Abstract:

The dry-wet climate regionalization index, potential evapotranspiration calculation methods, standard and named method of the dry-wet climate regionalization, etc., are reviewed in this paper since the middle of the 20th century. Using the arid index, climate regionalization and class standard were given on the basis of former review. Then, the characteristics of dry-wet climate division were analyzed using observed data at 2207 national meteorological stations from 1981 to 2010. The results showed that arid area (including the extreme arid, arid and semi-arid areas) was 4.692 million hm² in China, accounting for 48.8% of the land area in China, which included 0.878 million hm² (9.1%), 2.092 million hm² (21.8%) and 1.722 million hm² (17.9%) for extreme arid, arid and semi-arid area respectively. The arid areas were mainly distributed in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu province and other western regions. The sub-humid area, wet area and excessive wet area accounted for 16.2%, 27.8% and 8.8% of China’s land area respectively, mainly located in the south of the Yangtze River and Northeast China.

Key words: dry-wet climate division, arid index, potential evapotranspiration, research progress