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    Earth Surface Processes
  • Earth Surface Processes
    V. F. S. SIT, CAI Jian ming
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    In contemporary China, cities on major river deltas along its Pacific coast have emerged as the fastest growing urban centers After the opening up and reform of 1978,the development of those cities became even more striking comparing with other Chinese cities Around such key centers as Beijing Tianjin, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, new mega urban regions,i.e., the Extended Metropolitan Regions (EMRs) have emerged They are export oriented with open economies of different degrees, and have led the nation in international trade, FDI inflow, and rate of economic growth and urbanization in the past two decades The global experiences, particularly experiences in South East Asia in the past three decades had shown that as economic globalization proceeds, almost all EMRs in those countries have experienced a quicker growth and become a more and more dominating actor in its national economy It is also believed that the future competition between countries will very likely lie in the competition between those EMRs Therefore knowledge on the functions and formation of EMRs in China is an important basis for its regional planning It is also an important element for understanding the emergence of large urban clusters within the present dualism of urbanization of the country It is argued that the importance of the three EMRs in urban China will become more outstanding after China's entry WTO and its participation in the global economy getting more deepening and widening It is highly believed by authors that those three EMRs will also become the most dynamic urban regions in the world within the coming two decades given proper development strategies are implemented

  • Earth Surface Processes
    WANG Zheng, CAI Di, LI Shan, ZHENG Yi ping, WANG Ying, WU Bing, LI Hua qun, CHEN Jian guo
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    This paper conducts a statistical analysis of the climate characters of SARS epidemic area during the epidemic disease prevalence period, 2003 Based on the analysis, it puts forward the climate risk as a foundation of the seasonal risk estimation of the prevalence of SARS and estimates the risk of the main cities in China. The results are shown in Figs. 4-7 With these figures, we found that not all the areas reach the highest risk in winter; several conclusions are drawn about epidemic law As to the climate risk, SARS tends to prevail in most provinces in China during the Chinese season of spring and autumn; however area south to the tropic of cancer will reach a high risk during the Chinese season of winter But all of them will turn to be much safer in summer In month when SARS is in its prevalence, the disease outbreak is relative with the particular weather conditions, that atmospheric inversion is liable to occur SARS tends to prevail in climate area where atmospheric inversion is easy to find Generally, lower air pollution index and higher ultraviolet radiation will prevent SARS from being epidemic; the threshold value of the air pollution index is found to be 70 with some observed data Therefore on Qinghai Tibet Plateau, Yunnan Guizhou Plateau and Hainan Island the SARS has lower risk to outbreak

  • Earth Surface Processes
    ZHU Ying bo, GE Quan sheng, WEI Xiao an, DONG Pei nan, HE Lian sheng, PENG Hu
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    Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) had been widely spread in China since the early days of this year, which badly affected the tourism industry of China The increasing rate of international tourist arrivals to China was -6 28% in March and -31 01% in May, compared with the corresponding period of the last year Bivariate autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model is used to analyze the effect of SARS on the international tourist arrivals to China in this article And the parameter in the model is determined by man's psychological change Based on the study on the convalescence of similar events, and combined with the situation of China, SARS effect is analyzed under three assumptions: the convalescence may be twelve months, eighteen months and twenty four months after SARS finished separately If the convalescence is twelve months, the increasing rate of international tourist arrivals to China may probably fall 17 96% by average, 40 01% by maximum after the outbreak of SARS, and the international tourist arrivals to China would reduce 23 8493 million on the basis of the model If per capita consumption can maintain the same as before, 4968 million dollars may be lost due to SARS in China If the convalescence is eighteen months, the increasing rate of international tourist arrivals to China may probably fall 17 07% by average, 40 01% by maximum after the outbreak of SARS, and the international tourist arrivals to China would reduce 31 1703 million on the basis of the model If per capita consumption can maintain the same as before, 6493 million dollars may be lost due to SARS in China If the convalescence is twenty four months, the increasing rate of international tourist arrivals to China may probably fall 16 55% by average, 40 01% by maximum after the outbreak of SARS, and the international tourist arrivals to China would reduce 38 5233 million on the basis of the model If per capita consumption can maintain the same as before, 8024 million dollars may be lost due to SARS in China

  • Earth Surface Processes
    JIN De sheng, ZHANG Ou yang, CHEN Hao, GUO Qing wu
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    In this paper an experimental study on influence of base level lowering on non linear relationship between sediment yield and drainage network development has been completed in the Lab of Fluvial Geomorphology in the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences The area of flume drainage system is 81.2 m2 ,the longitudinal gradient and cross section slope are from 0.0348 to 0.0775 and from 0.0115 to 0.038, respectively Three experiments are a background drainage development (Run I) and drainage developments influenced by the first (Run II) and second (Run III) base level lowering, respectively They are covered by the same model materials with a medium diameter of 0.021 mm At the beginning of each experiment the (shaped small network is dug in the flume,an artificial rainfall equipment is a sprinkler system composed of 7 downward nozzles, distributed by hexagon type and a given rainfall intensity is 35.56 mm/hr cm2 . Three experiments are designed by process response principle Running time span for each experiment is 720 minutes The background experiment shows that the sediment yield process is characterized by delaying with a vibration During network development the energy of a drainage system is dissipated by two ways, of which one is to increase the numbers of channels (rill and gully),and the other one is to enlarge the channel length As the first base level lowering occurs the channel at the model drainage outlet is down cut and enlarged and the sediment yield process appears a complex response with double peaks at first and then decreases When the second base level lowering occurs the phenomena was duplicated, but the influence of the second base level lowering on intensity and amplitude is smaller than that of the first base level lowering The fractal dimension of a drainage network is exactly an index of energy dissipation of a drainage morphological system Change of this index with time is an unsymmetrical concave curve Comparative result of the three experiments explains that the influence of base level lowering is reducing with the elapse of time and far away from the outlet of model drainage basin

  • Earth Surface Processes
    LU Jin fa, HUANG Xiu hua
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    More than 50 river basins were chosen for analysing the relationships between sediment yield and land cover in the middle Yellow River They have drainage areas ranging from 500 to 2500 km2 and come from 7 types of physiographical environments A set of data on sediment yield and surface material, vegetation cover and basin morphological features were collected by using remote sensing and thematic maps combined with field check and indoor analysis Based on this a correlative analysis was made between sediment yield and surface material and vegetation cover It was shown that good positive linear relationships exist between sediment yield and surface material but non linear negative relationship exists between sediment yield and vegetation cover Different positions can be identified in Figs 1 and 2 for those river basins from wide range of physiographical environments as surface materials of river basins change from sandy loess and highly weathered silt mudstone through loess rock mixture to hard rock and vegetation coverage increase Two thresholds can be observed as sediment yield changes with vegetation coverage, where vegetation coverage is equal to 30% and 70% respectively It is interesting that this phenomenon could be seen before only in experimental plots and watershed, but this paper proved that similar relations exist in natural river basins It was shown by multiple regressions that the most important factor affecting sediment yield is vegetation cover, followed by surface material

  • Earth Surface Processes
    WANG Hong, CAI Qiang guo, ZHU Yuan da
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    Steep slopeland (slopes greater than 20%) has been widely used for cropping in the Three Gorges Reservoir area of China because of the population pressure and limited arable land Slopeland, especially steep slopeland, is one of the main sources of sediments in the reservoir area Hence, it is quite necessary to assess the risk of soil erosion, predict runoff and erosion rates, as well as design and evaluat the soil protection strategies in the area Most of the water erosion takes place in two or three heavy storms each year in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area Traditional erosion assessment based on scoring systems for rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, slope and land use provide good information on the spatial distribution of erosion risk but only limited data on erosion rates cannot be easily validated Also, they do not produce the information necessary to design soil conservation measures or evaluate their effect These deficiencies can only be overcome by combining erosion risk assessments with predictions from erosion models The EUROSEM model, a dynamically distributed model, uses physical descriptions to describe the process of soil erosion and simulates erosion on an event basis for fields and small catchments on a minute by minute basis, which is able to predict water induced soil erosion from individual fields and small catchments.It is thus more suitable for this kind of reservoir area The objective of this study was to evaluate the EUROSEM model for predicting water erosion on steep slopeland in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area using data obtained through rainfall simulator experiments Rainfall simulations were conducted on steep slopeland plots with slopes >47% with different land uses at the Experiment Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at an altitude of 293 m in Zigui County of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, Hubei province Four treatments were involved: uncultivated, cultivated, hedgerows, and fertilized hedgerows EUROSEM was calibrated using observed hydrographs and sedigraphs from one of the plots in each treatment The simulated hydrograph was first fitted to the observed hydrograph by interactively changing the input parameters followed by a fit of the sedigraphs The results demonstrate that EUROSEM is possible to be used for predicting runoff and approximately determining soil erosion on steep slopeland in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, especially for assessing the impact of land use change Further research is necessary to improve the quality of input data

  • Earth Surface Processes
    DONG Suo cheng, WU Yu ping, WANG Hai ying
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    Dingxi prefecture is located in the arid and semi arid area at foothill of the Loess Plateau. Due to the intrinsic atrocious eco environment, Dingxi prefecture has been facing the vicious circle of eco environmental vulnerability and poverty in a long period of time This paper analyzes the double contradiction of eco environmental vulnerability and poverty in Dingxi prefecture, and reaches the conclusion that the vicious circle of eco environmental vulnerability and poverty resulted from the common influence of natural and human driving forces, but mainly from irrational human activity in recent decades It then sums up the successful experience of Dingxi prefecture in making breakthroughs to rid the vicious circle of eco environmental vulnerability and poverty and achieve the harmonious development between economy and eco environment by developing eco economy The paper systematically studies the strategic principle and strategic content for administering eco environment and developing eco economy in a small drainage area by adopting the integrated modes,building the system of eco economy, and practicing different development modes to foster poverty stricken people in different kinds of areas, as well as social, economic and ecological benefits of the mode of developing eco economy in Dingxi prefecture, aiming at offering scientific reference for eco economic development of the similar regions. The practice of Dingxi prefecture has proved that developing eco economy by breaking away from the conventions, which fits for the regions facing problems of eco environmental vulnerability and economic backwardness,and can break the vicious circle of eco environmental vulnerability and poverty, and achieve the goal of sustainable development

  • Earth Surface Processes
    CHEN Wen, Dietrich Soyez, ZUO Wen fang
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    As the process of global environmental reform and strategic adjustment, the greening of industry is the changing process of the firms' environmental awareness and reactions to the growing environmental pressures coming from governments, the public and markets, in order to let firms reduce pollution to meet the need of sustainable development and improvement of the living environmental quality, hereby is the inevitable way to achieve economic and environmental harmonious development and regional sustainable development. The greening of the industry has first been practiced in the western developed countries since the 1960s where the responses of the firms to environmental pressures has changed from non cooperation in the 1960s to active participation in the 1990s. Firms have shifted their reluctant behaviors to the willingness to take their responsibility and to active participation in order to strengthen their competitive abilities. However, the greening of industry in our country has made few progress compared to the developed countries. Whereas geographers have seldom been engaged in this field, and less attention has been paid to the external pressures such as markets, communities, investors and consumers as well as the relationship between environmental pressures and firms behavior. Because of the rapid economic development and environmental deterioration, it is imperative to speed up the research of the greening of industry which would be the new field widening the research of the industrial environmental geography. The foci of the study can be identified as the following aspects: the stage evaluation of the greening of industry, analyses of the type and the change of the environmental pressures as well as the firms environmental awareness and reactions, the impact of the environmental pressures on the firms responses, ecological and economic availability evaluation, and then seeking efficient way to get both economic and environmental achievements.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    JIA Ruo xiang, LIU Yi
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    The essential of sustainable development is the harmonization between population, resources and environment in order to gain the aim of social and economic sustainable development The region, especially at the provincial level, plays a very important role in the implementation of sustainable development strategy China's various provinces (regions) differ greatly both in terms of their natural resources endowment and in terms of their social and economic development To evaluate the sustainable status quo of each province and region properly is of great help to understand China's progress in sustainable development With the reference to various sustainable evaluation systems, a new synthesized sustainable evaluation system, which tries to assess the sustainable development status quo from the facet of economic development, social development, resources endowment & environmental status quo and sustainability is constructed in this article In the process of assigning weight to each factor, an Improved Analysis of Hierarchical Process (IAHP) is adopted, which can both reduce the objectivity of evaluation and simplify the calculation process According to this synthesized sustainable evaluation system, the sustainable status quo of China's 31 provinces (municipalities,autonomous regions) are assessed respectively Then, according to their evaluation score in sustainable development, these provinces (municipalities,autonomous regions) are divided into 6 different types: very high level type, including Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Guangdong; high level type, including Zhejiang, Fujian, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Jilin and Shandong; upper middle level type, including Yunnan, Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Hubei, Guangxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Hunan and Hainan; lower middle level type, including Sichuan, Qinghai, Hebei, Ningxia and Gansu; low level type, including Anhui, Henan, Shaanxi and Jiangxi; and very low level type, including Tibet and Guizhou The status quo of China's sustainable development unfold the degression trend of coastal area→along the border→middle part→middle→western part

  • Earth Surface Processes
    TANG Xiao feng
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    During the period of pre Qin dynasty, there were groups of people, called Rong(戎)and Di(狄), in the northern Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, who were not the same kind of nomadic people as Xiongnu (Hun) since they lived in a mixed style of economic situation, half herding and half agricultural. But, in the traditional documents of the dynastic times, these groups of people have been described as the same kind of nomadic people like Xiongnu, some were even identified as the ancestors of Xiongnu. The misunderstanding of the identity of Rong and Di caused misunderstanding of the region where the Rong and Di lived. According to the traditional idea, the environment of the region of the northern Shanxi and Shaanxi had, as well as the steppe, supported nomadic life. The essential different ecological functions in early civilization creation between the environment of the northern Shanxi/Shaanxi and the environment of the steppe, therefore, were neglected. The recent archaeologist discoveries show that the life indicated by the settlement ruins, tombs, and life remains of Rong and Di people has been more a sedentary style, which had been combined with partly agricultural and partly herding activities. The archaeologist discoveries also show that before the Rong and Di times, the region of the northern Shanxi/Shaanxi had been occupied by a well developed prim agricultural economy. Since the climate changed colder about 5000 years ago, the herding activity developed significantly, and the pure prim agricultural economy was replaced by half agricultural and half herding. The Rong and Di, therefore, was not the representative group of nomadic in northern ancient China. The true nomadic people, which was represented by Xiongnu, appeared later than Rong and Di in China. The question of the origin of nomadic economy in China should be considered more with the Xiongnu instead of the Rong and Di. Since the recognition of the independent identity of the Rong and Di, the macro human geographical structure of the northern China then should consist of three great regions: the region of the Rong and Di, the standard agricultural region in the south where the Han people were living, and the typical steppe nomadic region in the north where the Xiongnu became occupiers.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    DENG Hui
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    Berkeley School, also known as Cultural Ecology School, was represented by Carl O. Sauer, one of the most outstanding American cultural and historical geographers, who served as the director of Department of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1923 to 1954. Under his leadership this active academic school had produced huge influences in geography and anthropology in North America from the 1920s to 1960s. The academic practice of Sauer could be classified into five categories: 1) agricultural origin and dispersal; 2) the relations between cultural landscapes and natural environments; 3) the researches on the early explorations of America; 4) human impacts on environments; and 5) the methodology of cultural ecology. Sauer's theory and practice in cultural ecology belongs to the logical positive study. He is interested in cultural landscapes and the relationship between the cultural landscapes and natural environments is the core theme in all his researches. When studying landscapes, he not only reveals the regional differentiation, but also emphases the origin and changing process of the cultural landscapes. He believes cultures play very important roles in shaping landscapes, and each unique cultural landscape deeply roots in the local environment. He thinks cultural landscape is built based on the natural landscape on one side, and it is also the creation of human culture on another side. Sauer insists that all cultural landscapes have the genetic or historical characteristics. Cultural landscape is formed and shaped throughout the time sequence. At the different time intervals, the cultural landscape is different. One cultural landscape is the result of the former landscape, and it is also the beginning and condition of the next one. So if we want to well understand the current cultural landscape, we need to know the historical changing process of the landscape. From the 1970s on, Berkeley School declined gradually and Sauer's ideas were abandoned finally in North America, the discussion on the geographical imagination has replaced the early logical positive studies. In some situation, Sauer even becomes the whipping target of post modernism scholars. Actually, geographical facts and imagination are the two aspects of one geographical question, they are complementary but not expelled. From this point of view, Sauer's works still have important meaning for the development of Chinese geography.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    LIAO Xiao yong, CHEN Tong bin, XIAO Xi yuan, HUANG Ze chun, AN Zhi zhuang, MO Liang yu, LI Wen xue, CHEN Huang, ZHENG Yuan ming
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    Spatial distribution characteristics of arsenic in the As contaminated paddy soils which were long term submerged with frequent dry/wet alternations at small scales were studied using geostatistics method The spatial distribution features were quantitatively described by variogram Based on the variograms, Kriging interpolation was performed, and the distribution maps were produced The result showed that arsenic from polluted source mainly accumulated in 0 20cm of soil profile, and arsenic concentrations in 0 20 cm layer were always higher than those in 20 40cm layer The arsenic concentration in 80 100 cm had an increasing trend comparing to that in 60 80 cm However, arsenic concentrations at depth of 40 80cm were not greatly influenced Average arsenic concentration in heavy contaminated paddy soils was 97 1 mg/kg, while that in low contaminated paddy soil was 36 4 mg/kg Soil arsenic concentration decreased with the increase of distance between As source and paddy soil The variograms of arsenic in the surface soil persistently increased and could be fitted by linear equation. Arsenic in soil layer of 0 20cm had good spatial structures Heavy As contaminated sites were found at the water entrances that were centered around the entrances This indicated the soils were secondly polluted by both irrigating water and surface water with elevated levels of arsenic The results also suggested that geostatistics could be applied to evaluate the status of arsenic contaminated soils, which is a necessary precondition for carrying out remediation

  • Earth Surface Processes
    GAI Mei, TIAN Cheng shi
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    Pollution in the nearshore waters is a maior environmental issue in Dalian How to dominate the water environment and ensure economic growth simultaneously is an urgent issue to be tackled at present. This paper firstly introduces the fuzzy pattern recognition model into the dynamic analysis on environmental quality of the nearshore waters of Dalian.The results show that the water environmental quality of Dalian Bay is the worst and is becoming deteriorated It then establishes multiregression model for characteristic value (H) and affecting factors of water environmental quality.The results show that the quantity of waste water disharge, the per capita output value of the tertiary industries and the city sewage ratio are the major affecting factors to water environment in the nearshore waters It finally establishes SD model for the major affecting factors of water environment and designs three models (traditional development type,water environment standing type and the type of harmonious development for water environment and economy) through feedback regulating The simulation results show that the third model is most reasonable and feasible for it takes into account either the improvement of water environment in the nearshore waters or economic development The research is of significance to the environmental protection of the nearshore waters and sustainable development of Dalian city

  • Earth Surface Processes
    GUO Xiu rui, YANG Ju rong, MAO Xian qiang
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    Human is dependant on biosphere, which provides steady supplies to human life, including not only economic activities and resources used on life, ecological aggradations capacity of assimilating waste materials, but also many non consuming life supporting services This consumption and affecting extent of human activities on natural ecosystems is called “Ecological Footprint(EF)” EF is a new prevailing method to quantify the stress on natural ecosystems from human activities in recent years To introduce EF analysis into urban ecosystem research is a new idea and direction, for it can quantify the pressure and effect of urban economic activities on natural ecosystems, by which we can judge the health situation of urban ecosystems Numerous papers dealing with EF have been published in China in recent years, but few of them on urban EF studies This paper estimated the present EF and analyses the trends of change in the past 5 years by taking Guangzhou city as a case.The results indicated that, Guangzhou's EF and carrying capacity in 2000 are 2.5 ha/cap and 0.2 ha/cap respectively And during 1995 2000 EF per ten thousand yuan GDP tends to decrease, while EF per capita tends to increase This shows that Guangzhou economic development model is transferring from extensive to intensive, but policy makers should focus on improving use efficiency of resources, calling for saving pattern in human production and consumption, and trying lessening EF in the future ecological construction, which can make Guangzhou step toward eco city and achieve sustainable development

  • Earth Surface Processes
    LIU Jia zhen, CHEN Ya ning, ZHANG Yuan ming
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    The Tarim River is the longest inland river in China. There are natural species belts composed of Arbors, Shrubbery and Herbage along the River The species distribution of natural species is affected by soil water, soil salt content, human activities and so on In this paper, based on the investigation data in the middle reaches of the Tarim River, niche breadths and overlaps of the 19 main species on two environmental dimensions were calculated and analyzed The minimal spanning tree revealing ecological similarity was drawn on the basis of the niche overlaps The results showed that niche breadths of community building species were bigger than that of the others, because they could acclimatize themselves to some changed environmental conditions Niche breadths of Shrubs and Arbor were generally big except for individual species, and niche breadths of Herbage were small except for community building species The above analysis shows the ecological characters of different species in the middle reaches of the Tarim River, it also shows that the niche overlaps among different species are generally low in the middle reaches of the Tarim River, that is, different species need different nutrient which can enable different kinds of species live together for a long time The ecological character of different species in a same family is more similar, and the niche overlaps among them are also small The reason is that the ecological character among different species in a same family is more similar The needs of these species are different, which lower the degree of niche overlaps and make these species live together in a small ecological environment Based on the minimal spanning tree, the ecological similarity of 19 species was analyzed on two environmental dimensions According to different ecological needs among the 19 species, they could be divided into four categories when the niche overlap is greater than 0 278 These species could also be divided into three categories according to the soil salt content when the niche overlap is greater than 0 190 These phenomena show the importance of the ecological character in the niche evolution