ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Inter-decadal Spatiotemporal Variations
of Aridity Based on Temperature
and Precipitation in Inner Mongolia, China
Siqin Tong1,2, Jiquan Zhang1, Yuhai Bao2
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1School of the Environment, Natural Disaster Research Institute, Northeast Normal University,
Changchun 130024, People’s Republic of China
2College of Geographical Science, Inner Mongolia Normal University,
Hohhot 010022, People’s Republic of China
Submission date: 2016-07-27
Acceptance date: 2016-10-15
Online publication date: 2017-03-22
Publication date: 2017-03-22
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2017;26(2):819-826
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ABSTRACT
In the past few decades, drought has been a frequent phenomenon in many parts of the world, especially
in arid and semi-arid regions. Hence in order to better predict the development trend of drought in Inner
Mongolia and formulate corresponding countermeasures for disaster prevention and mitigation, for this
paper we calculated the aridity index according to the annual mean precipitation and temperature data of
109 stations covering 1961-2010. The study result indicated that the mean aridity degree was increasing
from west to east and was mainly characterized by moderate aridity; from 1961 to 2010 the change of aridity
has been decreasing while aridity has been increasing, especially after the abrupt changing point in 1995.
Moreover, the decreasing area of aridity took up 82.6% while the increasing area only occupied 17.4% of
the whole area. During a 50-year time scale, the annual mean aridity oscillation periodicity was at 49a, 25a,
and7a, and Inner Mongolia was still at a stage of aridity that might last for a long time. Regarding different
decades, the climate of Inner Mongolia was relatively humid in the 1980s; however, as time went by the area
of moderate aridity degree increased while the humidity area decreased in the early 21st century. Therefore,
it was clear that the climate was becoming drier year after year. From 1960 to 2010, contours lower than
30 shifted toward longitude direction and contours more than 30 moved in the direction of latitude.