SuMaRiO - Sustainable Management of River Oasis along the Tarim River

The Tarim River Basin is a continental arid region in the Northwest of China, which is characterized by extreme vulnerability. It is, globally, the most remote area from the oceans; hence rainfall is extremely rare and low and does not exceed 50 mm per year. Thus, all kind of economic activities, especially agriculture and urban life, as well as the natural ecosystems depend on the river water as major water source. The Tarim River, which is the largest river of the Tarim Basin, is fed from rainfall, snowmelt and glacier‐melt in the mountains. The region is one of the most important cotton producing regions in China, with a highly diverse farming structure ranging from big military farms to small scale producers.

Due to strong population growth and extension of irrigated agriculture since the 1950s river flows have strongly decreased, leading to a degradation of floodplain vegetation, along with accumulating salinization of agricultural soils. There is a clear trade‐off between generating income from irrigation agriculture, mainly cotton, at the cost of Ecosystem Functions (ESF) and Ecosystem Services (ESS) provided by the natural ecosystems.

Overall Research Question

The central question of the research project is how to manage land use, i.e. irrigation agriculture and utilization of the natural ecosystems, and water use in a very water‐scarce region, with changing water availability due to climate change, such that ecosystem services and economic benefits are maintained in the best balance for a sustainable development.

Eleven German and numerous Chinese research institutions apply an inter- and transdiciplinary research approach to support a sustainable development in the region. Universität Hohenheim is involved in SuMaRiO with four working groups: Prof. M. Ahleim, Prof. R. Doluschitz, Prof. J. Müller & Prof. K. Stahr. To see the detailed description of the four working groups’ research, please follow the links on the top right side.

Budget (Hohenheim in total): 1.407.572 Euro