Abstract
The dry–wet climate regionalization index, potential evapotranspiration calculation methods, standard and named methods of dry–wet climate regionalization, etc., since the middle of the 20th century are reviewed in this paper. Using the arid index, climate regionalization and class standards were given on the basis of former review. Then, the characteristics of wet–dry climate division were analyzed using observed data at 2207 national meteorological stations from 1981 to 2010. The results showed that the total arid area (including extreme arid, arid and semi-arid areas) was 4.692 million hm<sup>2</sup> in China, accounting for 48.8% of the land area in China, which included 878,000 hm<sup>2</sup> (9.1%), 2.092 million hm<sup>2</sup> (21.8%) and 1.722 million hm<sup>2</sup> (17.9%) for extreme arid, arid and semi-arid area, respectively. The arid areas were mainly distributed in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu and other western regions. Sub-humid area, wet area and excessive wet area accounted for 1.6%, 27.8% and 8.8% of China’s land area, respectively, mainly located in the south of the Yangtze River and Northeast China. Since 1961, the overall characteristics of dry-wet climate change in China are that the total arid areas shows a decreasing trend, while the total wet areas shows an increasing trend.
Highlights
The water cycle and the distribution of precipitation and water resources will change in the context of global climate change
The getting wet areas are mainly located in Northwest of China, mainly due to a significant increase of precipitation in these areas since the 1980s
In order to reflect the climate change characteristics of the desert areas in Western China and the humid area in Southeast China, this paper divides the Chinese climate by the calculated aridity index into six degrees, namely extremely humid areas, with AI
Summary
The water cycle and the distribution of precipitation and water resources will change in the context of global climate change. Shi et al [2] and Zhang et al [3] have pointed out that since 1987, there is a process of climate change from warm-dry to warm-humid in the mid-eastern regions of Northwest China. The dry and wet conditions in an area are closely related to the amount of precipitation and evaporation. This is usually reflected by the aridity index. In the past 100 years, the proposed methods and indicators, grade naming and the division of dry and wet climate zone standards, have changed due to the different understandings of dry and wet climate zones, the different studied regions and purposes, and the limitations of scientific and technological development levels and observational data at a given time. The latest meteorological observations in China and the spatial characteristics of dry
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