Photo shows a view of the Qinghai Lake, the largest inland salt lake in China, located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. (Xinhua Photo)The water level of the Qinghai Lake on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been rising for five straight years, up 54 cm from 2005 to 2008, according to the Qinghai Provincial Bureau of Hydrological Resource Survey.
Statistics show that the water level of the lake in northwest China's Qinghai Province may probably rise by 10 cm at the end of this year. "It is the first time since 1955 the lake's water level has been rising for five consecutive years," said Duan Shuiqiang, a senior engineer of the bureau.
Two swans play on the Qinghai Lake, northwest China's Qinghai Province. (Xinhua Photo) The rise in the water level enlarged the lake's water surface to 4,317 sq km in 2008, 132 sq km larger than in 2004, according to statistics from the Remote Sensing and Ecological Assessment Center of the Qinghai Provincial Meteorological Bureau.
Experts agreed that the continuous rise in the water level is attributed partly to the measures to protect the eco-environment around the lake during the past decade. But natural factors are the most direct cause, they noted.
During the 2004-2008 period, the average annual rainfall in the Qinghai Lake area was 431.3 mm, an increase of 13 percent over the 1971-2000 period.
The higher rainfall has enlarged the amount of the lake water and the cloudage above its surrounding areas and lowered the lake's evaporation, thus retarding the fall in the water level, said Dai Sheng, a senior engineer of the Qinghai Provincial Climate Research Center.
Meanwhile, with the worsening of global warming, increasingly higher temperatures as well as glaciers and snow melting around the lake have raised the water level as well.
Source: Xinhuanet
http://chinatibet.people.com.cn/6804390.pdf
Most Popular