Water salinity in northwest China

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  • 中国北西部の乾燥地における水の塩類濃度
  • チュウゴク ホクセイブ ノ カンソウチ ニ オケル ミズ ノ エンルイ ノウド

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Abstract

The salinity of many kinds of water was studied in arid areas of northwestern China. Although values for total dissolved solids (TDS) are usually used for estimating salinity, we mainly used simpler electric conductivity (EC) method. EC values were obtained for about sixty samples of water collected from various places in the Taklimakan Desert and the Hexi Corridor in the summers of 1993 and 1994. Samples of drinking water (tap water) from various oases, river water (excluding that from high mountain areas), and groundwater were classified as hard water because their EC values were all over 0.3mS/cm. However, even the two samples of drinking water collected at Alaerh which had registered the highest salinity (3.5 and 2.98 mS/cm on EC), were still below the maximum level for potability. Samples of river water from high mountain areas were usually low in salinity, though salinity in samples from areas farther downstream gradually increased. High salt concentrations are probably caused not only by intense evaporation in the arid environment, but also by the dissolution of salt in water which traverses ancient saline layers or flows through lowland areas where salt has accumulated. The World Health Organization (WHO) and United States Public Service (USPS) has recommended saline water levels, which are usually expressed in terms of TDS. Since the constitution of saline solutions differs among hydrological systems, it could only be obtained by a loose regression formula between TDS and EC. Using this formula, water quality was converted into terms of EC and evaluated for the region. As a result, with a few exceptions, we determined that it would be possible to use most of this water to irrigate salt-resistant crops.

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