Approximately two-thirds of China’s land area consists of cold and arid regions, featuring key surface types including glaciers, permafrost, deserts, gobi, salt lakes, oases and grasslands. Covering the three core plateaus—the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Mongolian-Xinjiang Plateau and Loess Plateau—these regions serve as a strategic corridor connecting inland China with Central Asian countries and an important reserve base for national water, energy and mineral resources.

   The ecological environment in these regions is highly fragile. As a key area for ecological civilization construction, rural revitalization and high-quality regional development, the region is simultaneously under the combined pressures of global climate change, intensified human activities and frequent natural disasters. Consequently, the ecological security barrier, the safety of major engineering projects and regional sustainable development face severe challenges, forming a core bottleneck restricting coordinated economic and social development. The systematic collection, integration and long-term management of scientific data on fundamental environmental elements in cold and arid regions, including glaciers, snow cover, permafrost, deserts, gobi, oases and wetlands; the systematic aggregation of hazard data such as soil erosion, water loss, landslides, collapses, debris flows and floods; and the systematic accumulation of data on ecological restoration, major linear engineering construction and comprehensive social, economic and cultural conditions provide irreplaceable strategic support for scientific research, ecological governance, engineering construction, border control and sustainable development in cold and arid regions.

   The National Cryosphere Desert Data Center (NCDC) is established on the basis of Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, jointly with Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

   NCDC has developed into a leading platform for scientific data management and sharing services in cold and arid regions. It actively promotes best practices in open data and interdisciplinary integration, serving as the primary destination for researchers, policymakers, and engineering institutions worldwide to access key scientific data related to cryosphere sciences and desertification control. Its core business fully covers long-term observation datasets, remote sensing retrieval products, and field survey datasets on glaciers, frozen ground, deserts, snow cover, loess, and natural hazards in China and surrounding regions. These include major special project achievements such as the Qinghai-Tibet Engineering Corridor and ecological monitoring in the arid regions of Northwest China. NCDC provides standardized submission, long-term preservation, and permanent free open-access download services for these data resources to the global scientific community and the general public.

   Key Mission

   To address the needs of scientific research, ecological conservation, engineering construction, and national strategies in cold and arid regions, we systematically collect, manage, preserve, and share distinctive scientific data characterized by multi-factor, long-term, and comprehensive coverage, thereby establishing a secure, authoritative, and sustainable data resource system and service capabilities.

   Primary Target Audience

   Open to the global public, users from all countries have unrestricted access to the data. We accept data submissions from the global public in fields related to glaciers, snow cover, permafrost, deserts, hydrology, inland rivers, engineering in cold and arid regions, and global change.

   In terms of resource aggregation

   In terms of resource aggregation, the Center covers China’s three major plateaus, transboundary rivers, inland river basins, key basins, deserts, sandy lands, salt lakes, and key linear engineering zones. It systematically integrates ten categories of data resources, including field observation, laboratory testing, remote sensing, numerical modeling, and engineering data, forming a multi-element, multi-scale, long-term time-series data system.

   To date, the initiative has aggregated over 60% of the core scientific data from cold and arid regions across the country, totaling 159.2 TB. Of this, 80% was independently generated by the host institutions, which hold full intellectual property rights. Concurrently, 188 research models and supporting algorithmic tools have been integrated, establishing an integrated data-model-tool resource pool. The entire data submission process is overseen by the Data Oversight Committee to ensure data quality, resource sustainability, and the protection of authors’ rights.

   For infrastructure and capacity building

   NCDC has established a comprehensive system of policies, platforms, facilities, and human resources, and has formulated 26 management standards and service specifications to achieve standardized management throughout the entire data lifecycle. The current workspace spans 1,000 square meters and is set to expand to 3,000 square meters; a 4PB storage system and a 300 TFLOPS supercomputing environment have been established, creating a comprehensive support environment that integrates data hosting, model computation, storage computing, and visualization analysis.

   NCDC possesses end-to-end service capabilities encompassing automated data collection, standardized processing, quality control, thematic product development, and the consolidation of major projects. It has established a national alliance of field stations in collaboration with 31 institutions and 47 field stations. The Center currently employs 64 permanent staff members, including more than 20 full-time data management and technical personnel. An expert advisory group comprising 6 academicians and 24 research fellows provides strategic guidance and professional support.

   In open sharing and services

   NCDC provides open-access services to the global community. The platform has 61,334 registered users spanning 114 countries and regions, with 4,685 metadata records and a total data volume of 159.2 TB. Metadata has been accessed 29.9696 million times, data has been downloaded 1.1166 million times, and the cumulative data download volume stands at 24.2 PB; It integrates 188 model tools, with cumulative model downloads reaching 131,300 and page views totaling 2.528 billion. The Center has provided data support for 5,876 research projects and 6,537 domestic and international institutions, serving core fields such as glaciology, permafrost, deserts, hydrology, ecology, disasters, and engineering. The supported research has resulted in two Special Prizes and seven Second Prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, as well as one National Innovation Team Award.

   In addition to providing ongoing support for major national projects such as the Baoji-Lanzhou Railway, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, and the Heihe Project, the platform has in recent years prioritized supporting national strategic needs, including route selection for the Chongqing-Kunming High-Speed Railway, disaster early warning for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and soil and water conservation in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River. It provides core data support for national scientific and technological innovation, ecological security, engineering construction, and high-quality development.