Table of Content

25 February 2012, Volume 31 Issue 2 Previous Issue    Next Issue

Land Use Transition and Rural Transformation Development LONG Hualou 2012, 31 (2):  131-138.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.001 Abstract ( )   PDF (610KB) ( )   Save Recently, related researches on land use transition combining with the characteristics of China’s socio- economic development have been carried out rapidly since the research field of land use transition was introduced to China. Land use morphology is the key content of land use transition research. However, the concept and connotation of land use morphology has been developed continuously with the in-depth research and socio- economic change and innovation. Based on the analysis of the evolvement of the concept and connotation of land use morphology, this paper argues that there are two formats for depicting land use morphology: one is dominant morphology, and the other is recessive morphology. The dominant land use morphology refers to the quantity, structure and spatial pattern of land use, and the recessive land use morphology includes the land-use features in the aspects such as quality, property rights, management mode, fixed input and productive ability. Then, a conceptualization of the models of land use transition was annotated based on the two formats of land use morphology. Land use transition refers to the changes in land use morphology of a certain region over a certain period of time driven by socio-economic change and innovation, and it usually corresponds to the transition of socio-economic development phase. Rural transformation development means the restructuring of rural socio- economic morphology and territorial spatial patterns resulted from local actors’responses and readjustments to the change, recombination and interaction of socio-economic development factors and rural-urban migration in the process of rapid urbanization and industrialization, including the changes in traditional rural industries, the employment mode, the consumption structure, and the social structure. Such transformation radically changes the urban-rural relationship and the relationship between agriculture and industry. Since farmland and rural settlement are the engines driving land use transition and rural transformation development, the interaction between rural transformation development and farmland and rural settlement transition was analyzed to understand the relationship between land use transition and rural transformation development. Finally, the future research fields concerning land use transition and rural transformation development were suggested as follows: the dynamic pattern and territorial type of land use transition and rural transformation development; the interaction and dynamical mechanism of land use transition and rural transformation development; the resources and environment effects of land use transition and rural transformation development; and the ways and countermeasures of optimizing and adjusting land use transition and rural transformation development. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Review of the Researches on Rural Housing Land Transfer at Farm Household Level ZHOU Jing, YANG Qingyuan 2012, 31 (2):  139-148.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.002 Abstract ( )   PDF (482KB) ( )   Save The advantages and practical value that farm household researches have in explaining human-land relationship, especially in household-environment interaction, have been widely noticed, and household has been a key research method in rural development and land use study. This paper compared international with domestic academic researches on rural housing land transfer at the farm household level. There are evident differences in the focus on housing land transfer at home and abroad, due to the inconformity of the rural development stages. Rural housing land transfer which wildly happened before the 1980s did not draw much attention from the scholars. Most of the foreign literatures looked at household transfer behavior and transfer location choosing and the impact of counter-urbanization from the view of farm households using farm household models through some econometrics methods. The domestic scholars have paid an increasing attention to the household housing land transfer. The existing progresses are found in the political discussion on households’right protection, analysis of household behavior and psychological response, household need and income allocation, and evaluation of policy implementation based on some basic statistical analyses from the views of economic geography and behavioral economics and sociology. It is recommended that the future researchers should pay more attention to the requirements including surviving, economic, social and spiritual needs, and the social and geographical environment in rural housing land transfer studies. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Relationships between Scientific & Technological Resources and Regional Economic Development in China NIU Fangqu, LIUWeidong 2012, 31 (2):  149-155.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.003 Abstract ( )   PDF (1646KB) ( )   Save The 21st century is an era of knowledge. In China, to increase the innovation capacity and accelerate the economic development, every province is now injecting a great deal of investment in scientific & technological resources (STR). But only when STR produces outputs can it increase the economic progress. Classifying the regional STR into three groups: national, regional, and enterprise scales, we quantify regional STR, and analyze its spatial distribution. Based on the evaluation of regional economic development, we study the relationship between regional economy and STR. As a whole, the STR has a positive correlation with the economy level. It is not the same in different provinces. So it remains to be solved on how to deploy scientific & technological resources according to economy level and how to make full use of investment to boost economy. There is a need for further research on the driving mechanism between STR and economy to make relevant policies. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Population Growth and Temporal-spatial Differentiation in Loess Plateau Region in the last 2000 Years LIU Yanhua, XU Yong, LIU Yi 2012, 31 (2):  156-166.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.004 Abstract ( )   PDF (2697KB) ( )   Save Population research is very helpful in learning a region’s economic and social situation and making a scientific judgment on its development stage. The unique natural environment and social-economic development situation in the Loess Plateau region makes it one of the most noticeable places for researchers. However, population research there is not so common. Combined with historical documents, this paper makes a systematic analysis of distribution and evolution of population in the Loess Plateau region in the past 2000 years by using a series of model and GIS spatial analysis methods. The results are shown as follows. (1) In historical times before 1949, the Loess Plateau region was a main place for dynasties to change and to fight for power. So population development there experienced big ups and downs during that term. But the population evolution then shows a slight increase trend. Population there after 1949 increased at an unprecedented speed and reached the highest level in historical times, as living and service conditions improved a lot. (2) Mainly decided by its natural environment differentiation, the basic distribution of population in the Loess Plateau region showed an extreme unevenness in the historical times. Cultivation of central cities, national and local economic distribution and population development strategy are the main reasons for the changes of population distribution during different times. Other humanistic reasons, like progress in technology or exploration of natural resources, influence population distribution at a comparatively low extent and small scale. (3) Distribution of population density in the Loess Plateau region steadily showed a characteristic of westwardly and northwardly getting sparser and sparser. Population intensely concentrated in the northwest of Henan Province, Fenhe and Weihe river valleys, and other valley plains in the middle and lower reaches of Yellow River, while population density in the windy and sandy regions and the typical loess hilly regions is very low. But as polarization effect of central cities getting stronger, not only population in high density area increased dramatically, population in Hetao Plain, Ningxia Plain and the Qinghai-Gansu region also increased a lot. Although population density in these regions is still far less than that in the southwest valley plain regions, the basic population distribution in the Loess Plateau region is increasingly forming a characteristic of inner low density zones surrounded by outer high-density zones. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Evolvement of Spatial Pattern of Population with Data at County Level in Jiangsu Province MAYingyi, LU Yuqi, ZHANG Li 2012, 31 (2):  167-175.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.005 Abstract ( )   PDF (1673KB) ( )   Save The core driving force of urban development is the growth of population, while the spatial-temoral structure of the distribution of urban population is one of the theoretical frontier issues. This paper, taking Jiangsu Province as an example, describes the spatial pattern and evolving trend of the diverse population of Jiangsu with data at county level since the 1990s through the related analysis of spatial autocorrelation analysis, population gravity center model and shift-share analysis, as well as other tools such as population density and unbalanced index. Based on three time discontinuity surfaces, with software platform of ArcGIS and GeoDA, some conclusions are drawn as follows. (1) Population density of Jiangsu Province has“low-south and high-north” features, which are corresponding with its economic development level. (2) There is certain spatial relevance on population distribution in Jiangsu. The similar areas cluster in space. And this trend is receding as time goes by. Because of the higher economic development level, people gathered to the Yangtze River downstream counties, to form a high-low area. Counties between high-high area and low-low area become a low-high area due to less radiation from developed cities. Densely-populated area is distributed along the Yangtze River. The general pattern remains relatively stable, and the counties in the high-high area firstly increase and then decrease while counties in the low-low area continue to decrease. (3) The population distribution in Jiangsu is imbalanced and such situation is enhanced. The population gravity center slowly moves to the northwest of Jiangsu since 1990. (4) The population of Jiangsu is growing at a slow rate in recent 20 years. Population concentration ability is not alike in the three regions of Jiangsu Province. Central Jiangsu is short of clustering people and the population concentration ability of Southern Jiangsu constantly strengthens but that of Northern Jiangsu weakens. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Spatial Distribution of the Population in Shandong Province at Multi-Scales WANG Jing, YANG Xiaohuan, SHI Ruixiang 2012, 31 (2):  176-182.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.006 Abstract ( )   PDF (2308KB) ( )   Save The spatial distribution of population is essential for both environmental and socio-economic researches. Traditional studies on the spatial distribution of population are mostly based on single scale analysis and ignores scale dependence of population distribution. Analysing the spatial distribution of population at different scales is beneficial to more exactly reveal the spatial distribution law of population. This paper analyzed and compared the spatial autocorrelation of population density using spatial autocorrelation method and statistical correlations between population density and environment-economic factors including DEM, slope, annual average sunshine hours, annual rainfall, average temperature, land use data and GDP at city, county and 1 km?1 km grid scale, and further discussed the spatial distribution patterns of population and the effective or indicative factors to reveal the spatial distribution law of the population at multi-scales. Some conclusions can be drawn as follows. (1) The information at different levels of details can be obtained by multi-scale analysis of the spatial distribution of population. At the city scale, the spatial distribution patterns of the population can be derived. High density districts are in the southeast of Shandong Province including Jinan, Liaocheng, Tai'an, Jining, Zaozhuang and Heze. At the county scale, the spatial distribution patterns of population of some cities can be displayed, and the cases are Jinan, Jining and Dongying. The population density in Jinan is high and unevenly distributed. The population density in Jining is high and evenly distributed. The population density in Dongying is low and evenly distributed. At the 1 km?1 km grid scale, the spatial distribution patterns of population of counties can be obtained. (2) Spatial distribution law differs with scales. Environment-economic factors have a greater impact on population distribution than spatial autocorrelation at city and county levels. At the city level, average sunshine hours, percentage of rural land, and average temperature are the main indicators of population distribution. The level of economic development to some extent affects the population distribution, and the percentages of urban land, and rural land are indicative of population distribution. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Empirical Study of Population Social Differentiation and Policy Suggestions in Xiamen City XIAO Lishan, LI Xinhu, ZHANG Guoqin, WANG Run 2012, 31 (2):  183-190.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.007 Abstract ( )   PDF (919KB) ( )   Save Migrant population constitutes a large proportion of the urban population and makes important contributions to economic development. This paper explores the difference between the migrant and local populations in terms of residence, work, socioeconomic status and population policy. It aims to understand the causes of the difference and how this gap can be narrowed by improved social integration and proper distribution of spatial resources, with the ultimate goal of assisting sustainable development. We select Xiamen as a research area. The study revealed a randomly distributed migrant population which has appeared due to economic migration and is closely related to the secondary industry. In the city core area, the migrant population cluster shows a positive spatial autocorrelation and is related to standard land price. The logistic model validates the population differentiation by age, education, employment, housing ownership, residential area and social status. In particular, residential resources illustrate a considerable disparity between the migrant population and the local population, which hinders the self-identification of the migrant population. As this disparity tends to hamper economic vitality and the sustainable process, this paper contends that policy should pay more attention to the welfare of the migrant population, increase the housing utility and integrate the migration process into the general development planning. References | Related Articles | Metrics

The Characteristics of the Professional Women Job Transfer in the Transformation Period WANG Xiaoyu, WANG Maojun, LI Shimeng, WEN Jin 2012, 31 (2):  191-200.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.008 Abstract ( )   PDF (1033KB) ( )   Save In the process of rapid urbanization, the relation of job and housing has become a hot topic in academic research. The spatial structure is the result of residential location choice and job choice. So revealing the process of housing and job change is important. Since the 1990s, China has entered the transformation period and the job market in China has undergone profound changes. The increased independency of residents’choice of job and the complication of employment behavior become the hot topics of academic research. Previous studies discussed female employment rate, employment structure, occupational mobility and particular type of female employment in the behavioral characteristics of transition based on comparisons with male. These studies ignore the complexity of different women’s job transfer characteristics in the labor market. Based on the deep interviews with professional women, this study analyses different types of behavioral characteristics of professional women, and tries to explain different types of career women’s responses to diversity of labor market transition. The paper, using the cluster analysis, divides the professional women into five categories by age, education level, household registration, initial occupational type and initial employer type. According to the number and the frequency of female’s job transfer and the direction of occupational mobility, we find that career women are different in the transfer process influenced by three factors. Using the employer type, occupational type and the reason for job transfer, we build a matrix for discussing the occupational mobility. The occupational mobility indicators include employer type, occupation type, wage and the subjective attitude of the respondents. The paper finds the career women with different properties have different responses to labor market transition. Most professional women experience upward and independent occupational changes, while only low-educated women tend to have downward changes. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Review on Foreign Geography of Religion in the Perspective of New Cultural Geography CHEN Ningning, ZHU Hong 2012, 31 (2):  201-209.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.009 Abstract ( )   PDF (462KB) ( )   Save Under the global shifts, the research on geography of religion has become increasingly important. Driven by the new cultural geography, foreign geography of religion gives birth to many fresh issues and new research directions. Focusing on four key concepts (place, landscape, modernity and scale) in human geography, the present paper teases out the foreign literature on geography of religion in recent 10 years, and finds out that the main research issues can be included as follows: emphasis on the study of“unofficial sacred”sites; the attachments people develop with sacred places continuing a humanistic trend; the study of religious immigrants’ identity with the rise of transnationalism; interpretation of the implicit politics and symbolic meanings of religious landscape; establishment of different geographical scales of analyses; exploration of the tensions between the sacred and the secular places. By summing up the concerned issues of geography of religion, the present paper also introduces the foreign scholars’reflections on the definition of religion, the dialectic relationship between the geography of religion and religious geography, and the research trends of geography of religion. Above all, the work conducted in this paper hopes to provide new sights and inspirations for our scholars’local research on geography of religion. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Review on Identification Method and Driving Mechanism of Peri-urban Area CHEN Beibei 2012, 31 (2):  210-220.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.010 Abstract ( )   PDF (1110KB) ( )   Save The peri-urban area is a dynamically changing area. Peri-urban areas in many countries are among the fastest growing regions, which have great strategic significance in space, social, economic and environmental aspects. Distinctive characteristics of peri-urban area, such as transition, dynamic and instability have attained attention of many scholars in the field of geography, urban planning, economics, and ecology. Peri-urban concept replaces urban fringe, desakota and city-village combination section in the third phase of rural-urban transition area. After delineating the content and context of periurban area, the distinction and likeness between urban fringe, desakota, city-village combination section, and peri-urban area have been discussed. This article focuses on spatial recognition, type identification and driving mechanism in the literature and the evolution, controversy or weaknesses in the research method, and finds that the method is changing from qualitative research to the corporation of it with quantitative research, and the research perspective expands more broad to social, economic, environmental aspects and many levels related with globalization and decentralization. This article provides a brief comment on comprehensive analysis of current research works, at last, suggests that more attention should be paid to the field of the driving mechanism in China’s peri-urban area, compromises of quantitative measurement with humanism ideas, and typology inside the peri-urban area in the future. References | Related Articles | Metrics

The Spatial-temporal Evolution, Scale and Network Characteristics of Intercity Rail Transit in Worldwide Metropolitan Areas LI Linna, CAO Xiaoshu, HUANG Xiaoyan 2012, 31 (2):  221-230.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.011 Abstract ( )   PDF (1862KB) ( )   Save Based on 255 worldwide intercity rail transit samples, this paper summarizes the spatial-temporal evolution and network characteristics of intercity rail transit, analyzes the correlation between intercity rail transit scale and metropolitan population, area and economic scale, and then constructs five regression models. Finally, it predicts the scale and layout of intercity rail transit in the Pearl River Delta of China by applying the models. The models indicate that that the scale of intercity rail is mostly related to regional economic scale, and less related to regional population and area scale. Meanwhile, there is exponential correlation between regional intercity rail scale per capita and regional GDP per capita as well as the population density. And the rail scale per capita is positively correlated to GDP per capita while negatively related to population density. According to the application of regression models, the planning scale of intercity rail transit in the Pearl River Delta is advanced comparing with the economic development while lagged comparing with the population development. In a short period of time, the intercity rail should connect the significant nodes in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan and Dongguan as well as the inner cities in other cities in the Pearl River Delta. In the long term, the rail line density should be increased in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhuhai and Zhongshan, and the nodes number should be increased in the periphery cities including Zhaoqing, Huizhou and Jiangmen. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Research Progress of Logistics Geography in China ABUDUWEILI Maihepula, YANG Degang 2012, 31 (2):  231-238.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.012 Abstract ( )   PDF (461KB) ( )   Save From a geographical perspective, the paper classifies the logistics study in China, aiming to built up its theoretical context. Based on the research which was done by Chinese researchers in 1990-2010, this paper introduces the stage of research progress on logistics geography, clarifies the academic bridging point between geography and logistics, and lists the representative documents by using the methods of literature research. The study shows that the geographical perspective of logistics study in China consists of three theoretical contexts: transportation geography, commercial geography and international logistics theory. Geographical studies, whether at the basic theoretical level, or at the methodological level, have affected the study of logistics activities profoundly, and made the logistics geography an important foundation and conditions for building a discipline system. Discipline discussion in logistics geography have focused on subject property, study object and methodology in China. The study also indicates that the China’s main research on logistics geography has placed much emphasis on transport geography, regional logistics, geographic information system of logistics and comprehensive methodology of logistics study. Then the paper summarizes the achievements and shortcomings of logistics geography study. Finally, based on current research and economic environment of China, the authors discusses the important research fields and developing trend of logistics geography in China. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Science Geography as a Discipline: The Foundation of Theory, Content and Nature SUN Jun, PAN Yujun, YAO Hui, GUO Lingsheng, HE Ruifang, LIU Shufen, ZHAO Jianxia, YANG Xiaoyan 2012, 31 (2):  239-247.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.013 Abstract ( )   PDF (509KB) ( )   Save With the development of society, scientific activities have been one of the socialization divisions, and obviously, there should exist a regional structure. Some geographers have studied the relationship among science, technology and society from the point of view of geography, and put forward some concepts such as "science and technology geography", "technology geography" and "science geography". But few studies have been conducted on the relationship among science and technology, geography and the geographical research of scientific history. This paper re-explained the connotation of "science geography", especially as a concept of a discipline. There is an ideological turn in scientific history research, namely the geographical turn. There is also an ideological turn in modern geographical research, namely the turn to the soft side of research knowledge, technology, information, and transmission. Attention should be paid to the "society influence on the development of science through geography" in the ideological change of scientific history research, but not to "science influence on the development of society through geography". Although geographers have made some contributions to the ideological change in the scientific history, their main aim is to research the scientific history from the perspective of geography, not the influence of science through geography. So, as a discipline, science geography contains the following aspects: (1) exertting the "society influence on the development of science through geography"; (2) implementing practicing the general plan of "developing geography based on the mission", and constructing the "science influence on the development of society through geography"; (3) paying attention to the regional factors influencing the development of science. Science geography should also include the following aspects: (1) space structure of scientific research and its organization; (2) Space structure and the relationship between science and relevant organizations, geographical environment, economic conditions, technology, society, and culture; (3) the influence of science research and its relations with natural landscape, social landscape and cultural landscape; (4) the influence of science research and its relations with the development of "man-earth regional system". References | Related Articles | Metrics

Identifying the Scope of Daily Life in Urban Areas Based on Residents’Travel Behaviors JI Jue, GAO Xiaolu 2012, 31 (2):  248-254.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.014 Abstract ( )   PDF (1555KB) ( )   Save This paper proposed a method for determining the scope of daily lives of urban residents based on travel behaviors; with the purpose of exploring the heterogeneity of urban structure from perspective of behavior geography. It was assumed that there exists a certain scale, where the people of inside the scale with outside are very active, and it turns significantly inactive beyond the scale. This attribute helps to identify urban areas belonging to same units of urban life. Taking Qinghe Yongtai area in Beijing as an example; we made a survey on residents’travel frequencies to 24 label places in and surrounding the study area, which showed their familiarities with those places. Then, K-means clustering analysis was conducted with the travel frequency data and the spatial distribution data of the samples. By Voronoi transformation of sample clusters, the whole study area was divided into different parts and the spatial scope for the separation was obtained. Further analysis on the social and economic attributes of different parts reveals that, indices of second-hand housing prices, attributes of residential blocks including building ages, planning and management, and the coverage of same commercial and transportation facilities are key factors for identifying the boundaries of urban communities. This identifying method can make reference for scale choosing in fields of residential environmental evaluation and so on. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Research Methods for World City Network and Relevant Inspirations MAXueguang, LI Guicai 2012, 31 (2):  255-263.  doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2012.02.015 Abstract ( )   PDF (468KB) ( )   Save The importance of national states as an economic unit is descending following the process of economy globalization, and multinational company turns out to be the main organization carrier and the decision-making power decentralized to city since the 1970s. International completion among states materialized to city-centered regional completion, and city became the crucial actor in global governance system. As the organization node, world city constructed an economic control and social-economic connection network system according to different function and status in global production process. The paper deemed that under the guide of social network theory, based on the drawbacks of world city/global city and inter-city research of world city system, world city network research started with relational perspective, and discovered the inter-city relationship and the dynamic of world city network formation with quantitative analysis by infrastructure approach, corporation approach and social culture approach. The paper deemed world city network research as the response of academic studies to the effects of world city on transformation of information and communication technology, corporation organizations and global governance patterns. In conclusion, the paper discussed some reference and inspirations to related research fields in China on orders of inter-city relation, spatial organization logic, production and collection of relational data, spatial scales and types of urban economy. References | Related Articles | Metrics