Utilization of water resources, ecological balance and land desertification in the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang

Because of the human exploitation and utilization of water resources in the Tarim Basin,the water resources consumption has changed from mainly natural ecosystem to artificial oasisecosystem, and the environment has changed correspondingly. The basic changes are: desertifi-cation and oasis development coexist, both "the human being advance and the desert retreat" and"the desert advance and the human being retreat" coexist, but the latter is dominant. In the upperreaches, water volume drawing to irrigated agricultural areas has increased, artificial oases havebeen enlarging and moving from the deltas in the lower reaches of many rivers to the piedmontplains. In the middle and lower reaches of the Tarim River, the stream flow has decreased, old oa-ses have declined, natural vegetations have been degenerating, desertification has been enlarging,and the environment has deteriorated. The transition regions, which consist of forestlands, grass-lands and waters between the desert and the oases, have been decreasing continuously, theirshelter function to the oases has been weakened, and the desert is threatening the oases seri-ously.