Carrying capacity is an important parameter to measure region sustainable development. This article briefly discriminated the relevant concepts of resource and environment carrying capacity, region carrying capacity and ecological carrying capacity, and also reviewed the process of carrying capacity research development at home and abroad. Moreover, the paper discussed the shortcomings and problems and finally suggested several key issues of the research in future. It found that the studies of mountain area resource and environment carrying capacity were very insufficient, and the shortages in the correlative studies mainly displayed as: the theoretical system of carrying capacity had not been constructed completely; the lack of effective methods impeded the development of theory; most of researches focused on the static analysis but rarely engaged in dynamic forecast; the studies on mountain area resource and environment carrying capacity applied mechanically the research pattern of the plain area, which did not correspond to the mountain area's reality. Aiming at the above disadvantages, the author pointed out that perfecting the theory system frame of resource and environment carrying capacity, exploring the quantitative research methods of resource and environment carrying capacity in depth, and paying great attention to the mountain area resource and environment carrying capacity's characteristic of a nation, the influence of minority nationalities culture on resource and environment carrying capacity and the mountain area resource and environment carrying capacity's characteristic of spatial differentiation were five important issues for further study.
It is an important strategy to build Sichuan into the ecological shelter of the upper Yangtze River. As the forest and grass fire prevention is one of the important parts of the construction of ecological shelter and ecological security indemnity in Sichuan Province, the evaluation of the forest and grass fire risk is of great significance to the forest and grass fire prevention. Therefore, the forest and grass fire risk grade was evaluated by using remote sensing, GIS and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Sichuan Province. The study shows: the fifth fire risk grade accounts for 0.8%, the fourth accounts for 20.2%, and the third grade, 47.2% in Sichuan Province. The highest fire risk is mainly distributed in Ganzi, Liangshan, Aba, Panzhihua and Ya'an, accounting for 49.2%, 24.7%, 15.7%, 3.5% and 3.4% respectively of the total area in the risk zone. The high fire risk is mainly distributed in the prefectures of Ganzi, Liangshan and Aba, which account for 72.1% of the total area in the risk region. We suggest that Ganzi, Liangshan, Aba, Panzhihua and Ya'an should be regarded as the key areas of the forest and grass fire prevention and should be given priority in getting labors, funds and goods for forest and grass fire prevention.
Since China joined in the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1985, 37 Chinese cultural relics and scenic spots have been listed in the world heritages, 7 of which are the natural sites. Every country, the United Nations and other international organizations have attached greater importance to the heritage protection and utilization, which has been a hot cultural issue nowadays. In 1992, Wulingyuan was added into the world heritage list. Due to overexploitation and lack of protection, the water environment has been severely affected and its quality has been degraded gradually since then. Based on the current researches, this paper further explores the level of water pollution and discusses the changing pattern of water environment. Because the water environment is a complex and changeable system, it is difficult to evaluate the water quality by the conventional quantitative method. This paper selects BOD5, COD, TN, TP, As, MnO-4 as evaluation factors, which have greater influence on the environment. Four main spots along the major water systems Jinbianxi and Suoxi are monitored. With fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, we adopt the standard value of pollutants to calculate the weights, and select the weights according to different pollution levels to further research the degree of water pollution and to explore its changing pattern. The evaluation results show that the water quality of Shuiraosimen, Wujiayukou, and Zicaotan is level II, and the water quality of Laomowan is level III. The evaluation results are basically in agreement with the real monitoring data. On this basis, we put forward countermeasures to improve water environmental quality, which can provide scientific evidence for enhancing water environment quality of Wulingyuan world natural heritage site.
The nature reserves are often faced with the contradiction between resource protection and tourist activity. It is important to study the relationship between tourist activity and vegetation environment in nature reserves. Vegetation landscapes are not only important tourism resources, but also levers of harmonizing their ecological balance. This paper analyzes the relationship between tourist activity and vegetation environment in Dinghu Mountain, and evaluates the management level in the tourism region. Six indexes are used, including the sensitive level (SL), community landscape importance value (LIV), information index of species diversity (H'), negative species proportion (NSP), proportion of plants accompanied with mankind (PPM), and tourism impact index (TII). The result shows that there are some correlations and regularity between the TII and the evaluation indexes of vegetation environment, among the evaluation indexes of the vegetation environment quality, and among the factors of tourist impact index. The larger the SL is, the larger the H', PPM and TII are, and the smaller the LIV and NSP are. However, the larger the TII is, the smaller the LIV and NSP are, and the larger the SL, H' and PPM are. The TII is positively correlated to each factor, including rubbish impact index, damaging branches impact index, woods regeneration impact index, and meadow situation index. The regularity is that the larger the TII is, the smaller the dead sticks and humus thickness, meadow coverage, sapling number are, and the larger the damaging branches number and rubbish number are. These facts indicate the regularity of tourist activity has an impact on vegetation objectively, and this accords with the fact of tourism practice in Dinghu Mountain. Based on evaluation class of TII, the management level of tourism region in Dinghu Mountain is good and middle level on the whole nature reserve, but there are some dangers in some regions which need to raise the tourism management level further. Finally, the paper puts forward some management tactics in the tourism region.
Global change is an important scientific issue that concerns the survival and development of all human beings. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, over 90% of the possibilities of global warming are attributed to greenhouse gases produced by human use of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide produced by energy consumption has great pushing effects on global climate change. The studies concerning energy consumption and the emission of carbon dioxide have become the academic focus in current energy environment studies, and they are necessary for the security of economic development and diplomatic negotiations of China. In order to promote the sustainable development of economy, energy and environment of China, the paper analyzes the domestic energy consumption and the present status and various emission scenarios of carbon dioxide emissions in China. Firstly, according to the consumption of primary energy in China, the paper summarizes the carbon dioxide emission factors and methods that are adapt to the situation of China. Secondly, it analyzes the primary energy-related carbon dioxide emissions during the period 1995-2006 from different fossil fuels and in different regions. The primary energy-related carbon dioxide emissions present a trend 'first decrease and later increase' from 1995 to 2006. The inflexion of the changes was 2000, the carbon dioxide emissions since 2001 are bigger than those before 2000. The total carbon dioxide emissions increased from 786.78 million tons carbon to 1 469.19 million tons carbon, and the per capita emissions increased from 0.62 tons carbon to 1.12 tons carbon from 1995 to 2006, with an annual rate of 5.84%. The structural difference in the primary energy-related carbon dioxide emissions was relatively great, among which coal accounts for 79%~85%, oil, 14%~19%, and natural gas is 1.23%~1.96%. The seven regions and most of provinces (municipalities or autonomous regions) have a similar trend in the total China's carbon dioxide emissions. The average carbon dioxide emissions for North China and Northeast China are the highest among the seven regions of China. The annual amount of carbon dioxide emissions and the growing rates of Liaoning, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan are much greater than those of the other provinces (municipalities or autonomous regions).
The climate in Guangxi is complex due to the environment in geographical location and terrains as well as the alternation of summer and winter monsoons. It resulted in frequent weather disasters such as cold damage. And the cold damage, especially the weather of cold dew wind, has been one of the main constraint factors for high yield rice in Guangxi. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out disaster division research into cold damage of the late rice in Guangxi by GIS. And this research is of practical significance to making science countermeasure of disaster prevention and mitigation, in promoting high and stable yield of foodstuff and in maintaining social harmony and stability. According to the relationship among late rice growth, the degree of injury and the intensity of cold damage, the grading indices of cold damage for late rice were analyzed and decided. Using the climatic data from 1961 to 2006 and geographical information data of 90 weather stations in Guangxi, space calculating models for the zoning index of cold damage are built by the regression method of mathematical statistics, supported by GIS technology and simulation analysis method of small grids models of climate resources, and the use of the basic Guangxi geographic data on a scale of 1:250000, calculation of small gridding and correction of error are operated for those zoning indexes. The actual distribution for the zoning index of cold damage is worked out on a small grid of l km×l km, which gives different values under different geographical conditions. Using the function of spatial analyses and multi-overlapping method of GIS, and according to the grading indices of cold damage, grid data of the zoning index are calculated in the climate zone by the method of scoring to sort out the kinds. Then the spatial distribution of cold damage for late rice in Guangxi was analyzed, which gave out the divisional result of cold damage: zero, light, moderate and serious degree, and the results of assessment for different cold damage regions were summarized. The map of climatic division of cold damage for late rice in Guangxi can be drawn by GIS, and it provides a scientific basis for optimal distribution of late rice planting in Guangxi, and for making use of advantage and avoiding disadvantage.
The reconstruction of long series climate with annual resolution is an objective proposed by the IGBP-PAGES. Historical records on drought/flood are an important data source for reconstructing historical climate series. There are abundant and sequential drought/flood records in the Chinese historic documents. This research employed 6 regional drought/flood series within Hubei Province, which were derived from Collection of Historical Records on Climate in Hubei Province during Past 500 Years and covered a period from 1470 to 2000. By classification analysis of the 6 regional drought/flood series, they were classified into 3 categories which individually represented eastern, northern and southwestern regions of Hubei Province. After testing validity of the reconstructed series, we analyzed regional dry/wet variability, cycles and abrupt changes. The results showed that on multiple decades scale 1570~1770 and 1890~1950 were wet episodes and 1470~1520 and 1790~1830 were dry episodes in eastern region; 1470~1530, 1710~1750 and 1850~1910 were three wet episodes and 1470~1530 and 1770~1830 were two dry episodes in northern region; 1550~1610, 1650~1710, 1830~1890 and 1930~1990 were four wet episodes and there were no obvious dry episodes in southwestern region. The spectrum analysis and wavelet analysis illustrated that the dry/wet variations of each region were featured by several significant cycles spanning from 3~4 years to 250 years. Moreover, the three regions were commonly controlled by 50~70 years cycle. Running T-test illustrated that on centurial scale 2, 4 and 5 abrupt changes occurred individually in southwestern, northern and eastern regions while on 30-year scale 5, 4 and 7 abrupt changes occurred individually in southwestern, northern and eastern regions. The abrupt changes simultaneously occurring in three or any two regions had the same trends; the abrupt changes from dry to wet in 1822 occurred in all of the three regions.
Recently most relative quantitative modeling studies on retail location, based on GIS technology, did not consider factors simultaneously including traffic network, traffic grade, store attraction and competition. Considering shortages mentioned above, this paper attempts to integrate these factors and make quantitative analysis of large scale shops based on accessibility method, Gasa laws and GIS technique. This study, taking the large scale supermarkets in Shanghai central city as an example, applies the concentric buffer method, sector analysis and nearest neighborhood analysis to explore the supermarket spatial features. Trip cost method is used to investigate quantitatively supermarket accessibility, then delimitating market area is simulated based on trip cost analysis and Gasa rules. The result indicates that the whole accessibility of large scale supermarkets in Shanghai central city is good, and the west is better than the east. Trade areas around the outer ring are greater. There is obvious polarization among Gasa shops' trade areas and size. The characteristics mentioned above show that areas with intense competition among supermarkets coexist with areas lack of supermarkets, and there are grade differences between supermarkets' market size and functions.This study can provide references for urban planners in the aspect of retail network arrangement. Managers can quickly understand the shop trade areas and provide consult for choosing shops location. Some tips for selection of retail locations can also be provided. Although our research suggests that we provide more effective methods toward trade area definition, several problems should be solved in future. Further studies should be done on demand, and purchase ability and residential trip habits from consumers shall be taken into consideration.
Using the 5th census data with urban districts (counties, cities) as the basic geographic units, this paper analyzes the relationship between gender and vocation space based on research into 133 samples of 21 cities. Through an analysis of vocational composition and vocational typical areas of permanent population and floating population respectively, the authors come to some conclusions: (1) Permanent population has more diversified distribution in vocation space and is more organizational than floating population. None of them have produced an effect of social polarization, and the polarization of income and vocation distribution also does not create polarization of social space, but show a feature of quasi social polarization. (2) Vocation structure of both permanent population and floating population shows characteristics of middle-class and orientation to central city in space. High income groups who are trained with professional skill and highet education are dominating in both of them. Among permanent population, some are employed in agriculture and others in service industry. But the majority of floating people are employed in manufacturing sector. The difference between them does not show a strong contrast like core and periphery. Many studies compare permanent population with floating population in the context of itself and the others. Floating population is frequently regarded as the peripheral group. This paper provides a geographical annotation. But more subsequent research is needed to demonstrate whether the difference in vocation will cause structural social stratification between permanent population and floating population.
Nowadays, with the faster and faster pace of regional/global economic integration, cooperation opportunities on all scales have appeared one by one, and the urban agglomerations have been a stronge driving force to promote the persistence and rapid economic development in China. On the other hand, vicious competition between cities poses a threat to the improvement of the integrated competition capability of urban agglomeration. The resource competition between cities is a complex non-linear dynamic process, whose outcome would be influenced by population flow, gaps between per capita income, eco-efficiency and games between governments. It could be found that the resource competition is involved by market force, policies and governmental actions. Based on dynamic modes, the non-linear relationship between urban development and its resource is discussed. And an urban resource competition mode, with a risk-eluded function, is established to simulate the evolution mechanism. The results show: (1) during the process of urban evolution, there is an obvious scale effect, because of which urban areas could develop fast earlier and be held in by resource limitation when the city is oversized; (2) urban resource competition is a very complex dynamic process, with the effect of market economy, governmental action and technological factor. The economy stratagem, population and technological factors would influence the competition result. It helps to construct a harmonious resource relationship in urban agglomeration.
Port-city interface, an area interacted by the land for water-transportation-related activities and urban zones, is a coastal area representing the linkage of port land uses and urban land uses. As a projection of all social forces and technological development on a specific space, the evolution of port-city interface goes through a lifecycle of growth, mature and expansion, decline and abandon, and revitalization, showing different spatial linkage between port and city, respectively integration, mutual expansion, separation and reintegration. Spatially it migrates from inner urban core, to urban margin, and finally further away. This paper describes the evolution of port-city interface in Ningbo and aims to explain its spatial mechanism. Ports in different periods have developed port-city interfaces of various spatial forms. The ancient Jiangxia Wharves developed a complex tract of business and trade, and the port city Ningbo; while Jiangbei Terminal developed a complex district of western style business center and urban community, and the contemporary Zhenhai and Beilun terminals are developing complex zones of port-related coastal industries and logistic parks. The Ningbo case shows the mechanism of spatial evolution, that the technological revolution in maritime transportation and communication, and organization change for containerization and multi-modal transportation are the engines of its spatial migration, regional labor division in different socio-economic periods determines the industries and company agglomeration in port-city interface and the spatial patterns, the mechanism for revitalization is mostly from the urban renewal and political and economic demands, public care to environmental protection and legislation accelerate the separation of port and city, and institution reform is a critical condition. The case also shows that Ningbo is born to be a port city, with the expansion and migration of port and port-city interface, it is developing into a port metropolis. The results point to an eternal trend that the evolution of port-city interface is a basic element for the development of an active and growing port city, which calls creative policies and harmonious linkage between port and city, especially in the future regional development for environmentally and ecologically-friendly society.
Housing tenure choice is one of the main topics in urban geography, urban planning and sociology and longitudinal analysis has become the main methodology for housing micro studies in Western countries. As an important event in the life course of a household, housing tenure transition correlates closely to the change of household profile, institutional variables and local housing market variation as well. Using COX's proportional-hazards model, this study analyzed the factors which shape the transition of house tenure by taking into consideration housing tenure together with big events of individual life course. Results reveal that renters displayed the greatest desire to change tenure status, but for those who have already obtained the ownership, partial or full ownership as it may be, the desire to change tenure status fade intermediately. For the survival time, the longest are the spells that change to full ownership, the second longest are the spells that change to partial ownership, and the shortest are the spells that change to rent. The model shows that both household characteristics and institutional variables have strong influences on the housing tenure transitions. The decision of individuals on the shift of housing tenure from rent to own is not only related to major events in the life course but also affected by the relationship between households and work units (or governments). This phenomenon is believed to be the result of interaction between the double powers of planning economy and market economy in transitional urban China.
The roles and functions of tourism destination are not only determined by the discrepancy of its tourism statistical indicators, but depended on the tourist flows relations among relative destinations as well, and the interactive relationship is vital to all of destinations. By constructing Chinese inbound tourist flow network, this article firstly classifies, compares, and positions the roles and functions of provincial destinations by structural equivalence model which is from the theory of Social Network Analysis. Then it analyzes those functions by the centralization analysis indicators quantitatively. Finally, this article tries to find out which factors and how those factors affect the function models. It is suggested that 31 provincial destinations in China could be divided into four role types, namely, national tourist center, regional tourist hub, common destination and marginal destination. Although there are many differences among every single destination, the same role type has the same centralization indicator characters. Furthermore, the roles and functions in Chinese inbound tourist flow network are largely subject to regional economic development level, tourist facilities, external contact strength etc. Meanwhile the tourism resources and internal traffic convenience have less influence. In brief, by analyzing the structural character of Chinese inbound tourist flow network and positioning the roles and functions of provincial destinations, this article provides some references for guiding the Chinese inbound tourism in every province into coordination and harmony.
