Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The impacts of climate change have been widely recognized around the world, especially in arid environments. The ecosystems of arid/semi-arid areas are often vulnerable due to the extreme climatic situation and water shortage.

Arid lands are characterized by scarce water resources, a delicate ecological balance, and vulnerability to climate change impacts. This Special Issue aims to explore the various aspects of climate change and its implications for regional sustainability in arid lands worldwide. We welcome contributions that investigate the interactions between the atmosphere and the land surface, focusing on topics such as water availability, energy cycles, land cover change, and adaptation strategies.

Potential research areas for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

Regional climate modeling and projections for arid areas;
Impacts of climate variability and change on water resources in arid regions;
Land–atmosphere interactions and feedback mechanisms in arid ecosystems;
Sustainable land management techniques and their role in climate resilience;
Climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies for arid regions;
Socio-economic implications and policy interventions for sustainable development in arid lands.

We invite researchers and experts in the field to submit their original research articles, reviews, or conceptual papers to contribute to this Special Issue. Manuscripts should adhere to the journal’s guidelines and will undergo a rigorous peer-review process.

This Special Issue aims to bring together the latest research and advancements in the understanding of the complex dynamics of arid regions, particularly in the context of climate change and environmental sustainability. It is our hope that the research presented in this Special Issue will inform policy decisions and contribute to the development of sustainable practices in these vulnerable regions.

Dr. Yang Yu
Dr. Lei Wang
Dr. Cun Chang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

climate change
regional sustainability
arid lands
saline agriculture
seed ecology
LUCC
remote sensing
sustainable management

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results

Result details

Show export options Show export options

Select all

Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

21 pages, 3952 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Water Resources Evaluation in Arid Areas Based on Agricultural Water Footprint—A Case Study on the Edge of the Taklimakan Desert

by Lingyun Zhang, Yang Yu, Ireneusz Malik, Malgorzata Wistuba, Lingxiao Sun, Meiling Yang, Qian Wang and Ruide Yu

Atmosphere 2023, 14(1), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14010067 - 29 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1438

Abstract

Water scarcity is an important factor limiting agricultural development in arid areas. Clarifying and evaluating the current situation of water resources in arid regions is helpful for decision-makers in the rational use of water resources. This study takes a typical arid region located at the edge of Taklamakan Desert-Hotan region as the study area. The water footprint (WF) of the Hotan region was calculated based on 20 years of data information from 2000–2019. An evaluation system was established using four aspects of the WF: structural indicators, efficiency indicators, ecological safety indicators, and sustainability indicators. The results show that the WF of the study area is mainly dominated by blue water consumption, with a proportion of 65.74%. The WF of crop production is larger than that of livestock production. The produced WF of grain crops is the highest of all products with a share of 44.21%. The increase in the local agricultural WF reached 53.18% from 2000 to 2019, but it was still lower than the amount of water available for agriculture. The evaluation results indicated that the region’s WF import dependency is lower than the global level, with an annual average self-sufficiency rate of 91.13% and an increase of 878.95% in the WF economic efficiency index. The agricultural WF produced in Hotan is exported in the form of trade, but the quantitative contribution is small and does little to relieve water stress in other regions. The agricultural water consumption was still within the range of local water resources that could be carried but only 6 years of sustainable water use, and the future development was not optimistic. With the ratio of produced WF to available water resources maintained at about 58%, the local available water resources should be above 43.21 × 10⁸ m³ to initially ensure the sustainable use of water resources. There were 12 drought years in the study period, which are prone to droughts and high disaster levels. The drought-water scarcity systems behaved in three phases: 2000–2011 (uncoordinated level), 2012–2015 (transitional phase), and 2016–2019 (coordinated level). Water scarcity threatened by drought reduced. The occurrence of meteorological droughts was more related to natural factors while the changes in WF were mainly driven by socio-economic elements such as human activities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Regional Sustainability in Arid Lands)

► Show Figures

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Climate Change and Regional Sustainability in Arid Lands

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI