The Ziquejie Terrace is one of the three famous Chinese ancient terraces in Hunan Province. The crops cultivated in the terraces can manage to thrive through drought and flood without reservoir or other water storage constructions. This traditional primitive gravity irrigation system is a model for ecological construction of irrigation systems. However, the mechanism of Gravity Irrigation and water allocation within Ziquejie Terrace has not been well revealed, which to large extent affects the efficiency of environmental and ecological protection for this extraordinary natural reserve.
The cattle corridor of Uganda has semi-arid characteristics, high variability of rainfall and droughts. The main economic activities in this area are pastoralism and crop production. Historically, the area has been well known for reliance on mobile pastoralism as an important strategy to cope with resource variability. However, people’s abilities to cope greatly weakened as the impacts of disasters became frequent and severe. The recurrence of droughts in the Aswa-Agago Sub-Catchment has been exacerbated by climate change. This has compromised the ability of populations and ecosystems in the area to recover from the shocks.