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Journal of Arid Land
Journal of Arid Land  2021, Vol. 13 Issue (1): 98-106    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-020-0071-0
Research article     
Damage by wind-blown sand and its control measures along the Taklimakan Desert Highway in China
LI Congjuan1,2, WANG Yongdong1,2,*(), LEI Jiaqiang1,2,*(), XU Xinwen1,2, WANG Shijie1,2,3, FAN Jinglong1,2, LI Shengyu1,2
1National Engineering Technology Research Center for Desert-Oasis Ecological Construction, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
2Taklimakan Desert Research Station, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Korla 841000, China
3Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi 830052, China
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Abstract  

Desertification is one of the most serious environmental problems in the world, especially in the arid desert regions. Combating desertification, therefore, is an urgent task on a regional or even global scale. The Taklimakan Desert in China is the second largest mobile desert in the world and has been called the ''Dead Sea'' due to few organisms can exist in such a harsh environment. The Taklimakan Desert Highway, the longest desert highway (a total length of 446 km) across the mobile desert in the world, was built in the 1990s within the Taklimakan Desert. It has an important strategic significance regarding oil and gas resources exploration and plays a vital role in the socio-economic development of southern Xinjiang, China. However, wind-blow sand seriously damages the smoothness of the desert highway and, in this case, mechanical sand control system (including sand barrier fences and straw checkerboards) was used early in the life of the desert highway to protect the road. Unfortunately, more than 70% of the sand barrier fences and straw checkerboards have lost their functions, and the desert highway has often been buried and frequently blocked since 1999. To solve this problem, a long artificial shelterbelt with the length of 437 km was built along the desert highway since 2000. However, some potential problems still exist for the sustainable development of the desert highway, such as water shortage, strong sandstorms, extreme environmental characteristics and large maintenance costs. The study aims to provide an overview of the damages caused by wind-blown sand and the effects of sand control measures along the Taklimakan Desert Highway. Ultimately, we provide some suggestions for the biological sand control system to ensure the sustainable development of the Taklimakan Desert Highway, such as screening drought-resistant species to reduce the irrigation requirement and ensure the sound development of groundwater, screening halophytes to restore vegetation in the case of soil salinization, and planting cash crops, such as Cistanche, Wolfberry, Apocynum and other cash crops to decrease the high cost of maintenance on highways and shelterbelts.

Key words： wind-blown sand      sand barrier fences      artificial shelterbelt      mechanical sand control measure      biological sand control measure      sustainable development      Taklimakan Desert Highway     
Received: 27 June 2019      Published: 10 January 2021
Corresponding Authors:
About author: LEI Jiaqiang (E-mail: leijq@ms.xjb.ac.cn)
*WANG Yongdong (E-mail: wangyd@ms.xjb.ac.cn);
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Congjuan LI
Yongdong WANG
Jiaqiang LEI
Xinwen XU
Shijie WANG
Jinglong FAN
Shengyu LI
Cite this article:

LI Congjuan, WANG Yongdong, LEI Jiaqiang, XU Xinwen, WANG Shijie, FAN Jinglong, LI Shengyu. Damage by wind-blown sand and its control measures along the Taklimakan Desert Highway in China. Journal of Arid Land, 2021, 13(1): 98-106.

URL:

http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-020-0071-0     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2021/V13/I1/98

Fig. 1 Structure of the mechanical sand control system along the Taklimakan Desert Highway
Fig. 2 Damage conditions of the mechanical sand control system caused by wind-blown sand along the Taklimakan Desert Highway. (a), buried sand barrier fences; (b), sand aggregation in the straw checkerboard barriers; (c), moving dune coverage on the desert highway.
Damage ways Percentage of damaged area (%)
East side of the highway West side of the highway
Mar 1997 Oct 1997 May 1999 Mar 1997 Oct 1997 May 1999
Aeolian erosion 8.49 9.65 12.00 6.40 9.21 4.63
Sand aggregation 24.85 38.14 53.36 27.81 23.96 55.73
Moving dune coverage 4.38 28.52 25.14 1.48 8.86 17.41
Total 37.72 76.31 90.50 35.69 42.03 77.77
Table 1 Damage conditions of the straw checkerboard barriers in typical sections along the Taklimakan Desert Highway
Damage ways Percentage of damaged area (%)
East side of the highway West side of the highway
Mar 1997 Oct 1997 May 1999 Mar 1997 Oct 1997 May 1999
Aeolian erosion 15.49 38.48 46.69 23.75 24.05 24.08
Sand aggregation 21.23 22.82 10.45 9.74 12.45 36.64
Moving dune coverage 22.38 25.13 32.71 1.63 12.36 15.09
Total 59.10 86.43 89.85 35.12 48.86 75.81
Table 2 Damage conditions of the sand barrier fences in typical sections along the Taklimakan Desert Highway
Fig. 3 Three patterns of the biological sand control measures along the Taklimakan Desert Highway. (a), four belts (two sand-fixing belts and two sand-blocking belts) at the interdune and sparsely distributed dune sections; (b), three belts (sand-fixing belt-sand-fixing belt-sand-blocking belt) at the transition sections between the ridges and depressions; (c), two belts (sand-fixing belt-sand-fixing belt) at the high compound ridge sections.
Fig. 4 Protection effects of the artificial shelterbelt along the Taklimakan Desert Highway
Sand control measure Effects Investment (CNY/(km?a)) Ecological benefit Sustainability
Mechanical sand control measure More than 70% of the control measure is ineffective: the sand barrier fences are buried, and straw checkerboard barriers containing aggregated sand and moving dunes bury the desert highway (Lei et al., 2008) 0.50×106-0.77×106
(Gong et al., 2001)		 No Unsustainable
Biological sand control measure More than 90% of the artificial shelterbelt is effective; there is generally no sand on the road surface, except under strong sandstorm conditions (Lei et al., 2008) 1.30×106-1.70×106
(Gong et al., 2001)		 Increasing the biodiversity and improving the eco-environment (Lei et al., 2008; Zhang et al., 2011) Sustainable
Chemical sand control measure Ineffective (Xu et al., 1998) 0.40×106-1.20×106
(Gong et al., 2001)		 Bring chemical materials to the desert and damaging the eco-environment (Xu et al., 1998; Han et al., 2000) Unsustainable
Table 3 Effects and investment of different sand control measures
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