Understanding the processes responsible for the distribution of water availability over space and time is of great importance to spatial planning in a semi-arid river basin. In this study the usefulness of a multiagent simulation (MAS) approach for representing these processes is discussed. A MAS model has been developed to represent local water use of farmers that both respond to and modify th...

The mid-latitudes of East Asia are characterized by the interaction between the Asian summer monsoon and the westerly winds. Understanding long-term climate change in the marginal regions of the Asian monsoon is critical for understanding the millennial-scale interactions between the Asian monsoon and the westerly winds. Abrupt climate events are always associated with changes in large-scale ci...

Global climate change is apparent within the Arctic and the south-western deserts of North America, with record drought in the latter reflected within 640,000 km(2) of the Colorado River Basin. To discern the manner by which natural and anthropogenic drivers have compressed Basin-wide fish biodiversity, and to establish a baseline for future climate effects, the Stream Hierarchy Model (SHM) was...

Groundwater plays a vital role in the arid inland river basins, in which the groundwater management is critical to the sustainable development of area economy and ecology. Traditional sustainable management approaches are to analyze different scenarios subject to assumptions or to construct simulation–optimization models to obtain optimal strategy. However, groundwater system is time-varying du...

The present study assessed the export of inorganic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus within a large agricultural basin in arid northwestern China. Groundwater of various depths and river water along a 160 km reach were sampled during contrasting flow conditions. Dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) concentrations and δ13C-DIC values indicate that lithogenic carbonate weathering was the main source o...

ALOS PALSAR data is used to analyse the flood dynamics of two semi-arid river systems and to characterise and define wetland typologies that result from infrequent and highly variable river flood regimes. The two sites, the Gwydir and the Paroo rivers, are both located within the Murray Darling Basin of eastern Australia. The methods developed have the potential to provide cost effective monito...

A critical evaluation of the newly released precipitation data set is very important for both the end users and data developers. Meanwhile, the evaluation may provide a benchmark for the product’s continued development and future improvement. To these ends, the four precipitation estimates including IMERG (the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for the Global Precipitation Measurement) V04A,...

Despite the arid to hyperarid climate of the Great Sahara of North Africa, pluvial climates dominated the region. Radar data shed some light on the postulated Trans-African Drainage System and its relationship to active and inactive tributaries of the Nile basin. Interpretations of recent elevation data confirm a source of the river water from the Red Sea highlands did not connect the Atlantic ...

Population genetic information can provide valuable insight for the conservation and management of threatened and endangered plant species. Tamarix taklamakanensis is an endangered shrub endemic to arid basins of northwestern China. This species serves to stabilize soils in this region, but has seen substantial loss in its abundance due to depletion of ground water. The populations of this spec...

an agroecological zones (aez) map is an essential tool for agricultural planning. by integrating the key components of the agricultural environments, it offers a bird's-eye view of internal diversity, agricultural potential and constraints that decision-makers find easier to understand than a pile of single-theme maps. in this study, aez map of the karkheh river basin has been prepared usi...