Abstract
Blown sand disasters are caused by sand activity. It can lead to casualties of people and livestock, declining productivity of farmland and pasture, damage to buildings, roads, communication and other facilities, as well as deterioration of air quality (Gao et al. 2000). In northern China, due to the dry and windy climate and large land areas that are covered with sparse vegetation, sand activity is intense and blown sand disasters occur frequently with serious damages. Depending on the severity, sand and dust storm (SDS) weathers can be divided into floating dust, sand-blowing, and sand and dust storm types. Among these, strong and extremely strong sand and dust storms are the main types of SDS weather that causes blown sand disasters (CMA 2006). Sandstorm and dust storm have been a notable natural phenomenon in northern China historically (Zhang 1982). Due to the constantly growing human activities, the coupling effect of land desertification and climatic aridification has been strengthened and thus increases the risk of blown sand disasters. This chapter discusses sand and dust storm and blown sand disasters in northern China, including the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of sand and dust storms, formation process of blown sand disasters and influences, blown sand disaster risk, and a case of blown sand disasters in China in 2000.
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Liu, L., Lyu, Y., Xu, W., Wang, J., Shi, P. (2016). Blown Sand Disasters in China. In: Shi, P. (eds) Natural Disasters in China. IHDP/Future Earth-Integrated Risk Governance Project Series. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-50270-9_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-50270-9_8
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