For more than ten years, many studies related to the lake sediments and environmental changes on Tibetan Plateau have been carried out. The review of these studies is made in this paper with the viewpoints of different spatial scale, temporal scale, main events of climatic and environmental change, comparisons with other studies, and the quantitative reconstruction of environmental sequences. Presently, these studies are mainly focused on three regions: northeast edge region of the Plateau, the group lakes in the west Kunlun Mountains and middle-southern Tibet region. These sequences are mainly long-term in temporal scale, but it is deficient for the studies with short-term scale and high-resolution. From the comparison among these study results and those in other areas, both regional and global characters are reflected in the environmental changes derived from the lake sediments on the Plateau. However, quantitative reconstructions of environmental sequences from lake sediments are still in the exploring status. Because some environmental proxies have multi-significance, it is necessary to develop a multidisciplinary lake sediment study on Tibetan plateau. Overall, the following aspects must be emphasized in current and future studies: deepening the quantitative study between proxies and climatic factors, improving the accuracy of sediments dating, discovering new sensitive proxies, enhancing integrated analyses among multidisciplinary, filling up the blank areas with different temporal scale study and strengthening the comparison study between different areas on the Plateau.
The Tibetan Plateau is among the few extensive regions remoted from human disturbance, and provides an ideal site to study the response of vegetation cover to water/thermal conditions (WTC), esp. the response of natural vegetation. Therefore, this paper focuses on the spatial variation and then relations of water/thermal climate elements and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, AVHRR NDVI product of 8km) from year 1982 to 2000, mainly in central and east Tibetan Plateau where the gauge is basically dense enough to qualify related analyses. In the study, to investigate the relationships between spatial variation of water/thermal conditions and multi-year mean NDVI, trend surfaces of N (short for NDVI), P (short for precipitation), N-P relation and N-T relation are simulated, transects of four directions are designed and vegetation types are compared by group. The relation differences of N-P and N-T are respectively investigated, both spatially and biologically. According to our study, following conclusions are reached: a) Climate elements: Ten-day mean NDVI of certain region in Tibetan Plateau is influenced less by the water and thermal climate elements if the vegetation cover is evergreen dense or totally sparse. On the other hand, temperate WTC (thus vegetation cover of temperate density) tends to have stronger relationship with NDVI than extreme conditions. b) Spatial variation: As indicated by transect analysis and trend surface simulation, the relation values of peripheral Plateau are low (often because of extreme WTC and thus extreme vegetation cover) while the values of main plateau body are over 0.75 (because of temperate WTC and thus temperate vegetation cover). c) Zonality: Since altitude plays an important role in the distribution of thermal condition in Tibetan Plateau, annual NDVI bears a abvious vertical zonality while the horizontal zonalities are not so distinct. In addition, the relations of NDVI with precipitation and temperature have no clear zonal characteristics.
Land degradation processes, which imply a reduction of the potential productivity of the land (e.g., soil degradation and accelerated erosion, reduction of the quantity and diversity of natural vegetation), result from a long history of human pressure upon land resources as well as from interactions between varying climatic characteristics and ecologically unbalanced human intervention. The north-west region outside of Beijing, is one of the most important regions where many departments invest most and pay most attention. The land degradation and other environmental problems in this region affect not only Beijing but also the surrounding area. This paper analyzed characteristics of land degradation actuality situation in the NW region of Beijing, based on TM (ETM) in 2002. The wind-eroded land was mainly distributed in north of Yin Shan Mountain. Due to degradation of grassland, the sandy land increased from 1991~2002, mostly distributed in the monitoring zone of Hunshandake sandy land. The water-eroded land was mainly distributed in monitoring zone of the south of Yin Shan Mountain and south of monitoring zone of Horqin sandy land. The salination-land was mainly distributed in lake surrounded area and the drainage basin of Sanggan River. And To better understand the drive forces of land degradation processes in study area, a multivariate spatial model associated with land degradation is found by the explanatory variables of Logistic Multivariate Regression model(LMR). The explanatory variables include wind speed, soil humidity, soil organic matter, NDVI, average precipitation, soil slope, et al. The value of the parameter estimated by model with their corresponding standard error, chi-square statistics, and significance probability are analyzed to find the driver of land degradation in studied area. And the probability of land degradation is predicted. Finally, suggestions for the eco-environment construction of the studied region have been put forward.
Riparian areas are important ecotones between the terrestrial and aquatic zones which serve a variety of productive, protective and aesthetic functions. Because of continual exploitation of riparian areas, the ecological environments of many riparian areas have suffered deterioration at various degrees. Therefore, it is necessary to research the structure, function and change of riparian zone for river protection, riparian land use and landscape integrated analysis and so on. This paper analyzes the current situation of riparian zone research at home and abroad，including: interaction between some riparian elements; function, effective width, ecological planning, construction and management of riparian vegetation; riparian land use; data processing and mapping of riparian zone and so on. These researches not only analyze the function and role of riparian zone, but also explain the changing characteristic and driving force of different elements in the riparian zone. All of these will do goods to the management of riparian resources. Then, this paper probes into the shortcomings in these studies, and points out that proceeding contrastive analysis of different typical region, choosing appropriate method of landscape analysis and improving technology of data collection and mapping will be the main contents in the research of riparian zone in the future.
As the kidney of the earth, wetland has many functions which include reducing flood levels, moderating global climate condition, controlling runoff in urban areas, buffering shorelines erosion and so on. Because of the inning, over-grazing, irrigation, silt sediment, and wetland environment pollution, wetland area is declining, fragmentation of wetland landscape is obvious, and loss of the biodiversity is severe, so the task to protect wetlands becomes more and more important. The state of wetland utilization and exploitation, the change of wetland structure and functions, and the extent of wetland damage will all depend on the long and effective observation data of the wetland ecosystem. Observation of wetland ecosystem is to acquire the information of wetland ecosystem and its environment elements, whose results can be utilized to predict the change of wetland ecosystem, so that accurate protection measures can be made. Observation of Wetland ecosystem started with the utilization of wetlands from sixteen centuries to the middle period of twenty centuries in the former USSR and Northern Europe. From 1950s to now, observation of wetland ecosystem has been developed greatly; at the same time observation networks of wetland ecosystem for the world were built up, such as The Long Term Ecological Research Network (U.S.A), The Environment Change Network (Great Britain)，The Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network（Canada）, and Chinese Ecology Research Network (China) . Wetland ecosystem observation is more sophisticated and highly developed in the northern America and mediterranean sea region. Many field stations were built for the wetland observation of climate, water quality, wildlife, soil and social activities which occurred in the wetland region; many indicators were monitored, but the monitoring indicators are different from different types of wetland ecosystem, so indicator system should be improved according to different types of wetland ecosystem; at the same time wetland observation network should be more perfect and new techniques and means should be utilized. In a word, wetland normalizing wetland ecosystem observation can provide basic data for wetland science research, and the level of observation reflects the extent of wetland science research; scientific observation data is the theory basis of wetland management for the policy makers, wetland managers, and local communities.
River system is a critical linkage between the terrestrial ecosystem and the ocean two major active carbon pools in global carbon cycle. The export and cycle processes of the riverine carbon are closely related to coastal zone environment, dynamics of the ocean carbon pool and the global climate system. Organic carbon plays the key role in the global carbon cycle, and to understand the fluxes and characteristics of the riverine organic carbon is an important subject in present studies of the riverine carbon cycle. The area of the drainage basin and differences in climate and environment markedly impact the export and cycle processes of the riverine carbon. At present, a large number of small rivers and the rivers in monsoonal Asia lack systemic information about biogenic components of riverine suspended matters. The fate and main sources of the riverine carbon are controlled by the processes of terrestrial erosion-deposition. Nowadays, human activities dominate the condition of terrestrial erosion-deposition, which accelerates redeposition and perturbation of terrestrial ecosystem carbon pool, and strengthens carbon transportation from land to ocean. It is necessary to pay more attention to impacts of human activities on the riverine carbon cycle.
Based on plant cover, history of wastewater irrigation, landscape status and other geographic entities, the sample sites were classified into farmland of wastewater irrigation, common farmland, wild land, oil field and city greenbelt. The uniform gridding scatter sampling method was adopted to collect 188 surface soil samples, which were exacted from varions matrixes, follwed by some clean up procedures and then analyzed by GL/MS. Using the PAH data collected from surface soils of Tianjin, according to the factor analysis and scatter point surface tension spline function interpolation, some types and spatial distributions of pollution sources of PAHs of soil in Tianjin area were investigated and discussed in this paper. The result showed that most types of pollution source are mixed sources, including coal combustion and oil spill in surface soils of different types of soil utilization in Tianjin area. Mixed sources occupy 61.26%, 69.35%, 52.86% and 64.45% in farmland of wastewater irrigation, common farmland, wild land, and city greenbelt, respectively, and the spatial distributions of pollution sources are closely related with their geographic locations, geographic conditions and living habits of indigenes.
As a kind of rarely-seen landform, the origin and evolution of stone forest receive wide-spread attention from international karstic research community. In China, the most typical and famous stone forest is the one called Lunan Stone Forest located in the east of the Yunnan Plateau, Southwestern China. It is believed that the development of the Lunan Stone Forest is closely related to the evlolution of the Bajiang River Catchment, where the stone forest lies. The authors have studied the structural characteristics of river system and geomorphology of Bajiang River, and the geographical feature of stone forest in the catchment and also its morphological features. It reveals that the stone forest, deeply influenced by the local lithology and stratum, mainly occurs in Permian Qixia and Maokou Formation; the spatial distribution of stone forest appears independent from landforms, and it is found in depressions, on the slope of as well as at the top of hills; however, the shape and tallness of stone pillars obviously change among the three kinds of landforms; the farther away from the Lunan Group, the shorter the stone pillars , and the bigger the distance among the pillars, from cluster-shaped to single pillar; the Tianshengqiao Natural Bridge is actually a knickpoint for Bajing River, where exists a great difference in stone forest’s morphology and geographic feature between its upper and lower reaches. At the same time, according to the “triple erosion” mechanism of stone forest development, and based on the evolution history of hydrology, geology and geomorphology in Lunan area, the authors make a further analysis on the internal connection between the catchment evolution of Bajiang River and the development of stone forest, and divide the history of stone forest into three stages, that is, the ancient Lunan Lake stage, the stone forest omnipresent stage, and the catchment rejuvenation stage. The authors argue that the origin and extension of stone forest is not accidental but an evolutional product of Bajiang River Catchment.
Land use change is one of the main research subjects of global environmental change and sustainable development. Driving force is the core subject of LUCC, including both biophysical and human factors at different temporal and spatial scales. Land-use models are useful for disentangling the complex suite of socio-economic and biophysical forces that influence the rate and spatial pattern of land use change and for estimating the impacts of changes in land use. Furthermore, models can support the exploration of future land use changes under different scenario conditions. Scenario analysis with land use models can support land use planning and policy. Many land use models are available, developed from different disciplinary backgrounds. This paper reviews several current land use change models to identify priority issues for future land use change modelling research. All these models were divided into three classes: empirical and statistical models (e.g., regression model), dynamic (process-based) models (e.g., cellular automata model and system dynamic model) and integrated models (e.g., conversion of land use and its effects, or CLUE model). For each of these models, a review is given and the advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Some suggestions for improving each model have also been put forward. Finally, we get three general conclusions. First, dynamic, process-based simulation models appear to be better suited to predict changes in land-use system than empirical, statistical models. Second, empirical, statistical models can complement dynamic (process-based) simulation models. Third, in the future, an integrated approach to modeling——that is based on multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral combining elements of different modelling techniques——will probably best serve the objective of improving understanding of land-use change processes. If this requirement is satisfied models will better support the analysis of land use dynamics and land use policy formulation.
The upper reaches of the Chaobai River are the water supplying source of the Miyun Reservoir that supplies a major part of water consumption of Beijing. In the past decades, the runoff in the Chaobai River showed a decreasing trend. In addition to the increased water use in the reaches, land cover change is also acknowledged as an important one of the factors affecting the runoff. To contribute to the understanding of hydrological variation in the river, this paper conducts a spatial and temporal analysis of land cover changes in the 1990s, taking small watersheds as the study unit using digital land use maps in 1990 and 2000, with the help of ARCVIEW and EXCEL software. Further, it identifies major factors affecting the land cover change. In this region, a large amount of grassland and cultivated land was transferred to forestland in 1990~2000, and thus resulted in a substantial increase of forest coverage but a great shrinkage of farmland and grassland. In the 10 years, forestland increased 24.02×104 ha, while farmland and grassland reduced 6.28×104 ha and 17.19×104 ha, respectively. Water area shows a great shrinking, with the area decreased by 60%, reflecting the decreased availability of water resource. Built-up area had a marketable expansion, increased by 36.5%. Spatial analyses indicate that land use changes are greater in Chicheng County and in the bordering areas of several counties than in other areas. Three major factors contributed to the land use changes in this region, i.e., ecological rehabilitation, afforestation, and agricultural restructuring. Population growth and urbanization rate were low in the period of 1990~2000, and have a limited effect on the land use change.
Public participatory sustainable development assessment is one of the important ways of participation in sustainable development. The assessment result with public participation is more identified in practice and is easier to be admitted by public. From the perspective of public participation, the paper designs a framework of the regional sustainable development indicators, which consists of four first level indicators (environment, resource, economy and social) and 18 second level indicators and its investigation questionnaire under the principles of popularity, science, conciseness and developments. On the basis of the comprehensive assessment numerical value(M), the author decides the trend, which is toward or backward the sustainable development. According to the exact scope of M value, the author judges the grades that are toward sustainable development or backward sustainable development. With the data of 7765 questionnaires, the author takes the example of Nanyang Experimental City on Local Agenda 21 to study the method of assessing the regional sustainable development by public and develops the sustainable development barometer. The research indicates that the assessment results with relative principle are more tally with the regional practice, especially when the quantity of questionnaire is big enough. The intuitionistic barometer of sustainable development is a good type of information exhibition, which is easy to be accepted by the public. As the result of assessment, the barometer can be published on the local newspaper or the information network for the public to know the state of the regional sustainable development. This information may also tell people what effect has been gotten and needs to be stick and what problems are being existed and need to be solved.
Skiing resorts are the most important development means of mountains in Europe and Northern America. Since Yabuli skiing resort nearby Harbin city in Heilongjiang province was successfully developed in 1994, mountainous skiing resorts have been growing fast in China. Now, skiing resort has been a major brand in Northern-eastern China. This paper, beginning with the factors influencing skiing tourism development and the rules obeyed in choosing skiing places, and based on the complete analyses of supply and demand for skiing tourism in China, puts forward that Inner Mongolia municipality’s skiing tourism development should be targeted at the skilled and advanced skiing tourism market segement because of its advantageous skiing tourism resources. Tourism is becoming more and more important and is a big industry in Inner Mongonia municipality. But, Inner Mongolia municipality’s tourism has very obvious and long off-season in winter. How to solve the off-season problem is very important in Inner Mongonia municipality’s tourism development. This paper gives out some correct strategical ideas about skiing tourism development in Inner Mongolia municipality. The most important research results include building mountain skiing network , constructing the heaven image of skiing destination and putting the key emphases on Aeshan mountain international skiing tourism destination. These research results have been accepted and applied in instructing Inner Mongonia municipality’s skiing tourism development.
By taking Longkou city of Shandong byland as a study area，the extraction of urban and rural residential information from topographic map in 1983 and TM images in 1992 and 2002 is discussed. Firstly，the characteristics of urban and rural residential areas in this area on the image are studied. Secondly, spectral characteristics of urban and rural residential areas and other land-use types are analyzed to find the possibility of urban and rural residential areas and the background according to the spectral characteristics. Thirdly, a simple model of decision tree to extract urban and rural residential information is proposed on the basis of spectral characteristics and shape characteristics. In the end，the dynamic change characters of urban and rural residential areas of Longkou city in nearly twenty years were analyzed. The study indicates that the driving force to the urban and rural residential area expansion in Longkou city was the rapid industry development. The urban and rural residential information shows remarkable changes in recent 20 years, and its total area got two times increase. In the first ten-year period, its urban resident quantity grew rapidly, and urban area had relatively notable expansion. After 1992, however, the increase of urban resident quantity slow down, while the urban area expansion speed kept higher. The overall development pattern indicates that the urban & rural resident in Longkou City shows evident tendency of urbanization and rural-town mergence.
SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) is a conceptual, continuous time model that was developed in the early 1990s to assist water resource managers in assessing the impact of management and climate on water supplies and non-point source pollution in watersheds and large river basins. SWAT is the continuation of over 30 years of model development within the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and was developed to ‘scale up’ past field-scale models to large river basins. Model components include weather, hydrology, erosion/sedimentation, plant growth, nutrients, pesticides, agricultural management, stream routing and pond/reservoir routing. The model SWAT is meanwhile used in many countries all over the world. It is a flexible model that can be used under a wide range of different environmental conditions as this paper will show. It intends to describe the history and development of the SWAT model and summarize primary application into five categories: (1) hydrologic applications; (2) climate change impacts on hydrology; (3) non-point source pollution study; (4) HRU (Hydrologic Response Units) and other input effects on simulation result; (5) adaptations of SWAT. Increasingly, the model SWAT has been modified against its shortcoming to serve special study. The application of SWAT model in China is mainly focused on hydrologic application and non-point source pollution and little work has been done on adaptations. The model SWAT is mainly used as a tool in Chinese application and its shortcomings have been also pointed out, but few study has made adaptation work to overcome the shortcomings. Suggestions are made in this paper on adaptations of the SWAT model to help water and land resource planning and conservation and explore its applicability in China.
