title: Temporal and Spatial Variations of Drought in China: Reconstructed from Historical Memorials Archives during 1689-1911.
abstract: In China, Zou Zhe (Memorials to the Throne, or Palace Memorials), an official communication to the emperors of China by local officials, offers an opportunity to reconstruct the spatial-temporal distributions of droughts at a high-resolution. A 223-year, 1689-1911, time series of drought events was reconstructed in this study based on 2494 pieces of Zou Zhe. The results show that: 1) on the temporal scale, the drought affected areas, i.e., number of affected counties, showed three peak periods during the last 223 years and nine extreme drought years with more than 300 counties affected have been identified; 2) on the spatial scale, there existed three drought-prone areas in China, i.e., Gansu province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in Northwest China, Shandong, Hebei, and Henan provinces and Tianjin in the North China, and Anhui and Jiangsu provinces in Jianghuai area, respectively; 3) the drought-prone areas have been expanding from North China to South China since the second half of 19th century; 4) on the seasonal scale, summer witnessed the largest number of drought events. Meanwhile, the uncertainties of the results were also discussed, i.e. what caused the spatial-temporal distribution of drought. The results of this study can be used to mitigate the adverse effects of extreme weather events on food increasing and stable production.
authors.affiliation: China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China.|State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, Beijing, China.|School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jinhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.affiliation: China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China.|State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Denghua
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Land and Water Flagship, Private Bag 5, Wembley, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Guobin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: International Center for Ecology, Meteorology and Environment (IceMe), Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Agricultural Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.affiliation: School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yaojie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yue
authors.affiliation: China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ruoxi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yunpeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jiangang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deng
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D055864:Droughts / Q000266:history; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis
references.citation: Nature. 2010 Sep 2;467(7311):43-51
references.pmid: 20811450