Nature-based solutions (NbS) rapidly develop globally to address societal challenges and provide human well-being and biodiversity. Watershed restoration plays an essential role in enhancing the ecological and socio-economic benefits of the region. The design and implementation of watershed restoration projects play a crucial role in their effectiveness, and NbS has been applied as a concept in ecosystem-related projects. This paper provides an idea to evaluate the design or implementation of watershed restoration projects based on the eight criteria proposed by the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-Based Solutions and to adjust the projects based on the evaluation results. The aim is to standardize the implementation process of watershed restoration projects to achieve more significant benefits and practically apply the concept of NbS in watershed restoration. implementation scheme of the Shan-Shui Initiative in the Jiulong River Watershed and concludes that the method is feasible in evaluating and improving the design and implementation scheme of ecological restoration projects in the actual basin. According to the assessment results, the degree of matching based on NbS for the implementation scheme of the Jiulong River Watershed Shan-Shui Initiative is 73%, which meets the criteria of NbS but needs to be improved in terms of monitoring and assessment, synergistic management, and benefit trade-offs.

The so-called “Chinese pyramids” are huge burial mounds covering the tombs of the Emperors of the Western Han dynasty. If we include also the mounds of the members of the royal families, these monuments sum up to more than 40, scattered throughout the western and the southern outskirts of modern Xi'an. They are mostly unexcavated and poorly known although, taken together, they form a fascinating sacred landscape, which was conceived as a perennial witness of one of the most magnificent Chinese dynasties. This sacred landscape is today encroached by the frenetic urban development of the Xi’an urban area. We discuss and elaborate here some of the results of a recent, new satellite-imagery survey of these monuments, highlighting the aspects which may contribute to solutions for a sustainable and compatible development within this important ancient landscape.

Despite the ecological importance of forest tree species, our study was motivated by scarce data on dendrochronology studies limited to the northwestern part of Tajikistan due to lack of access to such a part of the country which is difficult to access. Current studies on Junipers in the northwestern part of Tajikistan identified that tree ring-based climate reconstruction is possible. Cores of Juniperus Turkestanica from Taboshar area, Sogd province were developed into 176-year tree-ring width chronology. In the current study a summer (June-September) minimum temperature reconstruction spanning AD 1840–2016 was developed, which can explain 30.0% of the instrumental variableness for the period of 1940–2015. Five warmest (1856–1866, 1869–1871, 1907–1916, 1923–1935, 1988–2016) and four coldest time periods (1840–1855, 1872–1906, 1917–1922, 1940–1984) were identified. The developed reconstruction coincides with cold and warm periods with prior investigations from tree-rings in China, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Spatial correlation analysis with the gridded minimum temperature data shows that the temperature reconstruction covers geographical representation over High Asia. Significant correlation was found between temperature reconstruction with summer SST, which suggests strong linkages of regional temperature variability with Indian-Ocean climate system. The obtained spectral peaks from the spectral analysis of the summer temperature reconstruction were significantly at 84.7-year (90%), 2.9-year (99%), 2.6-year (99%), 2.5-year (99%), 2.4-year (99%) and 2.2-year (99%).

This paper discusses the preliminary results of archaeological surveys conducted in the Juuku Region of north-central Kyrgyzstan on the south side of Lake Issyk kul. Our goal was to document ancient and contemporary agropastoral systems over a four millenia time period. During the surveys about 350 loci were identified as settlements, burial mounds, graves, single artifact finds, and artifact scatters (ceramic). The areas of Juuku Valley survey included two discrete polygons: Polygon 1, Lower Juuku at 1750 to 1950 m asl in elevation and Polygon 2, Chak Juuku or Upper Eastern Branch Juuku Valley at 2060 to 2100 m asl in elevation. Three radiometric dates and preliminary archaeobotanical studies were conducted at three exposed profile cuts. The methods included here are: (1) pedestrian surveys; (2) use of digital maps (Google Earth, Encarta); (3) placing archaeological loci within known chronological time periods; (4) AMS dating of charcoal samples collected from profile deposits; and (5) preliminary identification of plant remains found from archaeobotanical samples. The results of our research represent the first step toward inventorying and interpreting archaeological data in the Juuku Valley derived from field studies.

Flood records of the Kunmalik River in Chinese Tien Shan mountains have showed that glacier- dammed lake outburst floods (GLOF) had occurred almost every year since 1956 from the glaci-er-dammed Lake Merzbacher. However, GLOF in cold season is seldomly studied. The defense and management of the flood need further observation and study. The maximum peak discharge of 825 m3/s occurred on 5th December 1996 with the maximum flood volume of 2.875×108 m3, which was 18 times larger than that of the mean daily discharge in winter over the past six decades. The drainage of the Merzbacher lake is not a mechanical breaking up of the glacier dam, but the release of pressurized water along a subglacial tunnel triggered by quickly surge of the Northern Glacier, the subglacial tunnels are enlarged by both ice melting and frictional heat in the flooding water and heat under the glaciated dam and the lake in winter. There is no correlation between the GLOF size and air temperature of cold season. The floods in cold season have become bigger since 1996 than that before, and the flood duration has been extended from winter to spring. Once the cold GLOF starts, its discharge can be forecasted day by day to extrapolate the monitoring hydrograph as a linear curve.