Tropentag, October 11 - 13, 2005 in Stuttgart-Hohenheim "The Global Food & Product Chain – Dynamics, Innovations, Conflicts, Strategies"

Time Related Landscape Changes in Yutian Oasis at the Southern Fringe of Tarim Basin in NW China

¹China Agricultural University, College of Resources and Environment, China
²University of Kassel, Organic Crop Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics, Germany
³Chinese Academy of Science, Institute of Ecology and Geography, China

Abstract

Little is known about time-related changes in the agricultural structure of ancient melt-water oases along the silk road in the hyper-arid Taklamakan desert of Northwest China. Recently released, high-resolution b/w aerial photographs taken in 1956 and an ETM+ satellite image taken in 2002 were used to compare such changes in Yutian oasis at the northern fringe of the Kunlun mountains, where melt-water is used to produce crops on irrigated farmland. Image analysis showed a complete transformation of the oasis' agricultural setting over the time period studied from an extensive agriculture system with a total cultivated surface of 17,970 ha, a canal length of 3,133 km and a higher landscape diversity compared to today's 21,300 ha oasis surface and a canal length of 4,068 km in 2002. Whereas the modern-day agriculture structure with its chest-board type system of cement-lined irrigation canals may fit the need of intensive agriculture based on commodity crops such as maize (Zea mays L.), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) or melon (Cucumis melo L.), it likely consumes much more water than the traditional system. This may lead to the reduction of melt-water available for the foreland vegetation protecting the oasis from encroaching sand dunes of the surrounding desert.

Keywords: GIS, image analysis, oasis transformation, Taklamakan

Contact Address: Andreas Buerkert, University of Kassel, Organic Crop Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics, Steinstraße 19, 37213 Witzenhausen, Germany, e-mail: buerkertuni-kassel.de