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Disaster clusters refer to major disasters that cluster in space and time without any linkage, resulting in large direct damage and economic ripple effects (EREs). However, the cumulative EREs caused by a disaster cluster may not be equal to the summation EREs of the individual disasters within a cluster. We constructed a global economic ripple input-output model suitable for the analysis of disaster clusters and demonstrated the extent of this difference with the example of two typical catastrophes that occurred in 2011 (the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Great Thailand Flood), within an interval of only 136 days. The results indicate that: (1) The EREs suffered by 11 of the 35 countries affected (30%) are “1 + 1 > 2”, and “1 + 1

The land use and land cover pattern of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is an important basis for the structure and function of the QTP ecological barrier. It is of great significance to simulate the land use pattern and landscape ecological risk of the QTP under future scenarios for the construction of the QTP barrier area and to promote the sustainable use of land resources. The QTP was selected as the study area. Based on the spatial pattern of land use in 2010 and 2020, the PLUS model was used to predict the land use patterns of the QTP in 2030 under the two scenarios of natural development and ecological conservation. The landscape ecological risk index was constructed to evaluate the past, present, and future landscape ecological risk of the QTP. The natural break point method was used to divide the landscape ecological risk index into five levels: lower ecological risk, low ecological risk, medium ecological risk, high ecological risk, and higher ecological risk. The results showed that: (1) Under the natural development scenario, the area of cropland, forestland, grassland, and unused land decreased continuously, while the areas of water and built-up land increased gradually. Under the ecological conservation scenario, the areas of forestland and grassland increased by 130 km2 and 2293 km2, respectively, compared with the natural development scenario. (2) Under the natural development scenario, the overall ecological risk of the QTP increased from 2010 to 2030, which showed that the proportions of lower ecological risk area decreased, while the proportion of medium and high ecological risk area increased. Under the ecological conservation scenario, compared with the natural development scenario, the area of lower, low, and high ecological risk increased by 4044 km2, 2484 km2, and 6401 km2, respectively, while the areas of medium and higher ecological risk decreased by 6333 km2 and 6597 km2, respectively.

The impacts of human activity (denoted by population), economic, and social development (denoted by gross domestic product–GDP) on extremely wet/dry (or drought) events are important for humans to tackle extreme hazards. This research aims to investigate the variations in maximum values (SPEI_MAX) and minimum values (SPEI_MIN) of a 12 month standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI12-month) for the selected 525 sites at different socioeconomic development levels (SDLs) (classified by population and GDP) in China between 2000–2018, and to analyze the impacts of increased population/GDP/SDLs on extremely wet/dry events. The linear correlations between SPEI12-month/SPEI_MAX/SPEI_MIN and population/GDP were conducted for all the sites. The relationship between linear slopes of population (PopuLS)/GDP(GDPLS) and SPEI_MAX (SPEI_MAXLS)/SPEI_MIN (SPEI_MINLS) were further studied. The results show that the extremely wet events denoted by SPEI_MAX become worse and the extreme drought events denoted by SPEI_MIN tend to be milder over time. The years 2016 and 2011 were extremely wet and extremely dry in China. There were general increasing trends in SPEI_MAX and decreasing trends in SPEI_MIN as the SDL increased from 1 to 6. This gradual, continuous increase/decrease potentially affected levels 5 and 6. Moreover, extremely wet events were more severe in developed big municipal cities of higher SDLs and extreme drought events were more severe for lower SDLs. This research can supply references for policy makers to prevent extreme disasters.

Background Salar is a Turkic-speaking Islamic ethnic group in China living mainly in Xunhua Salar Autonomous County (Xunhua or Xunhua County), Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Salar people are skilled in horticulture and their homegarden (HG) management. They are regarded as the first people on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to practice horticulture, especially manage their HGs, traditional farming systems, and supplementary food production systems. Traditional knowledge of Salar people associated with their HGs always contributes significantly to the local livelihood, food security, ornamental value, and biodiversity conservation. The cultivation of different plants in HGs for self-sufficiency has a long tradition in China’s rural areas, especially in some mountainous areas. However, Salar traditional HGs have not been described. The present paper aims to report the features of Salar HGs mostly based on agrobiodiversity and its ecosystem services. Methods The methods used in this work included semi-structured interviews and participatory observation. A total of 60 households in three townships, 9 villages were surveyed. There are 4–12 family members in each household, aged from 20 to 86 years old. The homestead size is between 200 and 1200 m2. Plant species cultivated in Salar HGs were identified according to Flora of China. Based on a comprehensive survey of Salar HGs and related to background data, we identified and characterized the most important services and functions provided by Salar HGs. Results According to primary production systems, there are 4 different types of Salar HGs, including ornamental focus, product focus, dual-purpose and multi-purpose. In total, 108 (excluding weeds and bonsai) plant species were recorded in Salar HGs, within 43 plant families. The most important and frequently used plants are Rosa chinensis, Armeniaca vulgar, Prunus salicina, and Ziziphus jujuba. About 4 to 32 plant species were recorded in each homegarden. We found that the Salar HGs, as a typical agroecosyste, prossess multiple servcices and functions that directly benefit households according to the field investigation. Conclusion This paper reveals the floristic diversity of Salar HGs. It presents useful information in the homegarden agroecosystem of Salar people, such as HG types and species diversity in Salar HGs. Ecosystem functions and services research suggested that the Salar HG agroecosystem provides agroecosystem services mainly related to supply and culture services. Salar HGs are important as food supplement resources, aesthetics symbol, and cultural spaces.

Background Uncertainties exist in the magnitude and outbreak of debris flow disasters, resulting in significant loss of lives and property to human society. Improved identification of debris flow susceptibility areas can help to predict the location and sphere of influence of debris flow disaster, thus accurately assessing the risk of debris flow disaster and reducing losses caused by such a disaster. The dry-hot valleys of Basu County in the Eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are typical areas of high debris flow incidence, mapping of debris flow susceptibility identification and regional risk assessment is needed in this area. Results The parameters improved Flow-R model was first applied to identify debris flow susceptibility areas in Basu county using the digital elevation model, flow accumulation, slope, plan curvature, and land use data, followed by debris flow risk assessment. The Flow-R model can output high result accuracy of high-resolution susceptibility to debris flow identification on a regional scale with less data, and its accuracy value is 87.6%, indicating that the susceptibility to regional debris flow disaster is credible. This study provides a useful basis for effective prevention of regional debris flow disasters in the future, and provides a useful method for effectively identifying the debris flow susceptibility areas and assessing the related risk in large-scale areas. Conclusions (1) The debris flow susceptibility areas in Basu County covered 97.04 km2 (0.79% of the study area), distributed mainly in the Nujiang River Valley, Lengqu tributaries, and both sides of National Highway 318. (2) The debris flow susceptibility areas were dominant in zones characterized by an altitude range of 3000–4000 m, a plane curvature of − 2/100 m−1 to 1/100 m−1, and a low slope of 20°–40°. In addition, the susceptibility areas were dominant in the unused land and less prevalent in the water area. The highest and lowest susceptibility values were observed for cultivated and unused lands, respectively. (3) The debris flow risk in the study areas accounted for 0.82 km2 and revealed a distribution of high-risk debris flow along roads. The areas with a high debris flow risk were mainly distributed along the mainstream of the Nujiang River, which is the main future protected area.

China is one of the countries most affected by earthquakes. Improving public cognition and response to earthquake disaster (EDCR) is an effective means to reduce seismic risk and losses. The 2013 Lushan earthquake area was also stricken by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Most of the residents in this area have been affected by both earthquakes, which provides a rare opportunity to gain insight into the interaction between public’s EDCR and their earthquake disaster experience. Using a questionnaire survey on over 200 local residents selected by stratified sampling method, this paper investigates the public’s cognition and response capability with regard to earthquake disaster in the 2013 Mw6.6 Lushan earthquake area, Sichuan Province, China, with a particular emphasis on exploration on the relationship between people’s earthquake disaster experience and their disaster cognition and response behaviors. The results show that the overall EDCR level of local residents is moderate—their average cognition and response score for earthquake disaster is only 0.60. The number of earthquakes experienced, education, and family income level are the three most important factors that significantly impact an individual’s overall EDCR capability. Those who have experienced more earthquakes better adapt to the impacts of disaster. Especially, the experience learned from the 2008 Mw7.9 Wenchuan earthquake played a positive role in the cognition and response of the public to the 2013 Lushan earthquake. In addition, people with higher education could master more knowledge of earthquake disaster and better control their emotions. Similarly, respondents with a higher family income had more resources and ways to engage in more reasonable response behaviors to manage disaster effects. Based on these findings, it is suggested that local policy-makers implement targeted earthquake disaster education and knowledge dissemination strategies, especially develop and expand various experiential learning modes (e.g., emergency exercise/drilling, situational learning, virtual reality, scenario approach, safety/disaster experience center, participatory activities) for the local public and beyond to more effectively strengthen their cognition of disaster and response capability.

Soil moisture is a key land surface parameter that reflects conditions of drought in agricultural areas, such that variations in soil moisture significantly impact agricultural production. At a large spatial scale, soil moisture can be indicated using the temperature vegetation drought index (TVDI), which is based on soil moisture monitoring. Such metrics allow us to know whether or not the soil in a region is experiencing drought. The TVDI can be estimated by using either the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) or the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) combined with land surface temperature (LST) data. Our objectives were to study the applicability of the NDVI-based TVDI (TVDINDVI) and EVI-based TVDI (TVDIEVI) in the monitoring of soil moisture at a large time-space scale. The TVDINDVI and TVDIEVI were calculated by constructing a feature space based on the NDVI (or EVI) and LST to obtain the corresponding dry/wet-edge equation. By establishing a correlation relationship between the TVDIs and soil moisture at soil depths of 0–10, 0–40, 0–100, and 0–200 cm, the applicability of the TVDIEVI and TVDINDVI was investigated for seven different climatic regions in mainland China. The relationships between soil moisture at the 0–10-cm depth and the NDVI (or EVI) in cold and warm seasons were obtained. Linear functions of soil moisture and the TVDINDVI (TVDIEVI) were constructed. From the results, both the TVDINDVI and TVDIEVI were more suitable for monitoring soil moisture at the 0–10-cm depth than at the other depths. The regions that had the best correlations between soil moisture and the TVDINDVI (TVDIEVI) were in northwestern China during the cold season and southeastern China during the warm season (from April to September), meaning that the TVDI was more applicable in these region/season combinations. The TVDINDVI showed better performance in reflecting soil moisture conditions than the TVDIEVI, especially in the warm season. The applicability of the TVDIEVI for soil moisture at the 0–10-cm depth was better than that of the TVDINDVI in northwestern China. However, in the other regions, the TVDINDVI performed better. The performance of TVDINDVI (TVDIEVI) was better than TVDIEVI (TVDINDVI) under different circumstances, which was related to the goodness of fit for wet/dry-edge equations, natural variability of NDVI/EVI/LST, depths, changes in seasons (vegetation cover), and regions. This research compared the applications of the TVDI in China comprehensively.

The assessment of wetland changes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is an important component of global change research. The Damqu River Basin (DRB) lies within the southern source of the Yangtze River and is part of the core wetlands area of the Three Rivers Source Region (TRSR). We examined the distribution of wetlands across this region based on remote sensing image interpretations. The results revealed clear evidence of changes over the period between 1988 and 2015, with the ​​wetland area in 2015 being 8964.51 km2 (53.52% of the total basin). Wetlands at this time were concentrated between 4700 and 5000 m (upper limit: 5600 m), with land slopes between 0 and 6°, and a northward aspect. The data also showed that the wetland area decreased by 71.16 km2 between 1988 and 2015, equivalent to 0.79% of the 1988 total. The annual value of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) decreased over 63.36% of the region within the DRB during 1988–2015. The area of three major lakes in the DRB declined from 2009 to 2015. The results of this analysis demonstrated that precipitation variation was the underlying cause of the observed vegetation index and lake area changes within the DRB between 1988 and 2015.

WXGEN, a weather generator model based on stochastic process theory and mathematical statistics, was widely used in hydrological monitoring models, crop yield estimation models and derived fields of meteorological data. In this study, we used WXGEN to evaluate the simulation accuracy of hydrothermal conditions in the highlands of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Results showed that: (1) The Markovian chain transfer parameters P(W|D) and P(W|W) of each station were between 0.03–0.30 and 0.12–0.74, which was basically consistent with the temporal and spatial distribution of actual precipitation; (2) In the thermal data simulation, more than 96% of the meteorological stations passed the 0.05 level in three different significance tests of monthly mean minimum and maximum temperature and solar radiation, and the measured deviations of simulated annual mean temperature and solar radiation were 0.686 °C and 1.65 MJ/m2, respectively. In all, 94% of the stations in the hydrological simulation passed the monthly precipitation significance test; (3) The simulated vs. measured deviations of annual precipitation, heavy rain days and wet days were 8.04 mm, 1.023 d and 8.374 d, respectively; (4) The simulation of extreme hydrothermal conditions that may affect the yield of highland barley was very close to the measured situation, and the R2 of simulation and measured value was all above 0.85. The simulation of freezing damage was less accurate, but also higher than 0.85.

The household energy mix has significant impacts on human health and climate, as it contributes greatly to many health- and climate-relevant air pollutants. Compared to the well-established urban energy statistical system, the rural household energy statistical system is incomplete and is often associated with high biases. Via a nationwide investigation, this study revealed high contributions to energy supply from coal and biomass fuels in the rural household energy sector, while electricity comprised ∼20%. Stacking (the use of multiple sources of energy) is significant, and the average number of energy types was 2.8 per household. Compared to 2012, the consumption of biomass and coals in 2017 decreased by 45% and 12%, respectively, while the gas consumption amount increased by 204%. Increased gas and decreased coal consumptions were mainly in cooking, while decreased biomass was in both cooking (41%) and heating (59%). The time-sharing fraction of electricity and gases (E&G) for daily cooking grew, reaching 69% in 2017, but for space heating, traditional solid fuels were still dominant, with the national average shared fraction of E&G being only 20%. The non-uniform spatial distribution and the non-linear increase in the fraction of E&G indicated challenges to achieving universal access to modern cooking energy by 2030, particularly in less-developed rural and mountainous areas. In some non-typical heating zones, the increased share of E&G for heating was significant and largely driven by income growth, but in typical heating zones, the time-sharing fraction was

Qinghai Province is situated deep in inland China, on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, and it has unique climate change characteristics. Therefore, understanding the temporal and spatial distributions of water vapor in this region can be of great significance. The present study applied global navigation satellite system (GNSS) technology to retrieve precipitable water vapor (PWV) in Qinghai and analyzed its relationship with rainfall and drought. Firstly, radiosonde (RS) data is used to verify the precision of the surface pressure (P) and temperature (T) from the fifth-generation atmosphere reanalysis data set (ERA5) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), as well as the zenith troposphere delay (ZTD), calculated based on the data from continuously operating reference stations (CORS) in Qinghai. Secondly, a regional atmospheric weighted mean temperature (Tm) (QH-Tm) model was developed for Qinghai based on P, T, and relative humidity, as well as the consideration of the influence of seasonal changes in Tm. Finally, the PWV of each CORS in Qinghai was calculated using the GNSS-derived ZTD and ERA5-derived meteorological data, and its relationship with rainfall and drought was evaluated. The results show that the ERA5-derived P and T have high precision, and their average root mean square (RMS), mean absolute error (MAE) and bias were 1.06/0.85/0.01 hPa and 2.98/2.42/0.03 K, respectively. The RMS, MAE and bias of GNSS-derived ZTD were 13.2 mm, 10.3 mm and −1.8 mm, respectively. The theoretical error for PWV was 1.98 mm; compared with that of RS- and ERA5-derived PWV, the actual error was 2.69 mm and 2.16 mm, respectively. In addition, the changing trend of GNSS-derived PWV was consistent with that of rainfall events, and it closely and negatively correlated with the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index. Therefore, the PWV retrieved from GNSS data in this study offers high precision and good feasibility for practical applications; thus, it can serve as a crucial tool for investigating water vapor distribution and climate change in Qinghai.

Crop yields are threatened by global climate change. Maize has high water requirements, and precipitation fluctuations can impact its yield. In this study, we used the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model to simulate maize yields in eight northeastern U.S. states. We used precipitation fluctuations and the coefficient of variation (CV) of yield as indicators to construct a vulnerability curve for the CV of yield and precipitation fluctuations. We then evaluated the vulnerability of maize yields under precipitation fluctuations in the region. We obtained the following results: (1) the fitted vulnerability curves were classified into three categories (positive slope, negative slope, and insignificant fit), of which the first category accounted for about 92.7%, indicating that the CV of maize yield was positively correlated with precipitation fluctuations in most parts of the study area, and (2) the CV of maize yield under 11 precipitation fluctuation scenarios was mapped to express the CV at the spatial level, and the maize yield in Connecticut and Maryland proved to be the most sensitive to precipitation fluctuations. This study provided a theoretical and experimental basis for the prevention of maize yield risk under fluctuating precipitation conditions.

The joint event of 19th International Symposium on Geo-disaster Reduction (19ISGdR) and High-Level Academic Forum on Disaster Mitigation and Integrated Risk Defense on the Plateau was held on 11–15 July in Xining, Qinghai Province, China, focusing on the theme of “Geological disaster and integrated risk defense”. This event consisted of keynote lectures, invited lectures, and Youth forum, which provided a platform for scientists, industrial professionals and young scholars to share their research progress and exchange novel ideas on geo-disaster reduction in a hybrid way of offline and online. A post-symposium field trip for three days was also conducted in the joint area between Qinghai-Tibet plateau and Loess plateau.

In this paper, we use the extraction method of multi-factors fusion to extract the Highland barley cultivation area on Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. The study results indicate that: (1) the method (extracting through multi-factors fusion) is efficient during the extracting process and is highly accurate in extraction results. This extraction scheme allows for not only the spatial heterogeneity of different physical geographic units, but also the impact of multi-factors on crop cultivation, (2) according to our research, the total Highland barley cultivation area on Qinghai–Tibet Plateau is about 2.74 × 105 ha. Based on the statistics, we draw the first distribution map of the Highland barley cultivation area on Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, which upgrades its spatial distribution pattern from administrative unit to patch unit, (3) Highland barley in various divisions has a distinct spatial heterogeneity in elevation. On the whole, the Highland barley on the plateau is planted at an elevation of 2500–4500 m, up to 5200 m. Due to the impact of topography diversity, temperature, moisture, light, arable land and irrigation conditions, its cultivation area at the same elevation varies in different divisions.

Over the past 50 years, temperatures on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) have risen roughly twice as fast as the global average, making it the most unpredictable region of environmental change due to global warming. In this paper, an Environmental Area Index model was developed using data from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project to assess the ecological risk faced by QTP ecosystems under the influence of climate factors. The results show that ecological risk gradually decreases from northwest to the southeast, and there are different trends in ecological risk for each class in areas with different elevation gradients. As elevation increased, the proportion of potential risk areas gradually decreased, and the proportion of high- and higher-risk areas gradually increased. We predict that in the period 2021–2100, the overall ecological risk change trend on the QTP will not be obvious, but there will be a more obvious change on the vertical gradient. In general, under the existing global climate change scenario, the ecological risk faced by the QTP show a decreasing trend under the influence of climate factors, and the decrease in ecological risks is much higher at higher elevations than at lower elevations.

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is an important ecological security barrier for China and, indeed, for all Asia. Land use and land cover changes in the plateau not only affect the ecological environment and regional development of the plateau itself but also affect the stability and economic development of ecosystems in eastern China and other parts of Asia. This paper is based on an examination of the achievements of land use and cover change in the TP and a reanalysis of data including that of Climate Change Initiative Land Cover from 1992 to 2015; land use data provided by the Resource and Environmental Science Data Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for 1995, 2000, 2010 and 2015; and statistical data from Qinghai and Tibet. The paper analyzes the overall characteristics of land use and land cover changes in the TP and the spatial and temporal processes and their driving forces of land use and land cover change in typical regions and land types. This research is important not only for land change science and global change research but also for the promotion of the plateau and its adjacent areas. In recent decades, research has shown that the land use and land cover structure of the TP is stable, and the proportion of first-level land use type change was less than 7% from 1992 to 2015. Most of these changes are single time changes, with multiple land change occurring only in 1.85% of the total change area. The quality of land cover has been improved in areas where no land type change occurred. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) showed an increasing trend in 24.45% of the area and a decreasing trend in only 1.31% of the area. The area of cultivated land, forest, grassland, wetland, and construction land on the plateau has increased, whereas bare land, glacier, and snow cover area has decreased. In most parts of the TP, the quality of alpine grassland has improved; however, in some areas, it has degraded at a local scale. Most of the woodland has recovered well after phased changes. Prior to 1980, there was a rapid increase in cultivated land area, but this has since become stable with only minor increases. However, the utilization intensity of cultivated land has increased significantly in recent years. Construction land has expanded significantly, and the recent growth rate has accelerated since 2010. Both the increasing speed of change and the construction land area in Qinghai Province are higher than in Tibet. There has been a general trend of a slight decrease in bare land change. In densely populated areas in the Yellow River-Huangshui River Valley and the One-River-Two-Tributaries area, land types that are closely related to human utilization such as construction land, cultivated land, and artificial woodland have undergone obvious changes. In pastoral areas, such as the Northern Tibetan Plateau and the Source Regions of The Three Rivers, overgrazing and ecological construction have significantly affected land cover. In the Qomolangma National Nature Preserve, land use types are diverse; changes are complex; and land cover is more sensitive to both climate change and human activity. There are limitations to the study of land change in the plateau, such as the difficulty of meeting the needs of ecological construction with existing data and the lack of in-depth understanding of the process of land use change and its environmental effects. Field monitoring and remote sensing techniques must be strengthened in order to clarify the process of land use intensity change and its impact on the ecological environment of the TP. These improvements will better serve the construction of an ecological security barrier and the sustainable development of the region.

Based on data from a questionnaire survey about the 2010 Ms 7.1 Yushu earthquake in Qinghai Province, China, this study examines the impacts of belief in Tibetan Buddhism on Tibetans’ response to the earthquake disaster. The results reveal that (1) impacted by their belief in Tibetan Buddhism, some Tibetans attribute the cause of the earthquake to punishment from God even though some of them understand a naturalistic explanation of the earthquake. Religious attribution of the earthquake has negative effects on Tibetans’ awareness of the importance of earthquake disaster risk reduction such as learning about earthquakes and developing earthquake survival skills; their ability with regard to their behavioral response is affected, but their psychological reaction is not. (2) Tibetan Buddhist belief and Tibetan Buddhist clergy served as important resources and support to help Tibetans cope with the earthquake disaster. The degree of religiosity was found to be positively correlated with people’s willingness to seek religious support and with their self-evaluations on the importance of religious support for disaster response. The findings of this study highlight the need to carefully consider local religious beliefs when planning disaster risk reduction strategies in Tibetan communities.

The standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) of the Tibetan Plateau was calculated using the CRU4.03 gridded dataset from 1901 to 2018 in this paper. Then, based on the SPEI data, drought on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was studied in terms of its spatial and temporal distributions and its changing characteristics over the last 100 years. The results revealed that the precipitation in the southeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been steadily rising over the last 100 years, in conjunction with only minor temperature shifts. In the northwestern part of the plateau, precipitation has decreased significantly, accompanied by a significant increase in temperature. The drought on the Tibetan Plateau showed a clear gradual increase in aridity from southeast to northwest over the last hundred years. The SPEI also showed distinct seasonal patterns, steadily increasing in spring and summer and decreasing significantly in autumn and winter. In addition, each season had its own spatial characteristics. The northeastern part of the plateau, except the Qaidam Basin, showed a significant aridity trend in all seasons. A wet trend prevailed in the southeastern and southern areas. Drought on the Tibetan Plateau exhibits apparent cyclical oscillations with a main period of 54 years and has different cyclical characteristics in different seasons.

Drought has great negative impacts on crop growth and production. In order to select appropriate drought indices to quantify drought influences on crops to minimize the risk of drought-related crops as much as possible, climate and spring wheat yield-related data from eight sites in the Qinghai Province of China were collected for selecting better drought index between standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI, denoting meteorological drought) and soil moisture deficit index (SMDI, denoting agricultural drought) as well as the key parameters (timescale and month) in denoting drought impacts on spring wheat yields. The spring wheat yields during 1961–2018 were simulated by the DSSAT–CERES–Wheat model. Pearson correlations were used to investigate the relationship between SPEI and SMDI and between spring wheat yields and drought indices at different timescales. The results showed that: (1) SMDI reflected more consistent dry/wet conditions than SPEI when the timescales changed and (2) There were one- and two-month lags in SMDI compared to SPEI (with the higher correlation coefficients values of 0.35–0.68) during May to August and (3) May (the jointing period of spring wheat) and the two-month timescale of SMDI0–10 (with the higher correlation coefficients values of 0.21–0.37) were key parameters denoting drought influences on spring wheat yield and (4) The correlations between the linear slopes of spring wheat yield reduction rate and linear slopes of SMDI0–10 in May at the studied eight sites were considerable between 1961–2018 (r = 0.85). This study provides helpful references for mitigating the drought risk of spring wheat.

Soil moisture (SM), an important variable in water conversion between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems, plays a crucial role in ecological processes and the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems. Analyzing and exploring SM’s processes and influencing factors in different permafrost regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) can better serve the regional ecological security, disaster warning, water management, etc. However, the changes and future trends of SM on the QTP in recent decades are uncertain, and the main factors affecting SM are not fully understood. The study used SM observations, the Global Land Evapotranspiration Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) SM products, meteorological and vegetation data, Mann–Kendall test, Theil–Sen estimation, Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD), and correlation methods to analyze and explore the characteristics and influencing factors of SM change in different permafrost regions of the QTP. The results show that: (1) At the pixel scale, GLEAM SM products can better reflect SM changes in the QTP in the warm season. The seasonal permafrost region is closer to the real SM than the permanent region, with a median correlation coefficient (R) of 0.738, median bias of 0.043 m3 m−3, and median unbiased root mean square errors (ubRMSE) of 0.031 m3 m−3. (2) The average SM in the QTP warm season increased at a rate of 0.573 × 10−3 m3 m−3 yr−1 over the recent 40 years, and the trend accelerated from 2005–2020. In 64.31% of the region, the soil was significantly wetted, mainly distributed in the permafrost region, which showed that the wetting rate in the dry region was faster than in the wet region. However, the wetting trend does not have a long-term continuity and has a pattern of “wetting–drying-wetting” on interannual and decadal levels, especially in the seasonal permafrost region. (3) More than 65% of the SM wetting trend on the QTP is caused by temperature, precipitation, and vegetation. However, there is apparent spatial heterogeneity in the different permafrost regions and vegetation cover conditions, and the three factors have a more substantial explanatory power for SM changes in the seasonal permafrost region. With the global climate change, the synergistic SM–Climate–Vegetation effect on the QTP tends to be more evident in the seasonal permafrost region.

Extreme temperature events, which are part of global climate change, are a growing threat to crop production, especially to such temperature-sensitive crops as rice. As a result, the traditional rice-growing areas are also likely to shift. The MaxEnt model was used for predicting the areas potentially suitable for rice in the short term (2016–2035) and in the medium term (2046–2065) and under two scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, namely representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 (the intermediate scenario) and RCP 8.5 (sometimes referred to as the worst-case scenario). The predictions, on verification, were seen to be highly accurate: the AUC—area under the curve—value of the MaxEnt model was &gt, 0.85. The model made the following predictions. (1) Areas highly suitable for rice crops will continue to be concentrated mainly in the current major rice-production areas, and areas only marginally suitable will be concentrated mainly in the rainforest region. (2) Overall, although the current pattern of the distribution of such areas would remain more or less unchanged, their extent will mainly decrease in the subtropics but increase in the tropics and in high-latitude regions. (3) The extent of such areas will decrease in the short term but increase in the medium term.

The latest Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG) dataset version 6, which is the successor of the multi-satellite 3B42 dataset from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA), is now recommended for many purposes. It is unclear how the quality of the latest IMERG data products compares to that of the delisted TMPA series data sets. This study evaluated the accuracy of TRMM 3B42 version 7 and IMERG final version 6 products at 677 stations in the 7 subregions of China over 2000–2019 at the daily, monthly and annual timescales based on gauge-observed precipitation data. The performance of TMPA and IMERG precipitation products was assessed by six statistical indices. The product with the best performance was corrected based on the linear relationship of monthly precipitation between remote sensing products and ground-observed precipitation. The correction was then used for the predicting and mapping of precipitation in July 2019. The results showed that (1) IMERG outperformed TMPA at all three timescales, and the accuracy increased with the expanding timescale. (2) IMERG exhibited better performance in all subregions than TMPA and performed best in the mid-temperate semihumid zone and worst in the mid-temperature arid zone. (3) IMERG showed higher accuracy than TMPA in all months for most subregions and mainland China but performed worse in dry (December, January and February) and wet (July, August and September) months. (4) The linear relationship between remote sensing products and ground-observed precipitation could be used to correct and predict satellite precipitation data without up-to-date gauge observations, the predicted map indicated the good spatial variation in precipitation and better accuracy than the original IMERG data. In conclusion, the IMERG dataset was more accurate and could be used for precipitation investigations at large scales in China.

The regional and national scales variation and propagation characteristics of different types of droughts are critical for improving drought resilience, while information is limited in China. The objective of this research was to investigate the evolution and propagation characteristics of three types of droughts using standardized indices at multi-timescales in different sub-regions of China. The indices included Standardized Precipitation/Soil Moisture/Runoff Index (SPI/SSI/SRI) using the optimal probability density function, representing meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological droughts based on precipitation, soil water storage, and baseflow-groundwater runoff, respectively. Wavelet analysis was used to reveal their periodical characteristics. Modified Mann-Kendall trend test was used to compare the trend among drought indices. Correlation coefficients between SPI and SSI/SRI were calculated to identify the time-lags of SPI with SSI and SRI. In general, droughts indicated by SPI agreed well with the historical drought events at different sub-regions. The main periods of SSI were closer to SPI than SRI, indicating stronger connections of agricultural drought with meteorological drought. A weaker connection between meteorological and agricultural/hydrological droughts at shorter timescales was observed in northwestern arid and semi-arid regions. The propagation from meteorological to agricultural or hydrological droughts were well denoted by the lagged time (months) from SPI to SSI or SRI at a timescale ranged from 0 (mostly located in south China) to 5 months (mostly located in northeastern China) for 1-, 3-, 6-, 12-, or 24-month timescale; this was a new finding for China. The methods of wavelet combining trend test and Pearson coefficient showed meaningful power for revealing the drought propagation characteristics and the obtained results can be a good reference for other regions of the world since this study compared different climate zones from arid to humid conditions. The study provides crucial information and guidance to develop drought management strategies at regional to national scale and their critical time of action.

Over the last few decades, the traditional grey model (GM) has been proved to be able to forecast the financial time series. However, there still remains space for improvement in terms of prediction accuracy, especially when the time series is of high complexity and volatility. In this paper, we leverage the rolling grey model (RGM) and the empirical decomposition (EMD) method to enhance the prediction ability. With the strong ability of decomposing and smoothing non-linear and non-stationary time sequences, the EMD method can be served as the preliminary data processing step for the entire prediction procedure. By attaching more importance to the last several days' data and constantly updating the coefficient of the GM function, the RGM method can better follow the market change and avoid error accumulation. Our proposed approach greatly improves the vanilla GM method and further outperforms the RGM method. In contrast to the RGM method, our improved method reduced 7.7% on ARPE and 7.9% on MAE when predicting the 2010–2019 Shanghai Stock Exchange Index. When forecasting the 2010–2019 China Securities Index, this method also reduced 6.9% on ARPE and 7.3% on MAE.

Global climate change, mainly characterized by warming, has resulted in significant migration of temperature-sensitive crops from traditional planting areas, making crops more vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters, increasing yield losses caused by disasters. Based on the MaxEnt model, combining Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 and 8.5, the potential suitable areas for highland barley planting on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were estimated, and the results showed that: (1) Over 30% of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is unsuitable for highland barley cultivation, the area of moderately suitable area for highland barley planting is close to 50%, and the marginally suitable and highly suitable area is less than 20%; (2) From the past distribution to the near and medium-term distributions, the unsuitable area for highland barley planting is gradually shrinking. In the moderately suitable area for highland barley planting, some of the area with relatively low suitability was transformed from unsuitable area, and some of the area with relatively high suitability was transformed into marginally suitable area, so that the total area remained basically unchanged. A small part of the marginally suitable area was converted into high-suitability area, which increased the highly suitable area; (3) From the perspective of different scenarios, in the near and medium term, the area with a slight decrease or no change in suitability under RCP 8.5 was smaller than under RCP 4.5, but the area with a significant increase was larger than under RCP 4.5. The areas with a small decrease or no change in suitability accounted for 23.66–33.77% of the total plateau area and were concentrated in the northwestern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Qaidam Basin. Areas with a large increase in suitability accounted for 3.47–15.64% of the total area and were located in the southern, central, and eastern parts of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, this area increased significantly with time; (4) Judging from the average altitude change in highland barley planting, the average altitude of the highly suitable area will rise from 3759 m to 3937 m (RCP 4.5) and 3959 m (RCP 8.5) in the near term. By the medium term, the average elevation of the highly suitable area will increase from 3759 m to 4017 m (RCP 4.5) and 4090 m (RCP 8.5). The trend of rising average altitude continues to strengthen.

Potential evapotranspiration (ETp) and reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) are two key parameters in hydrology, meteorology, and agronomy. ETp and ETo are related to each other but have different meanings and applications. In this study, the ETp and ETo were distinguished and calculated with the Penman and FAO56 PM equations using the weather data of 551 stations in China from 1961 to 2018. The differences in their spatiotemporal variations were examined with an MMK test, an R/S test, and wavelet analysis. The monthly ETp and ETo were close but the ETp was always larger than the ETo, with values ranging from 1 to 356 mm and 2 to 323 mm, respectively. Their differences varied in different months and sub-regions. The maximum monthly difference transferred from south to north and then back to the south in a yearly cycle, showing spatiotemporal heterogeneity. The annual values of the ETp and ETo were also close, but the ETp was significantly higher than the ETo. The increasing future trends of ETp but decreasing trends of ETo were tested at most sites in China. Although the primary periods were almost the same, their spatial distribution was slightly different. In conclusion, ETp is different from ETo and they should be applied carefully. This study performs a thorough comparison and reveals the underlying basis of and discrepancy between ETp and ETo.

Salar people are Turkic-speaking Islamic people and an ethnic group with a small population in China. Wattled-wall house of Salar people is a type of traditional house threatened by extinction. In 2008, the wattled-wall house construction skills were selected for the national intangible cultural heritage list. It is mainly distributed in Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Qinghai Province of China. So far, Salar people′s traditional wattled-wall house knowledge has been poorly documented. Therefore, a study supporting cultural preservation efforts is needed, including preserving plants used in its construction. This study mainly applied ethnobotanical methods based on data collection through observation, interviews, and documentation. Additionally, ArcGIS data analysis is also used to supplement the evaluation of the traditional wattled-wall house. This study aimed to (1) document traditional knowledge about the wattled-wall house construction, (2) and evaluate the current status of the wattled-wall house from different angles like the environmental adaptability and internal advantages and disadvantages. The result showed that the local people still apply the knowledge about the wattled-wall house from generation to generation. However, due to some practical reasons, the wattled-wall house is on the verge of extinction. There are 11 plant taxa used as construction materials in wattled-wall house. Conservation efforts for species involved in the wattled-wall house are needed, especially the ones with limited availability. Re-use of wattled-wall house is needed in order to maximize the economic benefits and to safeguard its historical and architectural values. It is recommended that the conservation of this cultural heritage needs more attention and effort from the local government or the society.

Water use efficiency (WUE) is an ecological indicator reflecting the link between carbon and water cycles in terrestrial ecosystems, which is often affected by drought disturbance. However, knowledge about the influences of soil moisture drought on WUE is still lacking. Therefore, this paper aims to quantify the lagged effect and impact of soil moisture drought on terrestrial ecosystem WUE from 1982 to 2018 using ERA5 and Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) datasets. Drought conditions are described by the soil moisture anomaly percentage index (SMAPI). The lagged effect of drought on WUE is measured by the month with the maximum significant correlation between SMAPI and WUE. The impact of drought on WUE is estimated through the relative change of WUE during drought and non-drought periods. The results showed that: (1) Drought had an approximately 4-month lagged effect on WUE, which was observed in 70.87% of the global vegetated areas. The lagged effect of drought on WUE was a short period (1–4 months) for shrubland and sparse vegetation, middle and long periods (5–12 months) for forest. (2) When drought occurred, WUE decreased by 36.95% in the Tibetan Plateau and 24.93% in West Africa, while WUE in North Europe, Alaska/N.W. Canada, and West Asia increased by 14.64%, 8.83%, and 8.53%, respectively. The negative and positive impacts of drought on WUE in each vegetation type were commensurate. Our results provide useful information for understanding the response of ecosystem carbon and water cycles to drought..

Huangshui River Valley (HRV) is a typical valley area located in the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. Its long and narrow space, large vertical gradient and diverse land use types bring great challenges to the land use zoning in this region. The paper aims to propose a gridding-self-organizing feature maps (SOFM) coupled method based on grid cell, which will be more reliable and refined, if compared to the method of commonly used administrative regions as the basic analytic units. Firstly the focused study area is divided into 500 m × 500 m grid cells. Six indexes, including grassland, cultivated land, forest land, construction land, population density and per capita income are both spatialized and quantified in every grid. Meanwhile, that SOFM neural network model is at the usage of classifying the land use into six zoning areas can be certain. And urban area, urban-rural transition area, agriculture-forestry transition area, typical agricultural area, agriculture-pastoral transition area, and typical pastoral area are sure to belong to them. Its results can vividly indicate the actual situation where land use pattern is in constant changes in Huangshui River Valley (HRV). The research will provide a specific method for the substantial utilization of land resources.

The energy demand is significantly affected by climate change and economic factors, and the distribution of the demand among different regions in China is unequal because of the large regional differences in climate and economic development. Moreover, demand changes will directly affect the energy sector as the supply side amplifies the economic impact through the industrial linkages among regions and sectors. Therefore, we developed an integrated assessment model combining an energy demand-driven model (EDD) and adaptive multiregional input-output model (AMRIO). The assumptions were used in the model based on China's future climate, economy and energy development. In addition, we evaluated the century-scale energy demand change and its possible economic impact in 5 future scenarios (SSPx-y of CMIP6). The results show that the following: (i) The energy demand in China will continue to increase by approximately 1.89–1.94 times by 2100, resulting in a negative economic impact on GDP ranging from 8.19% to 12.05%. (ii) The energy sector will cumulatively benefit by 26% because of the increase in demand; however, other sectors will suffer negative economic ripple impacts due to the imbalance of supply and demand, especially manufacturing (719%) and agriculture (577%). The results provide quantitative information for policymakers to fully consider the positive and negative impacts of future energy change when making climate mitigation strategies.

Changes of croplands often reflect the combined impacts of both natural environment changes and social agriculture activities. Such reflections manifested more significantly in agro-pastoral transition zones, e.g. in the North and West of China. In this study, cropland changes at the Yellow River–Huangshui River Valley, as a typical agro-pastoral transition zone in northwestern China, is analyzed in terms of the changes of the total amount and spatial pattern over the past 300 years (majorly in the Qing Dynasty). The reconstructed cropland data indicated a fluctuation of cropland areas in accordance with changes of regional climate conditions, natural hazards, agriculture activities and socio-economic development. A significant decrease of cropland in the middle of the 19th century was detected, which appeared a good consistency with the frequent natural disasters in the same period and the climate cooling trend across the whole 19th century. Though in the worsening conditions, three major copping strategies maintained and developed the local socio-agriculture system: (a) land reclamation policy encouraged immigrants and military farming; (b) construction of water conservancy facilities increased agricultural productivity; (c) increasing local Tibetans learned and transformed to implementing both agriculture and pastoral productions with flexibilities depending on climate conditions. The study demonstrates that the social-agriculture system held certain resilience, which can be maintained and enhanced with appropriate political, engineering, economic, and social-cultural measures.

Increasing frequency and intensity of extreme drought events have harmed the environment, ecosystem, and agricultural productivity. However, the characteristics of agricultural drought in China have not been well understood. The remote sensing (RS) based gridded monthly precipitation, soil moisture, land surface temperature (LST), and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) datasets over 1982-2018 were utilized to derive standardized precipitation index (SPI), standardized soil moisture index (SSI), multivariate standardized drought index (MSDI), and vegetation health index (VHI). The variation patterns and trends of SPI, SSI, and MSDI at the 1-, 3-, and 6-month timescales against monthly VHI anomaly were compared to identify the best agricultural drought index in China. The drought variations in the four sub-regions (northwest, north, Qinghai-Tibet area, and south area) were also investigated. The results showed that: (1) Temporal patterns of VHI anomaly were similar to relative soil moisture and slightly different from precipitation. The spatial patterns of MSDI matched with VHI the best than SPI and SSI. (2) All three indices showed positive correlations with VHI at the three timescales. The highest correlation coefficients (r) between MSDI and VHI ranged from 0.25 to 0.67, 0.22 to 0.78, 0.23 to 0.69, and 0.19 to 0.74 in northwest China, north China, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and south China, respectively. (3) The connections between monthly VHI and the three drought indices were weaker at the 1-month timescale (0.16 r 0.25) than the 3-month (0.39 r 0.78) and 6-month (0.26 r 0.68) timescales. (4) The VHI significantly increased in most of China except north China. Overall, MSDI showed better performance for monitoring agricultural drought in China's mainland.

About 80% of global wetland resources are degrading or disappearing; thus the wetland ecosystem has become one of the most seriously threatened ecosystems in the world. As an area sensitive to global changes and acting as a security barrier for the Asian ecosystem, the Tibetan Plateau has about 13.19×104 km2 of wetlands of special significance within China. With the increasing application of remote sensing technology to wetland research, Tibetan Plateau wetland research has entered a period of rapid development. This paper summarizes the remote sensing research literature of the Tibetan Plateau wetlands from 1992 to 2014, and is intended to provide references for future research into the wetlands of the Tibetan Plateau. We have reviewed monitoring methods, research topics, and existing problems. Our review has revealed the following characteristics: (1) Over the past 40 years, the research paradigm of the Tibetan Plateau wetlands has undergone dynamic changes in the monitoring of wetland areas, landscape patterns and the eco-environment based on remote sensing technology. Attention has also been focused on constructing models with an ecological system perspective and analyzing three patterns of change trends within the Tibetan Plateau wetlands. (2) The results of Tibetan Plateau wetland research based on remote sensing were as follows: (a) between 1970 and 2006, the Tibetan Plateau wetland area decreased overall at a rate of 0.23%/a, and the landscape diversity declined at a rate of 0.17%/a; (b) by contrast, between 1976 and 2009, the lake area of the inland river basins in the Tibetan Plateau increased at a rate of 0.83%/a; and (c) the change trend in the Tibetan Plateau wetlands was controlled by climate change. Current problems relating to remote sensing (RS)-based research in the Tibetan Plateau wetlands are computer interpretation accuracy and the processing precision of cloud removal, and the lack of a comprehensive overview of the Tibetan Plateau wetland system. Finally, based on the review, some key activities for future study have been proposed, as follows: (1) Strengthening the integration of the Tibetan Plateau wetland research with remote sensing research; (2) discussing the response and adaptation mechanisms of the Tibetan Plateau wetland ecosystem within the context of global change; (3) strengthening the integration of remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS), and global positioning system (GPS), and promoting the construction of a Tibetan Plateau wetland information platform.

Reference evapotranspiration (ET0), as an estimate of the evaporative demand of the atmosphere, has been receiving extensive attention in researches on hydrological cycle. Sensitivity of ET0 to major climatic variables has significant applications in climatology, hydrology, and agrometeorology and is also important to improve our understanding of the connections between climatic conditions and ET0 variability. In this study, we used the Penman-Monteith equation to calculate ET0 and adopted a nondimensional sensitivity coefficient formula to analyze sensitivities of ET0 to four climatic variables based on daily meteorological data from eight meteorological sites in the Huangshui River basin and surrounding areas during 1961–2010. The results indicated that (1) strong correlations with R 2 up to 0.76 exist between observed E pan and calculated annual ET0; (2) ET0 had a decreasing trend in the Huangshui River basin (HRB) during 1961–2010; (3) Spatially, distribution of ET0 was largely correlated with altitude, for instance, the average annual ET0 was larger in low-altitude areas than in high-altitude areas; (4) ET0 was more sensitive to actual vapor pressure in high-altitude areas while it was more sensitive to temperature in low-altitude areas; and (5) ET0 showed a decreasing trend and was consistent with the decreases in net radiation and wind speed at seasonal and annual time scales in HRB during 1961–2010. Sensitivity analysis of ET0 to major climatic variables revealed that temperature was primarily responsible for changes in ET0 in the growing season while actual vapor pressure was the dominating factor causing changes in ET0 in the nongrowing season. However, annual averaged ET0 was more sensitive to actual vapor pressure (R 2 = 0.63), indicating that actual vapor pressure was possibly the primary climatic variable that causes changes in annual ET0.

Snow disaster is one of the top ten natural disasters worldwide, and the most severe natural disaster to affect the pastoral areas of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Based on the hazard harmfulness data collected from historical records and data collected from entities affected by this hazard in 2010, a comprehensive analysis of the 18 indexes of snow disaster on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was conducted, encompassing the hazard harmfulness, the amount of physical exposure the hazard-bearing entities face, the sensitivity to the hazard, and the capacity to respond to the disaster. The analysis indicates that: (1) areas at high-risk of snow disaster on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are located in certain areas of the counties of Yecheng and Pishan in the Xinjiang region; (2) areas at medium-risk of snow disaster are found between the Gangdise Mountains and the Himalayas in the central-western part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the southeastern part of the southern Qinghai Plateau; (3) the risk of snow disaster is generally low throughout the large area to the south of 30°N and the region on the border of the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Overall, the risk of snow disaster in high-altitude areas of the central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is higher than that at the edge of the plateau.

China is experiencing a fast process of farmland conversion which is conducted mainly by local governments to fuel economic development. Social tension is aroused and policy makers take great concerns on coordinating interests among different stakeholders, especially for increasing farmers’ interest. The purpose of this study is to get some insights related to land acquisition institution by exploring farmers’ perception to farmland conversion. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was applied for the investigation in peri-urban area, of Xining City, Qinghai Province, China. The total of 519 householders from 15 villages completed valid questionnaire survey from July to November, 2012. The results indicate that farmland conversion has several impacts on farmers’ life. Most farmers are gradually adapting to city life. Higher living expenses and more income are perceived by farmers with average score of 4.21 and 2.69, respectively. The average scores of 2.38 and 2.46 are for improvement of life security and more job opportunities. Farmers expect to get some stable ways of compensation in addition to lump-sum compensation in cash. Stable subsidies every year and obtaining same number of land received strong proposal. And these two options are cited by 49.6% and 43.9% of respondents. Farmland conversion brings about cleaner living condition and more amenities, but lower air visibility and drier air. Results reflect landless farmers’ economic and life pressures and various demands. Local government should pay more attention to increase farmers’ income and improve rural security system.

By considering an area affected by a Ms 7.1 earthquake in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, in 2010 as an example, this paper analyzed the public response level after an earthquake disaster and discussed the principal factors influencing public response behaviors using a questionnaire survey. The results showed that the local public’s response level is low in the studied area. The average response scoring rate is only 0.50. Gender, family income, experience and religion are the most significant factors influencing the public response level. Females or individuals with low family income and little education tend to have lower response capability and are more vulnerable during an earthquake disaster. Furthermore, on the whole, participants who had experience coping with unexpected safety events appear to adopt more reasonable response behavior during an earthquake disaster. The relatively undeveloped economy and low education level are the basic limiting factors for improving the public response capability in the studied area. Certain policies and suggestions to improve the response capability and disaster reduction were discussed.

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is particularly sensitive to the influences of climate change. As indicators of climate change, lakes on the TP play a key role in the Earth’s climatic system. Lake Yazi (LY), Lake Tuohepingco (LT) and Lake Changtiao (LC) in the Tuohepingco Basin are three inland lakes on the plateau. The extents of LY, LT and LC were obtained using object-based image analysis for remote sensing and 22 images from Landsat satellites (from September to December between 1972 and 2015). Inter-annual changes in the extent of LY, LT and LC were then analyzed. The results show that the total area of the three lakes underwent a change from shrinkage to expansion between 1972 and 2015. In general, there was a trend toward shrinkage during 1972–1999, distinct expansion during 2000–2007 and slight expansion during 2008–2015. Moreover, we found that 14 other lakes have also expanded dramatically since 2000. Lakes at 30°N and 35°N (LY, LT and LC are also located in this region) exhibited the same dramatic period of expansion between 2000 and 2005. In other words, 2000 appears to be a critical transition point for changes in lake size on the TP. Lakes at the same latitudes in the Tibetan Plateau interior may have a similar period of dramatic expansion after 2000. The warming-triggered deglaciation or permafrost degradation, increased precipitation and decreased evapotranspiration may be the influencing factors of lake expansion in the Tuohepingco Basin. Temperature showed relatively higher correlation with lake extent, while precipitation and evaporation were slightly correlated with lake area. Given the importance of wetlands to human society, these are no trivial issues, and we now need accelerated research based on long-term and continuous remote sensing.