Abstract
Based on the collation and statistical analysis of flood and drought information in Baoji area from 1368 to 1911, and in the context of climate change, we investigated the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of drought and flood disaster chains in this area during the Ming and Qing dynasties using the methods of moving average, cumulative anomaly and wavelet analysis. The results are as follows: (1) We found a total of 297 drought and flood events from 1368 to 1911 in Baoji. Among these events, droughts and floods occurred separately 191 and 106 times, which accounted for 64.31% and 35.69% of the total events, respectively. (2) We observed distinct characteristics of flood and drought events in Baoji in different phases. The climate was relatively dry from 1368 to 1644. A fluctuant climate phase with both floods and droughts occurred from 1645 to 1804. The climate was relatively wet from 1805 to 1911. Moreover, we observed a pattern of alternating dry and wet periods from 1368 to 1911. In addition, 3 oscillation periods of drought and flood events occurred around 70 a, 110 a and 170 a, which corresponded to sunspot cycles. (3) We also observed an obvious spatial difference in drought and flood events in Baoji. The northern and eastern parts of Weihe River basin were regions with both frequent droughts and floods. (4) The sequential appearance of drought and flood disaster chains in Baoji from 1368 to 1911 was in response to global climate change. Since the 1760s, global climatic deterioration has frequently led to extreme drought and flood events.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Bai Huzhi, Dong Anxiang, Zheng Guangfen et al., 2010. The Atlas of Drought and Flood Distribution over Northwest China in Past 500 Years: 1470–2008. Beijing: China Meteorological Press. (in Chinese)
Baoji Local Chronicles Compilation Committee (BLCCC), 1998. Baojizhi (First Volume). Xi’an: Sanqin Press. (in Chinese)
Bradley R S, 1993. High Resolution Record of Past Climate from Monsoon Asia, the Last 2000 Years and Beyond, Recommendations for Research. PAGES Workshop Report, Series 93–1, 1–24.
Central Meteorological Administration (CMA), 1981. Yearly Charts of Dryness/Wetness in China for the Last 500 Years Period. Beijing: Cartographic Publishing House. (in Chinese)
Chinese Local Chronicles Series in Shaanxi Province (CLCSSP), 1991. Qianyang County Annals. Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Education Publishing House. (in Chinese)
Fang Xiuqi, Su Yun, Yin Jun et al., 2015. Transmission of climate change impacts from temperature change to grain harvests, famines and peasant uprisings in the historical China. Scientia Sinica (Terrae), 45(6): 831–842. (in Chinese)
Fang Xiuqi, Zheng Jingyun, Ge Quansheng, 2014. Historical climate change impact-response processes under the framework of food security in China. Scientia Geographica Sinica, 34(11): 1291–1298. (in Chinese)
Fufeng County Chronicles Compilation Committee (Fufeng CCCC), 1993. Fufeng County Annals. Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Publishing House. (in Chinese)
Ge Quansheng, Fang Xiuqi, Zheng Jingyun, 2014. Learning from the historical impacts of climatic change in China. Advances in Earth Science, 29(1): 23–29. (in Chinese)
Ge Quansheng, Liu Jian, Fang Xiuqi et al., 2013. General characteristics of temperature change and centennial warm periods during the past 2000 years. Acta Geographica Sinica, 68(5): 579–592. (in Chinese)
Ge Quansheng, Liu Lulu, Zheng Jingyun et al., 2016. Spatial patterns of drought/flood over eastern China in the periods of anomalous solar activity during the past millennium. Acta Geographica Sinica, 71(5): 707–717. (in Chinese)
Ge Quansheng, Zheng Jingyun, Hao Zhixin et al., 2012. General characteristics of climate changes during the past 2000 years in China. Scientia Sinica (Terrae), 42(6): 934–942. (in Chinese)
Ge Q S, Zheng J Y, Hao Z X et al., 2013. General characteristics of climate changes during the past 2000 years in China. Science China: Earth Sciences, 56(2): 321–329.
Ge Quansheng, Zheng Jingyun, Hao Zhixin et al., 2014. State-of-the-arts in the study of climate change over China for the past 2000 years. Acta Geographica Sinica, 69(9): 1248–1258. (in Chinese)
Ge Quansheng, Zheng Jingyun, Hao Zhixin, 2015. PAGES synthesis study on climate change in Asia over the last 2000 years: Progresses and perspectives. Acta Geographica Sinica, 70(3): 355–363. (in Chinese)
Guo Zengjian, Guo Anning, Zhou Kexing, 2007. Geophysical Disaster Chain. Xi’an: Xi’an Map Publishing House. (in Chinese)
Lee HF, Zhang DD, 2010. Changes in climate and secular population cycles in China, 1000 CE to 1911. Climate Research, 42: 235–246.
Li Xiaogang, Li Min, 2016. Analysis of change law of drought and flood disasters from 1430 to 2000 in Shangluo. Acta Agriculturae Jiangxi, 28(2): 101–105, 111. (in Chinese)
Li Yanfang, Zhao Jingbo, 2008. The research on the flooding disaster in Guanzhong in recent 200 years. Journal of Arid Land Resources and Environment, 22(4): 96–99. (in Chinese)
Linyou County Chronicles Compilation Committee (Linyou CCCC), 1993. Linyou County Annals. Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Publishing House. (in Chinese)
Longxian County Chronicles Compilation Committee (Longxian CCCC), 1993. Longxian County Annals. Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Publishing House. (in Chinese)
Meixian County Chronicles Compilation Committee (Meixian CCCC), 2000. Meixian County Annals. Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Publishing House. (in Chinese)
Pei Lin, Yan Zhong Wei, Yang Hui, 2015. Multidecadal variability of dry/wet patterns in eastern China and their relationship with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation in the last 413 years. Chinese Science Bulletin, 60(1): 97–108. (in Chinese)
Qishan County Chronicles Compilation Committee (Qishan CCCC), 1992. Qishan County Annals. Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Publishing House. (in Chinese)
Qing Fengxiang Magistrate Da Line, 2002. Revision on the Fengxiang Government Record. Xi’an: Xi’an Map Publishing House, The Chinese Local Chronicles the Baoji Office Jiaozhu Reprint. (in Chinese)
Ren Zhenqiu, 1986. Climate anomalies and astronomy nearly five thousand years of China. Agricultural Archaeology, (1): 298–303. (in Chinese)
Shi F, Yang B, Von Gunten L, 2012. Preliminary multiproxy surface air temperature field reconstruction for China over the past millennium. Science China Earth Sciences, 55(12): 2058–2067.
Taibai County Chronicles Compilation Committee (Taibai CCCC), 1998. Taibai County Annals. Xi’an: Sanqin Press. (in Chinese)
Wan Honglian, 2014. Flood disaster and its social impacts in Baoji area during the past 1400 years. Journal of Arid Land Resources and Environment, 28(4):79–82. (in Chinese)
Wan Honglian, Liu Dongyue, Song Hailong, 2016. Earthquake disasters and its spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of Baoji in history period. Journal of Baoji University of Arts and Sciences (Natural Science Edition), 36(3): 1–5. (in Chinese)
Wan Honglian, Song Hailong, Zhu Chanchan et al., 2017. Analysis of hail disasters and its spatial and temporal distribution characteristics in Shaanxi region from 1368 to 2013. Journal of Arid Land Resources and Environment, 31(2): 123–127. (in Chinese)
Wan Honglian, Song Hailong, Zhu Chanchan et al., 2017. Drought and flood disaster chain and its response to climate change in Baoji region during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Acta Geographica Sinica, 72(1): 27–38. (in Chinese)
Wan Honglian, Zhou Qi, Fan Weihan et al., 2013. Flood disasters in the Baoji region during the period of AD. 600–2000. Arid Zone Research, 30(4): 697–704. (in Chinese)
Wang Jinsong, Chen Fahu, Yang Bao et al., 2006. New advances in research on the Little Ice Age climate change. Advances in Climate Change Research, 2(1): 21–27. (in Chinese)
Wang S W, Wen X Y, Luo Y et al., 2007. Reconstruction of temperature series of China for the last 1000 years. Chinese Science Bulletin, 52(23): 3272–3280.
Wang Shaowu, Ye Jinlin, Gong Daoyi, 1998. Climate in China during the Little Ice Age. Quaternary Sciences, 18(1): 54–64. (in Chinese)
Wang Shaowu, Zhao Zongci, 1979. An analyses of historical data of droughts and floods in last 500 years in ChiChina. Acta Geographica Sinica, 34(4): 330–334. (in Chinese)
Wang Shousen, 2002. Brief Records on Historical Natural Disasters in Shaanxi. Beijing: China Meteorological Press. (in Chinese)
Water Conservancy Newsroom (WCN), 1985. Baoji: The historical inundation and drought of Baoji. (in Chinese)
Wen Kegang, Zhai Youan, 2005. Encyclopaedia of China’s Meteorological Disasters: Shaanxi Volume. Beijing: China Meteorological Press. (in Chinese)
Xiao L B, Fang X Q, Zhang Y J et al., 2014. Multi-stage evolution of social response to flood/drought in the North China Plain during 1644–1911. Regional Environmental Change, 14(2): 583–595.
Xiao L B, Fang X Q, Zheng J Y et al., 2015. Famine, migration and war: Comparison of climate change impacts and social responses in North China between the late Ming and late Qing dynasties. Holocene, 25(6): 191–196.
Xu Xiaoyu, Zhu JiWei, Xie Jiancang et al., 2015. Analysis of spatial and temporal distribution characteristics and evolution trend of drought and flood disasters from 1470 to 2012 in Shaanxi Province. Journal of Xi’an University of Technology, 31(2): 231–237. (in Chinese)
Xu Zhentao, Jiang Yaotiao, 1990. Research and Modern Applications of the Sunspot in Ancient China. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press. (in Chinese)
Yang B, Qin C, Wang J L et al., 2014. A 3,500-year tree-ring record of annual precipitation on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(8): 2903–2908.
Yang Xuexiang, 2008. Disaster chain rules can’t be ignored. Geography Teaching, (5): 1–4. (in Chinese)
Ye Y, Fang X, Khan M A U, 2012. Migration and reclamation in Northeast China in response to climatic disasters in North China over the past 300 years. Regional Environmental Change, 12(1): 193–206.
Yuan Lin, 1994. Disaster History in Northwest China. Lanzhou: Gansu People’s Publishing House. (in Chinese)
Yuan Yuan, Huang Shaoni, Guo Chunyan et al., 2015. The reconstruction and trend study of Shaanxi province’s drought and floods grade in recent 500 years. Agricultural Research in the Arid Areas, 33(5): 232–236, 244. (in Chinese)
Zhang De’er, 2000. A Compendium of Chinese Meteorological Records of the Last 3000 Years. Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Press. (in Chinese)
Zhang D D, Zhang J, Lee H et al., 2007. Climate change and war frequency in eastern China over the last millennium. Human Ecology, 35(4): 403–414.
Zhang P Z, Cheng H, Edwards R et al., 2008. A test of climate, sun, and culture relationships from an 1810-year Chinese cave record. Science, 322(5903): 940–942.
Zheng Jingyun, Hao Zhixin, Zhang Xuezhen et al., 2014. Drought/flood spatial patterns in centennial cold and warm periods of the past 2000 years over eastern China. Science Bulletin, 30: 2964–2971. (in Chinese)
Zheng Jingyun, Shao Xuemei, Hao Zhixin et al., 2010. An overview of research on climate change in China during the past 2000 years. Geographical Research, 29(9): 1561–1570. (in Chinese)
Zheng Jingyun, Wang Shaowu, 2005. Assessment on climate change in China for the last 2000 years. Acta Geographica Sinica, 60(1): 21–31. (in Chinese)
Zheng Jingyun, Zhang Peiyuan, Zhou Yufu, 1993. During historical times by using the number of drought/flood counties. Geographical Research, 12(3): 1–9. (in Chinese)
Zhou Qi, 2003a. Analysis on the correspondence between the agricultural disasters caused by droughts and waterloggings in Baoji and the climate change in east China during the past 1500 years. Arid Zone Research, 20(2): 123–126. (in Chinese)
Zhou Qi, 2003b. Agriculture response to environmental change in west Guanzhong Plain during the past 1500 years. Journal of Arid Land Resources and Environment, 17(5): 26–29. (in Chinese)
Zhu Kezhen, 1973. The primary study of climate changes in China since the past 5 ka. Science in China (Series B), (2): 169–189. (in Chinese)
Zhu Shengzhong, 2012. Spatial and temporal distributions of floods and droughts in Liangshan in Ming and Qing dynasties. Geographical Research, 31(1): 23–33. (in Chinese)
Zhu Shiguang, Wang Yuanlin, Hu Lingui, 1998. Study on climate variations in the region of Guanzhong in the historical period. Quaternary Sciences, (1): 1–11. (in Chinese)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Foundation: National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41601016; Philosophy and Social Science Research Fund in Shaanxi, No.2017E003; Fundamental Research Funds for Key Subject Physical Geography of Baoji University of Arts and Sciences
Author: Wan Honglian (1969–), PhD and Professor, specialized in resource development and environmental change, the disaster in history and other works of research and teaching.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wan, H., Song, H., Zhu, C. et al. Spatio-temporal evolution of drought and flood disaster chains in Baoji area from 1368 to 1911. J. Geogr. Sci. 28, 337–350 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-018-1476-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-018-1476-y