Drowning desert: how Xinjiang’s infrastructure could fail under record rain

Rare but intense rainfall in China’s biggest desert that triggered flooding – and damage – across parts of Xinjiang has underscored the growing risks posed by extreme weather in the country’s arid northwest. According to China Weather Network, the public information platform of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), two major flood events have occurred along the margins of the Taklamakan Desert, a once-arid region, this month. While warmer, wetter conditions in recent decades made...