As a spatial science, Geographical Information System (GIS) is characterized by its distinctive spatial thinking and perspectives. With a focus on spatial interrelations and interactions, GIS can be used to reveal the spatial distribution patterns and dynamic changes of objects, events, and phenomena. This article outlines the future prospects of the development of GIS based on the understanding of the spatial objects that it studies. Universal GIS with universal coordinate system will be developed when the study objects is the universe. Indoor GIS is to be studied and developed in case that GIS is applied to the indoor space where we spend about 80% of our time. GISs for underground and aqua-spaces also need to be developed since our activities have extended into solid earth such as shopping malls in subway stations and open water such as marine fishery. GIS is also useful when we deal with spatial issues involving micro-scale spaces such as sport fields or human body, therefore human GIS and sports GIS that describes and models sports activities will come into being. The coming of age of big data has created a new opportunity for the development of GIS. Spatial thinking and analysis will contribute greatly to the resolution of big data mining, even big data science.
Under the background of emission reduction and energy conservation, the problem of carbon emissions from tourism—an important industry of the national economy—has attracted increasing academic attention. However, the research methods need further improvement. This article discusses carbon emission accounting method for tourism industry in China. Using Kaifeng City as a case study area and data from 2012, this research constructed an improved EIO-LCA model for carbon emissions in tourism, from the perspective of life cycle carbon emissions in urban tourism and related sectors. The results show that: the proportion of urban tourism direct carbon emission is small compared to the total carbon emission. Urban tourism carbon emission intensity is lower than carbon intensity per unit of GDP. Compared to other industries, tourism is more conducive to energy conservation for cities. Urban tourism can play a pivotal role for cities in reducing their carbon emissions. The total carbon emission of inbound tourists is the lowest, but per capita carbon emission is the highest. Among the various types of tourists, total carbon emission of non-agricultural households is the highest, and per capita carbon emission of agricultural households is the lowest. There is a significant difference between carbon emissions and proportions of direct carbon emissions of various tourism sectors, which have different effects on carbon emissions of other industries of the national economy. The sector that has the highest carbon emission and carbon intensity is tourism transportation, and the lowest is travel agency. Although tourism is not a "smokeless industry," it can be considered a "low-carbon industry", which has an irreplaceable role for the energy-saving and emission reduction of cities.
Owning to the vast area and great diversities in natural and economic conditions of China's rural areas, different rural areas have varied energy consumption characteristics, which lead to a clear regional variation of emissions. Exploring emission disparity of rural household energy consumption in different types of areas is important for understanding its regional variation and formulating sound regional development and environmental management policies. Taking the Linwei District, lower reach of the Weihe River as case study area, this research collected data through a household survey as well as interviews, and calculated the emission of rural household energy consumption in different types of regions by emission coefficient method. The gray relational analysis method was used to identify the influencing factors of emission disparities. The results are as follows: (1) The emission of rural household energy use in different types of areas has significant differences. Total emissions of a single household in the plain, loess tableland, and Qinling piedmont areas are 1850.43 kg, 1863.20 kg, and 2556.68 kg, respectively. The loess tableland area where rural households utilize a large portion of biogas has the lowest emission from household energy use, indicating that biogas use is of great benefit to reducing emissions; the Qinling piedmont area has the highest energy-related emission, which shows that more attention should be paid to the daily energy use and emissions of households that use traditional biomass energy primarily and have lower income; the plain area has medium level of emission in the three regions, reflecting that commercial energy increase does not necessarily bring more emissions. (2) As the main pollutant of household energy use, CO2 emission is lowest in the plain area, higher in the loess tableland area, and highest in the Qinling piedmont area. The three regions ranked differently in terms of other pollutants: the Qinling piedmont area has the highest TSP emission, while solid waste emission mostly come from the plain area. It indicates that emission disparities in different areas are influenced by the dominant energy types. (3) The regional supply capacity of household energy is the fundamental cause of emission disparities. Other influencing factors are related to the characteristics of rural households as determined by the regional environment, including age structure, educational background, economic status, and occupational structure.
Climate change has in recent years become an environmental issue globally. Through deepening research into and analysis of the phenomenon, most climate scientists now identify greenhouse gases, most notably CO2 emissions, as constituting the main cause of global warming. Based on literature study and comparative analysis, this article discusses the progress of the research of CO2 emissions from a multidisciplinary perspective and analyzes the calculation methods, intensity, performance, influencing factors, and forecasting methods of CO2 emissions. This article also discusses the remaining issues and future directions of the research on CO2 emissions. Results indicate that the research of CO2 emissions has gained fruitful achievements and has experienced rapid development in recent years. CO2 emission is an integrated, complex, interdependent system engineering of numerous variables interplay between different factors. Under the framework of multidisciplinary integration, geographical and spatial factors have however received insufficient attention. Research scale has mainly focused on global and international levels, although recent studies have begun to highlight multi-scale research and pay attention to scale effect. Panel study of provincial and city scales is still scarce. Panel data are gradually receiving attention; however, dynamic analysis and comparative assessment still need improvement. Future research should focus on creating more detailed and comprehensive datasets, exploring multi-scale integrated research, and highlighting city scale analysis. Furthermore, future study should emphasize adapting theories to localized practices, employing systemic thinking and methods for differentiated trend research.
With global climate change and urbanization, nature hazards such as extreme heat, rainstorm, water-logging, and fog and haze pollution have become much more frequent in urban areas during the past decades. As a part of the urban hazards, heat wave has been a leading cause of weather related human mortality in many countries and given rise to dramatic negative effects on the health of urban residents and the economy. Heat wave events are attracting widespread attention of the academic research community. In China, existing studies on heat waves mainly focused on the intensity, frequency, duration as well as the spatial patterns of the events and seldom explored the impacts of the heat waves on the health of vulnerable urban residents. Adverse health effects of heat waves can be avoided by identifying populations that are vulnerable to heat waves and providing targeted assistance, thus the improvement of the assessment framework and methodology for health related urban heat wave vulnerability is of great significance. This article reviews the development in research themes, assessment framework, and quantitative methods about health related urban heat wave vulnerability in China and abroad during the past decades and presents a new research framework. Most of the conventional vulnerability assessments contain the elements of exposure and sensitivity. However, in this research, adaptive capacity at both individual and community scales has been taken into account in addition to exposure and sensitivity. An index system combining environmental indicators (such as air temperature, land surface temperature, and land use), demographic indicators (such as age, gender, and education level), and socioeconomic indicators (such as household income, employment, and neighborhood stability) has been built for quantitative vulnerability assessment. Meanwhile, qualitative data from questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews are recommended to be added to the framework for first hand information of the residents and local governments. This research provides theoretical support for health related heat wave vulnerability assessment, as well as help focus attention and resources on more targeted health interventions, heat hazards mitigation, and climate change adaptation strategies.
Geographical differences in latitude, topography, and distance to the sea lead to a variety of summer comfortable climate types in China. Using daily data from 756 national basic stations and 122 radiation stations in China during 1993-2012, human-perceived temperature is calculated using the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). Combined with cluster analysis method, this study analyzed summer comfortable climate types as well as their spatial distribution, temporal variation, and characteristics of comfort. The results show that summer comfortable climate types in China include Southwest Plateau type, Central-Eastern Mountain type, Bohai Hilly type, Northeast Mountain-Plain type, and Northwest Mountain-Plateau type. On the Southwest Plateau, with a low latitude and high altitude, solar radiation is strong; the Central-Eastern Mountain area is comfortable and slightly cold in the summer due to high elevation and wind speed; the Bohai Hilly area is influenced distinctly by the sea breeze and is slightly hot with high humidity; the Northwest Mountain-Plateau has a pleasant temperature and sunny weather although slightly dry. Comparatively, conditions in the Northeast Mountain-Plain are the most favorable because of the cool climate and low wind speed, weak solar radiation, and moderate humidity. Based on the temporal variation of human-perceived temperature during the summer, the comfortable period of the Bohai Hilly is short but the others are relatively long. The human-perceived temperature curves of the Northeast Mountain-Plain and the Northwest Mountain-Plateau areas show a single peak with symmetric distribution while the others present a roughly single peak with asymmetrical shape. The result of this study has further enriched the results of summer comfortable climate research and provides a scientific basis for the development and planning of summer tourist resources. It can also serve as a guide to summer tourism activities.
The evaluation of regional development from the perspective of residents' life quality has been of high interest of the research community. Taking economically underdeveloped villages in the Beijing mountainous area as cases, this study calculated subjective and objective life quality indices for the villages on the basis of a farming household sampling survey. The life quality index for the evaluation of well-off community was chosen as the objective evaluation system, and the subjective system was constructed through factor analysis. Influencing factors of life quality were compared by applying the methods of cluster analysis and differential contribution rates. (1) Objective evaluation revealed that the villages differ significantly from each other. About 99% of the villages have a lower level of life quality as compared with the average of Beijing. Villages with high objective life quality index values are mainly distributed in the near suburbs on flat terrain; (2) Subjective evaluation indicated that the differences between adjacent villages are relatively small and the closer a village to the city, the lower is the subjective satisfaction; (3) Overall, subjective and objective life quality index values differ greatly in villages located in deep mountains and near suburbs. About 19% of the villages have relatively poor overall life quality. The main factors limiting residents' quality of life are culture and entertainment, information and education, ecological environmental protection, and so on, which are beyond the basic demand of subsistence. (4) The major driving forces of improving residents' life quality and promoting regional development are differentiated poverty alleviation, improvement of population quality, support for the development of industries that satisfies higher level of human needs, and development planning and dynamic monitoring of poverty areas. The subjective-objective evaluation of life quality can reflect the relationship between regional development and residents' life quality, therefore it can be used as an important auxiliary method in regional comprehensive development decision-making.
Since numerical simulation has become a popular method for studying the effects of land use and land cover change on climate and environment, spatially explicit historical cropland datasets are increasingly required in regional and global climate change and carbon cycle research. In this study, using historical population data as a proxy, we estimated the provincial cropland area of Qinghai and Tibet in 1910. Based on the statistical data of the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the survey data of the Ministry of Land and Resources, and the results of some previous studies, we revised the cropland area of Qinghai and Tibet in 1950-2000. The relationship between altitude and surface slope and cropland distribution were quantified to develop the spatially explicit reconstruction model of historical cropland at a resolution of 1 km×1 km. Since the cropland area reached the maximum in the 1980s, the satellite-observed cropland distribution extent of this time period was taken as the maximum distribution extent of historical cropland. The model developed in this research was used to reconstruct the spatial patterns of cropland in Qinghai and Tibet in 1910, 1960, 1980, and 2000. The reconstruction results show that: (1) in 1910-1950, cropland area of Qinghai-Tibet was stable, while in 1950-1980 cropland area increased rapidly, reaching 10583 km2, which is the maximum of the entire study period; in 1980-1990, cropland area decreased slightly; and in 1990-2000, cropland area increased slightly; (2) with regard to its spatial distribution, in 1910-1960, cropland expanded and land use activities intensified greatly in the Yellow River-Huangshui River Valley (YHV); in 1960-1980, cropland expansion and land use intensification occurred in the YHV, the Yarlung Zangbo River, the Nianchu River, and the Lhasa River valleys; in 1980-2000, the spatial pattern of cropland in Qinghai and Tibet remained unchanged. By comparing the reconstruction results of this study for 2000 with satellite-observed cropland distribution of the same year, we found that the correlation coefficient was 0.92 and the absolute difference followed normal distribution. The percentage of grid cells where the absolute difference is low (-10% to 10%) reached 73.29%, while the percentage of grid cells where the absolute difference is high (>40% or <-40%) was 1.94%. Incorporating more information on historical population and cropland of Qinghai and Tibet will help improve the accuracy of our reconstruction modeling. The reconstruction results of this research can be used in regional climate models to study the impact of cropland cover change on the climate and carbon cycle.
Land use/cover change (LUCC) caused by human activities is not only one of the main causes that change the earth's natural ecosystem, but also one of the important factors that affect regional and global climate change. Thus it has become one of the core areas of the global environment change research. In recent years, research on reconstructing historical cropland spatial distribution has made important progress. Tibetan Plateau is an area that is fragile and sensitive to global climate change, particularly its river valleys. Analyzing historical land use/cover change of valleys on the Tibetan Plateau is of great significance to the understanding of regional and global environmental change. Existing research on land use/land cover change, however, rarely involves this region, due to the lack of historical data. This article attempts to fill this gap by exploring historical land use/cover change in the region. The vast Tibetan Plateau has a high altitude and cold climate, and is regarded as "the third pole of the earth," due to its special geographical position. Arable land area of the plateau is small although the total land area is large. The development of agriculture is restricted by the harsh natural environment. On the plateau weather condition in general is poor, but some valleys in the interior of the plateau have relatively low attitude and slope and high temperature and and fertile soil, so the cultivated land is mainly distributed in these valleys. The role of human factors on the distribution of cropland is very weak, especially in the historical period when agricultural productivity was low. Cropland distribution mainly depends on the suitability of land for reclamation, which is affected by a variety of natural environmental conditions. In this study, we first analyzed the relationship between environmental factors and the distribution of cultivated land in the Tibetan Plateau. We then divided the factors into limiting and non-limiting factor groups, and eliminated the areas that is not suitable for farming, and then distributed the cultivated land data based on suitability using a composite model. We reconstructed the cropland spatial distribution of the Yellow River-Huangshui River Valley in 1726 by using this method .The results show that this method is suitable for reconstructing historical cropland spatial distribution where agricultural productivity was low and the natural environment conditions strongly limited the development of agriculture.
In order to predict future urban layout in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region (JJJ), we developed a BUDEM-JJJ model on the basis of the Beijing urban development model (BUDEM). BUDEM, based on prevalent urban growth theory and constrained cellular automatic, was developed in 2008 for analyzing and simulating urban growth for the Beijing Metropolitan Area(BMA). It is proved that the model is capable of analyzing historical urban growth mechanisms and predicting future urban growth for metropolitan areas in China. In this research, we extended the study of BUDEM from the BMA to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region (JJJ), via replacing the datasets of the model and making necessary adjustments to the parameters. In BUDEM-JJJ, the parameters include minimum distance to the center of Beijing (f_ctr_bj), minimum distance to the centers of Tianjin and Shijiazhuang (f_ctr_tjsjz), minimum distance to the centers of prefecture-level cities of Hebei province (f_ctr_other), minimum distance to the centers of other urban areas (f_ctr_cty), minimum distance to railways (f_rail), minimum distance to highways (f_r_hig), minimum distance to national roads (f_r_nat), minimum distance to provincial roads (f_r_pro), location in or outside areas prohibited for construction (constrain), and neighborhood development intensity (neighbor). The model BUDEM-JJJ was used to identify urban growth mechanisms in two historical phases from 2000 to 2005 and from 2005 to 2010, to simulate urban growth scenarios for 2049. Six urban growth scenarios were put forward, including the base (business as usual) scenario, high-speed growth scenario, low-speed growth scenario, highway finger-shaped growth scenario, small cities and towns promoting growth scenario, and transportation-led growth scenario. BUDEM-JJJ considers the heterogeneity of driving force and model parameters, and fulfills accurate simulation in large-scale. Using the model urban layout can be predicted for each scenario. From the number of increased cellular and the occupation of farmland, grassland, forestland, and unused land, we found that the different scenarios have different effects on the environment. BUDEM-JJJ is the first applicable urban growth model in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region. These scenarios can be applied in several planning projects and also can be used to evaluate the present urban growth rate.
The world is uneven from the economic geography's point of view, and urban agglomeration evolves also unevenly. The development of urban agglomeration space is a process of increasing density, decreasing distance, and diminishing division/enhancing integration. Based on the 2009 annual report of the World Bank, this article builds a "density, distance, division" (3D) framework using new economic geography theory, and calculates and analyzes the spatial development state of cities in the Yangtze River Delta at the macro level. The results show that: (1) Urbanization mainly depends on increasing economic density; regional development mainly relies on overcoming the distance constraints; and regional integration depends on reducing segmentation and enhancing integration. Therefore "3D" constitute an appropriate framework to analyze the regional development and urban agglomeration integration process; (2) Shanghai, Suzhou, and Wuxi, where the local economy is more advanced, showed a 3D type of urban spatial development, while Changzhou and Nanjing, and Hangzhou exhibited the "density-distance" and "distance-division" 2D type of development, respectively. Nantong, Zhenjiang, Jiaxing, and Huzhou displayed a "distance" 1D type of development, while Shaoxing, Zhoushan, and Ningbo illustrated a "division" 1D type, and Yangzhou and other cities showed a 0D type of spatial development; (3) Economic density, psychological distance, manufacturing specialization index, and foreign direct investment have played important roles in labor productivity in the cities, while the distance factor was not significant, which indicates that increasing the density and strengthening the integration of internal and external resources are more important than shortening the distance between cities in promoting economic development in this region.
Scientific zoning of urban economic linkage structure is essential for improving and optimizing the functional layout of metropolitan areas, as well as for guiding integrated economic development. Based on the relative gravity vector introduced in this article, the conventional gravity model had been improved and applied in the Wuhan Metropolitan Area for exploring the economic linkage structure and gravity zoning. The results show that: the improved gravity model can indicate the actual conditions of unsymmetrical relative gravity between two cities. It shows three types of economic linkage structure, including driving, dependent, and complex structures in the Wuhan Metropolitan Area, and Wuhan was the single city that showed strong driving economic power in relation to other cities in the area. According to the gravitational attraction that represents economic linkage structure, cities in the area were divided into three zones, namely the "Xiaogan-Wuhan-Xianning", "Huangshi-Ezhou-Huanggang", and "Xiantao-Tianmen-Qianjiang"urban cooperation groups, with the former as the "center" and two latter groups form the "wings".
Urban land use structure is the result and spatial expression of the evolution of urban space functions. In geography, there is a classic field of study that dedicates to the relationship between these two aspects. Based on the industrial, commercial, and residential land leasing data during 2003-2010, this study examines the spatiotemporal evolution of different types of land use in Nanjing. By using the belt transect method, this study demonstrates especially the influence of urban spatial restructuring, such as the old city reconstruction, industrial upgrading, development zone construction, and new city development, on land grant location, scale, and bid-rent. The results show that the spatial structure of land market and land price tend to fit the Alonso bid-renting patterns, but there also exist multicenter characteristics. With higher land price, the remised land in the center of the city is usually small and of high density. Reconstruction of the old city increases land price significantly. Development zones have become a concentrated area for the transfer of industrial land, meanwhile industrial land price is artificially depressed because of strong administrative influences, which lowers the bid-rent curve slope within each industrial development zone. Moreover, new central business districts and university parks led to numerous land transactions and land value increased due to the improvement of peripheral conditions and supporting services. New cities with comprehensive functions may be formed in these places over a short time period.
Urbanization quality not only concerns the development of cities, but also the development of rural areas; not only economic development, land resources development, and population growth, but also equality, efficiency of development, and sustainability. Urbanization quality reflects the overall urban development levels of urban areas. This study constructed the appraisal index system of urbanization quality based on five sets of indicators, including economic development, quality of living, sustainable development, integrated urban-rural development, and social development. Using the method of entropy analysis, urbanization quality of 18 cities in Henan Province from 2003 to 2012 was measured, and the driving factors of its spatial evolution was analyzed. Main conclusions of this study include: (1) Urbanization quality in Henan Province showed an overall upward trend but it varied in different time periods for some cities. (2) Spatial pattern of the urbanization quality largely remained unchanged since 2003. High urbanization quality areas experienced only moderate change in spatial pattern and these areas are mainly located in the northwest of Henan Province, including Zhengzhou. Change of spatial pattern of urbanization quality mainly occurred in areas with lower urbanization quality, in grades III, IV, and V regions. (3) The cause of disparity in the change of spatial patterns of urbanization quality in Henan Province mainly lies in the different speed of development of the five aspects of urbanization quality. Quality of living, integrated urban-rural development, and economic development progressed with similar speed, but differences in the speed of progress in sustainable development and social development were greater. Based on the assessment result we recommend that urban development in Henan Province should focus more on the quality of urbanization instead of solely on the quantity of development; new types of urban development should be pursued actively and steadily; and cities with different urbanization quality should be treated differently in urban development planning. More attention should be focused on the two relatively weak development aspects, that is, sustainability and integrated urban-rural development, in order to promote healthy urban development in the province. In future studies, we will add city management to the appraisal index system of urbanization quality. The unit of analysis will be disaggregated to the county level for a more clear understanding of urbanization quality.
