In recent years, subjective well-being has attracted increasing attention in psychology, economics, and sociology. Geographical studies on the topic in English language is also growing rapidly. Since measurement is the foundation of empirical studies, this article reviews the major approaches to measuring subjective well-being. We first provide a theoretical framework of subjective well-being, in which two major components are identified: the cognitive component which is mainly known as life satisfaction; and the affective well-being which is usually termed as positive affect and negative affect. Each component can be further divided according to its temporal span. Previous studies mainly adopt self-reported scales to measure different components of subjective well-being, while some facial or ecological indicators are also developed to measure short-term emotions. The self-reported scales are quite flexible and probably provide the most proper insights into individuals' subjectively experienced well-being. These scales can be classified into two types: while the reflective scales select items based on a latent model, the formative scales consider the items as different facets which can be aggregated within an aggregate model or profile model. In general, more reflective scales of subjective well-being have been developed as compared to formative scales. The most widely used scales to measure life satisfaction include the single-item self-anchoring scale and the 5-item Satisfaction with Life Scale . Some formative scales such as the 8-item Personal Well-Being Index (PWI) were also developed to assess one's global life satisfaction. The most often applied measures of affective well-being include the single-item Gurin scale, the multi-item core affect model, and PANAS. Special methods such as the Experience Sampling Method and Day Reconstruction Method and artificial indicators such as U-index were also developed to measure emotional experiences in activity episodes. The current article also reviews the strengths and weakness of those measures. In order to reduce the biases and errors of measurement caused by respondents'cognitive process and the artificially assigned weights for various sub-domains, the multi-item reflective scales are recommended. However, future studies should develop better understanding of the convergence among various measures of subjective well-being. It is also necessary to pay more attention to the cognitive mechanism of evaluating global well-being and select proper models in empirical analysis. Based on the review of measures of subjective well-being and empirical studies in English literature, this article proposes some important topics and issues for future studies in Chinese human geography. This review article mainly contributes to existing literature by providing a framework to understand and design measures of subjective well-being and introducing some widely adopted scales which are readily available for the Chinese geographers to collect data in future studies. This article also points out that existing studies about smart cities mainly focus on the application of information technologies in the analysis of urban built environment and human activities. However, not many studies have investigated the question to what extent smart cities may promote people's subjective well-being. Therefore, the measures of subjective well-being summarized in this article may provide a pool of indicators to monitor national well-being and facilitate the development of smarter cities.
The dynamic inter-relationship of land use/cover change (LUCC) and its environment has been one of the major issues since the LUCC study started in the 1980x. To integrate both processes of land user’s decision making and environmental change to investigate land use system dynamics is one of the feasible approaches to couple physical system and social syetem into a more complicated land use system. Based on the complexity analysis of land use system, this paper summarizes the major research problems in LUCC modeling, including (1) how to analyze the influence of physical characteristics on decision making process, (2) how to quantify the interaction between different user, and (3) how to build regional land use dynamic models. Models are recongnized as one of the powerful methods to study the structure and function of land use system. Till now, few models can truly intergrate the physical subsystem and socio-economic subsystem into more comprehensive models to simulate more realistically the land use change processes. While the agent based modeling (ABM), which considers the spatial dimension and the decision making process of land use change, is more suitable for simulating land use change process on spatial, interactive and multi-scale dimensions. Based on the review of the researches on agent based modeling of land use change, this paper proposes some suggestions for such works in China.
The sedimentation on channel bed in the Neimenggu (Inner Mongolia) reach of the upper Yellow River has been relative severe since the last two decades. Some of researchers expect that artificial flood can erode the channel bed and lower the channel bed. In this work, the discharge-water level hydrographs of the maximal floods that occurred in the typical years have been revealed, and the shapes of the hydrographs include single line, clockwise loop, anticlockwise loop, and complex line plus anticlockwise loop, anticlockwise loop plus line, “8”-shape plus line, nested anticlockwise loop and cross lines. These relations can reflect whether the channel bed is eroded or deposited, when eroded or deposited, and whether the erosion and deposition are iterative. The responses of the Neimenggu channel of the upper Yellow River are different from those at the downstreams. The downward erosion and the depressed channel bed have a braiding channel pattern, the evident upward aggradation has a meandering pattern, and the slight upward aggradation or the balanced erosion-deposition has a straight pattern. This trend is adaptive to the stream power decrease downstreams. The decrease of concentration of suspended sediment downstream is the evidence. Artificial flood can not change the sedimentation trend on the meandering channel bed and can not help people to inhabit in the Hetao plain to avoid the flood hazard.
Analyzing accessibility and urban spatial connection of the Silk Road Economic Belt is the basis for implementing the strategy of the Silk Road Economic Belt and facilitating cooperation and achieving mutual benefits of the region along the economic belt. Based on GIS spatial analysis technology, the spatial pattern of raster grid accessibility for the Silk Road Economic Belt is studied and the states of urban spatial relation are simulated using land transportation network in this research. The result shows that the spatial distribution of urban accessibility in the Silk Road Economic Belt presents clear spatial characteristics of aggregated distribution along the main corridors. Average accessibility of urban nodes as measured by travel time is 16.25 hours, and the areas accessible within 2 hours occupies 10.6% of the total area. Most of the areas with the lowest accessibility are found in the margins of the deserts, with the worst accessibility of 171 hours. Xi'an as the gateway city connects the five provinces of Northwest China and other countries, regions, and cities of the Silk Road Economic Belt. The spatial connections of Central Asian countries within e national boundaries and with cities outside are relatively weak. The Silk Road Economic Belt is forming four main axes. In the future strategic development of the Silk Road Economic Belt, it should consider to implement a "point-axis" growth structure to drive the development of corridors and central cities (dense urban area).
Abstract: Over the past decade, China has developed very fast. Great achievements have been made almost in every field, especially in urbanization. However, regional difference and urban-rural inequality are still a bottle neck problem for sustainable development. The urban-rural income inequality is evoking a heated discussion in China at present. The study area of this paper is Qinghai Province, a typical western province in China located on the Tibetan Plateau with an average altitude more than 3000 meters above the sea level, and more than half of the province is in arid and semi-arid areas. The urban-rural disparity is higher than the average level and much higher than eastern China. The Granger causality test and cointegration tests have many advantages in time series analysis. This paper uses them to analyze the urban-rural income inequality time series and urbanization time series from 1985 to 2008. By constructing the cointegration tests and error correction model of the urban-rural income inequality time series and urbanization time series, this paper argues that there exists a long term balanced relationship between the urban-rural income inequality and urbanization. The Granger causality tests suggest that the urban-rural income inequality has the Granger-causality with urbanization, but urbanization does not have the Granger-causality with urban-rural income inequality. Urbanization is indeed an important measure to reduce the increasingly urban-rural inequality. But there are many influencing factors in reducing urban-rural disparity, such as historical economic background, scale of central city, geographical environment and natural resources, level of market development, location and transportation, impact of globalization and climate change, quantity and quality of the population and regional development strategy. All of the factors mentioned above will have impacts on the development of urban economy and regional economy in Qinghai Province.
In this paper, the ecological water demand in the mainstream of the Tarim River under the current year 2005 was calculated with the quota-area method, the phreatic evaporation method and the groundwater storage quantity change method. The ecological water demands calculated with these methods are 33.89×108 m3, 23.97×108 m3; and 33.07×108 m3;, respectively. In comparison, the reasonable ecological water demand is 30.31×108 m3. Besides, the monthly ecological demand in the mainstream of the Tarim River was acquired on the basis of monthly phreatic evaporation calculated by Aweliyongrufe formula and Qunke formula based on monthly average evaporation (1995-2004) from Aksu, Shaya, Ruche, Luntai, Korla, Yuli and Tikanlik weather stations. Analyzing the monthly ecological water demand, it was found that the ecological water demand in the growing season(from April to October) was 86% of the annual total, with May, June, July and August accpunting for 59% of the annual total. According to the ecological restoration scheme formulated, the ecological water demand of the three target years were forecasted with the quota-area method and the phreatic evaporation method. The reasonable ecological water demand in 2010, 2015 and 2020 are 31.88×108 m3, 34.08×108 m3 and 36.84×108 m3, respectively by averaging the two results. This study provides a scientific basis for optimal allocation of water resources in the Tarim River Basin.
This article analyzes the spatial cognitive distortion of Beijing residents, and emphatically discusses the systematic distortion and the characteristics of it, in the way of BR and standard deviational ellipse. Three conclusions were obtained as follows: Firstly, the cognition of the informants in the investigated places is clockwise centripetal convergency, presenting the magnet effect, the urban spatial cognition of Beijing residents is clear; the cognitive distortion in the center is smaller than the outlying areas. This can be well explained by urban central attraction of reward hypothesis. Tian'anmen has the core effect of organizing urban spatial cognition of Beijing. Secondly, the systematic distortion in Beijing urban space is smaller, and the regular annular traffic makes the residents’cognition datum lines, leading to a high similarity of topological structure and a distortion effect with small deflection angles, and reflecting the distinct characteristic of Beijing urban spatial structure. Thirdly, in the investigated places of Beijing city, the difference of location cognition is significant. The convergency of outlying areas is smaller than that of the town center, and the convergency in places far away from annular traffic is smaller than that near the annular traffic. The suburbs are more obvious than the town center, suggesting that the places near the annular traffic have more obvious convergency.
Distributed hydrological modelling software systems are crucial because they provide technical support to the application of distributed hydrological models. Currently, applications of distributed hydrological models have exhibited new characteristics including multi-process synthesis simulation, a wide range of users, and intensive computation. Because of these new characteristics, the existing software systems are facing great challenges with respect to flexibility, usability, and efficiency. This paper reviews existing software systems for distributed hydrological models. Firstly, we analyzed the distributed hydrological modelling applications workflow including model structure determination, parameter extraction, model running, and calibration. The characteristics of existing software systems are discussed: (1) model structure flexibility of the existing software systems is divided into three types: no support of process and algorithm selection, only support of algorithm selection, and support of both process and algorithm selection; (2) parameter extraction methods of the existing software systems are divided into menu/command line and wizard method; (3) computing forms of the existing software systems are divided into parallel computing and serial computing; (4) computing modes of the existing software systems are divided into stand-alone and network mode. Secondly, we summarized the limitations of existing software systems with respect to their flexibility, usability, and efficiency. The limitations include the following: (1) contradiction between model structure flexibility and user knowledge dependence-the more flexible the model structure is, the more knowledge users need to have; (2) the existing methods of parameter extraction are too fussy for non-expert users; (3) the serial and stand-alone softwares usually encounter computing bottleneck as the appliaction scenario is data and/or computing intensive. In the last part of this paper, the emerging trends of distributed hydrological modelling software systems are discussed. These include (1) Modular modelling. The modular development ensures software reuse, but it is not enough when scale or semantic is unmatched, so the ontology knowledge needs to be considered; (2) Intelligent modelling. Using expert knowledge to realize model structure determination and parameter extraction and combining expert knowledge and optimization algorithm to parameter calibration is needed in future work; (3) On-line modelling. The development of cloud computing and network techniques makes on-line modelling practical. In addition, mobile terminals with powerful computing and storage capacity could be potential application platforms. This means that special user interface and data format are needed; (4) Parallel computing. Taking full advantage of new parallel programming standards (CUDA, OpenCL) and exploring the finer granularity parallelizability is an emerging trend. In addition, virtual simulation is another important trend.
：Spatial patterns of logistics industry is formed by the spatial distribution and structure of logistics facilities and enterprises. In order to examine the current situation and change of spatial patterns of logistics industry in China, we put forward the concepts of "logistics hotness degree "and "primacy index of cities." In August 2014, we obtained 80507 samples of logistics hotness degree data at the prefecture level or above in China based on "logistics" key word search using Baidu maps (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan). Through establishing an index of logistics hotness degree, the correlation between logistics hotness degree and indicators were analyzed. This article presents the construction of the logistics hotness degree index and demonstrates the effectiveness and validity of Internet-based data on logistics industry. Spatial patterns of logistics industry are analyzed in terms of capacity, level of service, and spatial influence at the prefecture,provincial, metropolitan area, and economic zone scales. We explored the impact of economic development and logistics park construction on the evolution of the spatial patterns of logistics industry. Logistics centers were identified and compared to the national and regional logistics hub cities designated in the "Logistics Industry Restructuring and Revitalization Plan" issued by the State Council and the "National Logistics Park Development Planning" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and 11 other ministries. Some conclusions can be drawn as follows: the logistics hotness degree information is a comprehensive representation of logistics facilities and logistics enterprises.It is highly correlated with GDP, number of primary industry corporation units in transportation, warehousing, and postal services. Economic development level is highly correlated with logistics industry development. The spatial layout of logistics facilities and enterprises is significant correlated with industrial demand and their locations in the transport system; and it increasingly influenced by the of consumption demand and distribution and socioeconomic conditions of population. In the eastern coastal region of China, logistics industry distribution shows the spatial characteristics of "single-center and multiple sub-centers" or "multiple-centers and multiple sub-centers." In the central and western regions, however, the spatial pattern of distribution is characterized by "single -centers," which shows a clear regional difference from the coastal region. The result of this research may provide some guidance for logistics plann ing and logistics industrial policy of the central and regional governments for the thirteenth Five-Year Plan period and beyond.
The urban fringe area is the main region to which urban population and industries moves outwards. As a result, built-up areas expand quickly, and land use changes are dramatic in these areas. Furthermore, the area is adjacent to the large built-up area, and has the similar living style and industrial structure to those of urban areas, which may bring more waste compared with remote rural villages. At the same time, the basic infrastructure is poor in this area. So, the Environmental problems are very serious and sensitive. Fangshan district is located in the southwestern part of Beijing, and is one of typical urban fringes. The Environmental problems of the district discussed in this paper include those related to the processes of land use, use of water resources, the exploitation of mineral resource, and the development of tourism. To solve these problems, corresponding measures are put forward. The research may provide a reference for the study of Environmental problems in urban fringes of big cities.
This paper designed an indicator system of industry-resource-environment and calculated the evaluation index of industry-resource and environment for the 35 cities in Guangdong and Guangxi based on the projection pursuit method. The coordination of industry-resource-environment of those cities was analyzed and appraized based on the coordination degree calculation model. The obtained results included the following aspexts. (1) There was significant correlation and significant difference of industrial development, resources consumption and industrial pollution among the 35 cities in Guangdong and Guangxi. Also, industries in the cities of Guangdong were much more developed than those of Guangxi, and the intensity of industrial pollution and resources consumption in the cities of Guangdong was higher than those of Guangxi. (2) There was a negative correlation between industry-resource-environment coordination and economy development, that is to say, the higher the economy development level, the worse the industry-resource-environment coordination. The difference was evident in the coordination of the 35 cities. The coordination in Guangxi was better than that in Guangdong, with the Pearl River Delta having the worst coordination. The difference was not obvious in the city coordination in Guangxi, while that in Guangdong was distinct. (3) Coordination was relative, and there was no absolute standard for industry-resource-environment coordination. Coordination should be analyzed combined with the real situation in a certain region. Although the coordination in Guangxi was better, it was still at a relatively low level.
Spatial interpolation is an important method for creating spatial representation of temperature in geographic and ecological research and is important for supplying fine resolution temperature data for ecological models. This paper reviews existing spatial interpolation research of meteorological factors and compares a number of interpolation methods, including global interpolators (trend surfaces and regression models), local interpolators (inverse distance weighting, gradient plus inverse distance squares method, PRISM, splines, ANUSPLIN), geostatistical methods (Ordinary Kriging, Co-kriging), and mixed methods (combined global, local, and geostatistical methods). These methods are commonly used for the spatial interpolation of temperature data. The aim of this study is to explore the suitability and inadequacies of these methods in order to provide references for future research involving spatial interpolation of temperature data. It also attempts to explore ways to improve the application of the various methods. The comparison of these methods shows that each method has its own strength in particular applications. There is no universal method suitable for all practical applications. In practice, specific geographical characteristics of the study area must be considered and tests should be done to determine the suitability of specific methods. In order to achieve optimal interpolation result of regional temperature, parameters of the methods should be adapted based on actual geographical conditions. Global interpolation and geostatistical methods can be applied to study global trends. Local interpolation based on distance similarity principle does not apply to global trends simulation. Mixed methods are able to combine advantages of global interpolation, local interpolation, and geostatistics, and improve the simulation accuracy. Mixed methods and PRISM and ANUSPLIN are more suitable for application under complex terrain conditions. In future research, integration of various temperature spatial interpolation methods will improve, and more mixed methods combining global, local, and geostatistical methods will be created. Methods based on the physical distribution characteristics of temperature and combined with GIS technology will be prevalent. In order to improve the simulation accuracy of temperature in microscopic details, introduction of additional factors, such as terrain, will be an important future trend.
The National New Urbanization Planning (2014-2020) is regarded as the top institutional policy design to deal with urbanization-related issues at the national level. With the deepening of the reform and opening-up, policy advantages of economic and technological development zones have been gradually diminishing, and their comprehensive competitiveness and vitality have dropped. Using a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews and based on the analysis of different interest groups, this research found that the development of the Private Science and Technology Park not only promotes the transformation from low-level urbanization to new urbanization for implementing the national new urbanization policy, but also should put forward development strategies to move from "manufacture" to "innovation" , so as to reshape the competitiveness and transformation from manufacture to innovative industry. This article may provide some references for the sustainable development of Chinese economic and technological development zones in the transitional age.
The paper discusses the spatial behaviors and driving mechanism of the ethnic migrations based on extensive field investigation and GIS spatial analysis, taking Hui and Dongxiang ethnic groups in Lanzhou as examples. It is concluded that: (1) The source of minority migration in Lanzhou has a distribution pattern of spatial aggregation. Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture and Zhangjiachuan Hui Autonomous County are the main sources, accounting for 56.47% of the total. (2) It has the characteristics of “living around the temple, working around the temple”. The spatial living pattern of “big gethering and small groups” has been formed to meet the needs of survival and adaptation in urban areas. (3) In the driving forces of minority migration, there are “the pushing forces” such as geographical environment, and socioeconomic gradient caused by regional differences and “the pulling forces” such as urban agglomeration and diffusion, traffic accessibility, the homogeneity of ethnic groups in different regions and the convenience of religious activities. The research results have an important practical significance for promoting the harmonious development of urban ethnic relations, urban planning, population management and community development.
Rural ecological environment issues in the process of rural-urban transition in China have influenced the production and daily living of residents in rural areas. This article reviews the sources and characteristics of rural environmental pollution, and proposes the restructuring strategies of rural ecological environment from the aspects of resources, production, and living. The research shows that unreasonable resource use, intensive production activities, and changed life style resulted in rural land contamination and water and air pollution. Rural environmental pollution is characterized by diversified sources, sporadic discharges, and inefficient management. These problems call for the highly efficient use of resources, cleaning of production processes, and agglomeration of living space to realize the coordination of rural production development, enhancement of quality of living, and ecological environment improvement.
With rapid urbanization, huge populations concentrate in cities, greatly increasing the environmental pressure of urban systems. Improving convenience of travel and at the same time reducing its negative effects on the environment, such as mitigating carbon emissions, is the key objective of present and future sustainable urban transportation development and important indicators of urban transportation efficiency. This research adopted a multi-objective evaluation method to evaluate transportation efficiency, including quantitative models for estimating carbon emission and convenience of travel and integrated methods of carbon emission and transport convenience. The six central urban districts in Beijing were chosen as our study area to test the evaluation method and explore mechanisms of transportation efficiency. The results show that transportation efficiency in Beijing differs between the central city and the outside areas. The efficiency is lower outside the 5th ring road, and higher inside the 3rd ring road. Especially, there are several centers of high and low transportation efficiency areas. The high efficiency centers are located in (1) the Gongzhufen-Wukesong area around the west 3rd and 4th ring roads; (2) the Anzhen Bridge area near the north 3rd ring road; and (3) the Sanlitun area near the east 3rd ring road. The low efficiency centers are located in the suburban areas, such as along the northwest 6th ring road, some areas between the 5th and 6th ring road in the southwest, and the Changying area outside the 5th ring road in the east. Besides, the spatial differences of transportation efficiency in Beijing have a close relationship with the geographic context. High carbon emission is the main cause of low transportation efficiency; this is particularly true in the areas where luxury-villas are located, and where public transportation service provision is insufficient. High proportion of car usage and long commuting distance are the main causes of high carbon emission. In the future, the construction of public transportation, especially the optimization of the subway system development, will improve the spatial distribution of transportation efficiency.
Spatial accessibility is an important index to evaluate the configuration of educational facilities, and potential model is an important method to measure the accessibility of educational facilities. This study improved the potential model from two aspects: by introducing the factor of primary school service ability, and constructing the school influence factor by considering the influence of schools with different grades of service capability and local residents' travel time limit. Based on the data of Xiantao City in Hubei Province by the end of 2010 on primary schools, residents, traffic network, and so on, the improved potential model was applied to assess the variation of spatial accessibility to primary schools in Xiantao City. The results show that: (1) At the village-level settlement scale, the spatial accessibility of primary schools for the residents is universally high at township centers and along transport corridors, and shows a distance attenuation effect at certain radius, but the spatial accessibility of primary schools at settlements between townships is relatively low. (2) At the township scale, the towns with higher spatial accessibility are mainly distributed in the northern area along the G318 road. (3) The improved potential model could reasonably evaluate the spatial accessibility of primary schools in each rural settlement and township. Also, when the value of friction coefficient (β) is set as 2, the educational resources available for rural residents can be reflected more accurately, and this provides a reference for the decision making by relevant government departments.
