›› 2011, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (1): 175-180.

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Research on Drought Disasters in Central Gansu Province during the Period from 1400 to 1999

CHENG Ai-fang1, ZHAO Jing-bo1,2   

  1. 1. College of Tourism and Environmental Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China;
    2. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710075, China
  • Received:2010-01-20 Revised:2010-04-26 Online:2011-02-25 Published:2011-09-06

Abstract: In this paper, the historical documents of drought disasters in central Gansu Province during the period from 1400 to 1999 were collected and analyzed. The ranks, decadal change, seasonal change, regional variation and climatic background of drought disasters in central Gansu Province during this period were focused on. It was found that 280 times of drought disasters occurred in central Gansu Province during this period, approximately once every 2.14 years in average. Drought disasters were mainly the moderate ones and accounted for 45.4% of the total, followed by severe ones and accounted for 32.1% of the total, and the occurring frequency of tremendous and slight ones accounted for 10% and 12.5% of the total respectively. Occurrence of drought disasters in central Gansu during the period from 1400 to 1999 could be divided into three stages. The first stage was before the 1480s, and it was characterized by high occurring frequency and continuous increase of drought disasters; the second stage was between the 1490s and the 1700s, and it was characterized by low occurring frequency and continuous decrease of drought disasters; the third stage was after the 1710s, and it was characterized by high occurring frequency and fluctuated increase of drought disasters. Seasonally, drought disasters occurred mainly in summer, and followed by spring drought and successive two-or three-season drought. Spatially, severity of drought disasters was increased from southwest to northeast of central Gansu Province. Occurring frequency of drought disasters fluctuated sharply in central Gansu Province during the period from 15th century to 17th century due to climate fluctuation; occurring frequency of drought disasters was continuously increased with temperature decrease during the period from 18th century to 19th century. Occurring frequency of drought disasters was the highest during the warm period in the 20th century in recent 600 years.

Key words: drought disaster, spatiotemporal change, central Gansu Province

CLC Number: 

  • P426.616