Region Tibet
Geoinformatic research on effects of
climate and land cover change on the agriculture of the Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau
in cooperation with Prof. Chen
Shenbin and Prof. Liu Yunfen, Institute of Natural Resources Research
and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing
research aims:
We aim to study the climatic
conditions on the Tibetan Plateau with particular attention on factors
affecting the hydrological cycle and their effects on agriculture and
forestry. Our climatic data base consists of time series of more than
200 stations in Tibet proper and the surrounding Southwest Chinese
mountain ranges which is the largest data collection of this area
outside the PR China. In addition to conventional time series analysis
(detection of trends) we aim at calculating high-resolution (~1 km)
spatial climate data fields using a new regionalisation procedure that
takes into account the effects of topography. Particular emphasis is
placed on the calculation and regionalisation of Penman-Monteith
evapotranspiration estimates.
Based on these spatial climate data
fields actual evapotranspiration and agricultural production conditions
in the main agricultural basins of Tibet will be modeled using a
modified FAO Agro Ecological Zoning approach. The potential natural
extent of forests in Tibet and their climatic limits will also be
modeled.
In addition a climate diagram atlas
is in preparation that will incorporate extended climatological
information such as Penman-Monteith evapotranspiration rates to
supersede the unreliable evapotranspiration estimates of Walter-Lieth
diagrams.
publications:
2006
Climatic Change on the Tibetan Plateau: Potential Evapotranspiration Trends
from 1961 - 2000.
with Liu
Yunfen and Chen Shenbin. Climatic
Change 76,
(3-4), 291-319.
2002 Landwirtschaft
und klimatische Trends im
zentralen Yarlong Tsangpo-Tal, Tibet.
Agriculture and climatic trends in
the central Yarlong Tsangpo valley, Tibet.
with Chen, S.
Erdkunde 56,
(4), 371 - 384. (in German with English abstract)
With relevance to this project:
2007 Agricultural
irrigation demand under present and future climate scenarios in China.
Global
and Planetary Change doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2007.03.009
2004
REGEOTOP: New climatic data fields for East Asia based on
localized relief information and geostatistical methods
with:
Herzfeld, U.
International
Journal of Climatology 24, (10), 1283 - 1306.
In
preparation: Impacts of CO² Enrichment on Apparent
Quantum Yield of Wheat on the Tibetan Plateau
with Liu Yunfen and Chen Shenbin
funding: Max-Planck Society and Chinese
Academy of Sciences
duration: 2000 - app. 2006