Ecological Environment Conservation and Restoration and Sustainable Development of Minqin Oasis.

Minqin oasis in the lower reaches of the Shiyang River is a main natural barrier for the Wuwei Basin. Due to the combined influence of human activities and natural factors in the past half a century, water quality in the lower reaches of the Shiyang River decreased and ecological environment deteriorated, which influenced sustainable development of this area and surrounding area seriously. This paper analyzed current situation and reasons of the deteriorated ecological environment in the lower reaches of the Shiyang River, and proposed that water environment regulation was the primary task in the eco-environment control of Minqin area, specifically, (a) By using existing policies, accelerating the construction of water-saving agriculture in the middle reaches of the Shiyang River, water quantity in the lower reaches would be guanranted, water shortage for agricultural production and ecological use in Minqin oasis would be relieved; (b) Unreasonable human activities such as overexploitation of underground water should be controlled strictly; (c) Water conservancy project should be developed vigorously to ensure rate of flow. It was expected that the above schemes would contribute to the benign circulation of ecological environment in Minqin oasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]