KARST ENVIRONMENT AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN CHINA
岩溶(喀斯特)环境与西部开发

The karst-highland areas mainly refer to those mountainous areas under the jurisdiction of counties and municipalities where fully exposed or semi-exposed carbonate rocks account for more than 30% of the total area. In the southwestern part of China the karst-highland areas are distributed largely in the most part of Guizhou Province, the northwestern part of Guangxi Autonomous Region, and some parts of Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces, as well as Tibetan Autonomous Region. They cover an area of around 54×104km2 and have a population of around 100 million. There is thin soil but many stones in the karst-highland areas, where water supply is insufficient. The annual total output of agricultural and industrial production and the annual income percapita for every farmer family are far bellow the average levels in China respectively. There is a vicious circle between poverty and the environment, which is the epitome of the problems concerning the sustainable development of China. In this paper, we discussed the issue of development of the areas in the view of environmental geology and geochemistry. It involves the geological processes relative to the formation of the karst environment, the relation between the geological condition and the backwardness of economic development of the areas, the favorable condition provided by the natural environment for economic development and the strategy of the regional development.