KANG Er-Si
For studying the hydrology of cold and dry regions, a relatively comprehensive system of measurements, experiments and a investigation has been basically formed in the areas of glaciers, snow cover, permafrost, high moutainous watersheds and the low land area in front of the mountains in the arid area of northwest China Since the 1980′s, achievements of scientific researches have been obtained on glacial meltwater runoff, measurements and experiments of runoff generation from mountainous watersheds of inland river basins, hydrological processes in cold regions, interrelationship between hydrological processes and atmospherical processes in glacierized basins, water resources in the Urumqi Prefecture of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, impacts of climate changes on water resources, hydrology of the High-Asia cryosphere, glalcier lake outburst floods, snowmelt runoff, and hydrology in arid regions For recent years, in the studies of hydrology and water resources in cold and dry regions, new projects have been initiated on the rational exploitation and utilization of water resources, on the coordinate development of society and ecotope, on the prediction of changing trends of snow and ice water resources and runoff from the mountainous watershes under global warming, and on the basic researches on the generation and variation of water resources in inland river basins It can be foreseen that, in the next ten years or more, the studies of hydrology in cold and dry regions will develop to a new stage of comprehensive researches, which are centralized by hydrosphere, on the spatial and temperal interactions among the hydrosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere and biosphere It is expected that a breakthrough progress will be achieved in the studies on water resources and hydro-environment All the achievements will serve the foundations of the decision making for the sustainable economic development of the arid northwest China.
