Abstract:

In response to the threat to the survival of Crescent Lake posed by the convergent movement of the southern and northern sand dunes in the Mingsha Mountain-Crescent Spring Scenic Area， the scenic area service center implemented a wind corridor dredging project in 2012. However， the impact of this project on the regional wind dynamic environment has not been evaluated to date. In view of this， based on meteorological data collected from 2009 to 2025 by the automatic meteorological observation instruments deployed within the scenic area， this study analyzes average wind speeds， wind frequency， and drift potential to evaluate how the local aeolian dynamics have responded to the wind corridor project. The results show that： 1） The annual average wind speed at observation sites exhibits a fluctuating upward trend， while the annual average sand-driving wind speed for sand entrainment shows a declining trend； 2） The wind direction heat maps indicate that the near-surface wind speed is significantly affected by the dredging project in terms of spatial distribution， with the annual average sand-moving wind speed in the corresponding wind direction increasing by approximately 10% after the implementation of the wind tunnel dredging； 3） The proportion of wind speed ranging from 0 to 5 m·s⁻¹ accounts for more than 90% of all recorded wind observations annually， and the proportion decreases as wind speed increases； 4） The wind corridor dredging project has an impact on the drift potential in the corresponding direction， with the drift potential in the corresponding wind direction increasing during the project implementation period from 2013 to 2017. Overall， the findings demonstrate that the wind corridor dredging project has positively contributed to restoring near-surface airflow patterns in the scenic area.

Key words: aeolian dynamics, wind-blown sand hazards, engineering effectiveness, Mingsha Mountain-Crescent Spring Scenic Area, drift potential