1st International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software - Lugano, Switzerland - June 2002
Keywords
assessment, modeling, grassland, climatic and economical change
Start Date
1-7-2002 12:00 AM
Abstract
Regional impacts assessment model is an indispensable tool for the study on environmental and economical change and the impacts on ecosystems. In this paper a regional impact assessment model AVIMia, which is an extended version of AVIM is designed. AVIMia is consists of two components: original AVIM (Atmosphere- Vegetation Interaction Model) and an impact assessment model. Over past 50 year the arid/semi-arid grassland of North China degraded severely due to the change in Climate and social economy. AVIMia is applied to assess the impacts of climatic changes and human activities on grassland in North China, based on historical data, and the different climatic and social scenarios for this region. For the assessment of grassland, specially, the following impact facts are taken into consideration: grazing, cultivation on grassland communities and soil attributes from plot to regional scale. The model is validated by observed data of Inner Mongolia semi-arid grassland. Both the data analysis and model assessment show that: Total aboveground NPP of Inner Mongolia grassland is 771.7*108 kg /yr. Edible aboveground biomass is 498.1*108 kg /yr. Typical steppe and meadow steppe dominate the production of this region. Total estimated livestock holding capacity is 45.51million sheep unit. The grassland is overgrazed more than 100% in Inner Mongolia. Overgrazing is one of the most important reasons inducing the widespread degradation and desertification.
Framework of a Regional Impacts Assessment Model and Its Application on Arid/Semi-Arid Region
Regional impacts assessment model is an indispensable tool for the study on environmental and economical change and the impacts on ecosystems. In this paper a regional impact assessment model AVIMia, which is an extended version of AVIM is designed. AVIMia is consists of two components: original AVIM (Atmosphere- Vegetation Interaction Model) and an impact assessment model. Over past 50 year the arid/semi-arid grassland of North China degraded severely due to the change in Climate and social economy. AVIMia is applied to assess the impacts of climatic changes and human activities on grassland in North China, based on historical data, and the different climatic and social scenarios for this region. For the assessment of grassland, specially, the following impact facts are taken into consideration: grazing, cultivation on grassland communities and soil attributes from plot to regional scale. The model is validated by observed data of Inner Mongolia semi-arid grassland. Both the data analysis and model assessment show that: Total aboveground NPP of Inner Mongolia grassland is 771.7*108 kg /yr. Edible aboveground biomass is 498.1*108 kg /yr. Typical steppe and meadow steppe dominate the production of this region. Total estimated livestock holding capacity is 45.51million sheep unit. The grassland is overgrazed more than 100% in Inner Mongolia. Overgrazing is one of the most important reasons inducing the widespread degradation and desertification.
