ABSTRACT

The Heihe basin, located in northwestern China, is a region of predominantly arid and semiarid climate with extremely fragile ecological systems, few financial resources, poor infrastructure, low levels of education, and restricted access to technology and markets. The region suffers from climate variations and may experience more severe impacts of climate change on water resources, food production and ecosystem health in the future. Moreover, the region’s adaptive capacity is much less than that in the coastal region of China. People in the Heihe region are facing substantial and multiple stresses, including rapidly growing demands for food and water, poverty, land degradation and other issues that may be amplified by climate change.