Drowning desert: how Xinjiang’s infrastructure could fail under record rain

Record rainfall in Xinjiang's Taklamakan Desert has raised concerns that infrastructure designed for arid conditions may fail under extreme weather, with experts warning of increased risks to roads, farmland, and fragile ecosystems.

Drowning desert: how Xinjiang’s infrastructure could fail under record rain Unprecedented downpours prompt warning that links and systems adapted to an arid past may struggle to cope with a wetter future Dannie Peng /author/dannie-peng in Beijing Xinjiang https://www.scmp.com/topics/xinjiang?module=inline&pgtype=article has underscored the growing risks posed by extreme weather in the country’s arid northwest. Taklamakan Desert https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3349579/two-years-china-proves-its-desert-wheat-farms-are-not-hoax?module=inline&pgtype=article , a once-arid region, this month. food security, https://www.scmp.com/topics/china-food-security?module=inline&pgtype=article extreme and more frequent rainfall could exact a toll on the region’s fragile ecology and infrastructure, experts said. Xu Xiaofeng, president of the China Meteorological Service Association and former deputy head of the CMA, said the ecosystems and infrastructure of the country’s northwest could be at greater risk than other regions. “These regions have long been arid, with fewer rivers, lakes or ponds. That means the land has limited capacity to absorb heavy rainfall, making roads more vulnerable to washouts and farmland more susceptible to flooding,” he said. “Many facilities in Xinjiang’s desert and the Gobi are designed for arid conditions – low rainfall, strong winds and large diurnal temperature variations – and over time they have adapted to the local environment.