueyang, Ziyang, Langao, Xunyang etc. are soil erosion sensitive area with frequent natural disasters like soil erosion, landslip and debris flow.The land degradation forms include soil and water loss, land desertification, soil salinization, decrease of soil fertility, grassland degradation, deforestation, forest degradation, water conservation dysfunction, wetland degradation and declination of bio-diversity etc. The land degradation can also be classified into 6 types in terms of the external forces, namely hydrological erosion, wind erosion, freeze-thaw erosion, soil pollution, secondary salinization and land degradation under other forces. The current status of land degradation shows that the degraded land is decreasing, flowing and semi-flowing sandlot area decreasing, while the fixed sandlot is increasing. In terms of forest coverage, soil erosion modulus and desertification area, the land degradation situation in Shaanxi is actually improving partially under holistic control. However, the area of soil salinization, water resources degradation (both quantity and quality) and the land area with polluted soil due to chemical use and the area of the abandoned land due to mining is still increasing.As far as the controlling strategy is concerned, different strategies should be adopted to different types of land degradation like soil and water loss, wind erosion, freeze-thaw erosion, grassland degradation, salinization and desertification in Shaanxi. Different industrial structures and integrated regional controlling method and eco-recovery techniques should be adopted. The'best'technique should be demonstrated through demonstration districts, priority should be given to the selected key areas and projects for degradation controlling and the supportive legal and policy conditions should be improved. The intra- and inter sector coordination should be enhance and the community-based participating management should be adopted. The private investment in land degradation improvement and incentive systems should be promoted.