About our urban and rural memory, should we remember? Can we remember? Are we willing to remember? Are we allowed to remember? Existing in the real life, memory is alive rather than dead. Memory not only belongs to the elite, grassroots' memory is also precious. Historical context implicated in the memory should be cherished without equating the protection of memory with the protection of urban heritage, and also should we face the incompatibility between the memory and the development of modern time. Memory is not unreal talk, but the source of cultural self-confidence as well as urban and rural revival. The time of the river never backflows, the changed urban and rural space can no longer return to the past, thus the reflection of the future of urban and rural today is essentially the reflection of social development. Combined with the comparison of international research, in terms of the evolution mechanism and spatial logic of urban and rural memory in the current context of China, here converged the theory and practice discussion in the fields of geography, planning, architecture, cultural relics and tourism. With the constant change of society, the preservation and development of memory and homesickness is to show the history of the past, accommodate with life of today, and delight the creation of the future.

Assessing the elevation-dependent alpine grassland phenology is of great significance to reveal the relationship between vegetation and climate change. Based on the two Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from SPOT and MODIS and the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from MODIS during the period of 2000-2013, DEM, eco-geographical and grassland distribution map, the patterns of elevation-dependent alpine grassland phenology over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) were analyzed. The results showed that: (1) With an increasing elevation gradient, the distribution of spring and autumn phenology in alpine grassland exhibited a regular change, while the magnitude of the trend of spring phenology in alpine grassland was quite different from that of autumn phenology on the TP. (2) There was a dividing line of approximately 3200 m above sea level on the trends of spring phenology in alpine grassland with an increasing elevation gradient. Below this line, the magnitude of spring phenology advancement increased significantly, whereas above the line, it decreased significantly. However, the magnitude of autumn phenology delay in alpine grassland decreased and then the magnitude of the advancement increased significantly across the altitudinal gradient. (3) Opposite trends of alpine grassland phenology change were observed compared with southern Qinghai Plateau alpine-meadow-steppe region (IC1) and southern Tibet montane shrub-steppe region(IIC1). Changes in the trends of spring phenology with increasing elevation were quite different between the above two regions, but those of autumn phenology were synchronized. These differences suggest that the vertical variability of the alpine grassland phenology derived from remote sensing could not directly mirror the elevation-dependent warming on the TP.

This paper extracts grasslands greenup from SPOT-VGT NDVI filtered by D-L during 1999 to 2012, and uses ground greenup date to verify the result. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) A new method, which combine grassland vegetation remote sensing regreening stage monitoring and ground validation, is presented. Greenup date of Xilingol grassland is extracted by using dynamic threshold coefficients of 25% and its precision can reach 68%. (2) The mean greenup date in Xilingol league is mainly observed from early April to late May. The greenup dates are delayed from south to north, with the average change being -1.5 d/10a. Exploring spatiotemporal characteristics of grasslands phenology in Xilingol is of theoretical and practical significance in China's combat to climate change, grassland protection and management in the presence of specific problems, decision making in local agricultural and animal husbandry, and vulnerable grassland ecosystems rehabilitation.

Air temperature is one of key indicators reflecting the spatial hydrothermal heterogeneity, and it is also an indispensable factor driving ecological models or land surface models. Currently, the leading temperature datasets include Climatic Research Unit (CRU), The Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), but their spatial resolutions are so coarse that they cannot efficiently characterize the difference of heterogeneous hydrothermal patterns in a medium-scale oasis-desert ecosystem in arid regions. So the construction of mean air temperature datasets with high temporal and spatial resolution is crucial for investigating ecological interactions between oasis and desert ecosystems. The Landsat TM/ETM/OLI images, whose spatial resolution of thermal infrared band is 120 m, might be the effective data source for retrieving the daily mean air temperature datasets, which could meet the requirements for effectively representing the interactions between oasis and desert ecosystems. In this paper, firstly, the single-channel algorithm was used to estimate the land surface temperature (LST) based on Landsat TM images. The instantaneous air temperature imageries were retrieved using Zak?ek's algorithm. Then, the daily mean air temperature imageries were created based on the instantaneous temperature imageries, and the relative change rates of air temperature (R-rates) for land-cover types were calculated using the spatial daily mean air temperature imageries in different seasons. Finally, the daily mean air temperature datasets were constructed based on the mean air temperature imageries and R-rates. The R-rates showed great spatial heterogeneity in the Sangong River Basin. The R-rates of sandy desert, soil desert, reference station, cropland and hills was 1.12, 1.03, 0.97, 0.80 and 0.76, respectively, compared with built-up areas. Estimated daily mean air temperature and observed values at different weather stations showed a significant linear correlation (P<0.05). The daily mean air temperature datasets retrieved in this paper could effectively characterize the hydrothermal distribution pattern in oasis-desert ecosystems. The method used in the paper might provide a reference for retrieving the maximum and minimum air temperature.

Land use transition refers to the changes in land use morphology including dominant morphology and recessive morphology of a certain region over a certain period of time. If we take different land use morphologies as the points, then different land use transition processes might be the line connecting different points driven by regional socio-economic change and innovation. So, in-depth research on land use morphology may make great contribution to a better understanding of regional land use transition. This paper paid more attention to the recessive land use morphology, a multi-dimensional conception with multiple spatial and non-spatial properties. Taking the Huang-Huai-Hai region as a case study, this paper studies regional land use recessive morphology in a comprehensive way from the view point of exploitation and output. Firstly, a three-dimensional representative model for land use recessive morphology was built. This model consists of the attributes of land use intensity, land use economic condition and land use emission condition. It was subsequently used in recessive land use morphology analysis of the study area. Secondly, a K-means clustering method based on the Genetic Algorithm (KGA) was introduced into the classification for the units with different comprehensive land use recessive morphologies. This showed that the comprehensive land use recessive morphology types of the unit have close relationship to its economic development level. For example, Beijing may have the highest regional land use intensity, highest land use economic level, but lowest land use emission level for its advanced economic development level, while Zhumadian with the lowest regional land use intensity, land use economic level and land use emission level for its underdeveloped economy. Thirdly, by introducing the spatial distance and spatial autocorrelation into the KGA method, this paper proposed a new spatial clustering method combining spatial and non-spatial properties (spatial K-means clustering method based on the Genetic Algorithm, SKGA). As shown that this method performed well in the zoning analysis of comprehensive land use recessive morphologies, for it can maintain the heterogeneity in non-spatial properties, as well as take full account of spatial contiguity and spatial correlation. Finally, differentiated management measures were proposed based on the features of different comprehensive land use recessive morphology zones to support land use policy decision-making.

Increasing evidence indicates that blind expansion of urban area has caused significant ecological environment problems. Therefore, it is important to explore the complex interaction between urban expansion and ecological environment change. Here, we built a comprehensive evaluation index system, "The P-S-R model for the Eco-environment Effect of Urban Expansion (EU-P-S-R)", to evaluate eco-environment effect of urban expansion in the Songhua River Basin from 2001 to 2013, and then explored the driving mechanism of interaction between the urban expansion system and the eco-environment system. This evaluation index system was built based on the "Pressure-State-Response (P-S-R)" function, considering the expansion pressure, expansion state and the eco-environment response for expansion. The results showed that: Firstly, these cities achieved rapidly economic and social development, but spatially unbalanced. Most of them experienced the deterioration of land use status, and their spatial difference enlarged. Besides, their eco-environment quality showed different variation trends, and the spatial pattern changed dramatically. Secondly, the comprehensive eco-environment effect index of urban expansion increased, but the spatial difference was not remarkable due to combined benefits of economic and social pressures, land use status, and eco-environmental response. Thirdly, the casual relationship between urban expansion and eco-environment of the study area accorded with the mechanism of "EU-P-S-R" model, namely, the greater the socio-economic pressure, the worse the land use condition, thus the worse the eco-environmental quality. Fourthly, all factors in the urban expansion system have strong stress effect on the eco-environment system. There was no obvious difference between the influence of the four functional groups: economic development, social development, space expansion status and intensive land use, and the stress dwindled during the research period. In the same way, each functional group of eco-environment system had significant restraint on urban expansion, and the restraint showed the characteristic of ecological status > environmental governance > resource consumption > environmental load.

In order to investigate the health status and spatial pattern of current housing market in China, based on 2009-2013 national residential land transaction data at the county level, this study proposes land price-economy coordination degree, land price-income matching degree, the contribution of land revenue to local financial revenue, the proportion of land transaction through market-oriented approaches (including bid invitation, auction and listing), and housing market transaction activity as evaluation indicators. Then the Ward hierarchical clustering method is used to produce a comprehensive regionalization of housing market health status in China. Finally the spatial variation of housing market health status in China's key regions (Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Jing-Jin-Tang area) is analyzed at city level. The results show that: (1) The overall housing market health level in China needs to be improved. Some 34.48% of the research units are in reasonable health interval, and mainly distributed in southern Tianshan piedmont, Northeast China Plain, Shandong Peninsula, Dongting Lake area and other areas. Land price-economy coordination degree, land price-income matching degree and the contribution of land revenue to local financial revenue are main indicators that affect housing market health. (2) The housing market health status in China during the study period can be divided into five types consisting of "coordinated development" (ClassⅠ), "strong demand" (ClassⅡ), "economic deviation" (ClassⅢ), "financial dependence" (ClassⅣ) and "imbalanced structure" (ClassⅤ), accounting for 34.48%, 22.90%, 23.06%, 10.07% and 9.49% respectively. (3) Key regions' housing market health has significant spatial variation in land price-economy coordination degree, land price-income matching degree and housing market transaction activity. Under the requirements of current central work conference on urbanization, it is necessary for government to promote healthy and orderly development of housing market through appropriate control policies based on regional characteristics.

The rapid and imbalanced economic development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has widened the gap between Beijing-Tianjin and surrounding areas since the 1990s, therefore, it is an important social consensus to achieve coordinated development. In this paper, we analyzed the imbalanced economic development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region by proposing a GDP Index using the DMSP/OLS nighttime light data to represent the regional economic development. Then the Getis-Ord General G, Global Moran's I and Optimized Hot Spot Analysis were applied to qualify the spatial pattern of the GDP Index. Third, Space Time Pattern Mining, Spatial Lag Model (SLM) and Spatial Error Model (SEM) were employed to identify the dynamics of the spatial pattern and evaluate the effects of four factors, which were natural environment (elevation and gradient), infrastructure (road network), policy (land use cover) and administrative division (urban or rural area), to the imbalance in the economy, respectively. Results show that: (1) the study area can be divided into three groups based on the level of economic development: urban Beijing-Tianjin, rural Beijing-Tianjin and urban Hebei, and rural Hebei. And there are two economic development gaps caused by Siphon Effect between urban and rural Beijing-Tianjin, and Beijing-Tianjin and Hebei, which is different from the previous view that only one economic development gap between Beijing-Tianjin and Hebei. (2) The dynamics of spatial pattern of economic development are mainly constant hot spot, fluctuant hot spot and fluctuant cold spot. The degree of hot spot, which is mostly in Beijing-Tianjin, decreases from urban center to rural area as concentric circles. In contrast, the majority of cold spots, which have no obvious ring structure, are located in rural Hebei. (3) The economic development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has non-linear relationship with natural environment, infrastructure, policy and administrative division. In the hot spot region where the economy is more developed, all four factors, especially infrastructure, policy and administrative division, are positively correlated with economic development. However, high gradient, insufficient infrastructure and improper policy limit the economic development in the place with less developed economy, i.e. the cold spot region. This research may be helpful to understand the process and current conditions of economic development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and useful to realize coordinated development in this region.

Understanding of the regional changes of production layout of tea can help the decision-making for a better strategy of tea production in China. In this paper, we analyze the spatial-temporal distribution of tea plantation acreage, tea yield, well-known tea yield, tea production value and the well-known tea value using the GIS technology and gravity center theory. Moreover, we discuss the driving forces of the dynamic evolution of their centers of gravity. The results indicate that there are evident regional differences in China's tea production. Four regional tea production centers (Southwest China tea area: Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan; Jiangnan tea area: Hubei and Zhejiang; Southern China tea area: Fujian; Jiangbei tea area: Henan) have been formed. Fujian, Yunnan and Zhejiang provinces are major regions of tea industry in China. The change of tea production center of gravity in China shows a trend of westward movement on the whole. Although there are some differences in the paths of different indicator centers of gravity, westward movement of the center of tea production is a foregone conclusion. The tea garden area gravity centers move toward the northwest. The output of normal tea and well-known tea gravity centers move toward the southwest. The tea production value and well-known tea production value gravity centers move toward the northwest as a whole. In terms of the moving range and moving speed, the tea production value and famous tea production value gravity centers are lagging behind the output of normal tea and the well-known tea gravity centers shift. On the transfer path of the center of gravity, the size of the center of gravity of some properties, such as tea production, can directly reflect the size of the growth of the attribute in the moving region. There are several factors that affect the spatial-temporal change of tea production center of gravity. First, the government attaches great importance to the development of the tea industry and strongly support the expansion of the tea plantation acreage in China. Second, the optimization of product structure, the increase of proportion of the clonal tea plantation acreage, standardized production and popularity of mechanization are the important reasons for the growth of production of normal tea and the well-known tea. Third, the added value of normal tea and the well-known tea are mainly resulted from the expansion of the scale of tea industry and the brand management.

Carl O. Sauer pointed out that environmental response was nothing more than a specific cultural option with regard to the habitat at a particular time. Cultural landscape is derived from the environmental response of cultural groups in specific areas, which reflects the most basic survival needs of human beings. Settlement defense is a kind of environmental response which is faced with external threats. The consciousness of defense has a profound influence on settlements. Kaiping Diaolou was a kind of defensive building in dispersed settlements with its unique geographical characteristics and spatial pattern. It provided the necessary defensive function for Kaiping settlements during the period of unrest. Evolution of pattern is one of the most important research topics in settlement geography. For Kaiping settlements, the construction of Kaiping Diaolou had reconstructed the existing settlement pattern and formed the defensive functional pattern. The research of defensive functional pattern is a necessary precondition for understanding the process of the environmental response of Kaiping settlements. This paper takes Kaiping Diaolou as the main object of study. Based on mathematical statistics and spatial econometric analysis, it reveals the spatial-temporal characteristics and defensive functional pattern of Kaiping settlements. This study has shown several conclusions as below: (1) In overall distribution, the characteristic of watch towers' agglomeration was quite different from communal towers and residential towers. Watch towers was relatively dispersed and developed a plurality of agglomeration in the county. (2) According to the characteristics of the village, traffic, terrain and banditry, the defensive functional units could be divided into three types: Inland-Defensive Functional Type, Traffic-Defensive Functional Type and Zone-Defensive Functional Type. (3) The development of defensive functional pattern could be divided into four stages: starting, molding, maturity and stable stages. (4) The evolution of settlement defensive functional pattern was summarized as follows: from "scattered points spreading" in the starting stage to "multiple points gathering" in the molding stage, and finally formed the "one core-three belts" defensive functional pattern in the maturity stage.

Commuting features which are of great significance in urban Study have long been concerned. Due to the lack of information about working place in Chinese census data, researches on this topic have relied on traditional data such as questionnaire data in a rather long time. As a result, studies on temporal-spatial commuting characteristics are not refined enough yet. The development of information and communication provides new data, concepts and methods for commuting study, which offers an opportunity for a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of commuting features. Using the cellphone signaling data within two consecutive weeks in 2014 in Shanghai, China, this paper selects three typical employment areas, which are Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, Jinqiao Economic Development Zone as well as Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone to analyze the commuting features respectively and comparatively from four aspects: employment and residence, spatial commuting features, temporal commuting features and commuting by subway. The results show that: (1) Zhangjiang is relatively well self-balanced with the shortest commuting distance; employees here live close to their working place and over a half of them live just in the Park. (2) Jinqiao, having few housing supplies inside and poor rail transportation condition, is typical single-employment; many employees here live surrounding the Zone. (3) Lujiazui, with a rather high proportion of employees live in the central city, is city-interactive; although the inner commuting is still a small part and the commuting distance is not very short, employees here can commute quite conveniently in general. How the six main factors, which are location, transportation condition, scale, industry types as well as land use inside and nearby, contribute to different types of employment areas is then discussed. The results can be instructive for the planning and construction of employment areas. Corresponding planning suggestions are put forward for different patterns of employment areas in the end. For self-balanced ones, increasing supporting facilities inside, such as schools, hospitals and shops, rather than houses only may be more attractive for living. Regarding the single-employment ones, the internal and external public transport links should be mainly enhanced. As for those city-interactive, improving the spatial quality and arousing the regional vitality may be the most important.

Urbanization has developed rapidly in China since the reform and opening-up, while for its promotion to the socioeconomic increase and development, there has been uncoordination between population and land urbanization, and the interaction mechanism of urbanization has also become more and more complicated. This paper, taking Jiangsu province as an example, analyzes the relationship and extent of coupling development between population and land urbanization by co-integration theory and autoregression model. The results indicate that: (1) Population urbanization took a positive promotion to land urbanization in the first decade (1991-2000), and the promotion reduced relatively in the second decade (2001-2010); On the contrary, the effect of land urbanization on population urbanization has enhanced obviously from the first decade to the second. (2) Furthermore, AR model evaluates the relationship of land and population urbanization quantitatively in different periods. With a 1% increase in population urbanization, there is a 1.5% increase in land urbanization in the first decade, and the figure falls to 1.03% in the second decade; On the other hand, with a 1% increase in land urbanization, the number is (0.4390+0.3410)% in the first decade, and up to (0.9097+0.4131)% in the second decade (0.9097 means the regression coefficient of the explanatory variable, and 0.4131 means the regression coefficient of standard deviation, according to the adjusted AR model). (3) Thirdly, this paper explains the reduced effect of population urbanization in the following three aspects: developing stage, driving force and regulatory policies; As well as the enhanced effect of land urbanization in the other three aspects: agglomeration, transfer and hysteresis. In conclusion, the results not only reveal the mechanism of coupling interaction between population and land urbanization, but also enrich the complex system theory of urbanization, and provide scientific basis for the human-environment interaction in the era of rapid urbanization.

As one of the important contents of urban geography, regional urban spatial organization is turning from the traditional city system research to the city networks research. There are two methods to construct city networks. One is using the relational data including the goods flow, capital flow, information flow, population flow among the city to construct city networks; the other one is building models to simulate the relationship between the city, such as interlocking network model and the gravity model. Inspired by the view of the "a spatial dynamic that changes whenever actors move in space" proposed by Menzel, this paper attempts to construct the city networks by using returnees' movement between cities. First, this paper discusses the theoretical relationship between talent mobility and city network. Relational economic geography uses the idea of "based on construction of individual relationship " into network analysis, evolutionary economic geography puts forward the thought of "dynamic proximity", and the research of early uses mobility of talents of high technology to measure the relationship between cities. These had laid a theoretical foundation for the construction of the city network based on the flow of talents movement. Then, we establish the conceptual framework of "triangle model of Chinese returnees". The returnees have the fellow villager's relationship resources in their native places, the classmates' relationship resources in overseas cities and the coworkers' relationship resources in the work city, and these are used in the analysis framework. By integrating the migration data of the returnees, we establish the cities' connections based on the flow of talent, and design a method to calculate the city connectivity. Finally, we select 6 high-end returnees of an innovative team in China to carry out a case analysis. Through the mining of the returnees' city resumes, we successfully construct the city network composed of six talents. As a result, it is suggested that: (1) city innovation network should be examined at national scale under global perspective, and the returnees are good carriers in such researches; (2) the "triangular model" reflects Chinese characteristics, which can explain the formation mechanism of city innovation network better; (3) the returnees team in Beta Pharma Co., Ltd is a typical case that it successfully facilitates inter-city innovation cooperation; and the "triangular model" framework provides a brand-new perspective and analytical method to further research on city innovation network. It should be noted that this paper focuses on theory construction and method exploration, and it needs to use a great quantity returnees' data to carry out systematic research on urban network in the next step, in order to make a greater contribution to urban network theory and the strategy of talents creative practice.

After comparing the preference of transportation at different distances before and after high-speed rail opened, the paper discovers high-speed rail produces great impacts on highways and aviation markets in the distance ranges of 100-300 km and 700-1000 km, respectively. Then the paper further explores the competition patterns between high-speed rail and highways and high-speed rail and aviation by applying the Logit model and analyzing data indicators of typical air routes. The results show that: (1) the market boundary distance between high-speed rail and highways is 152 km; (2) the market boundary distance between high-speed rail and aviation is 633 km; (3) the general laws of the influence of high-speed rail on aviation routes are as follows: first of all, the impact of simultaneously established high-speed rails on aviation routes is greater than that of sectionally established ones. Secondly, routes between cities with large transport hubs are most likely to be affected by high-speed rail with the "Matthew effect". Thirdly, routes between cities with flourishing trade, well-developed tourism or those influenced by topography are more likely to withstand the impacts brought by high-speed rail. Fourthly, longitudinal routes are affected more than lateral ones. At last, based on these conclusions, the paper puts forward measures that should be taken by highways and air transportation systems in order to provide reference for the construction and improvement of a national modern integrated transport system.

In the process of globalized consumption, multinational corporations have accelerated overseas expansion. Retail industry is the most typical case. With production turned from Fordism to post-Fordism, multinational corporations in retail industry are more inclined to lie in the consumer sites. They sell standardized product to the rest of the world through foreign direct investment as well as foreign trade, and gradually formed a unified global production and sales network. At the same time, the embedded consumption patterns and lifestyles in the consumer product have a direct impact on consumer preferences and choices around the world. With the gradual implementation of the opening-up policy in China's retail industry, the multinational retail corporations distributed quickly to strengthen their localization process in China. From the perspectives of expansion scale and strategy, KFC, McDonald's, Haagen-Dazs, Starbucks and other multinational corporations are most typical in F&B industry. In their expansion to China, these multinational corporations in F&B industry need to consider not only the economic and cultural advantages among cities, but also the differences among commercial locations within the city. However, few reports in the literature relates to the overseas location choice of the multinational corporations in F&B industry. This paper discusses the spatial distribution, influencing factors and expansion mode based on the sample of 1446 Starbucks subsidiaries in the mainland of China with the methods of spatial analysis and regression. The results show that: (1) Starbucks exhibits a non-equilibrium and aggregated distribution mode. Its expansion path gradually extends from the coastal well-developed areas to inland provinces, which echoes to the implementation of the opening-up policy in retail industry. At the same time, it shows that the cultural system and economic factors greatly influence the expansion mode. (2) Under the dimensions of economy, space, information and humanities, indicators of market demand, purchasing power, price level, retail market conditions, transportation accessibility, commerce prosperity, the level of development of communication facilities, information networks and regional economic openness are closely related to the location choice of Starbuck stores. (3) The expansion mode of Starbucks is not the typical contagious diffusion model in service enterprises, but shows the hierarchical diffusion and contagious diffusion mixed mode. The study finds that the expansion of Starbucks has undergone three stages: hierarchical diffusion, mixed mode, and contagious diffusion.

The rise of integrated physical geography in China is not an accidental event. It was closely connected with the construction of the related theory system, the fostering of domestic professional scholars, the inheritance of academic history both at home and abroad, and the demand of social development in China. Specifically speaking, it was influenced by the spread of Western modern geography in the early 20th century, and the traditional harmony theory of Chinese ancient geography; it was also associated with the geographical intensive Sino-Soviet academic communications in the 1950s, as well as the needs of economic development in China. All in all, as a branch of physical geography, the integrated physical geography is a practice-oriented subject, focusing on comprehensive perspectives of natural regionalization, land change, and landscape service. The main contents of integrated physical geography studies in China have developed from agricultural regionalization and ecological regionalization to integrated regionalization; from land type, land source to land system; from landscape pattern research to landscape function and service research. Along with the change of the study theme, this subject kept on improving and deepening. Faced with the growing challenges such as rapid urban expansion, serious environmental pollution, and the natural resource exhaustion, the integrated physical geography in China is trying to explore new integrated approaches in accordance with the transformation of the time background. It chooses coupled human and natural systems as its study object, considers the synthesis of processes interaction at different regional scales, makes landscape sustainability as its key research field, and uses big data and high technology as its methodology.

Because of the huge impact of globalization and urbanization, cultural landscapes in urban and rural areas of China are faced with the challenge of being fragmenting, transforming, or even disappearing. To be a strong nation, China should not only focus on economic growth, but also on cultural inheritance and innovation. Based on the traditional cultural landscape preservation of individual, block and town scales, we try to make a break-through in terms of regional and transregional preservation, so that the integral and regional preservation ideas can be improved. Aiming at the generalized concept of cultural landscape, this research summarizes its adaptability, predictability and connectivity attributes, constructs the "node-setting-connection" model of the cultural landscape security pattern, and brings forward the elemental continuity, environmental broadness and network complexity features of the security pattern. The goal is to use the integral and regional ideas to protect the cultural connection of cultural landscapes, as well as to inherit the spiritual and cultural connotations.

The goal of building a beautiful country was proposed in the 18th CPC National Congress Report, and beautiful rural construction is an important step to realize the goal. Rural construction is a huge and structure-complicated system for the quantity of its villages and towns, population and industry economics. If there are no comprehensive thinking and systematic approaches, it is hard to realize the objective of building beautiful countryside. With the help of documents collected, typological methodology, systematic theory and previous practical experience in building beautiful countryside, the authors analyze and summarize the fruits and facts from aspects of system elements, structure and function. It is pointed out that the current system of rural construction is clear. However, there are some problems in subsystems which should be paid attention to, such as relying on external assistance to regroup construction elements, short-term and stage-phased governance structure, superficial and subjective function implementation. After summarizing and studying the current theory and practice, we believe that there is an urgent need to set up a sustainable and large-scale rural area construction-related theoretical system from perspectives of disciplinary development, academic research, policy mechanism and practice evaluation.

Since the earth entered into a new era of the Anthropocene Era, the human-environment relationship has become extremely complicated. As the important driving factor of the human-environment relationship, livelihoods provides the new perspective and the new tool for understanding the human-environment relationship. For now, geography has become one of the most active discipline researching sustainable livelihoods. Based on the overviewing the origin and framework of sustainable livelihoods research, we tease out the research status of the major topics in geography, which include the spatial heterogeneity of livelihoods, the relationship between livelihoods and eco-environment, the impact of vulnerability context/consequence and process transformation (such as climate change, land use / cover change, payment for ecological service and rural tourism) on the farmers' livelihoods, and livelihoods vulnerability assessment. Then, we point out that the relevant research in geography has paid less attention to the dynamics of livelihoods, the impact of globalization on livelihoods and the impact of multi-stressor on livelihoods, and in the meantime, short of comprehensive integration of the new techniques and methods. Finally, we present the prospects of future studies for sustainable livelihoods in geography which include the livelihoods' patterns-processes-mechanism, the trans-scale question of livelihoods, the ecological-economic-social effect of livelihoods transformation, the formation and regulation of livelihoods vulnerability and livelihoods sustainability. These prospects and reviews would help to offer revelation and reference for domestic relevant researches.

Rurality has always been a central topic of rural studies in the West. Discussions on its definitions have been quite complex, contested and even ambivalent, reflecting recent dramatic changes occurring in rural economies, politics and social cultures. In tradition, rurality has been regarded as a given nature that is self-evident, generalized and one-dimensional. However, with the post-modern transformation of social realities and academic trends, the concept of rurality now focuses on dynamic processes through which diversified and heterogeneous meanings are produced and reproduced. Many scholars have called for a 'post-rural' context from which to understand rural reconstruction in a new era. Just as 'post-modernity' refers to the reflexivity of modernity, the concept of the 'post-rural' has been advanced not to partition phases of rural development, but to realize the reflexive turn occurring in rural studies. The 'post-rural' can be regarded as a 'complex', as multiple actors, events, discourses and practices co-exist and interplay. Hybridity refers to a process of recreation based on the integration of heterogeneous elements together with the elimination of borders between systems. Thus, hybridity is considered to be one of the most useful theoretical perspectives for understanding the essence of rurality in an increasingly complex context. Hence, based on interpretations and analyses of previous literature of the West, this paper proposes a framework on hybridity in 'post-rural' settings based on the following three aspects: (1) hybridity produced by human and non-human actors and trends of rematerialization emphasizing performances and practices in post-rural everyday life; (2) hybridity embedded in fluid networks and relations and dialectical relationships between rurality, globality, and urbanity; (3) hybridity stimulated through rural area's integration into processes of modernization and processes of negotiation occurring between the de-alienation of traditional local cultures and the alienation of modernity. Finally, considering the particularities of the context of rural China, this paper discusses ways in which the perspective of hybridity offers new insights into the studies and practices of Chinese rural reconstruction.

With rapid development of urbanization in the past decades in China, traditional villages' human settlement in China is at a critical stage of overall transformation. Prospective study on progress and mechanism of transformation development of traditional villages' human settlement are of great significant. Using the Citespace V software, this paper analyzed the research hotspot of traditional villages and human settlements. Also the research progress of spatial morphological evolution and reconstruction of traditional villages, socio-cultural inheritance and variation, ecological environment characteristics and adaptation, human settlement renewal and construction, were teased and reviewed. Based on the above analysis and short comments, key fields and research ideas of future research were put forward from the aspects of theory summary, multi-disciplinary integration, technique innovation and model induction. Future research on transformation development of traditional villages' human settlement should be guided by the theory of man-land relationship and strengthened by the in-depth integration of multi-science and technique innovation. Aiming to construct the theoretical system and construction mode of transformation of traditional villages' human settlement, and comprehensive integration of 3D digitization, remote sensing & GIS technology and mathematical model, this paper mainly studied the evolution laws, stage identification, type classification and driving force mechanism of human settlement system of traditional villages. Through analysis of classic cases and comparison of evolution progress and human settlements interaction mechanism of typical models, this paper explored the regional model and scientific path on advancing transformation development of traditional villages' human settlement. Furthermore, based on the theory model for the transformation of traditional villages' human settlement, some counter-measures are put forward in the view of coordinating mechanism of self-organization and hetero-organization, monitoring of eco-environment quality, and traditional culture inheritance and renewal. Meanwhile, the self-organization innovation way of transformation of traditional villages' human settlement should be built by capital investment, policy guidance, and technical support, which provided a critical parameter for the theory of human settlements sciences.

The rise of the great powers is a process of continuous strategic spatial expansion and negotiation of a dynamic strategic balance between the incumbent powers. The strong economic interdependence between China and the United States (the US) is an endogenous variable in their bilateral political relationship. The strategic targeting of potential extraterritorial space and the scramble for economic power are key elements in the Sino-US geopolitical game. Based on balance of power theory, this study used sensitivity and vulnerability indexes to establish the economic power equilibrium zone from a Sino-US interactive view. Results indicate: (1) Spatially, the economic power of China and the US showed contradictory development. The China's spaces of economic power continued expanding to Africa, Europe, and even Latin America, while those of the US shrank to the Americas. Sino-US economic power revealed a pattern of competition in the global East and West. (2) The specific pattern of Sino-US economic equilibrium zones emerged and was highly consistent with Spykman's Rimland Theory of 2014. These zones included the coastal countries in Europe, the coastal countries of North Africa and the Middle East, the countries on the east coast of Latin America, and the coastal countries of South Asia, showing an italic "Y" pattern. (3) Countries in the Sino-US economic equilibrium zones fell into five categories, distinguished by their preferences vis-à-vis Sino-US policy. In the Sino-US geopolitical game, economically developed countries hedged their bets; Resource endowment countries focused on domestic social and economic growth; Policy-economy divided countries tended to support the politics of the US and to rely on China's economy; Strategic channel countries played both sides in the Sino-US game, and edge-isolated countries merely tried to protect themselves. (4) Considering the economy and military forces, Sino-US economic power equilibrium zones were located in the West Pacific Ocean, the coastal areas of Europe, the coastal areas of South Asia, the coastal areas of the Middle East and North Africa, and the coastal areas of Latin America.

The essence of the South China Sea Issue is an islands sovereignty and maritime demarcation dispute between China and its neighboring countries. The territorial disputes in the South China Sea have disrupted the geopolitical structure in East Asia. And the Huangyan Island is important to China's sovereignty, national security and future development. So this paper points out that, in the new era, China should introduce wise political wisdom, great diplomatic skill and powerful military capacity to settle the dispute. This paper summarized the Western and Chinese geographers' achievements and deficiencies of Politics of Scale during the past decades. Based on the theory of Politics of Scale, this paper not only analyzes the Huangyan Island's dispute between China and the Philippines, but also discusses the dispute-related countries' approaches to applying, contesting and transforming the scale on the geopolitical space of the South China Sea, while these countries mainly include China, the Philippines and U.S. Results show that: (1) The new structure of geopolitical scale is a kind of multi-dimensional structure, and it will be restructured in a dynamic way in the process of the contest between the Great Powers outside the region and the regional countries. (2) The most important strategies to achieve the transformation of scale include overcoming the inefficiency caused by the path dependency, sensing the scale in a keen way and possessing a strong right of scale definition. (3) "The Scale of Expression" and "Public Opinion" are becoming critical factors altering the power structure and determining the success or failure of a Scale Game. And in the process of scale contest, the geopolitical stakeholders' control ability of Public Opinion's instrument can directly affect the restructuring of geopolitical structure. China's claim to its sovereignty has long been misrepresented and ignored by most of the Western mainstream medias. Therefore, an improvement of Chinese Government's own voice on the international stage is needed in order to make up this phenomenon. (4) Individuals are becoming important participants of international politics, especially when people are exposed to territorial disputes and when other countries are becoming more nationalistic, more patriotic, and more racist, the microcosmization and fragmentation of scale political space make scale's production and construction more complicated. In the future, when facing the South China Sea Issue, China should find a new reasonable balance between macro and micro politics of scale, in order to maintain the sovereignty over the South China Sea.

As a typical complex system, man-land system is known as a coupled human and natural system. The complexity of man-land system can be divided into three critical dimensions - temporal complexity, spatial complexity and decision-making complexity. In modeling complex systems, traditional models are deficient in displaying data in multiple dimensions, and thus require additional research. Recent studies suggest that the agent-based models (ABM) would provide insights on exploratory analysis and serve as one of the key tools for complex system studies. In contrast to traditional models, ABM pays more attention to the study of 'people', focusing on assessing the influence of human activities on the environment, and can reflect it in a spatially explicit way. The models usually contain three parts: (1) environmental layer, which is composed of natural/social attribute such as terrain slope, land price and traffic condition; (2) agent layer, consisting of one or more agent types with specific attributes; (3) behavior rule, standardizing the mutual consultation and decision-making mode of agents. ABM adopts a 'bottom-up' approach by applying the relevant actors and decisions at the micro-level to producing an observable macro-phenomenon, and displaying high complexity values in three dimensions. Currently, ABM approaches are widely used to model human-environment interactions in various fields, including transportation, financial markets and tourism management. After the basic principles of agent-based simulation are briefly introduced, this paper reviews the application of ABM in ecological process, ecological resource management and land use/cover change. However, as a new method, ABM is still at an exploratory stage, faced by issues including replication potential, empirical parameterization and model validation, individual decision making, and integration with other models. Although there are many challenges, the recent developments reflect an encouraging trend towards developing a new methodology for dynamic spatial modeling of human-environment interactions. The outlook of ABM is promising.

In the context of the integrated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region as a national strategy and the construction of Xiongan New Area, it is necessary to analyze the relationship of economic growth between large cities and small cities in this region. This paper examines the existence of "agglomeration shadow" and the "poverty belt around Beijing and Tianjin" suggested by the Asian Development Bank in 2005. The previous research of the "poverty belt around Beijing and Tianjin" did not conduct systematic analyses and empirical tests from the perspective of spatial interactions. The literature on spatial interactions has not reached an agreement on whether large cities are conducive to the economic growth of small cities. This paper aims to provide academic evidence for the coordinated development of the BTH region. The results reveal that the core cities in this region did curb the economic growth of small cities around them, supporting the "agglomeration shadow" proposed by new economic geography and the phenomenon "poverty belt around Beijing and Tianjin". Negative spillovers of economic growth exist among small cities as well, which could be attributed to the cut-throat competitions among small cities owing to the urgent desire for economic development of local governments. Compared with the Yangtze River Delta region where core cities benefit the economic growth of their adjacent cities, the radiating function and the trickle-down effect of core cities within the BTH region are obviously weak, and the development gap between large and small cities is greater. These conclusions indicate that to a great degree, the harmonious development of the BTH region is related to the radiation effects of the large cities, and the "agglomeration shadow" should be transformed into a sunshine zone of economic growth. In other words, a polycentric and reasonable urban hierarchy is crucial. From this point of view, the construction of the Xiongan New Area, as an anti-magnetic center just meets the need. This strategy will not only ease the pressure on Beijing, but also provide a new growth pole which helps to benefit the balance of regional economic growth and improve the "poverty belt around Beijing and Tianjin". The policy implications include: using the opportunity of constructing the Xiongan New Area to build a multi-centered spatial pattern with the government's active guidance and the function of the market mechanism; understanding the importance to form a rational and orderly spatial structure of urban system; breaking the obstacles owing to administrative boundaries among cities to promote the regional integration.

Will the increase of the urbanization rate exacerbate haze pollution? Against the background of China's vigorous promotion of new-type urbanization, how to answer this question scientifically is very important. This paper uses the air quality index (AQI) to measure haze pollution, and spatial simultaneous equations were constructed to study the interactive relationship and spatial effects of the urbanization rate and haze pollution. Generalized spatial three-stage least squares (GS3SLS) were used to estimate parameters. The results show that the urbanization rate has a significant negative impact on haze pollution and that haze pollution also has a significant negative impact on the urbanization rate. Both of them have significant spatial spillover effects. Increase in the urbanization rate of the surrounding area will have a negative effect on local haze pollution. Similarly, increased haze pollution in the surrounding area will have a negative effect on the local urbanization rate. This conclusion explains why haze pollution control cannot be conducted alone; collaborative governance between neighboring areas is the only effective solution. Group study further corroborated this conclusion. With the increase in the urbanization rate, haze pollution was gradually reduced. The estimation results of group 2 (urbanization rate ≥60.8%) were more significant than those of group 1 (urbanization rate <60.8%). With an increased urbanization rate, its negative influence on haze pollution become more and more significant. Specifically, when the urbanization rate was less than 60.8%, if it increased by 1%, haze pollution would drop by 0.0143%. When the urbanization rate was greater than or equal to 60.8%, if it increased by 1%, haze pollution would decline by 0.0178%. The study also found that, with the increase in urbanization rate, there exists an "N curve" relationship between the level of economic development and haze pollution. This can play a warning role for areas with a high urbanization rate. In addition, the increase in R&D investment did not inhibit haze pollution. This result implies that there may be an energy rebound effect caused by technological progress in China. China should study how the market mechanism works together with fiscal policy to carefully deal with the emergence of this energy rebound effect.

It is growing to be the significant mission for the behavioral schools of geography to construct a generalized theory explaining the interaction between space and behavior. It is also an urgent realistic demand for current urban development and transformation in China to summarize the conceptual model and explanatory model of space-behavior interaction combined with China's reality. Firstly, this study builds the theoretical foundation of space-behavior interaction research which takes social-space theory as epistemology, behavioral geography and time geography as methodology, and activity-based approach as practical theory. Secondly, as for the research paradigm, the study argues the space-behavior interaction research needed to combine the place-based paradigm and people-based paradigm, facing current situation of China's urban development. Then this study makes an innovative attempt to propose basic thinking of space-behavior interaction theory construction. It needs to carry out research on spatial effects on behavior and behavioral effects on space to construct a generalized space-behavior interaction theory. On this basis, the diversity and similarity of space-behavior interaction in various cities, the trends and dynamics of spatial-behavioral interaction in different periods of time, the distinctiveness of various population segments, need be testified to improve the theory construction.

Community construction(She-Qu Jian-She) is a top-down movement of building urban-grassroots-management unit by the central government, aiming to construct a spatial unit to replace Danwei while Danwei system was collapsing. This movement emerged during the 1990s, while fading out of the public concern nowadays. Since it pays strong intention on reconstructing power space, this paper attempts to review the route through which community construction policy forms and its core discourse in the perspective of territorialization theory in political geography, and accordingly looks into China's society building issue. It points out that, the central government attempts to construct a territorial governance system taking community(She-Qu) as medium after 2000, and emphasizes the spatial design and the spatial narratives of community to claim territorialization in the core policy document. However, after its temporary failure, it turns to community service policy, which emphasizes downscale of state's welfare and reflects state's changeable attitude toward community construction. Finally, this paper contends that, in order to strengthen community's practical significance, it is necessary to enrich research of grassroots community governance and take measures to fix the territorial system of community.

Social and Cultural Geography (or SCG, for short), an academic journal with an international reputation in the areas of social and cultural geography, has created an interdisciplinary platform for scholarly discussions related to the spatiality of society and culture. Based on the statistical analysis of 949 articles that have been published since 2000 when the journal was launched, this paper attempts to take a close look at the authors, research areas, topics, the methods of data collection and analysis, in SCG with the aid of Citespace and Histcite software. We found that: (1) The number of published papers substantially grew and the research areas and source of authors are continually internationalized, which implies that social and cultural geography is increasingly internationally-recognized; (2) The research interests have witnessed the "cultural turn" and "policy turn" within geography, mainly focusing upon the emerging topics like power, identity, memory, home, mobility, race, religion, music and food, all of which are human-centered and highly relevant to social issues; (3) The research articles in SCG are mainly engaged in qualitative approaches, like interview, ethnography, participant observation, and focused group. (4) The Western scholars prefer multiple ways of data collection and evidence displaying including text analysis, analytical comparison, visual aid, which are less commonly used in China's geo-journals. In conclusion, by classifying and analyzing the journal articles published in SCG, this article tries to capture the up-to-date research tendency and methodological approaches in current Western social and cultural geographical academia in order to provide some insights for domestic geographical research.

As a top-down design, China's urbanization is building upon a "growth oriented model". In this sense, scholars and policy makers in China are focusing more on urban growth and spatial expansion. Recently, China has entered a period of "New Normal" (Xin Chang Tai") and faced the supply side reform. Urban shrinkage in terms of population has also emerged in Chinese cities. Especially, some mining industry cities in Northeast China have been losing their population and are also associating with a weak GDP/local fiscal growth rate. As one of the major challenges that China may be confronted with in the new-type urbanization, urban shrinkage should be regarded as an important issue addressed by geographers. Hereby we invited concerning scholars from the area of human-economic geography, urban-rural planning, regional science and public policy in this debate to conduct academic discussion towards urban shrinkage in China, aiming to demonstrate their up-to-date understandings upon emerging shrinking cities in China for sustainable development from various perspectives.

The "Perspectives and Contention" in Geographical Research established in January 2015 show the characteristic of journal but also increase researcher approval degree for the paper's academic value of Chinese journals. On the basis of 49 document records from "Perspectives and Contention" in Geographical Research during 2015-2017, the paper conducted an integrated bibliometrics analysis in respect to characteristics of authors, research institution, keywords, funding situation, cited situation. The results show that: (1) These papers published in "Perspectives and Contention" of Geographical Research has high academic quality and reflected the research achievements of China's highest academic level in the field of geography. (2) These papers focus on the human geography, a comprehensive of human geography and physical geography. (3) It is shown that these papers possess evident practicability and applicability, and have higher influence. (4) Strategies to establish brand column or characteristic column and publish high quality papers are important to promote the journal quality and expand social consequence.

Since the launch of reform and opening up in the late 1970s, Chinese urban geography has gained rapid development and become the fastest growing and the most active branch of human geography. The development of Chinese urban geography has the following remarkable characteristics: (1) It combines urban planning practice closely, and always regards urban planning needs as the goal; (2) It establishes a mechanism for the introduction, absorption and conversion; (3) It promotes international cooperation in urbanization research actively; (4) In terms of theoretical research, urban geography absorbs a large number of experiences, theories and concepts in Western countries, and promotes the integration of Chinese urban geography theory with the West from the global perspective; (5) In the new situation of China's social development, it pays more attention to the concept of ecological environment and people-centered development, and promotes the development of its sub-disciplines. Young urban geographers have made discussions on the new trend of development of the Western urban geography, the evolution of urban industry, the evolution of urban spatial structure, the reshaping of the urbanization pattern, the new interpretation of China's development model, the application of large data and the innovation of qualitative method. In the future, the Chinese urban geography study should place more emphasis on the service in urban planning practice. Firstly, the new generation of urban geographers should absorb the advantages of other disciplines, and summarize the law of urban development in China based on China's national conditions. What's more, urban geographers should hold the power of speech in the policy and major strategies of national cities, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the new urbanization strategy, and play an important role in the formulation of these policies. At last, we should continue to strengthen the international cooperation so as to raise the level of Chinese urban geography in the status of international academia

：Qiangtang Plateau (QP) refers as a typical interior region in the Tibetan Plateau, where the variability of precipitation is critical for cryospheric and ecosystems changes. However, the spatial distribution and variation of precipitation in the QP remains poorly understood due to lacking of precipitation gauges data. Based on precipitation data from nine automatic stations and five remote sensing and simulated precipitation products in 2015 and daily precipitation data from twenty-six meteorological stations during 1978-2015 in the QP and its vicinity, the spatial distribution and variation of precipitation were analyzed. Results showed that: (1) Annual precipitation and precipitation days were approximately 154.9 mm and 50 days in the core of the QP in 2015, respectively. Annual precipitation in the core of QP was approximately one third and one quarter of the average annual precipitation in the southeast of the QP and Tibet Autonomous Region, respectively. The lowest precipitation is observed on the north slope of the Kunlun Mountains, which confirms that this area is one of the main regions of 'cold dry core' in the perspective of precipitation. (2) The rainy season is clearly different from the dry season. The rainy season exists from June to August in the northern region, whose length is about 1-2 months shorter than that in the southern region. The distribution of precipitation in the northern region shows a single peak while that in the southern region shows a bimodal pattern. (3) TRMM (3B43) and GPM (IMERG) overestimated the annual precipitation in most sites of the QP, mainly due to the overestimation of precipitation in dry season. (4) A slight wetting process and an increasing trend of heavy rainfall events were detected in local area of the QP from 1978 to 2015.

The land cover datasets in the Qiangtang Plateau (QP) have generally been considered as the fundamental data in the studies of local environmental and ecological issues. We evaluated the accuracy of seven land cover datasets in the QP, i.e. International Geosphere-Biosphere Program's Data and Information System Cover (IGBPDIS), Global Land cover mapping at 30 m resolution (GlobeLand 30), The MODIS Land Cover Type product (MCD12Q1), Climate Change Initiative Land Cover (CCI-LC), Global Land Cover 2000 (GLC2000), GlobCover 2009 (GlobCover) and University of Maryland (UMD). For that, the study used 6851 field samples with first and second level (8 and 10, respectively) land cover types. Three widely used parameters were derived to describe the error matrix of the map and also for the overall user's and producer's accuracy. The quantitative assessments of the map quality and classification accuracy for the available land cover maps will help to improve the overall accuracy of land cover mapping in future. The overall results of the assessment pointed out that the GlobeLand 30 and CCI-LC land cover map have higher accuracy than other data sets. However, they are also just 55.09% and 53.92% in first level assessment and 46.55% and 46.23% in the second level accuracy assessment. The best producer's accuracies of the three main land cover classes, e.g. alpine grassland, barren land and desert land in the QP were 46.19% in GLC 2000, 39.20% in MCD12Q1, and 84.44% in the IGBPDIS. The user's accuracy of the three first level land cover classes were less than 50%. In addition, the accuracy of the CCI-LC data was 92.8%, with omission error at 19.90% in the snow and ice cover. After analysis, we found that the discrepancy of classification system and the typical plateau environment in the QP are the main factors that result in a high level of inaccuracy of the land cover datasets.

A total of 19 soil temperature stations and three automatic weather stations in Gaize and Ritu counties, Tibet within the core region of Northern Tibetan Plateau, have been established to measure soil temperature at three soil depths (1 cm, 10 cm and 20 cm) with their elevations varying from 4515 to 5172 m. The station-averaged soil temperature data at hourly to monthly scale are used to analyse the characteristics of soil temperature and thaw-freezing processes during the period from September, 2013 to October, 2014. Major findings are as follows: The ranges of daily soil temperature at 1 cm, 10 cm and 20 cm depths are -16.27 to 17.18 ℃, -14.35 to 15.75 ℃, and -13.49 to 14.70 ℃, respectively during the study period. Soil temperature varied in a slower amplitude with the increase of depths. The difference of 22 stations may have relationship with elevation and latitude, and the spatial variability is less than 12.82 ℃. The temperature continuous rising process is faster than continuous cooling process at daily scale. For all the three depths of soil temperature, the coldest month is January with an average temperature of -12.69 ℃, and the warmest month is July with an average temperature of 13.15 ℃. The annual range of daily mean temperature is about 30 ℃. The soil temperature has a strong coefficient of variation (CV) values during thaw phase and freezing phase, especially at 1 cm soil depth. And the CV values during the thaw phase are higher than those during the freezing phase. In view of the correlation analysis between air temperature and soil temperature at three soil depths, the soil temperature at 1 cm depth is strongly correlated with air temperature at monthly scale with the correlation coefficient being r = 0.99. The results will provide reliable data for the basic research of the Tibetan Plateau. And it will also provide a scientific basis for regional thaw phase and freezing phase, soil heat transfer and hydrological and thermal process.

The Changtang Plateau is a typical alpine area in Asia, as well as one of the regions with fewer available data. Exploring soil properties and their data is very helpful to grasp the soil forming characteristics in cold environments. Twenty two soil samples, covering the three layers: 0-5 cm, 5-10 cm, 10-20 cm, from 8 sample points, were collected from Charinazu piedmont to the lakeside near Chabu village in Gerze County, Tibet Autonomous Region in the central area of Changtang plateau. The soil particle composition, pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, total potassium, alkali solution nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium, and soil calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na), iron (Fe), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) were measured. Soil properties and their spatial characteristics were discussed. The results indicated: (1) the soil pH is 8.9; Compared to the national background values of frigid calcic soils, the soil organic matter, total phosphorus, total potassium and alkali solution nitrogen content are lower; Ca and Mg content are higher; and Na, K, Fe, Mn, Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, and Zn contents are lower than the corresponding background values. (2) Spatial characteristics: the soil pH value was lower near the lakeside and piedmont, and it was higher in the middle section; From the lakeside to the foothills, the gravel (with more than 2 mm diameter) content showed a reducing trend, but the average particle size of fine soil (less than 2 mm) increased gradually; Soil organic matter, total nitrogen and alkali solution nitrogen content increased; Available potassium and available phosphorus decreased, but the total phosphorus content fluctuated greatly with no obvious trend. Soil Ca and Mg content showed a declining trend; Na increased slightly; Fe fluctuated; and Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn, and Mn content also increased slightly with large fluctuations. (3) Soil pH, total phosphorus, available phosphorus, available potassium, alkali solution nitrogen, and Cd had poor relationships to the values of other soil indicators. The correlation coefficient between soil organic matter and total nitrogen content was very high with a ratio of 5: 1, and they both had close correlations to most major and trace soil elements. There was a significantly positive correlation between soil Ca and Mg, and a significantly negative correlation to the values of other soil indicators. In addition, there was a significantly positive correlation between soil K, Na, and other metal element content except for Ca and Mg.

Soil moisture is a key parameter of the ecosystem. Real-time and effective monitoring of soil moisture helps to enhance our understanding of regional climate and environmental change. MOD11A2 and MOD13A2 of MODIS synthetic products in DOY (Day of Year) 177-225 between 2000 and 2014 was used to obtain the Land Surface Temperature and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, and the status of soil moisture on the Qiangtang Plateau covering the summer from 2000 to 2014 was evaluated based on the method of Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI). The spatial distribution of soil moisture in the summer of 2014 was analyzed as an example, and the dynamic changes of soil moisture during 2000-2014 were further discussed. The results show that: (1) The soil moisture of the Qiangtang Plateau in 2014 was generally humid in the southeastern part, while it was arid in the northwestern part. Soil moisture gradually reduced from east to west, dry and wet conditions were found alternately between south and north. The percentages of areas of dry soil, partially dry soil, normal humidity soil, partially wet soil, and wet soil were 3.84%, 27.17%, 37.64%, 29.63%, and 1.72%, respectively in 2014. (2) In July and August from 2000 to 2014, soil moisture in the northern and central parts of the plateau showed a significant trend of getting dry, while that in the southern part showed a trend of getting wet with little significance. The proportion of area of dry soil and wet soil in the study area was the smallest and had little fluctuation from 2000 to 2014, while that of partially dry soil, normal humidity soil, partially wet soil had different fluctuations. (3) Precipitation was an important factor affecting TVDI, and had the certain hysteresis, while the impact of temperature was relatively small.

ECH₂O EC-5 soil moisture sensor can effectively monitor the soil moisture content, and it can reveal the soil moisture dynamic change under different rainfall events. However the main soil type has high gravel content on Tibetan plateau, and there is a large temperature disparity between day and night, especially the freezing and thawing phenomenon which frequently occurs during spring and autumn. This paper discusses the property of the EC-5 soil moisture sensor's measuring data of soil water content, and the soil sample are taken from the field observation sites in the Qiangtang plateau western Tibetan Plateau of China.

The results show that all samples have good imitative effects: (1) According to the fitted line, the measured data which had already been corrected could efficiently reflect the practical soil moisture content most R² of the fitting were over 0.97, the fitting curve of measured data after calibration and the real value is very close to the standard curve; (2) Comprehensive calibration results of different soil depth, there are some differences of regression straight line and the ideal straight line (Y = X), when the water content is quite low the water content value after calibration is higher than the real value, when the water content is quite high the water content value after calibration is lower than the real value. When the water content between 0. 06~0.12 cm³/cm³, the calibration result is more reliable. (3)The existing calibration model can reflect the overall situation of the water content changes, but may cause overestimate or underestimate the true value of the deviation.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway is constructed in an ecologically fragile area, and thus, the railway construction will impact the ecosystem around inevitably. To evaluate the effects of railway objectively, we carried out a study on the basis of 212 Landsat TM/ETM+ images captured in 1995-2014 during the peak period of vegetation growth along the railway and within a 10-km range of it. The Fmask method and the spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model (STARFM) were used to remove the cloud, shadow, and gap in those images to acquire clear 30-m NDVI images. Then, the linear regression and sequential T test of regime shifts (STARS) were used to analyze the spatial-temporal change, regime shift, and eco-resilience characteristics of the NDVI in the study area. Results show that: (1) the NDVI of the study area grew slightly in 20 years, similar to the NDVI growth in the whole Tibetan Plateau. The NDVI along the railway is higher in the north than that in the south. The NDVI in the northern part changes slightly, and the area of decline is concentrated in Naqu-Damxung; (2) The railway construction exerts no apparent effects on the ecological system. Both sides of the railway within the range of 1 km are influenced by the railway construction. Most significant damages to vegetation cover resulted by the railway and ancillary facilities construction are within the range of 100 m along the railway. (3) Regime shift and eco-resilience focused in the city and the surrounding valley and pastoral areas caused most dramatic changes in the region. The detection results of different ecosystem types of eco-resilience show that the eco-resilience order is as follows: bare > desert > alpine > grassland > meadow > shrub > wetland > farmland. The wetland ecosystem is the most vulnerable environment and the main type of ecosystem protection. In addition, restoring vegetation is most difficult in the desert ecosystem and bare ground.

Based on the panel data of 45 Aviation Economic Development Zones (AEDZs) in China from 2001 to 2014, this paper empirically examines the relationship between AEDZ and the hinterland development at the national scope and by three typologies, i.e. central, pillar, and start-up types of AEDZs, through applying the Granger causality test and dynamic spatial measurement. The results show that: (1) regional economic development of the hinterland plays a decisive role in the increase of passenger and cargo throughput in the airport, while AEDZ imposes limited impact on the economic growth of hinterland, with the influence mainly concentrated on the passenger throughput. (2) Different levels of AEDZs exert different impacts on the development of hinterland regional economy: i) the central type of AEDZs, represented by Beijing and other first-tier cities, has the greatest impact with a steady growth trend; ii) the pillar type of AEDZs, represented by the second-tier provincial capital cities such as Zhengzhou, has relatively weak impact, indicating an accelerating growth trend; iii) the start-up type of AEDZs represented by the third-tier cities such as Lanzhou has little impact, with a relatively slow growth rate. Based on the analysis, the following suggestions and recommendations can be made: (1) aligned with the well positioning of the hinterland and the AEDZ development stage, identify the local competitive industries with rational planning; (2) improve the soft environment of AEDZs to develop the modern industrial system; (3) promote the integration of AEDZs and hinterland areas to push the continuous development of aerotropolis; (4) innovate institutional system to boost vitality of the customized development of AEDZs.