Based on the MA conceptual framework and characteristics of grassland ecosystem in the Three-River Headwaters region, we proposed an integrated assessment index system of grassland ecosystem of the region. In this system, there are 4 indicator groups, of which, 15 indicators at the first level, and 75 indicators at the second level, which are used for assessing grassland ecosystem structure, supporting, regulating and provisioning services. The integrated assessment index system of grassland ecosystem is aimed at characteristics of grassland ecosystem in the Three-River Headwaters region in the eastern Tibetan Plateau and the human demands for this region. This system includes a set of indicators of land cover and grassland degradation for assessing the grassland ecosystem structure, and a set of indicators, for example, primary production and soil formation, etc. , for assessing the ecosystem supporting service, and a set of indicators, for example, carbon, evaporation and transpiration, run-off, etc. , for assessing the ecosystem regulating service, and a set of indicators, such as, water and grassland carrying capacity, etc. , for assessing the ecosystem provisioning service. In this system, we designed remote sensing classification system on grassland degradation in order to make a dynamic analysis on the process of grassland ecosystem degradation in the decade time scale, and remote sensing classification system on grassland degradation trend for assessing ecological effect of the recent ecological restoration project in the year time scale.
The city is the typical artificial landscape system with the characteristics of high fragmentation and low connectivity. Based on the connectivity theory of landscape ecological network, this article discusses the influence, connotation and the characteristics of landscape ecological connectivity and the connection to eco-city construction of China, analyses the typical graphical model of urban landscape ecological network, choosing γ=L/3(V-2),α=L-V+1/2V-5,β=2L/V (in the formula of γ, α and β, L is the number of factual line between knots, V is the number of knots), density of corridor d=L/A and indicator C= L/ξ nA (in formula of indicator d and C, L is the total length of corridor (km), A is area (km2), n is the number of knots, ξ is coefficient) as evaluation indicators and system and tries to evaluate the connectivity of Shanghai urban landscape ecological network in the road network, the green space network, the river system network and the road-river-green space compound network. The characteristics of river network are γ=0.65, α=0.45, β=3.85 and C =1.93. The characteristics of road network are γ=0.7,α=0.54,β=4.16 and C =2.08. The characteristics of green space network are γ=0.49,α=0.34,β=2.88 and C =1.44. The characteristics of road-river-green space compound network are γ=0.44,α=0.16,β=2.63 and C=4.13. Calculation analysis aims at providing a foundation for eco-city development construction and the urban landscape ecological network planning. Results show that, with different connectivity characters individually for each network, all the networks have higher connectivity, but the connectivity degrades sharply to the path-river-green space compound network. The indicators γ,α and β of road network degrade by 37%, 70% and 35% individually, and the indicatorsγ,α and β of river network degrade by 32%, 64% and 138% individually. All this shows fragmentation, isolation and low connection of Shanghai urban landscape eco-network. Finally, the paper gives some suggestions to dealing with the problems of promoting the circle connectivity, increasing the number and scale of network knots, and constructing the eco-bridge between three networks at each knot in order to promote connectivity of the total eco-network.
This paper aims at exploring the urban ecological security level and assessment methods, and providing the scientific basis for the policy of the assessment and management on the urban ecological security. Shenzhen and four municipalities are taken as case studies to contrive an evaluating index system of urban ecological security depending on the Pressure-Status-Response (PSR) model. Firstly, the authors use four kinds of assessment models to simulate urban ecological security levels for those cities in 2006. A comparison is made between these models, based on the optimal method in combination of the subjective preference (Analytic Hierarchy Process) and the objective information (the modified Entropy), so as to identify the weights of all assessment indexes comprehensively. Then the ecological systems of Shenzhen and four municipalities are evaluated by applying the modified Grey Relational Analysis, the Matter-Element extension, the Fuzzy Comprehensive method and Main Constituents Projection method. The results are shown as follows: (1) Shenzhen's ecological security level is the highest, followed by Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, and Chongqing. Shenzhen, Beijing and Tianjin are labeled as relative safety at ecological security level, Shanghai is critically secure, and Chongqing is unsafe; Shanghai possesses the most developmental potentiality, while less in Shenzhen, Beijing and Tianjin, and still the lowest in Chongqing. From the conclusions above, the differences can be found in terms of ecological environmental pressures, the states of ecological systems and the responses of human beings for different cities. (2) In the studying method of urban ecological security evaluation, every model can obtain a similar result and can reflect the applicability on ecological security assessment. The results of Fuzzy Comprehensive method and Matter-Element Extension method are more comprehensive, and more differentiations can be revealed in Fuzzy Comprehensive method which can analyze the problems and offer the targeted measures than in the Matter-Element Extension. The conclusion of level judgment drawn by the Grey Associative Analysis is not possessed of comparability and cannot reflect the gaps among the cities. The Main Constituents Projection method cannot directly demonstrate the ecological security levels, although it can simplify the data structure, reduce the information loss of the original data and avoid the subjective arbitrariness as well as only showing the high or low level of ecological security. Thus there are some limitations in this method on ecological security assessment.
In the past 20 years, the Environmental Kuznets Curve has been regarded as one of the most powerful tools in studying the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution. Among the conventional study in Environmental Kuznets Curve, most researchers implicitly assume that regional pollution is not affected by the neighboring regions. So, from analytical viewpoint and empirical behavior, the traditional methods used to examine the Environmental Kuznets Curve are suspected for neglecting spatial dependence among different regions. Consequently, the environmental policies based on the conclusions are hard to be convinced. With a view to the above shortcoming in describing the Environmental Kuznets Curve with the traditional methods, this paper investigates the relationship between environmental pollution and economic growth in China using panel data models which takes the spatial dependence into account. In this study, we select five types of pollution including waste water emission, waste gas emission, sulfur dioxide mission, dust emission and smoke dust emission as the environmental indexes and per capita GDP as the income index with 28 provincial data from 1993 to 2005. The results show that: (1) Pollution has spatial dependence in China and spatial panel data model is more suitable for studying the Environmental Kuznets Curve; (2) Considering spatial effect, the estimate result seems to be more robust than OLS estimate. Because the emissions of pollution are not only effected by the per capita income in the same region, but also largely impacted by the emissions from neighboring regions. (3) Resident environment quality-income is relatively low and does not take up a greater proportion in consumption demand.
This study aims to disclose dynamic relationship among socio-economic development, land use and eco-environment efficiency by proposing a response model of eco-environment to urban expansion. Firstly, we quantitatively describe the changes of land use from urban expansion by using the technology of remote sensing image interpretation. Secondly, dynamic relationship between eco-environment efficiency and socio-economic development is simulated through proposed model which is constructed based on theories of the maximum social welfare and Green GDP (GGDP). The proposed model is applied to Xi'an, China. Our model proves to be efficienct in simulating the dynamic relationship among land use, economic growth and eco-environmental efficiency through the analysis of urban expansion process in Xi'an. Results show that urban expansion will make the social welfare better only if marginal eco-environment cost caused by the urban expansion is less than the average land use; the improved technology and technological innovation can reduce eco-environment cost and increase land use efficiency, thus postpone the terminal of urban expansion. The simulated result shows that the urban expansion of urbanization process in Xi'an should be suspended in 2024 under the current situation.
The famous fossil site of Hulu cave in Tangshan, Nanjing, is yielding Homo erectus fossils. Relative to the whole study of Homo erectus in Hulu cave, it is the weak link to study the cave deposit and its evolution. Combining with the achievements in chronology research, this paper analyzes the records of the oxide of cave clastic deposit and the fossils of phytolith from four sections with statistical methods, and clarifies the facts of the stratum contrastive relativation of each section. Besides, with the ground penetrating radar (GPR) method, the spatial structure and characteristic of the deposits of the eastern cave have been renewed, and on the basis of the characteristics of the cave clastic sediments, the constructive framework of the cave sections and cave embedding clastic sediments has been set up. The cave sediments in Tangshan, Nanjing have been identified into 7 layers from the bottom to the top as follows: (1) the lower breccia layer in the bottom of the cave, (2) the earth layer containing the breccia deposit, (3) the mid breccia layer, (4) the clastic earth layer, (5) the upper breccia layer, (6) the clastic clay layer, and (7) the pyramidal clastic breccia layer. Among them, the strata where the No.1 skull of Nanjing Man existed could be re-correlated with Layer ③. As the result of the evolution of paleo-climate and environment, the change of dynamic system of cave inside and the effect of local adjustment of erosion datum plane, the development of Hulu cave sediments can be divided into five stages as follows: (1) the erosion deposit stage of the northern cave, (2) the erosion deposit stage of the eastern cave, (3) the erosion deposit stage of the southern fissure cave, (4) the pyramidal deposit stage of the central cave, and (5) the erosion deposit stage of the western cave. The cave evolution could change with the space-time, and it is not so fit for living, thus it reflects that Hulu cave is not a good place for the ancient people. Based on the above researches, the paper provides the new visual angle and methods to discuss and analyze the evolution of karst cave, living age and environment of Homo erectus in Nanjing and further archeology.
Severe soil erosion has threatened land resources in Northeast China. Distributed at mid- and high latitudes, soil loss caused by snowmelt runoff plays a main part in soil erosion in this region. But there is little research on it. In this study, the characteristics of snowfall and snow cover were studied by using daily precipitation records from 93 climate stations, and the characteristics of snowmelt runoff and sediment yields were analyzed based on daily runoff and sediment yield data from 27 typical hydrological stations. The results showed that the snow period was 5-8 months and the snow cover period was 3.5-7 months in Northeast China, which prolonged gradually from south to north for both of the periods. The average proportion of snowfall to annual precipitation was 7%-25%, which caused 13.3%-24.9% of snowmelt runoff and 5.8%-27.7% of snowmelt sediment yields over the whole year. Although the snowmelt sediment transport modulus did not have significant relationship with snowfall, the distribution of snowfall and rainfall in a year had great influence on the ratio of snowmelt sediment yields to the year's total. The topography has great impacts on snowmelt sediment transport modulus. The snowfall and snowmelt runoff are less in hilly regions than in mountainous regions, but the sediment transport modulus in hilly regions was 2.9 times higher than that in mountainous regions. The sediment transport modulus (ST) has a good power function with the watershed area (S): ST=797.62S-0.6395. This trend is more apparent in hilly regions, while in the mountainous regions, the relationship between them is complex. The analyzed runoff and sediment yields in this paper were based on the observations in the hydrological stations which did not include deposited part before flowing into the river. It is necessary to strengthen the monitoring of runoff and soil loss during snowmelt season in order to get a better understanding of snowmelt erosion and mechanisms of causing factors.
The hydraulic geometry is an effective tool in quantifying the relationship between channel morphology and hydraulic variables. The research on hydraulic geometry plays an important role in understanding the channel change caused by natural environment change and it can provide some insightful advice in river restoration and channel design. The study area is located in the Wuding River Basin. Using the data measured during the period 1959-1969, the hydraulic geometry relationships are analyzed for 34 cross-sections. The results show that the hydraulic geometry exponents can generally be categorized into three types: b>f & m>f & b+ f>m; b
In recent 100 years, global warming is increasing remarkably, and there are even greater uncertainty, changing precipitation trend and regional differences. In this study, a wavelet analysis method of Morlet is used to research the periodical regulations at different time scales of the precipitation time series during the latest nearly 100 years in Northeast China. Based on the monthly and annual precipitation data of Harbin, Shenyang, Changchun and Dalian weather stations covering the period from 1905 to 2005, the periodic oscillation of precipitation and the points of abrupt change at different time scales along the time series are discovered and the main periods of every serial are confirmed. The result shows that the precipitation of Northeast China has a decreasing trend, with rates of -5.2mm/10a, and -12.7mm/10a, -7.1mm/10a, -2.7mm/10a, 1.3mm/10a for Northeast China, Changchun, Harbin, Dalian and Shenyang respectively. There are multi-time scales of periodical change, which present appears different traits at different phases. There are periodic oscillations of 2a-3a, 5a-6a, 10a and 50a for the seasonal and annual precipitation variations. The local characteristics of time-frequency for wavelet analysis can demonstrate the detailed structures of precipitation. The wavelet analysis can be an alternative approach to the analysis of climate multi-time scales characteristics and the forecast of short-term climate variations.
This paper studied the responses of the environment to the climatic changes by using the temperature and precipitation data at Gonghe station covering the period from 1953 to 2005. The results show that: (1) The annual average temperatures in the area showed a marked increasing trend, with a rate of about 0.28℃ per 10 years, higher than the mean values for China and the whole world. The seasonal temperatures and precipitation showed different increasing trends. The temperatures rose more significantly in autumn (from September to November) and winter (from December to next February), while spring (from March to May) and summer (from June to August) witnessed a slower temperature increase. The annual precipitation showed a slight increasing trend. In summer and autumn, the precipitation showed a tendency to decrease year by year, and more marked decrease was recorded in autumn. However, in spring and winter the precipitation shows a tendency to increase year by year. (2) The warmer and drier climate is the key factor leading to the environmental problems such as desertification, grassland degradation, frequent disasters and decreasing runoff, which have had great effects on the socio-economic development and environment in this area. (3) The Gonghe basin is one of the sensitive and vulnerable areas to the climate change on the Tibetan Plateau and even in the world.
Wetlands exist in a transition zone between aquatic and terrestrial environments which can be altered by subtle changes in hydrology. Hydrological process determines the formation, development and succession of wetlands. Taking the Dongting Lake as a study area, this paper studies the hydrological recharge effect of the atmosphere precipitation. According to the meteorological data, remote sensing image and typical underlay feature data, the recharge effectivity of the rainfall on the Dongting Lake wetland is analyzed supported by GIS (geographical information system) technology and SCS (Soil Conservation Service) model. Based on the analysis of spatio-temporal feature of rainfall and modeling of the runoff of precipitation, we obtained ARC (area recharge coefficient) and VRC (volume recharge coefficient). Thus, ARC well explains the acreage relationship of watershed and that of the water area in the lake sometime. It presents not only the wetland hydrology feature depending on the recharge water, but also the recharge effect of the runoff coming from rainfall and its influence on the water area. However, it is difficult to illustrate water fluid in wetland resulting from precipitation recharge in a period. Considering the relationship between flux of rainfall-runoff and volume of lake, VRC is calculated to make up for the shortcoming of ARC. According to the model, the recharge effectivity of rainfall can be computed in a certain period. ARC, together with VRC, can better explain runoff coming from rainfall as well as how it affects Dongting Lake's hydrological process and how it recharges water to the wetland, including the water area and water cycle. Thus it is significant to realize the importance of rainfall to the wetland and to protect and manage Dongting Lake wetland.
It is very important to obtain accurate land use changes data in coal mine area for making land use planning and land reclamation policy. The traits of CA (Cellular automata) such as strong complicated computing capability, inherent parallel computing capability, highly dynamic characteristic and spatial concept, etc. , have made it very strong on spatial-temporal evolution modeling of the complex system. CA is applied to simulate and predict land use spatial structural evolution in mine area because of its characteristics. But it is very different for land use changes in coal mine area in terms of urban growth. Coal area growth can be divided into four stages, whose evolution rules are different from other areas. Traditional CA model cannot satisfy this demand because of its static transition rules. In view of different characteristics of land use changes in every stage of coal mine, an improved CA model based on the lifecycle theory for coal mine area is proposed to simulate and predict the changes of land use in mine area. This improved model allows the users to select appreciate transition rules according to stages. To test the efficiency of the model, the Changcun coal mine in Lu'an mine area is chosen as a study area. By collecting remote images and other data, considering the characteristics of the according stages in Wuyang and Shihejie coal mine, the model is used to simulate and predict the land utilization evolution of mature period and declining period in Changcun mine area. It is demonstrated by the actual case that the model is both feasible and effective, thus its predicted results can be taken as accurate and reliable data for the land use plan of mine area.
Forest resource is the largest and most important natural resource in Lao PDR. Based on the forest cover and land use data of Lao PDR in years of 1982, 1992 and 2002, the concept of Lorenz curve and Gini coefficients (GC) are introduced to make an qualitative and quantitative analysis of the forest cover change in Lao PDR. Moreover, its driving forces and main influencing factors are analyzed. The result indicated that the area proportion and the distributed structure of each type of forest land have changed relatively. In terms of the area, Current Forest (CF) and Other Wooded Areas (OW) decreased most remarkedly, by 3% and 5.3% respectively. While Potential Forest (PF) and Permanent Agriculture (PA) increased by 5.4% and 2.1% separately. Comparatively, the area of Other Non-Forest Areas (NF) did not change much. As for the feature of the forest distribution, Current Forest (CF), and Other Wooded Areas (OW) show discrete, while Potential Forest (PF), Permanent Agriculture (PA) and Other Non-Forest Areas (NF) tend to be balanced. Forest cover of Lao PDR has changed due to its history and level of economic and social development, which is the co-driven result of development of society and economy, population increasing and so on. And the main driving forces are the widespread poverty of Lao PDR and the slash-and-burn cultivation, which has a devastating influence on society and environment.
Biomass on the grassland is the main indicator of balance of livestock carrying capacity, and is also an important reference for the sustainable development and management of the grassland. Based on the progress in this field at home and abroad, this paper aims to conduct research on the grassland monitoring under the guidance of the Ministry of Agriculture of China. Supported by high-precision data sources of grassland, we studied the calculation of grass production and balance of livestock carrying capacity in the rangeland region of Northeast China. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The index model is the most appropriate one for the calculation of grass production. The accuracy of the yield estimation model is more than 80%. (2) In 2007, the output of fresh grass amounts to 169,160 thousand tons, equivalent to 50,940 thousand tons of hay, and fresh weight per unit area is 4562 kg/ha, equaling 1374 kg/ha of dry weight; (3) In 2007, pastoral areas and semi-pastoral areas are generally overgrazed. The balance rate of livestock carrying capacity of the pastoral areas is 32.23%, and that of the semi-pastoral areas is 48.51%. There are three counties stocking deficiently, 11 counties stocking appropriately, 31 countries stocking avergrazed, 11 counties stocking seriously overgrazed, and one county stocking extremely overgrazed. Among the 57 countries, more than 43 countries are stocking overgrazed or even extremely overgrazed, accounting for 75% of the total. This article can provide a basis for the scientific plan of the development of animal husbandry in the rangeland region of Northeast China.
It is important to achieve the qualitative and quantitative information of land use/cover in a county (or county-level city) of China with higher precision, which is helpful to enhance eco-environment protection and sustainable development of rural economy. Presently, remote sensing images of the medium and high resolution are mostly used to monitor the changes of land use/cover in a county. To make better use of remote sensing technology in monitoring land use change, it is necessary to improve the automatization level of information extraction from the remote sensing images and meet the precision of change monitoring synchronically. Hierarchical information extraction is an effective method for information extraction of land use/cover in a county from the remote sensing images. Based on the information of each ground object, the image is decomposed layer upon layer according to certain principles. The method functions well in the classification precision over "the same object with different spectra" and "different objects with the same spectrum" because the environment of information extraction is comparatively pure. Aided by the TM image in Xinyi city of Jiangsu province obtained in the winter of 2003, the hierarchical method is used to extract the information of land use/cover. On the basis of such processes of original images as geometric correction, image registration, image clip and image enhancement, first of all, the image was classified using the maximum likelihood classifier and the unused land with the least inaccurate probability was extracted from the classification result observed. Then, the scope of the water was extracted using spectral analysis method, the urban construction land and village by combining supervised classification method with visual interpretation method, and the woodland using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Finally, the cropland was extracted. By comparing extracted result of land use/cover with the land use map in the same period, the area accuracy of the land use classification for the entire Xinyi city reaches 96.17%, and the space accuracy reaches 88.38%. These indicate that the hierarchical method applied to information extraction of remote sensing images is feasible.
Taking transportation infrastructure level and transportation smooth degree to other regions into consideration, choosing 8 indexes, including road density, railway density and distance from the road, etc. , this paper established the transportation ability index model firstly. By using the model and geographic information system technology, this paper then systematically evaluated the transportation ability of China in 2005 at county and province levels, so as to bring some scientific references and policy-making supports to the transportation planning and population development planning of China. The results showed that: ⑴ at county level, the transportation ability of counties within China in 2005 was significantly different, demonstrating a spindle shape in general. The spatial distribution presented a tendency downward gradually from coastal regions to inland regions. Compared with poverty-stricken areas, the transportation ability of urban areas were much better, and the transportation density difference was notable. ⑵ at province level, the transportation ability of provinces in 2005 was also significantly different, presenting a distribution of "high in east, low in west" in general; Transportation density difference was also notable between different levels, and the transportation supporting ability of western provinces was inferior. Thus, our government should make great efforts to improve the transportation condition in western China, so as to narrow the economic development gap to realize the coordinated development within different regions of China.
Much research has been done on the effect of geographical elements on economic difference throughout the world. Furthermore, based on the theory of two nature of metropolitan location proposed by Krugman, as well as the theory of human-land relationship and comparative advantages, this paper presents three geographical elements that affect economic differences. The first geographical element includes natural environment, i.e. , elevation, slope, undulating topography, human climate index, water resource index, and potential agricultural production; the second consists of traffic and location, which are represented by transport facilitation and economic position respectively; and the third contains human capital and R&D level, respectively represented by years of schooling and the number of patents. Supported by Arcgis 9.0 software, this paper, through modeling, analyzes the impact of various geographical elements on economic difference within the whole country and three major regions. The result shows that the geographical environment plays an increasingly important role in economic development. In addition, it extends the knowledge of Sachs et al. about geographical elements of economic development. At present, China's economy is in transition. Among all geographical elements, the great one affecting economic difference is transport facilities index, reaching 0.374. So more capital should be injected in infrastructure construction in the future.
The development of producer services greatly promotes urban synthesized function and strengthens urban international competition. Based on an analysis of industry relevancy and its spatial distribution, this paper conducted an empirical study on the regional comparison of producer services between Beijing and Shanghai. The following conclusions are drawn. Firstly, the growth of producer services speeded up evidently from 1997 to 2002 both in Beijing and Shanghai. Finance, transportation and real estate were the main components of the producer services. Secondly, the output of producer services was mainly consumed by tertiary industries. There was an upward trend of the intermediate demand from 1997 to 2002. The share of tertiary industries on intermediate demand was higher in Beijing, while that of manufacturing industries on intermediate demand was higher in Shanghai. Thirdly, the main consumption by tertiary industries focused on finance, but the structure of intermediate demand was quite different between Beijing and Shanghai. Fourthly, the structure of intermediate demand by different types of manufacturing industries was quite different between Beijing and Shanghai. Finally, the spatial distribution of producer services focused on inner city and suburbs both in Beijing and Shanghai, which also presented a structure of circle attenuation. The structure of spatial distribution by different types of producer services was dissimilar, which could be divided into four types.
The economic differences of provincial border-regions is a new research field of regional economic discrepancy. Based on comprehensive economic data of county level in Huaihai economic zone during the period of 1996-2005, using a global and local spatial autocorrelation, this paper carries out a preliminary exploration of the spatio-temporal pattern features, evolution trend and driving mechanism in this zone. The results are shown as follows. First, as for the counties similar at development level in Huaihai economic zone, the trend of polarization and congregation is consistent with evolution trend of economic diversity, which indicates that spatial polarization becomes the spatial structure evolution tendency in Huaihai economic zone. Second, during 1996-2003, the regional economic disparities in Huaihai economic zone, as well as inner economic disparities of the four regions, continue to expand with fluctuation, and the inner differences of Subei and Yudong regions are the main contributor to the changes in Huaihai economic zone. Since 2004, economic development disparity in Huaihai economic zone presents a slow expanding tendency, however, the inner economic differences of the four regions are obviously showing a east to west gradual expanding trend. Thirdly, H-H counties obviously concentrates to Lunan, and L-L counties obviously concentrates to Wanbei and Yudong. The result indicates that the economic diversity between the east and the west becomes the main token discrepancy of economy in Huaihai economic zone. Finally, the variation of the economic discrepancy in Huaihai economic zone is driven by many economic factors, such as investment ability, growth rate and industrial structure, as well as the influence of development policies of border-regions and the obstructing effect of provincial borders.
The coordinated development of urbanization and economic development is a worldwide experience; also is inherent requirements of economic development. China's urbanization has unique pattern and characteristic, which has attracted attention from a large number of multi-disciplinary scholars and relevant government departments at home and abroad. At present, there is a heated dispute on the correlation of China's urbanization level and economic development. This paper highlights the characteristics and pattern of urbanization in the world based on the quadrant map, using data of 118 countries or regions. The results indicate that both the process of urbanization and the effects of GDP on urbanization have shown a downward trend. Next, a further exploration examines China's urbanization process and economic development over time, which indicates that both of urbanization level and the level of economic development belongs to the type of low-level coordination pattern. They are coordinated between the low level of urbanization and economic development, and urbanization is not seriously lagged behind the economic development. The low level of urbanization is closely related with the low level of economic development. Furthermore, a dynamic analysis was done on China's urbanization pattern in the world. Actually, China's urbanization lag appeared in 1985-1995, but it has been narrowed since 1995 as a result of rapid urbanization growth. The complicated realities revealed in this analysis challenge the existing two prevalent views: (1) the urbanization process continues to speed up in the world; (2) China is at very low urbanization level relative to its level of economic development.
Port function is a special function for a city, and it is difficult to find an equilibrium point with other city functions. The balance between port function and city function is very important, so as to ensure the healthy development. Based on the analysis of the relationship between port function and city function, we establish a relation matrix, and think that port function and city function have nine types of syntagmatic relation. Then we introduce Relative Concentration Index to make quantitative analysis on the matrix, which helps us quantitatively analyze the relative position between port function and city function. According to the variation characteristics of RCI, we can get the interdependence degree between ports and cities. By taking 25 national-level port cities as the research objects, we analyze the status and evolution characteristic of the function relations since 1985. Based on this point, the relation between port function and city function under different states is described, and the universal laws of the function relation of port cities are summarized in China. The laws are as follows: (1)The relation between port function and city function is unbalanced. (2)The evolution of the relation between port function and city function is a gradual process. (3)Evolution periods of the relation between port function and city function are different for different port cities. (4)Port cities of different developing scales have their respective equilibrium state. Finally, we put forward the corresponding adjustment direction to the port cities which deviate from normal development track.
Urban socio-spatial structure in Western countries has been extensively analyzed since the 1940s. Shevky and Bell (1949) initiated social area analysis in the study of Los Angeles and San Francisco. In China, there have been many studies of the social structure of major cities using the Fifth National Population Census data at the subdistrict (jiedao) level recently. Chinese scholars carried out research in the cities of Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanchang and so on, but the research fruits of urban social areas on China's city are rather limited. This paper uses the factorial ecological analysis and cluster analysis (Ward's method) to explore the social spatial structure of Nanjing in 2000, based on the Fifth National Population Census data at the subdistrict (jiedao) level in Nanjing. The result reveals that major factors under consideration for the components of social structure in Nanjing include floating population, agriculture population, urban residential factor, educational degree and occupational status, as well as urban unemployed population factor. According to the factor scores in 2000, the city of Nanjing can be divided into six types of social areas: 1) higher socio-economic residential areas, located in the north part of the core area in Nanjing; 2) high population density, ordinary salary worker areas, located in the south part of the core area; 3) mixed areas of floating population and ordinary salary worker on city outskirts; 4) crowded floating population areas, located in the urban fringe; 5) outer subur-ban industrial areas; and 6) agricultural areas, located in the periphery area. The concept model of the urban social mosaic exhibits generally a zonal pattern with the synthesis of sector and zonal pattern. The inner ring-belt is the old core composed of the native residents. The middle ring-belt is transitional. The outer ring-belt is composed of the agricultural areas. We consider that the market-oriented reform, Nanjing urban planning, the history of the city development, and its physical geography are the main formation mechanism.
Based on plenty of field work and relevant theoretic analysis, this paper unveils and summarizes the developmental characteristics and the driving forces of the urban-rural fringe of Haidian District. The conclusion is the same with other urban-rural fringes in Beijing and in other large cities of China. Results show that the composition of residents in the urban-rural fringe of Haidian District is very complicated. Many people have no steady job and income, and their social welfare is also at a lower level. The size of floating population is almost equal to that of domicile population, and most of them live in the villages and towns of Haidian District. The manner of living and working of floating population has great effect on the development of urban-rural fringe. The proportion of green land in urban-rural fringe is much higher, and the compensation of taking up green land and the development right in green belt has not been resolved very well. The village-owned land is nearly half of the total area. The scarcity of reasonable criterion on land expropriation, development and management results in heavy conflicts. The traditional rural economy and low purchasing power of people impedes the improvement of industry of urban-rural fringe. There are many new industry parks in urban-rural fringe, but because of the great discrepancy between high-tech industry and traditional industry, they can not match very well. It is difficult for high-tech industry to bring into play it diffuse effect. There are more investors and managers of infrastructure than one in urban-rural fringe, and their capabilities are different. To be worse, the responsibilities of building infrastructure among different investors and managers are intersectant. All of these bring up a "dirty, disorder, bad and dangerous" urban-rural fringe. Special location, complicated background and weak system, planning and policy are main factors that influence the development of the urban-rural fringe.
The support of the rural aged is the important issue that needs urgent solution in the 21st century. Taking the rural area of Cixi city, Zhejiang province as a case study, we probe into the home care characteristics of the rural aged in the coastal developed areas. The results are drawn as follows: (1) The most important issue of housing conditions for rural aged is the low possession rate of infrastructure and supporting facilities and small per-capita housing area. The possession rate of infrastructure and supporting facilities, such as washing machine, fixed-line telephones, refrigerator, air conditioner, and water heater does not exceed 30%. Some 9.46% of the aged have a per capita housing area less than 15 m2. (2) Most of the rural aged are living in a regular lifestyle. But the quality of their leisure behavior is not high because of their low education and weakly active ability. Popular and easy recreational activities, such as watching TV and listening to the radio are the main entertainments of the aged. There are only 26.9%, 3.4% and 1.7% of the aged who often take part in activities in multi-functional rooms, outdoor sports and universities for the aged, respectively. (3) There are few elderly people living with their children. Only 13.9% of the aged live with their children, and most of the aged live together with their spouses or live alone. Some 26.9% and 36.3% of the aged can not receive help from their relatives or friends when they need some help. The living of the left-behind aged in the rural area is noteworthy. (4) The economical conditions of most rural old people are featured by low incomes and low expenditures. The average annual income and expenditure of the rural aged are 3160 yuan and 3024 yuan, respectively. They can manage to make ends meet. But the Engel's coefficient of the aged is more than 80%, which is two times the average value of the whole city. (5) More than half of the aged suffer from various chronic diseases. They have poor self-sufficiency and need Custodial treatment to varying degrees. Thus they cannot afford to see the doctor when they are ill. More than 10% of the aged have some difficulty using telephone and public transportation facilities, managing finance, climbing stairs or going shopping alone. Some 75.67% of the aged need to be looked after to some extent. The number of the aged who can see the doctor on their own initiative when they are ill only occupies 25.33% of those that should receive treatment. (6) Very few aged people desire to live out their twilight years in social welfare. Almost all of the aged have heavy demand for community services, such as housework, house daycare, family doctor, and chat for diversion. But only 3% of the aged have used these services. Some 7.7% of the aged felt lonely because they live alone and some of their spiritual demands cannot be met.
Classifying and evaluating tourism resource scientifically will be of great significance in rationally programming and effectively exploiting tourism resource, as well as in promoting the development of regional tourism industry. Science and technology tourism, as an important component part of the modern tourism, is playing an increasingly important role in the practice of tourism. Therefore, establishing a classification and evaluation system of science and technology tourism resource scientifically will be good not only for developing the science and technology tourism, but also for the development of science and technology tourism. However, similar studies were not found in literatures of China. Considering the above conditions, this paper gave a brief review of the study on the classification and evaluation of the tourism resource, both in domestic and foreign tourism studies. After analyzing the concept and characteristics of the science and technology tourism resource, the paper established the classification system of the science and technology tourism resource by considering the "classification investigation and evaluation of tourism resources" and other classification methods. Furthermore, based on the methods of Delphi, Analytic Hierarchical Process and referring to national criterion for the assessment of tourism resources as well, the paper established the evaluation system of the science and technology tourism resource. Evaluating the science and technology tourism resources in the way of the integration of qualitative and quantitative evaluation is consistent with the aim of providing the scientific foundation for development of the science and technology tourism resource. The aim of this study is to establish a classification and evaluation system of science and technology tourism resource scientifically, so as to provide some guidelines in optimizing the development of science and technology tourism resource and making science and technology tourism development strategies.
Study on the residents' perceptions and attitudes to tourism destinations have been a lasting study topic of Tourism Geography. A temporally comparative study of residents' perceptions and attitudes is one of two future study subjects in the study area. Ancient villages are a special type of tourism destination. It is particularly important and urgent for ancient villages' tourism sustainable development and world heritage protection to study residents' perceptions and attitudes. Taking the world cultural heritage-Xidi village-as an example, the paper analyzes the temporal change of resort residents' perceptions and attitudes. The results are as follows. 1) As time flies, residents' family income in Xidi village has dramatically increased, in which the proportion of tourism profit (tourism ticket profit and tourism business profit) in family total income has apparently elevated. This indicates that from respective aspect, the extent of residents' reliance on tourism industry has gradually strengthened. 2) As time runs, all the residents in Xidi village pay more and more attention to tourism social-cultural and environmental effect. It suggests that this change conforms to mankind's general perception rule, from formal to substantive, from economic to cultural and from matter to spirit. 3) The temporal changes of Xidi residents' perceptions and attitudes are from collective impacts of diverse aspects, such as individual, tourist scenic spot and government. These detailed influencing factors are formal and substantive rationality, interior management of tourist scenic spot, exterior space compete of tourist scenic spot, construction of new villages and government policy of alluring foreign capital. Furthermore, it clarifies the influencing factors and shaping mechanism of temporal changes of tourism destination residents' perceptions and attitudes.
Canal heritage is an important part of cultural heritage. The Grand Canal has been added to the Tentative List of World Heritage, but there have been relatively few studies on the heritage resource & cultural value of the Canal, especially on the northern section of the Canal in Beijing. Even in the Description of The Grand Canal on website of UNESCO World Heritage Committee, there are no words about the section of the Canal in Beijing (including the Tonghui River). This paper aims at paying close attention to the canal heritage resource & cultural value of the Tonghui and other sections of the Canal in Beijing. The section of Tonghui River, located in Chaoyang District of Beijing City, was a major royal canal in the east of Beijing City during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. It is rich in cultural heritage resource. Now the River is serving as the city channel for discharging flood instead of a royal transport line. Along with the Beijing's urban expansion eastwards, it is urgent for us to harness and protect the environment and heritage resource of the Tonghui River. It is shown that, by the investigation along the Tonghui River done at the end of 2007, there is much canal heritage resource with high cultural value but insufficient public awareness and technical support. Therefore, in order to protect and manage canal heritage resource effectively, the paper proposes three suggestions: to protect key heritage resource of the River that conforms to the criterion for inscribing it into the World Heritage List; to renovate comprehensively heritage resource and setting of the River; and to inherit the canal history and intangible heritage of the River for future generations.
