Background: New sources of hydroclimate information based on forecast models and observational data have the potential to greatly improve the management of water resources in semi-arid regions prone to drought. Better management of climate-related risks and opportunities requires both new methods to develop forecasts of drought indicators and river flow, as well as better strategies to incorpor...

Waterlogging and salinization arise in arid areas largely because two essential resources, irrigation water and the assimilative capacity of unconfined aquifers, are not priced or allocated correctly to reflect scarcity values and opportunity costs. Farm-level and project-level models of crop production are examined to identify policies that will encourage farmers to consider opportunity costs ...

Estimation of impervious surface area is important to the study of urban environments and social development, but surface characteristics, as well as the temporal, spectral, and spatial resolutions of remote sensing images, influence the estimation accuracy. To investigate the effects of regional environmental characteristics on the estimation of impervious surface area, we divided China into s...

1 Introduction Accurate quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) is one of the most important elements in meteorological and hydrologic analyses. It has been long recognized, however, that rain gauge networks are usually inadequate because of their limited distribution. During the last decades intense scientific efforts have been devoted to utilize remote sensing information for the estimati...

constructionof underground dams is a practical solution to save groundwater in alluvium watersheds, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions where surface water scarcity is an environmental challenge. considering socio-economic and environmental benefits of underground dams, the accurate locating is the primary consideration for dam construction. the new technologies and methods are a step to...

12 The impact of the Tibetan Plateau uplift on the Asian monsoons and inland arid climates is an 13 important but also controversial question in studies of paleoenvironmental change during the 14 Cenozoic. In order to achieve a good understanding of the background for the formation of the 15 Asian monsoons and arid environments, it is necessary to know the characteristics of the 16 distribution...

Understanding of hydrological processes, including consideration of interactions between vegetation growth and water transfer in the root zone, underpins efficient use of water resources in arid-zone agriculture. Water transfers take place in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, and include groundwater dynamics, unsaturated zone flow, evaporation/transpiration from vegetated/ bare soil and surf...

We construct a state-and-transition model for mammals in tropical savannas in northern Australia to synthesize ecological knowledge and understand mammalian declines. We aimed to validate the existence of alternative mammal assemblage states similar to those in arid Australian grasslands, and to speculate on transition triggers. Based on the arid grassland model, we hypothesized that assemblage...

Soil is one of the most important natural resources covering a large area of the land surface. Soil plays a vital role in biosphere processes, such as energy balance, hydrology, biochemistry, and biological productivity. It supports plants that supply foods, fibers, drugs, and some other human needs. Conversely, desert regions include about one third of earth lands and these regions have increa...