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    Earth Surface Processes
  • Earth Surface Processes
    LI Xiao-jian, QIAO Jia-jun
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    A micro-level input-output analysis on farmland is important in understanding the man-land relationship in rural areas, particularly in the mountainous regions. This paper is based on a survey undertaken in a small rural mountainous village in Wugou of Gongyi city, Henan Province in April 2003. The survey covers 482 plots of farmland from 81 households. Data collected include 50 attributes for each plot. The amount of input and output is simplified by converting into energy equivalent. By employing a revised Cobb-Douglas production function (Y=AX α), the input and output analysis based on the survey data finds the following results. (1) The energy input-output ratios, as well as energy transfer efficiency in the farmlands declines along with the increase in elevation of the lands. An exception is those fields close to the residential area of the village site. (2) A significant negative correlation between slope gradient and energy input-output ratios exists. But analysis based on three classifications of slope gradient further reveals that the farmlands with medium- and lower-slope gradient have the highest ratios in energy production. (3) Other factors of landform description, such as slope aspects, slope position and slope curvature also affect energy transfer in various ways. These facts imply that farmers in the rural mountainous areas heavily rely on their past experience in utilizing natural resources. There is a big room for improving the man-land relationship.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    WANG Xin-sheng, JIANG You-hua
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    Urban land-use planning is a complex, time-consuming process and involves complex decision-making problems. Generally, urban land-use planning is a multi-objective and nonlinear programming problem with high dimensionality, but it is difficult to run into numerical and high time cost problems with conventional optimisation tools. Currently, planners have to use some qualitative methods to generate urban land-use plans, this process has long been viewed as a ‘black box’ inside which planners are more or less subjective and the resulting land-use spatial scheme may be non-optimal. This paper develops a method called simulated annealing algorithms for handling such a conflict. The simulated annealing algorithm is quite effective and efficient for dealing with many complicated mathematical models. The mathematical optimisation model for generating optimal urban land-use plans was established, in which two main objectives, the minimum development cost of land and maximum spatial harmony were considered. Since spatial constraint considerably slows down the process of searching feasible solutions, some spatial constraints are straightforwardly integrated into the objective function in our SA, including the contiguity and compact form constraints, while the direction and distance constraints are combined into the objective function by means of adding accessional penalty cost to the objective function. The SA method is successfully applied to generate optimal land-use plans for Muyun industrial district in Changsha city, but a final realistic plan requires more detailed modeling. SA presented in this paper should therefore be regarded as a fast and simple technique useful in an early stage of the decision-making process. However, in order to maintain the transparency of urban land-use planning, robust and simple techniques as simulated annealing are promising.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    FAN Jin-mei, MENG Xian-su, XUE Yong-sen
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    In China ,s land use practice, land readjustment has contributed a lot to the realization of the rational disposition of land resource and to the improvement of the land use efficiency and the ecological environment. Meanwhile, land readjustment has caught increasingly concern in land use science research. Regarding land readjustment, one of the essential contents should be the potentiality of land readjustment, upon which land arrangement plan can be plotted. However, so far as the theoretical and empirical researches in China ,s mainland are concerned, few discussions on the connotation and evaluation methodology of land readjustment potentiality have been carried out and arable land readjustment as land readjustment potentiality has also been rarely dealt with in mainland China. Based on the review of arable land readjustment potentiality abroad, it is argued that the connotation of China ,s arable land arrangement potentiality can be defined in three respects as optimizing land structure,optimizing arable land structure and improving arable land productivity.To this end,we build arable land readjustment potential evaluation index system.Yanqing county located in northwest of Beijing is an important ecological zone.The land readjustment project jointly conducted by the Center of Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation of Ministry of Land and Resources with Holland is also in Yanqing county, where a case study was carried out. The result indicated that the evaluation index system is feasible, conforming to the actual conditions of Yanqing. Evaluation methodologies with special attention to arable land readjustment are introduced, which are expected to shed new light on relevant researches.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    GUO Huai-cheng, DAI Yong-li, WANG Dan, LIU Yong
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    Water is one of the most essential natural resources, especially for urban areas. Water shortage is a common problem confronted by many cities. A number of countermeasures, including saving, pollution control, seeking new water source, have been put forward to solve the problem. The purpose of this paper is to identify a better one from the measures and to facilitate sustainable use of urban water resources. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the effect of implementing the countermeasures. In order to achieve both conservation and effective utilization of water resources, a careful analysis of the region is very important. In the study, the relations among population, economics, government and ecosystem almost always constitute highly complex dynamic systems. That makes some common methods useless for solving the problem of the complex systems. So a holistic point of view is to be adopted and considerable amount of effort must be devoted to the analysis of water resources system (WRS) and strategy improvements. System Dynamics(SD), founded by J. W. Forrester in the 1950s, has been testified to be an effective way to the analysis of strategies and decision-making. In this study, SD is applied to quantitatively analyze and to synthetically assess the measures of urban water resources, in virtue of multi-factor general evaluation. Based on the research of water circulation and the law of water quantity transformation, within the fields of urban areas, this paper endeavors to find out the main dominant factor influencing sustainable WRS development, to build WRS system dynamic (WRSSD) model for dynamical simulation, and then to apply the multi-factor general evaluation to the simulation results. In this paper, WRSSD model is used in the WRS of Shenyang City as a case study. Four policies are taken into account: no-does, frugal use, pollution control, and sewage purification and reuse. Based on the quantitive analysis of the long-run impact of the measures, the effects and influences of different policies are fully clarified. The final result indicates that: (1) frugally use and pollution control are not enough, regarding the constant growth of water demand; and (2) the gray water will be an important part of water resources. The study can provide a scientific foundation for the rational development and utilization of urban water resources. The case study confirms the practicability and operability of the method. It indicates that SD model, in virtue of multi-factor general evaluation, is a useful tool for sustainable development of urban water resources.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    LI Chun-hui, YANG Zhi-feng
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    NDVI is an important index denoting a region's vegetation cover. In this paper, the Yellow River Basin is divided into 16 sub-regions and their NDVI series of 1982-1998 are obtained from AVHRR-NDVI of Pathfinder. The spatio-temporal changes of NDVI in the Yellow River Basin are analyzed. The results show that:(1) In general, NDVI in all sub-regions reaches peak value in July or August within a year in the Yellow River Basin. In average in the 17 years, the NDVI values show the increasing trends in August and in annual average in other sub-regions except that they show the downward trends in the Sanhua and the above Longyang gorge sub-regions in August. These imply that the coverage percentage of the vegetation presents a rising trend and the ecological quality is being improved on the whole in the Yellow River Basin, but there is some deteriorating trend in some sub-regions in August. (2) With obvious differences in the 16 sub-regions, the higher annual values of NDVI occur in the Taohe, Yiluohe and Weihe sub-regions, while the lower in the indraft area and the Lanhe sub-regions. The spatial changes of NDVI are unanimous with precipitation in most part of the Yellow River Basin, and the average changing rates of NDVI in different sub-regions are different. Finally, the relations of NDVI between precipitation, runoff and runoff coefficient in every sub-region are researched. The results show that NDVI has some apparent positive correlations with precipitation and natural runoff within a year, and furthermore, NDVI has some time lags behind precipitation. From the perspective of inter-annual changes, NDVI has some positive correlations with precipitation, but has complex relations with natural runoff and runoff coefficient variability. There is no, if any, obscure correlations between them.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    HU Yun-feng, WANG Shao-qiang, YANG Feng-ting
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    Due to the tremendous soil organic carbon pool and the high carbon content on surface soil, even a trivial disturbance in surface soil can easily induce great changes of the whole soil organic carbon pool. On the other hand, as a universal geological process on earth, wind erosion has strong capacities to entrap, transport and redistribute the surface soil. Naturally, wind erosion then has important influences on the evolution of soil organic carbon pool. In eroded area, surface soil is eroded and the soil organic carbon pool decreases; in transportation process, soil organic carbon is further transformed and carbon dioxide (CO 2) is emitted; in deposition area, the changes of soil organic carbon pool are more complicated and the carbon pool increases at least in a short term. The redistribution of soil organic carbon over landscape and the emission of CO 2 react on the terrestrial ecosystem and finally affect the carbon budget. Such processes can be modeled by a series of equations based on the mass balance principle. Using the Arc/Info GRID data derived from the 2nd Chinese national remote sensing based soil erosion investigation and the 2nd Chinese national soil investigation, the spatial patterns of the top 20cm soil organic carbon content and wind erosion intensity are described in detail firstly. Soil organic loss and corresponding carbon flux are then estimated supported by GIS techniques. The total soil organic carbon loss induced by wind erosion is about 59.76 10 6t C/yr, including creeping materials of 14.34 10 6t C/yr, saltating materials of 44.82 10 6t C/yr and suspending materials of 0.60 10 6t C/yr. The emitted carbon dioxide (CO 2) is about 29.88 10 6t C/yr, ranging from 11.95 10 6t C/yr to 41.83 10 6t C/yr. The affected areas mainly lie in the Northwest China. The uncertainties in our research depend on the estimation of the eroded soil mass, the ratio of different erosion fluxes and the oxidizing ratio of SOC during transportation.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    REN Zhi-yuan, LI Jing
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    According to different vegetation types and their cover degrees in Qinling-Daba Mountains in Shaanxi, using an improved model of net primary productivity of natural vegetation, regional energy balance, water balance and model of evapo-transpiration, goods produced by different types of vegetation have been calculated. Based on net primary productivity of natural vegetation, using equation of photosynthesis, reforestation cost and industrial method of making O 2, the value of CO 2 fixation and O 2 release by vegetation ecosystem in Qinling-Daba Mountains in Shaanxi can be estimated. The results are as follows:① the total CO 2 fixation and O 2 release is 13.5×10 7 t/a, 9.93×10 7 t/a, respectively. ② Using reforestation cost ,the value of CO 2 fixation is 352.24 billion RMB yuan/a. ③Using reforestation cost and industrial method of making O 2 , the value of O 2 release is 374.19 billion RMB yuan/a. ④The temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest has the highest contribution rate, the second is subtropical deciduous shrub. This study can provide basic data and methods for setting up regional “green eco-account”.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    DONG Yun-she, QI Yu-chun, Manfred Domroes, GENG Yuan-bo, YANG Xiao-hong, LIU Li-xin, LIU Xing-ren
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    Using the static chamber method, the fluxes of nitrous oxide from the undisturbed community and soil layer were measured through the continuous experiment in situ from 2001 to 2003 in Leymus Chinense grassland in Xilin river basin of Inner Mongolia, China.The seasonal variation, characteristics of sources and sinks, and the effects of main environmental factors on N 2O fluxes were analyzed. The regression models between the N 2O fluxes and the environmental factors were also established using the statistical method, at the same time, the annual total emission flux of N 2O was estimated. The main results are as follows:(1) The seasonal variations of N 2O fluxes in undisturbed community and soil layer were very obvious with higher emissions in spring and summer, then autumn but maintaining a relatively low emissions level in winter, furthermore, negative fluxes were found sometimes in winter. (2) The annual mean N 2O flux of undisturbed community ranged from 3.91 μgm -2h -1 to 4.71 μgm -2h -1 and that of soil layer ranged from 5.49 to 10.03 μgm -2h -1.The average N 2O flux of undisturbed community was lower than that of soil layer in the same statistical period, the relative thick litter layer obviously reduced the emission of N 2O to a certain degree. (3) To compare the N 2O fluxes of the whole year, the N 2O fluxes from undisturbed community and soil layer were significantly positive correlated with the air temperature and surface soil temperature at non-growing season, whereas they had a weak correlation with the soil moisture. The changes of air temperature and the other closely relative temperature factors could account for 72%~88% of the variation of undisturbed community and soil layer N 2O fluxes in non-growing season. What’s more, the correlations between N 2O flux and the soil temperature at 5cm and 10cm depth were higher than that between N 2O flux and surface soil temperature. But in growing season, negative correlations were found between N 2O flux and the air temperature and the soil temperature at 0cm, 5cm and 10cm depth, especially the correlations between N 2O flux and air temperature reached the significance level of 0.05. The results of multi-variable stepwise regression indicated that the change of 0~10cm and 10~20cm soil moisture could account for 72~85% of the variation of undisturbed community and soil layer N 2O fluxes in growing season.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    QI Yu-chun, DONG Yun-she, GENG Yuan-bo, YANG Xiao-hong, LIU Li-xin, LI Ming-feng, LIU Xing-ren
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    Using the static chamber method, the diurnal variation of CH 4 fluxes of the undisturbed community and soil were studied through the experiment in situ at different phenologies of Leymus Chinense grassland in Xilin river basin of Inner Mongolia. According to the results of field experiment, we analyzed the characteristics of diurnal variation of undisturbed community and soil CH 4 flux and the statistic relationship between CH 4 fluxes and environmental factors (e.g. air temperature, surface soil temperature, soil moisture) together with the ecological factors(e.g. aboveground biomass, underground biomass, litter biomass)by correlation analysis and multiple stepwise regression method. The main research results were as follows: The fluxes of undisturbed community and soil CH 4 were all negative and the Leymus Chinense grassland was the sink of air CH 4. There was great difference among diurnal variation patterns of CH 4 flux in different phenologies and the effect of temperature condition on diurnal variation of CH 4 flux wasn't remarkable except the post-fruiting vegetative stage. The difference between undisturbed community CH 4 fluxes and corresponding soil CH 4 fluxes wasn't significant except in post-fruit vegetative stage of 2002 and in flowering stage. And for the difference of undisturbed community CH 4 flux among different phenologies, the difference between flowering stage and post grain-filling stage, flowering stage and post-fruiting vegetative stage of 2001, post grain-filling stage and post-fruiting vegetative stage of 2002 reached the significance of 0.01 or 0.05, but the differences of undisturbed community CH 4 flux between any other two phenologies and the differences of soil CH 4 flux between any two phenologies were all not significant. The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that the changes of underground biomass at 0-20cm depth could account for 95.0% of the variance of the community CH 4 flux and 99.0% of the change of soil CH 4 flux of different phenologies. The change of the ratio of soil CH 4 diurnal uptake flux and the total community diurnal uptake flux was affected markedly by the change of litterfall biomass.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    ZHANG Guo-cai, BI Bao-gui, BAO Yuan-yuan, LIAO Yao-ming
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    This paper analzyes the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of the second greatest flood occurrence ever since 1954 in Huaihe river basin during the summer of 2003. Comparison is conducted with the previous data for the same period. The results show that 7 weather processes occurred with the total precipitation and water level and flux more than 1991 and less than 1954; that stable rain belt, intensive and explosive heavy rain are the main reason for the whole Huaihe river above the guaranteed water level. At the same time, by use of NCEP reanalysis data, large-scale atmospheric circulation and its formation reasons are discussed, which indicate that one of the important reasons for subtropical high noncontinually moving northward as a rule is that between the end of June and the beginning of July, the mid-high latitudes(60~180°E,30~50°S) of southern hemisphere experienced circulation change from low index(longitudinal pattern) to high index(latitudinal pattern) which lasted to the mid July with the cold masses and cross-equatorial flow at 110° E weaker than the normal. The other reasons are that between the third dekad of June and the second dekad of July, ITCZ was rather weak and further southward shifted than the normal, and shear between the west and the east wind is not obvious, and tropical cyclones formed at the western North Pacific Oceans and South China Sea; that high-level jet was southward shifted by 2 more degrees than the normal, whose coordination and coupling with low-level jet is the main reason for continuous torrential rain; that the secondary circulation caused by high and low jets played an important role in maintaining stable sub-tropical high and large-scale circulations in mid-high latitudes; and that the polar vortex in Asia is stronger than the normal.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    LUAN Wei-xin, CUI Hong-yan
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    This paper takes Geographical Information System (GIS) as a platform, gains altitude values (range of 1 km×1 km ), 3D map and basic data of evaluation in the studied area of the city of Panjin, based on the 1∶100,000 scale relief map and land use map as well as socio-economic statistic data. Submerged land area and potential loss are assessed for the case of no defence,different sea-level rise and high water level, respectively. The concrete conclusion is as follows. First of all, the potential effects on land include: Firstly, for no defence(the same as hereinafter) and average high water level, submerged land composing mostly of coastal villages and towns extends along coastline, and submerged area is 869-949km 2 or 21% to 24%. Secondly, for the historic highest water level,submerged area is 2,444-3,259km 2 or 61% to 84% with Dawa county submerged almost. Thirdly, the submerged area in Liaohe River Delta (Panjin) is 23%, but Zhujiang River is 7%, Changjiang River 18% and Huanghe River 5%. Next, potential population affected by sea-level rise contains: Firstly, for the average high water level, population affected in 1998 is 4 to 6 (if considered increasing, then 7 in 2030 and 14 in 2100)ten thousand or 3% to 5%. Secondly, for the historic highest water level, population affected in 1998 is 65-106(97 in 2030 and 267 in 2100)ten thousand or 55% to 90%. Again, potential economic losses by sea-level rise have: Firstly, for the average high water level, economic loss in 1998 is 8-9( if considered increasing, then 40 in 2030 and 1,328 in 2100)hundred million yuan or 7% to 9%. Secondly, for the historic highest water level, economic loss in 1998 is 62-93(297 in 2030 and 13,256 in 2100)hundred million yuan or 58% to 87%. Finally, potential environment loss of wetland by sea-level rise includes: Firstly, for the average high water level, environment loss in 1998 is 179(if considered increasing, then 872 in 2050 and 924 in 2100)hundred million yuan or 45% to 49%. Secondly, for historic highest water level, environment loss is 328(4,235 in 2050 and 4,665 in 2100) hundred million yuan or 83% to 93%. Relevant preventive measures such as sea wall defence reinforcement, adjusting and renewal wetland environment, establisment of flood insurance system, and formulation of integrated coastal management plan are put forward. And scientific basis for constituting regional strategies to mitigate and prevent disasters are provided.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    ZONG Yue-guang, WANG Li, QU Xiu-li
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    This paper improves a technique by using Monte Carlo simulation approach integrated with GIS to study the spatial-temporal uncertainty of SARS in Beijing. The output relative indexes from the sensitive analysis show that five districts, Haidian with the value of 10.66667, Chaoyang with the value of 6.69231, Dongcheng with the value of 5.97436, Xicheng with the value of 4.17949 and Tongzhou with the value of 3.64103, together contributed 72.8% of the total frequency distribution in the case of Beijing’s SARS. However, Haidian District alone presented almost 25% of the total frequency distribution. The frequency distribution of SARS’s series was a typical lognormal distribution. These facts indicated that the early-stage timely warning of SARS and the blocking transmission of infection for the public are of the first importance. The spatial distributions of SARS's effects significantly presented different shapes of circles. However, the shapes of the circles were most likely a kind of ellipse that had long axis extending from the northwest to the southeast in Beijing. It is suggested that the preventive system of SARS can be served as several circles from the center to the fringe when new outbreaks of SARS occur.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    FANG Chuang-lin, LI Ming,
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    In the process of the great developmental strategy in Western China and urbanization strategy, quickening urbanization course in arid area of Northwest China has great practical meaning to accelerating industrialization course and of ecological course of national economiy in-step; to establishing the affluent society in the round; to absorbing more surplus labors from the country, etc. But the urbanization course in arid area of Northwest China has to face the double restraints of water resource shortage and unreasonable water-use structure. The paper studies the threshold values of gross water requirement, economic amount, total population and urbanization level in the coming 30 years by taking Hexi Corridor as an example. Finally, the paper gets a conclusion that the most economical and water-saving guideline for urbanization should restrict megalopolis development, cultivate a large city suitably and develop medium-sized cities actively and small towns scientifically. Hereby, the paper brings forward 6 urbanization developing models for the cities in Hexi Corridor in the arid area of Northwest China to adapt to the restriction of water resource. That is to actualize urban expanding model and give priority to “man moved for industry” and “farmer moved for environment”, and “industry moved for man” for supplement; actualize urban eco-immigrating model and give priority to “several-steps to the end”, and “one-step to the end” for supplement; actualize urban water-use converting model with “retreating from first, entering second industry” and “retreating from country, entering cities”; actualize water-saving urbanization model and give priority to “saving water and deciding the city's scale”, and “borrowing water to support the city” for supplement; actualize urban industry converting model with “stabilizing grain, prospering grass”, “stabilizing agriculture, prospering industry”, “flourishing commerce, booming the city”; and actualize urban spatial boost model as a Chinese font style of “卅” with “a core with four culminations”,“an axis with three zones”, and “villages and towns booming together”.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    LIU Wei-dong, Peter Dicken, Henry W.C. Yeung
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    Recent advances in telecommunication technologies initiated debates on the changing centralizing and decentralizing forces of economic activities. Literature reveals that new information and telecommunication technologies (ICTs) have been driving new economic activities into a number of cities and regions with well developed information infrastructures while in these cities and regions new industries tend to disperse as a result of the safe and sufficient communications across distance enabled by new ICTs. This suggests that the application of new ICTs is a strong decentralizing force in firms' location at local scale. It is against such a background that this paper takes the Xingwang Industrial Park located in Beijing Development Area (BDA) as a case to look into the dynamics of local industrial clusters enabled by new ICTs. The authors argue that new ICTs are only an enabling or facilitating agent, but not decisive. The application of new ICTs tends to lead to ”virtual clustering” of firms as this is an essential step of integration of supply chains while whether suppliers choose to locate in proximity to each other and to assemblers depends on a number of other factors.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    YU Qing, WU Bi-hu, YIN Ping, TONG Bi-sha, LIAN Hua
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    Based on substantive statistical data, the paper studies the development and management of China city Festival and Special Event(FSE). During the research, we found that the researches on FSE in China are fastened on confined fields, such as concept and benefit of FSE,the relationship between FSE and socio-economic development, FSE's operation model and so on. Such a research level and emphasis cannot keep up with the vigorous development in the reality. To gain the aim, i.e., ”theory guides practice”, this paper mainly focuses on the principal types, current state assessment, spatial and temporal law, and suggestions concerning development of China city FSE. According to themes of FSE, we can classify FSE into eight types. China city FSE presents the following characteristics: (1) The scale of FSE so far held is great with large quantity and types but short in history in China;(2) The government agencies play a much role in FSE operation, while market runs little work; and (3) there are duplications in theme selection and almost no relations between FSE and economic development, meaning that a market mechanism hasn’t been established.The FSE in China follows certain spatial and temporal law. As for the spatial distribution, the number of FSE in the eastern part is greater than the western, and with the development of FSE, the Yangtze Delta, Bohai-Rim area and Pearl River Delta become the primary centers, and other four areas of Sichuan and Chongqing, central Yunnan, central Guangxi and cntral part of Northeast China become the secondary centers. As for the temporal principle, the number of FSE in spring and autumn is more than that in summer and winter. Among all the FSEs held, 60% lasted 2-10 days. And we find that the longer history the FSE is, the more famous it is. Based on the above analysis, the authors suggest that interrelated scholars and departments should establish some management branch, strengthen investigation and attach importance to professional education. In the actuality, the development of FSE should follow such a principle of public-attached, localization,internationalization, authenticity, standardization and industrialization. Meanwhile regional cooperation should be strengthened and sales promotion should be intensified.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    REN Jian-mei, NIU Jun-jie, HU Cai-hong, LIU Yong-cun
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    Climate is a basic factor of tourism development for a region. The tourism climate resources at Wutai Mountain are very rich with cool and wet summer and cold winter, the natural landscapes related to the climatic condition have high visit value. The human body comfort-index of climate is evaluated with the comfortable index, which is synthesized with the temperature, humidity and wind speed, while the cold index considers the temperature and wind speed. The results show that the comfort-index is well to evaluate the human body comfortableness in summer half year and the cold index in winter half year. The two indices reflect the feeling of the skin to the environment. It suggests that the comfortableness of human body varies with different months according to the analysis and assessment of the tourism climatic comfortableness of each month. It is cool and confortable in July which is suitable for tour. it is slightly cold and comparatively confortable in May, June, August and September, non-comfortable in April and October, very cold in March and November, and extremely cold in January, February and December. Clothing to humans is for obtaining a comfortable micro climatic environment. This paper calculates the clothing index of every month using the simple human heat balance method. The clothing index can guide the tourists to be dressed in on the one hand, and on the other hand, the practical tourism climatic evaluation can be obtained according to human comfortableness. The results show that it is suitable for tourism from April to October, of which May and September, the well time for tourism; June and August, the golden season for tourism; July, the best time for tourism; and November to next March, not suitable for tourism but right time for visitors to enjoy the scenery of ice and snow, ice cravings and characteristic activities like skiing.

  • Earth Surface Processes
    LI Yan-qin, CAI Yun-long
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    Ecotourism is currently a growing segment of tourism in China. The summary report of working group C on the World Ecotourism Summit in 2002 suggested it would be important to understand more about the kinds of people who were already responding to ecotourism products within destinations. As one of the largest developing countries in the world, China is also one of the most important destinations of ecotourism. However, more attention had been paid to biological and ecological issues in outdoor recreation. Previous studies whether on nature tourists or ecotourists in China were limited. This study reports results of a survey concerning behavioral characteristics of ecotourists in Beijing. A questionnaire was used to collect the data through “internet” and “face to face” interviews. The final usable sample of ecotourists was 139 responses acquired by classification of 423 tourists visited Baihuashan nature reserve during the National Day in 2003. The respondents were classified hard ecotourists, frequent ecotourists and occasional ecotourists on the basis of the times they traveled to nature-based destinations every year and their NEP (New Ecological Paradigm) grade which is used to evaluate the visitors' attitude to environment. Descriptive statistics, a series of independent t-tests and the ANOVA analysis were used to evaluate quantitative data. This study finds out that (1) the three kinds of ecotourists are different in many behavioral characteristics including demographic characteristics, motivations, environmental attitudes and management tendencies; (2) the ecotourists in Baihuashan all have a good attitude to physical environment and the hard ecotourists and occasional ecotourists have a better grade of NEP; (3) the different ecotourists may have different sources; the frequent ecotourists mainly understood the mean of ecotourism' from traveling in nature-based areas. However the occasional ecotourists firstly knew ecotourism' theory from teachers, books or newspapers. The hard ecotourists mostly grow from frequent ecotourists and occasional ecotourists; and (4) Baihuashan's ecotourists have more youngs, more males, but less have a good education compared with foreign ecotourists.