Crescent Moon Spring
Located 5 kilometres south of Dunhuang City in Gansu Province, Crescent Moon Spring is a clear spring surrounded by the Mingsha Hills, shaped like the moon, hence its name, and is a very rare desert landscape.
Today’s Crescent Moon Spring is only a quarter of the size it was when I was a child ……
Mr Chen, 72
3D Modelling of Climate Change Impacts
How?
Once upon a time, the Crescent Moon Spring was more like a lake where people could raft, situated by the Mingsha Mountain, next to the village.
Since the 1960s, the water level of the Crescent Moon Spring has fallen dramatically, and by 1998 the spring was only 1.2 metres deep. In recent years, the geography in which the spring was formed has not improved and the spring has dried up.
Why?
The water source of Crescent Moon Spring is underground water brought by the meltwater of snow mountain. The rise in average temperatures in recent years has led to a decrease in the snowpack at the source of the spring and a rise in evaporation around this area.
Human activity is also a cause that cannot be ignored. Over-exploitation of underground water in this area in recent decades has led to increasing desertification of the soil.
Preservation
In 2011, the Chinese government launched a $4.7 billion Comprehensive Plan for the Rational Utilisation of Water Resources and Ecological Protection of Dunhuang, of which the restoration of the Crescent Moon Spring is an important part.
The preservation and restoration of the Crescent Moon Spring is a huge project. The water from the seepage field is sent to the Crescent Moon Spring in three to five days through this ecological water replenishment method, thus achieving the effect of replenishing the Crescent Moon Spring.
With the official operation of the project, the annual amount of water delivered specifically to the Crescent Moon Spring can reach 40 million cubic metres, and through long-term water storage and recharge, the spring’s self-healing ability has been significantly improved, the water level is gradually rising, the average depth of water has been restored from the original 1.35 metres to 1.6 metres, the shape of the moon is also once again plentiful.