Advancement in key technologies for comprehensive treatment of water, soil and vegetation resources in karst rocky desertification areas

The karst area in southwestern China is one of the three largest concentrating karst regions in the world.Meanwhile,it suffers severe environmental problems,such as water shortage,ecological degradation and rocky desertification.In order to address these challenges,China has launched a National Project to control karst rocky desertification in an integrated way.Key technology research and development is the key step in the project of comprehensive treatment to rocky desertification.In this paper,we analyze the development and deficiency of karst water resources utilization technology,soil resources maintenance and quality improvement techniques and vegetation restoration and function upgrade technology in the recent advancement of the project at the first stage.As for the second stage of the project,we suggest that the research should be based on " structure (geological environment background)-process (soil and water conservation process and desertification process)-service (key service function to maintain and upgrade)",to strengthen key commonness and individuality technology research of soil,water and vegetation and key technologies of matching and optimization,to increase the applicability evaluation and application of the rocky desertification key comprehensive technologies,and to perfect the assessment and ecological compensation policy of priority ecosystem services on a basin scale.We hope that our recommendations can promote the balanced and sustainable ecological,economic and social development in the karst rocky desertification areas in southwestern China.