The Ministry of Science and Technology has allocated 30 million yuan for a research project on the evolution of the ecological environment in arid western China.

The project aims to determine the cause of the deteriorating environment in China's dry western region and come up with measures to help control the situation.

Listed as one of the State's key basic research development projects, the work will be completed in five years.

The project will be undertaken by Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Cryopedology, Lanzhou Institute of Plateau Atmospheric Physics, Lanzhou Institute of Desert, Xinjiang University, Institute of Northwest Plateau Biology, and Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography.

Arid areas in western China cover a vast area of land in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Gansu and Qinghai provinces, making up one-fourth of China's total area.