Affected by global climate change, the surface air temperature of China’s Yangtze River Basin could go up by 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius in the next 50 years and extreme weather events will occur more frequently, according to the report “Study on the vulnerability and adaptability of Yangtze River basin’s climate change” unveiled by World Wide Fund for Nature Tuesday.
The report elaborates the impact of climate change on the Yangtze River basin and put forward detailed countermeasures and suggestions. It was organized by WWF and run by more than 20 researchers from Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research after 2 years research, and CAS, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, Institute of Applied Ecology, formerly the Institute of Forestry and Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and Fudan University.
The report said according to the data from 147 weather stations in the Yangtze River basin, the annual temperature rose 0.33 degrees Celsius in 1990s, compared to the average level of 1961 to 1990. While from 2001 to 2005, the temperature rose 0.71 degrees Celsius and in the next 50 years, it may raise 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius.
According to the report together with monsoons in Yangtze River basin, the area will likely be influenced by other extreme weather. In the past decades, the frequency of floods in Yangtze River basin has been increasing and the climate change may further influence this trend.
The report suggests that effective measures can be adopted to address climate change combined with ecosystem protection in Yangtze River basin. For example; strengthen the economic planning and layout of Yangtze River basin, enhance the capacity of sustainable socio-economic development, strengthen the infrastructure construction of Yangtze River basin, improve the integrated water resources management system of Yangtze River basin, build a reasonable agricultural cropping system and raise the public awareness of environmental protection and so on.
