Sand harm in taklimakan Desert highway and sand control
摘要
Reputed as a wonderful achievement of the world’s highway construction history,the Taklimakan Desert highway is nor facing serious sand drift encroachment problems due to its 447-km-long passage of sand sea consisting of crescent dunes,barchan chains,compound transverse dune ridges and complex megadunes.To solve some technical problems in the protection of the highway from sang drift encroachment,desert experts have been conducting the theoretical and applied studies on sand movement laws;causes,severities and time-space differentiation of sand drift damages;and control ways including mechanical,chemical and biological measures.In this paper the authors give an overall summry on the research contents and recent progress in the control of sand drift damages in China and hold that the theoretical researc results and practices in the prevention of sand drift encroachment on the cross-desert highway represnt a breakthrough and has an cpoch-making significance.Since the construction of protective forest along the cross-desert highway requires large amount of ground water,what will be its environmental consequence and whether it can effectively halt sand drift encroachment on the highway forever are the questions to be studied urgently.