Abstract
It is important to analyze the characteristics of drought and flood change in an arid area over a long timescale for the evolution of the environment. Historical documents were used to reconstruct a drought and flood grade series for the Hexi Corridor from 0 to 1950 AD. The moving average and wavelet transform processing methods were used to determine the temporal evolution characteristics of droughts and floods, as well as the corresponding relationships with climate change and human activities in the Hexi Corridor after 1000 AD. The results showed the occurrence of eight drought phases (370–410 AD, 790–870 AD, 1050–1150 AD, 1260–1340 AD, 1430–1570 AD, 1710–1770 AD, 1800–1890 AD, and 1910–1950 AD), five flood phases (320–360 AD, 1670–710 AD, 1730–1790 AD, 1810–1860 AD, and 1880–1950 AD), and 3 oscillation periods of drought and flood events. Climate change may have been the main factor inducing droughts and floods before 1580 AD, whereas human activities may have increased the frequency of droughts and floods after the 16th century. Therefore, quantifying the impacts of natural factors and human activities on droughts and floods can provide important theoretical guidance for the prevention and reduction of future disasters.
Highlights
Coping with droughts, floods, and extreme hydrological events has been a focus of social concern since the beginning of human civilization
Since the four counties of Hexi were established in the Western Han Dynasty (121 BC-111 BC), the Hexi Corridor has been formally included in the political system of the Central Plains Dynasties
A total of 365 droughts or floods of different grades occurred in the Hexi Corridor during this period
Summary
Floods, and extreme hydrological events has been a focus of social concern since the beginning of human civilization. Long-term imbalances between water supply and demand lead to droughts and floods (Kundzewicz and Kaczmarek, 2000) that reflect an extremal process in the natural evolution of the climate (Xing et al, 2013). High temperatures and heavy rainfall events on the global scale may become frequent at the end of the 21st century, and the overall economic losses caused by extreme climate events could gradually increase (Field et al, 2012). The following goal was set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations in 2015 to reduce disaster risks: “By 2030, significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected and substantially decrease the direct economic losses relative to the global gross domestic product caused by disasters, including water-related disasters.” (Lv et al, 2015).
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