Nowadays the fractal dimension is often calculated on raster data, but most of existing land-use data is stored as vector data in fact. If these vector data are converted to images to calculate fractal dimension, perhaps some pixels with inaccurate grey values will be resulted from the “GRID” structure of raster data. The precision calculated on raster data is closely related to the size of pixel and grid image. In this paper, a computation program for the fractal dimension of 2D vector data based on Windows platform has been designed by using Visual C sharp. Now the program has been successfully applied to land-use data of the middle Qinling Mountains and the southeast of Hubei Province in China. The results show that the program is a convenient, reliable and precise method for the fractal dimension of 2D vector data. The land use and land cover types arranged in the descending order of their average stability indices are as follows. 1) The fractal dimensions of the middle Qinling Mountains are in the order of construction land > unutilized land> paddy field > dry upland > grassland > forestland > water area in 1990, 1995 and 2000. 2) The fractal dimensions of the southeast of Hubei Province in China are in the order of paddy field > unutilized land > construction land > dry upland > forestland > grassland > water area in 1990, 1995 and 2000. In a word, forestland, water area and grassland have poorer stability and higher possibility of changes in the two study areas.
With the development of technology and the quantitative revolution within geography, automated geography was brought about in western countries during the 1980s and was replaced by Geocomputation in 1990s. It means the application of automated electric technology and devices in combination to explain geographic phenomenon and solve geographic problems. Automated geography was concerned and criticized by a great number of scholars and scientists of various fields from different angles, including technological, academic, theoretical, political and societal dimensions. These make automated geography to develop both conceptually and technologically, and they also improve our understanding of geographic representation under digital environment and its possible social consequences. To examine the development process of automated geography in the Western countries is helpful to the development of GIS and geography in China.
By analysis of the classical research achievements of physical potential productivity and famous agro-laws on social-economic factors since the 1960s in China, this paper presented relative systematic indicators on the integrated agricultural potential productivity. According to the main environmental factors relateded to plant growth and grain yield, the authors selected sun-light, heat, precipitation and soil as the key indicators to establish a system of physical potential productivity, and then according to the eight factors of soil cultivating, fertilization, irrigation, species improving, efficient planting, pest controlling, land management, and instrument improving in China, established a system of social-economic potential productivity. Based on these indicators, the authors introduced some amendment parameters of the main socio-economic factors to correct and revise the existing typical agricultural physical potential productivity models. The search results on integrated agricultural potential productivity indicator system and model may provide an effective tool to assess quantitatively on the utilization degree of agricultural resources.
In consideration of limitations of classical sampling and spatial sampling, this paper proposed a purposive sampling method based on typical points. This method employed environmental factors which co-vary the target geographical element to find typical patterns of the geographical element over space. Field samples were then designed based on the locations of these typical patterns. It is believed that these field samples capture the overall pattern of spatial variation of the target variable well. With this approach, the number of field samples needed to characterize the spatial pattern of the target variable was reduced. The approach was applied in two study areas in Heshan Farm in Heilongjiang Province of China. Two soil properties were chosen, i.e. A-horizon organic matter and soil thickness (each property for one study area). Environmental combinations were generated by a fuzzy c-means clustering on four local environmental data layers and typical points were then designed with help of fuzzy membership maps of environmental combinations. Spatial variation of the two soil properties was inferred using a linear weighted average model with typical points’ soil property values and fuzzy membership maps of environmental combinations. The mapping results reflected continuous changing of soil properties with terrain changing. Four indices were set up for evaluation of mapping results by using independently validation points. The evaluation results showed that, the agreement coefficients between observed values and predicted values of validation points were high for both of the study areas. We then concluded that the proposed sampling design approach was effective. Analysis was also conducted on difference between soil property mapping results by using different amount of typical points when different number of typical points representing each environmental combination. It was showed that using more points would not necessarily result in a more accurate map.
Wetted perimeter approach estimates instream flow using wetted perimeter as an index to scale the habitat quality. It estimates minimum environmental flows via determining break point on curve of the relationship between wetted perimeter and discharge. This paper adopted logarithmic and power function methods respectively to simulate the relationship between wetted perimeter and discharge based on the foreign experience of research and application. The difference of determining breakpoint using slope equaling 1 method and using maximal curvature method was analysed in theory when the wetted perimeter method was used. The results showed that all calculating results from slope equaling 1 method were higher than those from maximal curvature method. The wetted perimeter method was used at two hydrological stations of the Luanhe drainage basin. The results were: (1) The minimum instream flow results were all higher when discharge and wetted perimeter relation fitted by the logarithmic function than that when discharge and wetted perimeter relation fitted by the power function; (2) The minimum instream flow calculated by the wetted perimeter method could satisfy the minimum instream flow requirement, and the minimum instream flow requirement for small rivers is correspondingly higher than that for big rivers.
Land use/land cover change (LUCC) information is usually limited in the transboundary river basin. It is unable to meet the needs for environmental assessment. Central Asia is the most fragile ecological area in the world. As the largest import river supply to Balkhash Lake, Ili River plays a significant role on regional environment. In this study we took a case of the middle and lower reaches of the Ili River, which is bordered with Xinjiang, China, to analyse the process and trend of LUCC at a regional scale quantitatively. Based on MSS images in the 1970s, TM images in the 1990s, and ETM images in the 2000s and 2007, spatial data about land use/land cover were obtained in this study with the combination of visual interpretation and the decision tree classification module. Because of the lack of the large scale reference data (e.g. aerial photographs or topographic maps) and field survey, we assessed the classification accuracy with higher revolution images on Google Earth Pro?誖. Then the characteristics of LUCC were quantified by the way of process and trend models. The results showed that densely covered woodlands and grasslands, moderately covered woodlands and grasslands and cultivated lands always accounted for the largest areal proportion in the middle and lower reaches of the Ili River in the past four decades. The area of moderately covered woodlands and grasslands, lakes, reservoirs, swamps, construction lands and unused lands increased considerably, with only a slight increase of swamps. The area of cultivated lands, densely covered woodlands and grasslands, sparsely covered woodlands and grasslands and river decreased slightly. The major LUCC categories were the swamps between cultivated lands and densely covered woodlands and grasslands as well as the swamps between densely covered woodlands and grasslands and moderately covered woodlands and grasslands. The area of cultivated lands was influenced significantly by policies. Although the land use/land cover still at the quasi-balanced status in the entire period, a trend of imbalanced status was appeared. Natural and anthropogenic driving forces effected LUCC of the middle and lower reaches of the Ili River as a whole. The construction of Kapchagay Reservoir in the 1970s and the institutional reform in the early 1990s changed the randomness and stability of LUCC, and made the regional land use/land cover change more obvious.
Non-cultivated land in cultivated areas is the key factor affecting monitoring cultivated land area using remote sensing technique on a large scale. In this paper, the conception of non-cultivated land coefficient was proposed to express the percentage of non-cultivated land in cultivated areas. Non-cultivated land coefficient shows the effects of human activities on the cultivated land. In addition, Precision of surveying results could be improved with non-cultivated land coefficient and the cultivated land area by remote sensing. Taking the typical agriculture area in the oasis in Yining County in Xinjiang as a study area, the paper designed 30 samples based on the Quick Bird data in 2008. Based on the platform of ArcGIS, spatial database was built to store the sampling data and calculate the non-cultivated land coefficient. It is time-saving to use the Quick Bird data to substitute for filed measurements. Firstly, the paper used grey correlation method to study the relationship between non-cultivated land coefficient and its influencing factors. Simplification of these factors was done by analytic hierarchy process. Based on the simplified factors, differences between type zones can be found to complete the agriculture division using accumulated ■ method. The results are as follows: the main factors influencing non-cultivated land coefficient were land use fragmentation, density of water network, agricultural population density and per-capita cultivated land. These factors were used as agricultural division index. In the paper, 8 zones are divided using the theory of optimal allocation. Finally, the results of agricultural division in the paper can meet the requirements of zone division that there is little difference between the samples in one division zone and quite obvious between two different division zones. Using accumulated method to find the thresholds of different type zones was very effective and convenient. The agricultural division, which reflects interference degree of human activities to land, is useful in guiding land use and land consolidation. Study on agricultural division based on non-cultivated land coefficient similitude in Xinjiang is quite useful for improving the cultivated areas by remote sensing.
The information of multi-source remote sensing images of Wuliangsuhai wetland at different time and space granularity from 1986 to 2008, which lies in the semi-desert area, was obtained by GIS and RS technology combined with the theories and methods of landscape ecology. The dynamics of landscape patch index for different types of areas was described and the spatial-temporal heterogeneity of wetland ecological resources was analyzed. Evolutionary relationship and direction among various wetland types of Wuliangsuhai were researched. The dynamic evolution trends of various types of wetland landscape were analyzed. The results showed that the degree of landscape fragmentation was reduced, the water district was lost, and underwater plants were tufted. The average area of reed-based large hyper-surface plants was above 49% of wetland, which was the dominant evolution type of the lake wetland. Evolution of spatial and temporal patterns of wetlands was related to climate, water conditions and artificial impact, which reflected the process and intensity of human disturbance on wetland landscape.
With the data of cultivated land in Xinjiang during 1990-2008 extracted from the land use data base and remote sensing images by means of spatial analyst in GIS, this paper analyzed its present temporal-spatial patterns, area changes and type structures, and its development dynamics. The results showed that the total area of cultivated land kept increasing, the annual average net-increased and reclamation speed increased sharply during 1990 and 2005 and then decreased slightly during 2005 and 2008, while the annual average loss speed kept decreasing. The reclamation of cultivated land extended from oases to deserts and gobi deserts, while the loss of cultivated land mainly occurred in oases. At the same time, the cultivated-land change in the mid-east, northwest and northeast border districts was relatively greater(Rid>1.02). The reclamation transferred from grassland and forest land to grassland and non-utilized land, the ratio of non-utilized land reclamation continuously increased and the reclamation transferred from bare land and saline-alkali land to sandy lands, gobi deserts and saline-alkali land, while the utilization type of transformed cultivated land was mainly grassland, non-utilized land and construction land. The transformation between cultivated land and construction land was always negative, while the transformation between cultivated land and grassland was positive.
The concept for Use Efficiency of Agricultural Resources (UEAR) was reinterpreted in this paper firstly. Then, a new evaluation framework for UEAR was established so as to develop the evaluation theory and method for UEAR. Method of Synthetically Multivariate Equation was adopted to calculate the Use Ratio and Productivity of Agricultural Resources (URPAR), and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to evaluate the Allocation Efficiency of Agricultural Resources (AEAR). This paper can be concluded as: 1) The concept of UEAR includes two parts i.e. URPAR and AEAR. AEAR still can be analyzed as concepts of Pure Technical Efficiency (PTE) and Scale Efficiency (SE). 2) UEAR of Changshu and Taihe is 0.967 and 0.984 respectively, URPAR 0.953 and 0.922, and AEAR 0.684 and 0.733 respectively. 3) The AEAR is lower in Changshu than that in Taihe because the percentage of redundant input for agricultural resources in grain production is higher in Changshu than that in Taihe. The percentage of redundant input for labors, fertilizers and capital in Changshu are 28.36%, 23.45% and 20.48% respectively while those of Taihe are only 8.84%, 8.83% and 10.58% respectively. 4)The evaluation results of URPAR are not always in accordance with AEAR. Therefore, the evaluation of UEAR should consider both the URPAR and AEAR.
This paper systematically studied the drought south slopes of typical difficult site in the gullies of the Loess Plateau in order to resume and reconstruct vegetation based on the principle of local conditions. This paper took Xifeng in Gansu, Jixian in Shanxi, Ansai in Shaanxi, Guyuan in Ningxia as study areas, and used DEM with a resolution of 25 meters to research the regional differentiation characteristics of drought south slope in different type gully regions based on GIS. Results indicated that: (1) The area proportions of drought south slopes in different type gully regions are 45%-54%, and the ranking order is: the plateau gully region of Loess Plateau > the transitional region> the hill and gully region of Loess Plateau. (2) The distributions of drought south slopes in different types gully regions of the Loess Plateau are different. The plateau gully region of Loess Plateau has a positively skewed distribution and the other areas have an approximately normal distribution. The 5th sub-region of hilly and gully regions and the transitional region have a double-peak distribution. (3) The order of loess slope area proportion in the different type gully regions is the plateau gully region of Loess Plateau > the transition zone > the hill and gully region of Loess Plateau, that of gully slope area proportion is the hill and gully region of Loess Plateau > the transition zone > the plateau gully region of Loess Plateau,and that of valley flatland area proportion is the 5th sub-region of hilly and gully regions > the transition zone > the 2nd sub-region of hilly and gully regions> the plateau gully region of the Loess Plateau. (4) The area proportion of site types groups in different type gully regions except the plateau gully region of the Loess Plateau showd the following order: sunny side gentle slope group > sunny side steep risk slope group > slope top and bottom. The results can provide the scientific theory basis for drought-resistant afforestation and vegetation restoration in the Loess Plateau.
It is beneficial to probe into the characteristics of karst rocky desertification land for the taming of different types of lands with karst rocky desertification (KRD) problems and the ecological restoration and reconstruction of lands with rocky desertification. Remotely sensing data such as SPOT 5 images (resolution at 2.5 m) and aerial images (scale: 1∶50000), integrating with the field and household investigation, were used to carry out a study on patch evolution types of KRD from 1973 to 2005 in Boluo catchments of Qingzhen, Guizhou Province, a typical karst area in Southwest China. Three evolution types of KRD patches, i. e., newly generated, expanding, dissolved and not changed were distinguished. The results show that the mutual transformation of slight KRD to moderate KRD, strong KRD and extremely strong KRD was extremely remarkable during the period 1973-2005, demonstrating that the KRD patches had been in a unstable fluctuation status. However, there were some evolutions from no KRD patches to the high rank of KRD patches according to the origin of patches. The karst rocky desertification land in the study area could be classified into unchanged KRD, newly generated KRD and expanding KRD, from the viewpoint of dynamic behavior characteristics of patches, furthermore, the intensity index of KRD and some suggestions to prevent and tame KRD were put forward.
With the Environmental Kuznets Curve(EKC), the relationship between environmental pollutant emission and economic development in Shandong Province was studied in this paper. The environmental pollution indexes included the effective emissions of industrial wastewater, SO2, smokes, and industrial total solid wastes. Based on the cubic polynomial regression analysis with GDP per capita as independent variable, EKC model was established to describe the changing trend of environmental pollution indexes from 1981 to 2006. The main results are as follows: (1)The Environmental Kuznets Curves of all of the four environmental pollution indexes present an N-shaped pattern. (2) Emissions of industrial wastes have passed through the peak turning points of Environmental Kuznets Curves, which means environmental pollution has been improved in recent years. During the period from 2004 to 2006, the environmental pollution is situated at the valley turning point, which means the emissions of industrial waste may rebound in the future. (3) The complex interactions are determined by such two characteristics as industrial structure and environmental protection policy. For sustainable development, industrial structure should be optimized to reduce the proportion of pollution industries, meanwhile, policies in finance, taxation, and environmental protection should be improved and investment for pollution prevention should be increased.
The changing process of urban population distribution is a complicated dynamic system, so to learn its law is of great significance in urban planning and social sustainable development. Taking the interaction of the multi-agent system (MAS), cellular automata (CA) environment and urban population density model to build the urban population distribution model which can be accurate to the streets, this paper analyzes the process of urban population distribution in Changsha so as to provide a decision-making basis for related regulation. The research results show that the simulation of urban population distribution pattern is in agreement with the actual situations. Under the influence of various factors, Changsha’s population development will follow such a pattern: the downtown population grows rapidly while the suburban population increases slowly, and along the Xiangjiang river bank, the Wuyi road and the Yuelu high-tech development zone, the population will get very dense. Compared with the previous model, the simulation results obtain a higher precision, and therefore are much closer to the actual spatial distribution pattern.
Based on the theories of Place Attachment and American Customer Satisfaction Index Model, the influence of place attachment on customer shopping satisfaction was explored by constructing the structural relationship model of place attachment and customer shopping satisfaction, and using path analysis, correlation analysis and confirmatory factor analysis and other research methods. A total of 256 questionnaires from the shoppers on Guanqian Street in Suzhou city were analyzed in this paper. The results showed that: (1) Place attachment had certain degree influence on customer shopping satisfaction, customer complaint and customer shopping loyalty. The function elements and the emotional bonds between customer and historic street were both important influencing factors of customer shopping satisfaction, customer complaint and customer shopping loyalty. (2) Place attachment had most significant positive influence on customer shopping satisfaction, which illustrated that the key to successful development was preservation of place characteristics, continuation of traditional features and agglomeration of traditional commercial form. And it was an effective development model to combine exhibition traditional features with modern leisure shopping. (3) Place attachment had a significant negative effect on customer complaint, and had an indirect and insignificant negative effect on customer complaint working through customer shopping satisfaction. This showed that antique historic buildings and colorful local featured products met and satisfied customers’ psychological demands and emotional appeal for sightseeing, tracing historic memories and characteristic leisure shopping experiences, which was an important way to reducing customers’ complaints and enhancing the level of customers’ emotional attachment. Besides, to strengthen visitor management and improve the service functions is still an important aspect of sustainable development of Guanqian Street. (4) Place attachment had a direct significant impact on customer shopping loyalty, and had an indirect significant impact when customer shopping satisfaction was taken as an intermediate variable. It was an opportunity to improve the convenience and timeliness of neighborhood complaint service. Complaint service processing was an important channel for strengthening subject-object interaction and emotional marketing in neighborhood. Constantly enhancing the emotional link between people and land (customers and Guanqian Street) was an effective way to reduce customers’ complaints and improve customers’ satisfaction and loyalty. The objective of this paper was to provide references for preservation of endemic elements, creation of good leisure shopping atmosphere and persistence of commercial vitality, and to further enrich the theory of domestic shopping satisfaction and expand the theory perspective of local attachment.
Eco-spatial structure optimization of urban agglomeration will promote economic and social environmental sustainable development in the urban agglomeration region. Based on an exhaustive analysis of the spatial interaction, mutualism, co-evolutionary mechanism and ecological links between the eco-spatial structure and economic-social development of the urban agglomeration, this paper establishes optimized modes of corridor group network in urban agglomeration region by optimizing and reorganizing eco-spatial structure; and analyses the reasons of the eco-spatial structure disorder, evolution trends and optimized model of spatial structure in the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration Region. Finally, the authors bring forward suggestions of eco-spatial structure optimization in the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration, which are in line with local conditions, set up a perfectly efficient “plaque-corridor-matrix” urban agglomeration eco-network system, promote a reasonable division among cities of the urban agglomeration region and formation industrial cluster, and build a mechanism to guide the development of urban agglomeration, so that the urban and rural construction will change, providing more suitable environment in the urban agglomeration region for people to live.
Expansion of Yangtze River Delta has been a general trend of regional development, but the determination of its scope is a primary problem in the study of regional integration. Recently, scholars show their respective attitudes towards the problem of how to define the scope of “Pan-Yangtze River Delta”. Objectively, there are several key factors to define the scope of the “Pan-Yangtze River Delta”, such as interregional connection, intimate personal relationship, cultural accommodation, economic assimilation, frequent fluxion of essential factors and survival of the fittest, which are the key factors to define the region of the “Pan-Yangtze River Delta”. Therefore, some indicators including economic and social links between the regions can determine the scope of inter-regional connection. Based on the analysis of the concept and the development conditions of “Pan-Yangtze River Delta”, firstly, this paper compares the various related indicators between Yangtze River Delta and the provinces around it; secondly, the paper compares the development trends of the relationship between Yangtze River Delta and neighboring provinces, thirdly, this paper analyses the relation between some of the neighboring provinces and other regions such as the Pearl River Delta region and the Bohai Rim. On this basis, a synthesized evaluation system including multiple indexes is established. Combining the system with the gravity model, the paper gives a qualitative comparison of the linking degrees between the neighboring provinces and Yangtze River Delta region. Finally, according to the regional economic integration as well as the current social and economic development of the neighboring provinces in the Yangtze River Delta, we propose a moderate development scope of “Pan-Yangtze River Delta” based on the overall analysis in order to provide a valuable reference to the process of regional integration
Based on the analysis of the conception and connotation of urban green space system, this paper reviewed the structure and function of urban green space system. Two kinds of structures of urban green space system were summed up, which included the “point-line-surface” layout structure and the “patch-corridor-matrix” landscape model. The relationship between structure and function and its application in practice were summarized, and some preferential aspects of urban green space system in the future research were proposed. We hope that it be helpful for urban green space system planning of the contemporary China.
