Delimitation of urban growth boundary can guide the orderly development of urban space and effectively control the unordered urban sprawl. Taking the typical resource city Guixi as the research object, this paper explores effective urban growth boundary delimitation methods from the aspects of spatial suitability evaluation, population carrying capacity, city scale and two-plan (urban master planning and land-use planning) integration connection. The spatial suitability evaluation takes the natural, spatial accessibility and ecological conditions into consideration and determines the ecological baseline for area not suitable for development and suitability levels for area suitable for development area through the cluster analysis. The baseline and the suitability levels are used to determine the development direction of urban growth boundary. The population of 2020 is forecasted through model of GM(1,1), and the maximum local population is verified based on land resources and water resources. Meanwhile, the urban size is predicated and the sphere of urban growth boundary is delimited. The construction land is reduced by means of spatial suitability evaluation, population carrying capacity, city scale prediction and two-plan integration connection, and thus, the rigid boundary and elastic boundary can be delimited.

Spatial planning is developing rapidly as the core of supporting tourism general planning, which is mainly relied on the experience of tourism planners instead of technical support. This article proposed a technical method by combining GIS grid and the evaluation model of tourism resources, aiming at evaluating tourism resource monomers and tourism resource clusters and exploring tourism functional areas and spatial developing axes. Then, the feasibility of the method was verified in Qingdao. The experimental result shows: 1) This article put forward a new method on tourism resources collection and gridding spatial analyst of tourism resources. Associated with tourism resources evaluation model, tourism functional area identification model, tourist routes and spatial developing axes model, a series of technical methods integrating tourism resource collection, evaluation, tourism functional area identification and analysis are formed. 2) The paper identified the tourism resource clusters, development potential, tourism functional areas and spatial developing axes in Qingdao and established spatial development pattern of “one core, one band, three axes, five areas” for Qingdao. The paper discussed the method of gridding analysis being applied in tourist spatial planning preliminarily, which can improve the traditional qualitative evaluation method, realize complicated and serialization analytical tourism resources evaluation, tourism functional area identification, tourist routes and spatial developing axes optimization, and provide scientific reference for tourism planning.

Focusing on the quantitative identification of the impacts of climate change and human activities on annual and maximum daily runoff at a basin scale, taking the Wujiang River Basin, South China for instance, this paper simulated and quantitatively evaluated the impacts of climate change and human activities on runoff and their contribution ratios to runoff at daily and annual scales by using the HIMS model and elastic coefficient method. The results showed that, the HIMS model performed well in the Wujiang River Basin at daily scale. The Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients are 0.85 and 0.77, and the absolute values of water balance errors are 3.1% and 3.3% respectively in calibration and validation periods. The results obtained by the HIMS model and the elastic coefficient method indicated that climate change is the dominat factor that leads to the increase of annual runoff and human activities cause the runoff decrease while its contribution ratio is smaller compared to that of climate change. The annual maximum daily runoff showed an upward trend due to climate change and human activities. The contribution ratios of climate change and human activities are 94% and 6%, respectively. Climate change has greater impact on annual maximum daily runoff than that on annual average runoff.

Changes of hydro-meteorological factors in the source region of the Yangtze River are a global concern. Pervious research focused on the temporal and spatial variation characteristics in hydro-meteorological factors. Research on the relationships between hydro-meteorological factors and large-scale circulation in the source region of the Yangtze River is scarce. Based on the hydro-meteorological factors and large-scale atmospheric circulation factors in the source region of the Yangtze River, trends, volatilities and periodic changes of hydro-meteorology factors (precipitation, evapotranspiration and streamflow) during 1957-2012 were explored by using Mann-Kendall method, detrended fluctuation analysis method and wavelet analysis method. The relationships between hydro-meteorological factors and large-scale atmospheric circulation factors were further studied. Meanwhile, the driving mechanism of large-scale atmospheric circulation on hydro-meteorological factors was disclosed by analyzing the water vapor flux in the source region of the Yangtze River. The results showed that climatic situations in the source region of the Yangtze River were basically characterized by warm and dry during 1990s. Since 2000s, the climatic turned to warm and wet. Time series of hydro-meteorological factors in the source region of the Yangtze River had positive long-rang correlations. Climatic situation in the source region of the Yangtze River will keep warm and wet in the future. There were 1-5 year, 10-24 year and 25-45 year periods of hydro-meteorological factors in the source region of the Yangtze River. South Asian monsoon (SAM) is a relative important large-scale atmospheric circulation that can influence the precipitation and streamflow in the source region of the Yangtze River. It is mainly because the southwest vapor fluxes driven by the SAM are dominant source of vapor fluxes in the source region of the Yangtze River.

Anhui is one of the agricultural provinces and an important commodity grain base in China. Due to factors such as natural geographical location, drought occurs frequently in Anhui Province. Based on the MOD16 product, and the method of crop water stress index (CWSI) combined with meteorological data and MOD13 data, the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics and influencing factors of drought in Anhui Province from 2000 to 2014 were analyzed. The results showed that: 1) Crop water stress index based on MOD16 product can be used to monitor drought in Anhui Province. 2) During 2000-2014, the average annual CWSI for Anhui Province was 0.524, the maximum value being 0.569 in 2011 and the minimum value being 0.458 in 2003, which showed a weak increasing trend and had a strong spatial heterogeneity. In addition, the average CWSI varied among cities. The area between Huaibei plain and Jianghuai region showed a significant increasing trend, while the mountain areas in south Anhui showed a significant downward trend. 3) The monthly CWSI during one year in Anhui Province showed the single-valley trend, reaching its maximum of 0.66 in March and the minimum of 0.27 in August. Besides, there were obvious seasonal differences. Huaibei plain was prone to spring, autumn and winter drought, Jianghuai hills was prone to spring and autumn drought, and area along the Yangtze River was prone to spring drought. 4) The CWSI varied for different land covers in Anhui Province. Forest land and grassland showed the single-valley pattern with the monthly average maximum in March, while the towns and cultivated land showed the multimodal pattern with the maximum monthly mean in June. 5) Rainfall, temperature and NDVI were closely related to CWSI. In areas with more rainfall and lower temperature, the NDVI was higher, moreover, the CWSI was smaller and the drought degree was lighter, which indicated that rainfall played the most important role in the change of CWSI.

It is very important to reveal the spatial synergistic effects of Cu and Zn in tea garden soil in effectively preventing and controlling soil Cu and Zn pollution and ensuring the quality of tea. Taking the typical tea plantations in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces as the study areas, this paper simulated the synergistic relationship between Cu and Zn content in the soil with Copula function, estimated the spatial regionalized variables of Cu and Zn in soil with Kriging/IDW interpolation method, and analyzed the spatial synergistic effects with Standard Deviation Ellipse Model. The results showed that: 1) The frequency histogram of the soil Cu and Zn content in the study area showed a “J” type distribution, which indicated that the upper tail is correlated while the lower tail is asymptotically independent; the upper tail correlation coefficient, the Kendall rank correlation coefficient, and the Spearman rank correlation coefficient between the soil Cu and Zn content were 0.345 4, 0.273 5, and 0.396 0, respectively; there is a positive correlation between the Cu and Zn content in soil, so it is recommended to strengthen the soil Cu and Zn content monitoring and improve early warning to avoid combined pollution. 2) As a whole, the correlation between soil Cu and Zn content was higher, but in some local areas it was lower due to the different dominant factors, for example, the soil Cu content in the west of Longjing was mainly affected by the thickness of tillage layer, while the soil Zn content showed a significant negative correlation with soil Se content at the 1% level, and their correlation coefficient was -0.288. Therefore, it could be considered to deal with the pollution of soil Cu and Zn together in the global areas and combine with the actual situation when dealing with the pollution of soil Cu and Zn in the local areas. 3) Copula function, combined with Kriging/IDW estimation and Standard Deviation Ellipse Model, can reflect the synergetic relationship between the content of soil Cu and Zn more truly and effectively and provide reference basis for the determination of Cu and Zn.

The study of indirect carbon emissions is one of the important foundations for exploring the low-carbon lifestyle and promoting the development of ecological civilization. This paper counted the indirect carbon emissions of the urban residents of 30 provinces (except Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Tibet) based on the input-output analysis and the consumption data of urban residents from 2002 to 2012. Based on the analysis of temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of indirect carbon emissions of urban residents, the paper used the LMDI-I addition form, which belongs to the LMDI method, to quantitatively analyze the driving mechanisms of indirect carbon emissions and its spatial and temporal evolution. The research results showed that the indirect carbon emissions in all provinces showed increasing trends except in Jilin Province. The spatial pattern changes went through the initial phase, the initial differentiation phase, and the rapid evolution phase, and the spatial differentiation degree first declined and then rose. The consumption level is a main factor for indirect carbon emissions’ increasing, and the high value areas mainly gathered in the northern coastal area. The size of the population has a two-way effect on the indirect carbon emissions, and the area of higher positive effect gradually becomes the eastern region which is the same as the area divided by the Hu Huanyong Population Line. The most important factor that caused the reduction of carbon emissions in most provinces is the indirect carbon emission intensity effect with little spatial difference. The changes of residents’ lifestyle contributed little to the indirect carbon emissions, but its spatial evolution characteristics are complicated. According to the differences of four driving mechanisms, the provinces can be divided into vital emission reduction zones, key emission reduction zones and emission reduction concern area. In general, there are differences in the indirect carbon emission characteristics and the driving mechanisms among provinces, and the focus in the future for indirect emission reduction should be different.

It is reported that the basic goal of the “Hongqi River” Project (also known as “Red Flag River” Project) is to improve the ecological and environmental conditions of dry areas in the Northwest China by transfering water from the Yarlung Zangbo River, the Nu River, the Lancang River, the Jinsha River, the Yalong River and the Dadu River in the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau, to Xinjiang and other arid areas. By this way, 200 million mu (around 13.33×10⁴ km²) of farmland and oasis could be developed in the dry areas.“Hongqi River” Project is a grand idea of water diversion across river basins, which has attracted wide attention at home and abroad. However, this grand idea also faces multiple severe challenges in the fields of geology, technology, economy, society and ecology, and there is a great uncertainty.From the perspective of physical geography, natural resources and environment and regional development, 60 billion m³ of water cannot meet the needs of the construction of 200 million mu of farmland, nor can it meet the needs of the ecological green belt of 15×10⁴ km², and the two cannot be realized at the same time. In addition, how much water can reach the receiving area when there is strong leakage and evaporation along the river? The project is planned to be built for 10 years, with investment of 4 trillion yuan. The investment of farmland irrigation per mu is around 2×10⁴ yuan, and the water charge per cubic meter is nearly 66 yuan. Who will pay for the expensive water bill when the project is completed and running?The environmental impacts and ecological consequences caused by water diversion are of great uncertainty and need to be highly concerned. The water diversion project is not only a complex water conservancy project, but also a very complex ecosystem engineering, and a very complicated social and economic project. Environmental effects, ecological consequences and socioeconomic effects involve complex geophysical, chemical and biological processes, as well as the complex process of harmonious balance between human and earth relations. The “Hongqi River” Project involves international rivers at the same time. The potential geopolitical risks need to be drawn attention. At the existing level of understanding, it is necessary to make a thorough and systematic study of these problems.In addition, in the public awareness of “Hongqi River”, there are still several views that are contrary to scientific cognition, such as “changing the climate pattern of China”, “forest causing precipitation”, and breaking the “Hu Huanyong Line”. The analysis and clarification for these misunderstandings are carried out in the paper.

Surface runoff change is affected by climate change and human activities. Quantitative assessment the impacts of climate change and human activities on surface runoff changes is significant for water resources management. This paper analyzes the mechanism that climate change and human activities affect the change of surface runoff based on the process of hydrological cycle and compares the methods that separate the impacts of climate change and human activities. Then, the paper analyzes the differences of the contribution rates of climate change and human activities on surface runoff of some watersheds on globe. At present, integrating multiple mutation test methods is beneficial for improving the accuracy in identifying the abrupt change point of surface runoff. Eliminating the interference factors (such as the selection of meteorological and hydrological data, the parameter setting of model method and inherent uncertainty of methods) is of great significance to improve the consistency of the results of different quantitative methods. The key of future research is to find ways that could better couple the physical hydrological model methods and mathematical empirical methods to separate the impact of climate change and human activities on the change of surface runoff.

In the new period, great changes have taken place in the social and economic environment both at home and abroad, and hence new requirements have been put forward for the national food security strategy. Rethinking and resolving a series of new problems and new changes of food security under the new situation not only helps deepen the understanding of food security system, but also has positive significance to promote the upgrade of agricultural industry and rural development under the background of supply-side structural reform. At present, food security in China falls into a strange circle, which is the coexistence of excessive production, import, inventory, subsidy and waste. There are large differences in understanding and viewpoints on food security issues among different disciplines such as traditional agricultural school, economic school and resource environment school, which reflects the complexity of food security issues. In the meantime, the concept and connotation of food security, from emphasizing the amount of food basic supply to the individual purchase ability in the market, and to the quality of life and the ability to resist risks, are constantly enriched and extended. It is the inevitable choice and demand of social and economic development. Faced with a new era, under the background of the periodic and structural oversupply of grain in our country, it is imperative to build a new food security strategy of “nutrition, green, diversity, and openness” in our country on the basis of grasping the connotation and characteristics of China’s food security.

The Dyke-Pond System is a very creative way to make full use of lowland and an ecological circulating agriculture model, which had played an important role in the small-scale peasant economy in China. Since 1950s, Dyke-Pond System has gradually become the focus in research and attracted more attention at home and abroad. Combing and summarizing those research achievements can offer powerful support for protecting the relevant important agricultural heritage and developing modern ecological agriculture in China. This paper systematically reviews the literatures of Dyke-Pond System and introduces the researches on its concept and connotation, origin and development, structure and function, and application and dynamic protection. The analysis shows that there are more plentiful studies in Pearl River Delta than the studies in Taihu Lake Basin on the Dyke-Pond System. There exist disputes about the origin of Mulberry-Dyke & Fish-Pond in Taihu Lake Basin. The economic importance of Dyke-Pond System has degraded. Strengthening the research on its ecological service functions and heritage values is urgently needed. In order to conduct the dynamic protection and creative development of Dyke-Pond System, related researches on technique, management and policy are needed. This paper also proposes some suggestions for future studies. Firstly, it’s in need of more studies on ecological service functions of Dyke-Pond System and more systematically evaluation of the efficiency of Dyke-Pond System. Secondly, the studies on the dynamic protection and management of traditional Dyke-Pond System should be conducted from the perspective of agricultural heritage. Thirdly, it is also necessary to study in depth on the ecological mechanisms of Dyke-Pond System across multi-disciplines and compare the differences and similarities between the structures and functions of Dyke-Pond Systems in the Taihu Lake Basin and the Pearl River Delta. Finally, the research on the origin and evolution of Dyke-Pond System should also be further investigated in order to reinforce its significant role in the agriculture history both in China and in the world.

When socialism with Chinese characteristics enters a new era, the economy has been in a critical period of transforming and upgrading, and there is the new missions and new requirements for natural resources security. The newly established Ministry of Natural Resources brings new opportunities for the comprehensive management of natural resources in the new era. The time scale of the new era is over 30 years, and the medium-to-long-term strategy should be made based on a systemic summary of the change of natural resources in the past few decades and a strategic estimation of resources supply and demand in the future. To sum up, the following conclusions can be made: 1) It could be sure that the demand for water resources in China will continue rising and the pressure on the grain supply of arable land will be increasing, which will directly affect the well-being of the people’s livelihood. 2) The growing demands for all types of minerals have changed to differentiated demands for different types of minerals, and the overall demand for mineral resources will remain high. 3) The pressure on the wood supply of forest resources, which affects the construction of the modern economic system, will be aggravated. It is critical to resources security of China that we believe “Green waters and clear mountains are invaluable assets” and persist in saving resources and protecting the environment under the guideline of “ecological civilization strategy”. To enhance the comprehensive security and sustainable development capacity of China’s resources for the two centenary goals, we put forward the following suggestions: 1) paying close attention to the research on resources strategy and the top level planning in the new era, 2) implementing the stringent regulations of resources management and environment protection, 3) optimizing the structure of resources supply to serve the modernization and the needs of the people’s livelihood and accelerating technological innovation to expand the transforming value of the resource industry chain, 4) improving the efficiency of resource utilizing and promoting circular utilization of resources based on domestic efforts, and at the same time strengthening the international cooperation in the field of resources.

Food is one of the basic human needs. Achieving food security is one of the important goals of “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. However, there is lack of system review of mutual influence between safeguarding food security and global climate change. Accordingly, this paper reports a critical review of the existing researches related to interactions between ensuring food security and global climate change. Effects of global climate change on the food system, impacts of ensuring food security on global climate change and adapting food security strategies against global climate change were systematically reviewed. The results indicated that, firstly, global climate change had increased uncertainty in the food system which had great impact on China’s food production. Secondly, demand for food was one of the main drivers of global climate change, and the reconfiguration of crop production elements exacerbated global climate change. Thirdly, a synthetic approach is required for food security adaption strategies against global climate change, specifically, in the micro-level promoting technological progress and scientific management, in the meso-level strengthening resources and environment protection, and in the macro-level adhering to the laws of market and improving food policy system. Moreover, under the background of global climate change, research on ensuring food security presents two major trends: one is the change from single discipline, one dimension and single means into multi-disciplinary, multi-scale, multi-factor, comprehensive and integrated approach; the other is to turn a high-carbon food system into a low-carbon and high-efficient food system.

Along with the rapid development of China’s economy and urbanization, people’s living standard improves continuously. More and more people are switching from grains to animal foods, such as meat, poultry, egg, fish and milk products. Now, China is the world’s top consumer of meat and grain. China’s feed grain consumption is large and it increases rapidly, which has become the primary factor of food security. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to accurately determine the characteristics of regional supply and demand balance of feed grain in China, which can help formulate relevant policies of agriculture. Based on the analysis of grain conversion coefficient of livestock products at provincial level, this paper examined the statue and causes of regional supply and demand equilibrium of feed grain. The results showed that: 1) China’s feed grain consumption increased rapidly in recent years, from 21 730×10⁴ t in 2000 to 30 549×10⁴ t in 2015. 2) Pig raising was the main part of feed grain consumption in China which accounted for 44.4% of the total consumption in 2015. It was followed by eggs and poultry consumption whose proportions were 15.8% and 12.7%, respectively. The feed consumption of dairy cows, beef cattle, mutton sheep and aquaculture was low and the proportions were between 5%-9%. 3) The shortage of feed grain in China was 4 276×10⁴ t in 2015. There was a feed grains surplus in the north and a terrible shortage in the south. Heilongjiang, Jilin and Inner Mongolia in northeast of China have become China’s most important feed grain supply area. The phenomenon of “sending grains from the north to the south” is rational allocation of grain resources from the perspective of food conversion coefficient and feeding structure. This paper provides three policy recommendations: 1) According to the experience of developed countries, Chinese consumption of beef and dairy products is small. In 2015, per capita milk consumption was only one-third of the national recommended volume. So it is suggested that more beef and milk products should be produced and consumed. 2) The agricultural production in China has been following the policy of “taking grain as the key link” for a long time. China’s agriculture should be switched from grain-oriented planting structure to three-element structure that mainly contains grain crops, commercial crops and forage crops. 3) In the past, China’s food security relied more on domestic grain production and ignored the international market. Our land and water resources were all exploited to meet the growing demands of agricultural products. To ensure the food security and preserve the environment, we should make full use of the international market and develop agricultural trades with more countries.

Food consumption is the basic content of household consumption. The study obtained the first-hand data of 207 rural households food consumption in Shandong Province which is one of the main grain producing areas in China by field research for three days tracking weighing based on stratified sampling nearly one month. The structure and characteristics of food consumption of rural households in typical areas of China at this stage are quantitatively analyzed and the characteristics of residents’ food consumption in different regions, income levels and family sizes are compared. The result indicated that: 1) Vegetables occupy the highest proportion (41.0%) in the food consumption of rural households in Shandong, while the main consumption of grain is flour and its products (59.0%) and the main consumption of meat is pork (71.9%). 2) In three cases, compared with Dezhou city and Weifang city, the consumption of non-grain food like drinks, cooking oil and condiments in Jinan city is higher while the consumption of grain is relatively lower; families with higher incomes consume less vegetables, flour and other grain, condiments and cooking oil and consume more meat, fruits, aquatic products and milk. Households with smaller populations consume more food per capita than larger households. 3) Comparing the proposed food intake data with the balanced pagoda recommended to Chinese residents by the Chinese Nutrition Society, we found that cooking oil and salt consumed by residents in rural areas in Shandong was slightly higher and consumption of milk and dairy products, aquatic products, eggs and fruits were obviously inadequate. Under the new era of rural revitalization background, improving the food consumption structure of rural residents and their nutrition level are the most basic and urgent tasks for improving living standards in rural areas. This study provides a reference for further improving the accurate acquisition of the basic data of Chinese residents’ food consumption needs and provides a scientific basis for the formulation of relevant policies.

Food is highly related to the national security and people’s livelihood. The efficient supply of food depends on the efficient operation of the whole food system. At present, domestic research on food system is rare, therefore, systematically sorting out the research progress abroad can provide a good reference for China’s food system research. In order to better grasp the research context of the food system, this paper studies foreign food system research literature by document analysis. Relevant theories, methods and main research fields of food system research are summarized and analyzed. Food system is the organic integration of economic, social, and ecological sustainable development consisting of the interaction of subsystems such as production, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste disposal based on the elements of material, capital, technology, culture, and political system. Food Footprint, GIS Analysis, Food Domain Analysis, Stakeholder Analysis, Life Cycle Theory, Elasticity Theory, Food Landscape and Scenario Analysis are the most commonly used methods in food system study. Focusing on the research content, globalization and localization of food systems, food system planning, resources and environmental effects on the food system, food safety and policy research are systematically reviewed. Based on the study of food system research abroad and existing research foundations and social needs in China, the focuses of China’s food system research are proposed, including empirical studies on food systems at different scales, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research, the design of quantitative index systems for food systems, the impact of technological innovation on food systems, and research on stakeholders in food systems, etc.

The right way to deal with the relationship between cultivated land protection and economic development is extremely important to safeguard food security in China. Based on the consistency of cultivated land protection and economic growth at provincial level, this paper divided the whole country into deficit area, balance area and surplus area of cultivated land from the perspective of food security and regional cultivated land. The compensation standard of cultivated land protection of each province was calculated by opportunity cost. In addition, the surplus (or deficit) amount and compensation quantity of arable land protection were estimated according to the amount of cultivated land and per-capita grain demand. Finally, the results and discussion were put forward. The results show that: 1) China’s arable land distribution and economic development are inconsistent during 2007-2015, so there is a need of inter-regional coordination in conservation of cultivated land. 2) The country’s provincial-level administrative regions are divided into eight provinces of surplus area, 11 provinces of balance area and 12 provinces of deficit area. 3) In 2015, the average regional compensation standard was 2.90×10⁴ yuan/hm² that the standard is the highest in deficit areas and the lowest in balance areas. 4) Based on scenario simulation, there are significant differences in the amount of arable land and cultivated land compensation in different regions. Finally, suggestions were put forward, which include implementing the regional differential cultivated land protection policy, establishing the dynamic farmland protection system, drawing up the reasonable regional economic compensation standards for cultivated land protection, etc.

The territorial orientation exerts significant influences on urban construction land-use efficiency. Based on the blueprint of major function-oriented zones, the paper analyzed urban construction land-use efficiency indicated by land input-output technical efficiency of the major function-oriented zones in Fujian Province during 2009-2015 by utilizing the stochastic frontier production function which excluded the undesired output. The empirical results demonstrated that: There exists an obvious temporal variation and spatial differences of urban construction land-use efficiency among the 84 counties in Fujian Province during 2009-2015. The index of urban construction land-use efficiency increased during the period that the land-use efficiency indices in almost half of counties were below 0.8 in 2009 whereas the proportion cut down to 30% in 2015. The counties with high urban construction land-use efficiency are spatially distributed in the Quanzhou Plain and Minzhong Mountain Belt. Furthermore, the paper showed that the territorial orientation of major function-oriented zones is consistent with the construction land-use level. The consistency was verified by the following facts: Firstly, cities which located in optimal development zones are most efficient in terms of construction land-use efficiency, while cities in agricultural production zones are most inefficient. The urban construction land-use efficiency grew fastest in agricultural production zones and grew slowest in optimal development zones. Secondly, owing to the different demands of each major function-oriented zone, the input-output ratio of production factors in major function-oriented zones of Fujian Province presented an obvious peak and valley spatial pattern. The input-output ratios of optimal development zone, key development zone, key ecological function zone, agricultural production zone are in decreased order. What’s more, the paper put forward countermeasures and suggestions to optimize the urban construction land-use efficiency according to the spatial difference of land use in different major function-oriented zones in Fujian Province.

Landscape change is one of the research hotspots in the field of geography at home and abroad, but the abilities of most research methods in explaining social effects of landscape changes are relatively limit. This study tends to reveal the spatial characteristics of residents’ complex perceptual content of landscape changes based on qualitative analysis and spatial analysis. Taking Shuhe old town as a case, this paper studies the landscape change by using a hybrid analysis method of geographical and social investigation which adopted PPGIS method and semi-structured interviews. Finally, we obtained 300 sets of questionnaires and maps and 1 614 points of perceived landscape changes. The types and spatial patterns of residents’ perceived landscape changes in rapidly changed landscape communities are discussed. The results are shown as follows: 1) The perceived landscape changes obtained by interview are complex, which include environmental change, land use change, living space change, and economic change. 2) The perceived landscape changes were in shapes of patch or stripe which are in related with the locations of the main landscape nodes, living spaces, life resources in the community. 3) Land-use mode change and land-use form change have equally important influence on the perceived changes, and the social structure change which is carried by the utilization mode change provides the basis for explaining the social effect on landscape change.

Based on high altitude and ground meteorological data in the arid region of Northwest China from 1970 to 2013, the temporal and spatial variation characteristics of water vapor content in northwest arid area and its relationship with precipitation were analyzed by a variety of statistical methods. The results showed that: 1) The increasing trend of the water vapor content in the arid region of Northwest China was significant at the rate of 0.835 mm/10 a (P<0.01) during the period of 1970-2002. The growth rate in summer was the highest all year round, which was 1.709 mm/10 a (P<0.01). However, the precipitation efficiency in the arid area of Northwest China was basically stable, which only increased slightly in spring and winter. In space, the areas with the variation rate of water vapor content from fast to slow were North Xinjiang, South Xinjiang and Hexi Corridor. In winter and spring, the growth rate of water vapor content in North Xinjiang was the highest, while in summer and autumn, the growth rate of water vapor content in South Xinjiang was the highest. 2) During 2003-2013, the water vapor content did not significantly decrease, whose rate of decline was -2.061 mm/10 a, while precipitation efficiency increased significantly at the rate of 0.136%/10 a, which showed that the efficiency of water vapor’s transforming into precipitation improved significantly. Meanwhile, the increasing rate of precipitation efficiency in North Xinjiang was obviously higher than those in other areas. 3) The precipitation efficiency and precipitation in each season were significantly correlated in the arid region of Northwest China, while the correlation between water vapor content and precipitation had obvious seasonal difference that the correlation in spring was higher than those in summer and autumn and the correlation in winter was the lowest. In addition, precipitation variation was positively correlated with both water vapor content and precipitation efficiency in Xinjiang, while precipitation in Hexi Corridor was more closely related to precipitation efficiency.

To study the relationship between the spatial distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon (SOC) and land use in karst river basins, 22 057 soil samples from 2 755 soil profiles were collected with a grid-sampling method at a 150 m scale in the Houzhai River Basin. The SOC density characteristics under different land uses were analyzed. The results indicate that human disturbance, soil thickness and rock outcrop are critical factors to SOC density in the Houzhai River Basin. The land uses in the Houzhai River Basin with SOC density (0-100 cm) in descended order are paddy lands, arid lands, artificial fruit forestlands, garden lands, grasslands, abandoned lands, sloping croplands, arbor-shrub mixed forestlands, arbor forestlands, uncultivated lands, shrub lands and shrub-grass lands. The average SOC density in the top 1 m soil of Houzhai River Basin is 8.70 kg/m² which is a little lower than the average SOC density in China (10.83 kg/m²), and the SOC storage in the Houzhai River Basin is 5.39×10⁸ kg. In conclusion, scientific and reasonable rearrangement and management of land uses could enlarge the SOC storage capacity in a karst river basin.

Accurate and up-to-date forest vegetation mapping can provide a better understanding of forest resources and support decision-makers in implementing sustainable forest management. Unfortunately, the distribution information of forests plantation with high accuracy and fine spatial resolution is still not yet conveniently available. Remote-sensing technologies are common used in mapping forest vegetation owing to their real-time data acquisition ability. However, extraction of forest vegetation information using single date remote-sensing imagery has been unsuccessful since the existence of similarity in spectrum feature between forest and field crops. Combination of seasonal variations of spectral response and phenological differences between forest vegetation and field crops presents a unique opportunity for forest mapping. Therefore, a method for extracting forest vegetation using multi-temporal GF-1 imagery was proposed and validated in Bengbu City. Based on the phenological changes of forest and dominant field crops in the study area, the whole region was separated into 2 sub-regions (sub-region A and sub-region B), and 5 phases of GF-1 imagery were utilized. Then, 2 sets of decision rules were built and applied to the corresponding sub-regions. In addition, we implemented forest extraction by non-partitioned decision tree for comparative analysis. The results show that the overall accuracy of both partitioned and non-partitioned decision trees are over 85%, which means that decision tree method using multi-temporal GF-1 imagery can acquire good accuracy when extracting forest vegetation in the large scale and mesoscale. Partitioned decision tree achieves overall accuracy of 90.72% and kappa coefficient of 0.81, which are 3.80%-4.65% and 0.07-0.10 higher than the overall accuracy and kappa coefficient of non-partitioned decision tree, respectively. Free GF-1 imageries with a fine spatial resolution, wide coverage, and low revisit period have great potentials in forests extraction which can benefit forestry aviation plant protection.

In order to explore the planning and design model of ecological restoration in mining area under the concept of sustainable development and push forward the innovation of ecological restoration technology in mining area, this article introduced the permaculture design concept to the planning strategy and operation process of ecological restoration of coal mine wasteland. Taking the ecological restoration of the Wangshiwa coal mine, “the eldest son of the Republic”, as a case study, this paper analyzed the application status of zoning planning, sector analysis and cycle layout of the permaculture design in detail. The ecosystem service value of the Wangshiwa coal mine during 2014-2016 was estimated. It is found that the variability degree of the ecosystem service values of various ecosystems is rather balanced, among which the forest ecosystem had the greatest contribution to the total service value of ecosystem in mining area with the contribution rate being 69%, 77% and 79% in 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively. The contribution of the grassland ecosystem was the second, whose contribution rate in each year was 15%, 13% and 12%, respectively. The contribution rate of farmland ecosystem in each year was 16%, 10% and 9%, respectively. The results show: 1) The permaculture design, which has ecological ethics substitution, is an effective planning model for ecological restoration of coal mine wasteland; 2) the permaculture design takes ecological risks into consideration, thus it can count the heavy metal pollution area in the zoning of ecological construction; 3 ) the permaculture design promotes the balance in the construction of ecological restoration system of coal mine wasteland and realizes the evolution of zonal natural ecosystem; 4) the permaculture design completes soil nutrient accumulation through biological elements and incorporates the ecological rehabilitation system of coal mine into biogeochemical cycle; and 5) the permaculture design can achieve the sustainable development of ecological, economic and social integrated systems of coal mine wasteland. The results of the research can provide a reference for the theoretical research and practice activities of mining ecological restoration planning and design.

The proposal or implementation of major resource development and utilization project often receives widespread concerns from the whole society. How to correctly understand and scientifically evaluate various hot research topics about resources and environment is the key point of discussion. This paper argues that the development project of any major resources must follow natural laws, ecological laws, resource laws, and economic laws. We must carry out systematic and comprehensive pre-stage surveys based on the country’s strategic needs and geopolitical relations, evaluate the ecological safety and the resource engineering safety from the perspectives of multiple disciplinarians, and make correct judgments on the scientific value, social value and economic value of the project. Authors strongly suggest that: 1) the future construction of resource and environmental engineering projects should not make forward in great leaps; 2) for protecting the beautiful home of the earth, we need to recognize laws of natural resource systems through scientific study; 3) resource scientists should fulfill their social responsibilities; 4) academic contending should be advocated on the basis of scientific research and scientific attitudes; 5) scientific issues are better to be discussed by scientists; and 6) it should be very cautious to support researches on controversial scientific topics by public welfare funds.

This paper analyzes global agriculture trade and its evolution with complex network methods. Using international trade data during 1986-2013, we selected 57 kinds of agricultural products belonging to six major categories of cereals, oil crops, sugars, fibers, fruits, vegetables and meats, and constructed trade network of international agricultural products at different periods. The evolution trend and current situation of global agriculture trade were quantitatively analyzed. The results show that total trade of international agricultural products increased 2.26 times during 1986-2013. Oil crops had the maximum growth which increased 4.97 times. The number of global agricultural import and export countries involved in agricultural trade network was increasing. By fitting the cumulative distribution function curve of nodes’ degree in the trade network, we can find that the distribution of nodes’ degree satisfies power-law distribution that a majority of nodes have small degree while only a few nodes have large degree. The hub nodes continuously grew up. The density of global agricultural trade network rose while the average path length declined, and the trend of diversification strengthened. The agricultural products import of China depended on a few countries and thus there is potential risk of agricultural products import. On one hand, our country should enlarge opening to extend the source of import and make full use of international resources; on the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen the agricultural foundation and improve the comprehensive production capacity so that we can prevent risks and ensure national food security more efficiently.

About 60% of people in China rely on rice as a staple food, illustrating the important role of paddy in safeguarding national grain security. So the accurate understanding of paddy consumption and supply-demand balance is very important. Previous estimates have focused on paddy rice consumption, but few have studied the regional and historical changes in the supply-demand balance. In this study, we studied the changes of amount and structure of paddy consumption in China during 2000-2014 based on statistic data in different paddy end-use sectors (food, industrial, feed, seed) and different provinces. We calculated the actual edible rice consumption based on urban and rural population and edible rice per capita, estimated the industrial paddy consumption based on the outputs and paddy usage coefficient of food industry products, no-food industry products, computed the feed paddy consumption based on the production of pigs and poultry products and the grain ratios of feed to meet, and calculated the seed paddy consumption based on the seeding area and the seed consumption per hectare. The results are: 1) Per capita apparent consumption of paddy in China was significantly higher than that in other countries and the world average. 2) During the period of 2000-2014, the supply-demand balance of paddy has gradually turned from tight relation and even shortage of supply in some years into a surplus of supply. 3) Most of paddy was consumed as edible grain, but the proportion has decreased significantly and the proportion of industrial and feed consumption has increased. 4) In 2014, China’s paddy stock-consumption ratio was nearly 70%, and the stock increased by 2.72 times in the past ten years. 5) Two thirds of the provinces in China were difficult to reach self-sufficiency in paddy supply in 2014. Ten provinces were self-sufficient, but only five provinces of them were more than 3.0 million tons surplus. Policy implications of these findings are consequently discussed, including firmly advancing market-oriented reform of paddy and strengthening research on the mechanism of inter-provincial grain supply chain.

The study of club convergence of water resources utilization efficiency will help the government carry out regional water resource management more targetedly and focus on areas that have long been “trapped” in low efficiency. The paper studied the phenomenon of club convergence of total water use efficiency, agricultural water use efficiency and industrial water use efficiency in the 31 provinces of the mainland of China during 2003-2015 using extended Markov chain and extended spatial Markov chain model based on the Quah (1997) distribution dynamics analysis framework. Firstly, we examined the club convergence of three types of water efficiency. Then, we measured the extents of club convergence based on the constructed club convergence index. Finally, the phenomena of three types of club convergence were explained from a spatial point of view. The results show that: 1) There are a phenomenon of club convergence in the three types of water use efficiency which will be eased with time, but the phenomenon is still evident. For example, the probability that area with low industrial water use efficiency remained low after five years is 0.808, while that high-level remained high after five years is 0.918. Therefore, the coordination of regional water resources efficiency needs to be strengthened. 2) The industrial water use efficiency is the highest in the degree of club convergence, followed by the total water use efficiency, and the agricultural water efficiency is the lowest. The degree of differential curing of industrial water use efficiency is the most serious one that some areas have remained at low level for a long time and are caught in a “low level trap”, which should be taken seriously by the government. 3) The phenomenon of club convergence is influenced by spatial factors. On one hand, the adjacent areas with different water use efficiency have a certain influence on the water use efficiency in a region that high level adjacent areas have positive impact and low level adjacent areas have negative impact. On the other hand, there are spatial agglomerations of high and low level clubs, so there is spatial spillover effect inside clubs. However, the positive spillover effect in high level clubs is much larger than that in low level clubs, which makes the difference between high and low level clubs widen further so as to promote the phenomenon of club convergence. This is particularly evident in the club convergence of industrial water use efficiency in China.

Reasonable compensation standard for water-saving irrigation technology can obtain a more positive response and improve policy effectiveness. In theory, the external benefits generated by water-saving irrigation technology are the basis of the compensation policy design. Taking Minqin County as an example, this paper quantified the external benefits of water-saving irrigation technology adopted by the choice experiment and random parameters Logit model, then calculated the compensation standard according to bargaining ability of the stakeholders. The results show that: 1) Both urban and rural residents of Minqin County all hope to improve the regional ecological environment by implementing water-saving irrigation technology. The annual willingness to pay of urban residents is 1 006.99 yuan if all arable land adopts high-efficiency water-saving irrigation technology in the next 10 years and the indicators restore to the best level designed in this article, and that of rural residents is 661.36 yuan. It indicates that the external benefit of technology adoption is obvious, thus the annual total external benefits is 50.96×10⁶ yuan, around 1 052.25 yuan/hm². 2) Accorrding to the natural environment of Minqin County and the adaptability of different technologies, if adopting drip irrigation technology, the reasonable standard should be around 789.15 yuan/hm². Compared with the compensation standard of 150 yuan/hm² in Gansu Province, the current water-saving irrigation technology compensation is too low to maintain farmers’ interests and lead to inadequate policy response. It is suggested that, a complete cost-benefit accounting system should be built which incorporates the external benefits to enhance the fairness of compensation policy. And a precision compensation should be implemented according to technology types and the area to increase financial fund utilization efficiency. Although this study provides a feasible way to quantify the external benefit of water-saving irrigation technology, Minqin County is one of the main sources of dust storms in China, benefits brought by its improved ecological environment for the residents outside the region (e.g., sandstorms reduction, etc.) is not included in the accounting of external benefits. Therefore, in the following study of cost-benefit analysis of water-saving irrigation technology, it is necessary to further explore the benefits of the residents outside the implementing region, so that quantitative results of external benefits can be more comprehensive.

Exploring the connotations of natural resources balance sheets is one of the major decisions the central government made on the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee to evaluate environmental performance of government leaders. Natural resources assets assessment techniques serve as a fundamental support for the application of natural resources balance sheets and the establishment of ecological damage liability scheme. Shenzhen, a burgeoning city located within the Pearl River Delta, is confronted with essential water problems ranging from water pollution to water shortage. Evaluating the monetary value of water resources with qualitative and quantitative methods could provide a unified approach to examine and compare water resources status at various spatial and temporal scales. Monthly sewage treatment data of Shuitou, Kuichong and Henggang water plants in Shenzhen in 2013 and 2014 have been collected. By analyzing the inlet and outlet water quality in each water plant with comprehensive pollution indice and principal component analysis method, the comprehensive water quality index which can be used to assess local water quality in Shenzhen is defined with parameters of key pollutants including TN, NH₃-N, TP, COD, BOD₅ and SS and is used to assess the value of local water resources in Shenzhen. Moreover, replacement cost is calculated. The link between comprehensive water quality and replacement costs is studied to construct the valuation model which can assess the value of Shenzhen landscape water and drinking water. The result indicates that it costs 0.6 yuan/t and 0.1 yuan/t to improve one unit of comprehensive water quality of landscape water resource and that of drinking water resource, respectively. Besides, it costs 1.05 yuan/t to store drinking water annually. Dapeng Peninsula, lying in east cost of Shenzhen, is selected to carry out the case study. The comprehensive water quality of all six main rivers and five major water reservoirs that supply water in Dapeng Peninsula is assessed. Accumulated surface runoff of the catchment areas and water retention capacity in 2015 are used to calculate the quantity of landscape water resource and drinking water resource. The results show that, in 2015, the value of landscape water resource and drinking water resource in Dapeng Peninsula is 3.60×10⁸ yuan and 0.35×10⁸ yuan, respectively.

Ecological problems have become a major barrier to the sustainable economic and social development in China. The main way to solve the ecological problems is to carry out ecological governing projects. Reverting Cropland to Forest and Grassland Project is the most typical case among the many major ecological projects implemented in China. However, because the theoretical research chronically lags behind the demands of production practices, the project has to be implemented, adjusted and improved simultaneously. The paper analyzed the main problems and the corresponding countermeasures taken by government at different stages of Reverting Cropland to Forest and Grassland Project and indicated that the ecological problems are the external manifestations of internal conflicts of economic and social systems. The ecological governance projects should not only solve the problems of ecological degradation and damages, but also solve internal economic and social conflicts which might induce ecological problems. Eco-engineering planning and design requires the theoretical support from related disciplines such as ecology, economics, and sociology. At the beginning of major eco-engineering planning and design, it is necessary to take into account the technical reserves, project costs, project achievement stability (the degree that the internal conflicts of economic and social system are solved), promotion, comprehensive benefits, collocation of policies, laws and regulations and other issues. The objectives of considering these factors are to achieve the ideal effect of “both internal and external governance”. All above theoretical methods may avoid the risks and wastes brought by simultaneous government, correction and summary and ensure the realization of the aims of the project.