Combating Aeolian Desertification in Northeast Asia

Dr. Tao WANG is a professor at Northwest Institute of Eco-environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CSA). He obtained his doctoral degree from Lanzhou Institute of Desert Research, CAS. He has been at the forefront of aeolian desertification and disaster research and control since 1983, and obtained encouraging results on the status, causes, blown sand physics and biology process, development, and reversal trend of aeolian desertification in Northern China. His work has helped the national policy maker and organ of authority to take notice of aeolian desertification and provided theoretical foundation and technique system for implementation of national layout and projects to combat aeolian desertification and disaster. He served the UNCCD for years as member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Third Scientific Conference (SAC, UNCCD) and as member of Science-Policy-Interface (SPI) of the UNCCD.

Atsushi Tsunekawa is a professor at Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University (Japan). He graduated from the Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Tokyo, after which he joined the National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan. Currently, he serves as a professor at the Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, and also serves as a head of Strategic Management Office of International Platform for Dryland Research and Education, Tottori University. His primary scholarly interests are developing sustainable land management (SLM) technologies and approaches to restore degraded land and improve farmers’ livelihood, and monitoring and modelling of terrestrial ecosystems under climate change using remote sensing and GIS. He has been selected as a Science and Technology Correspondent from Japan to the Committee on Science and Technology of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

Xian Xue is a professor at Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER), Chinese Academyof Sciences. She obtained her PhD in physical geography from the Graduate School at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2002. As the head, she currently leads the Department of Desert and Desertification in the NIEER, the Dryland Salinization Station of NIEER, and the Salinization Research Station of Gansu Province. Prof. Xue’s main research fields are desertification and restoration, and climate and environmental change in arid and cold regions. Her interest focuses on the dynamic process and mechanism of desertification and its rehabilitation. One of her current research is exploring the impact of global warming and human activity on land degradation in the arid and alpine ecosystems. Her other work is to explore restoration possibilities of degraded land in the drylands by integrating water management, sustainable agriculture, and biological techniques with her team.

Yasunori Kurosaki is a professor at Arid Land Research Center (ALRC), Tottori University, Japan. He obtained his PhD from Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba. His main research theme is elucidation of the aeolian dust emission mechanisms. Prof. Kurosaki began his research at the Meteorological Research Institute, Japan Meteorological Agency, in 2001, and he has continued it at Chiba University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Tottori University. He has elucidated the causes of aeolian dust emission that change with time and place in drylands of Northeastern Asia mainly by analyzing meteorological observatory data and GIS data such as satellite data. He has also studied it by field surveys in the Gobi Desert. His interest and the purpose of his research are to apply his elucidated mechanisms to improve numerical aeolian dust models and to prevent wind erosion and aeolian dust damage.