中文摘要：

本文总结了已完成的国家重点基础研究发展规划计划项目（“973”项目）“我国生存环境演变和北方干旱化趋势预测”（1999-2004年）和正在执行的“973”项目“北方干旱化与人类适应”的有关干旱化问题研究的部分成果。主要是中国科学院大气物理研究所最近几年在近代区域干旱化的事实及全球联系方面的研究进展，并对全球增暖背景下区域干旱化的形成机理展开讨论。

英文摘要：

Some achievements on aridity trend from the accomplished project of the State Key Development Program for Basic Research of China ＂Evolution of Life-Supporting Environment in China and the Predictive Study of Aridity Trend in Northern China, Grant No. G1999043400＂ and the ongoing project of the State Key Development Program for Basic Research of China ＂Aridity Trend in Northern China and Human Adaptation, Grant No. 2006CPA00500＂ are summarized in this paper, which is related to the studies of drying trend on regional scale. The achievements fo- cus on detecting drying trend in recent 100 years and studying its relationship with global change by scientists from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the mechanism causing drying trend on regional scale under global warming background is discussed finally.