The Great Wall of China as a Climate Frontier

The Great Wall of China as a Climate Frontier

Climatic and Historical Perspectives on the Ordos Region

The Great Wall—the most imposing manifestation of Chinese frontier history—crosses a vast territory subject to political, environmental and climatic instabilities that the volume approaches as mutually conditioning, focusing on the Ordos region. This has been a central point of contact between sedentary East Asian and nomadic Inner Asian peoples throughout Chinese premodern history (500 BCE-1800).  The contributors emphasize the significance of human-natural interaction affecting environmental and climatological variability central to historical processes on this critical frontier zone. Four case studies are supported by paleoclimatic evidence from documentary information and natural proxies as well as from land-use models showing the complexity of climate-human interplay, in terms of demography, economy, and administrative-military presence. The volume’s interdisciplinary methodology achieves an authoritative integration of both scientific (quantitative) and historical (narrative) approaches to produce a comprehensive history of long-term frontier dynamics.

The Great Wall—the most imposing manifestation of Chinese frontier history—crosses a vast territory subject to political, environmental and climatic instabilities that the volume approaches as mutually conditioning, focusing on the Ordos region. This has been a central point of contact between sedentary East Asian and nomadic Inner Asian peoples throughout Chinese premodern history (500 BCE-1800).  The contributors emphasize the significance of human-natural interaction affecting environmental and climatological variability central to historical processes on this critical frontier zone. Four case studies are supported by paleoclimatic evidence from documentary information and natural proxies as well as from land-use models showing the complexity of climate-human interplay, in terms of demography, economy, and administrative-military presence. The volume’s interdisciplinary methodology achieves an authoritative integration of both scientific (quantitative) and historical (narrative) approaches to produce a comprehensive history of long-term frontier dynamics.

Highlights

• Integrated historical-climatological methodology Multiple case studies of a single region extended over 2000 years Quantitative spatial analysis of land-use and climate variability

Über den Autor

Nicola Di Cosmo is Luce Foundation Professor in East Asian Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, USA). He has held positions at the universities of Cambridge, Harvard, and Canterbury (New Zealand).  His research spans across the military, political, social and environmental history of China and Inner Asia from the ancient to the early modern period. His latest book (co-authored) is Venice and the Mongols: The Eurasian Exchange that Transformed the Medieval World (Princeton 2026). 
Jürg Luterbacher is Professor at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, responsible for research on Climate Change, Climatology, and Climate Dynamics. He has served as Director of Science and Innovation and Chief Scientist at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with responsibility for the World Climate Research Programme, the World Weather Research Programme, and the Global Atmosphere Watch. He is also a Board of Directors Member of the Climate and Water Initiative and Co-Chair of ATES (Association for Trans-Eurasia Exchange and Silk Road Civilization Development). He has published more than 220 peer-reviewed articles and has served as a lead author for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). 

David A. Bello is Elizabeth Lewis Otey Professor of East Asian Studies in the Department of History at Washington and Lee University. His main research interest concerns the environmental and borderland history of China’s last dynasty, the Qing (1644-1912). His latest book, Across Forest, Steppe and Mountain: Identity and Empire in Qing China’s Borderlands, was published in 2016 by Cambridge University Press, and he is co-editor of Insect Histories of East Asia, published in 2023 by University of Washington Press.

Elena Xoplaki is Senior Scientist at the CMCC Foundation – Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change (Bologna, Italy), and Principal Investigator of the ERC Synergy Grant EUROpest. She is a leading expert on Mediterranean climate change, with research spanning weather and climate extremes (heatwaves, floods, droughts, compound and concurrent events), paleoclimatology, climate reconstructions and model intercomparisons, and the role of atmospheric circulation in shaping European and Mediterranean climate. She serves as Vice-Chair of the ITU/UNEP/UNFCCC/UPU/WMO Global Initiative on Resilience to Natural Hazards through AI Solutions.