Land use is one complex system, which is affected by many factors, including both socio economic elements and natural resources and environment This paper firstly established a framework for macro analysis on the driving forces of land use change in China, in which economic welfare, environmental welfare, the need for food security and the advancement of science and technology are the main forces contributing to the land use changes Then the paper analyzed the basic contradictions in the land use change in recent years on the basis of current situation of land use and economic development in China In the third section, according to the analytical framework established firstly and the basic contradictions in the land use change, and on the basis of the land use data and other related socio economic documents in recent years, this paper analyzed and computed the indexes of the driving forces of the land use change and represented their spatial distribution in China By the distribution of these driving forces, the whole China can be seen as three distinct sub areas: Tibet southwest sub area, central northwest sub area and east sub area, each of which takes on different features in respect of the driving forces of land use changes As indicated in this paper, the economic welfare is the fundamental impetus to the land use changes, and the environmental welfare and the need for food security are also important factors in China The future land use change is ultimately decided by the performance of these factors and their interactions

This paper analyzes the coupling mechanism between urbanization and eco environment: the intimidation on eco environment from urbanization is caused by contamination from population, enterprises and transportation; Meanwhile, the restriction against urbanization from eco environment results from changing the flow direction of population and capital. On the basis of the above, the authors deduce the coupling function and theshape curve between urbanization and eco environment in two ways: algebra and geometry, and then opens out the relationship law: regional eco environment decays at first, and thenameliorates after the curve inflexion. This paper also discusses the coupling process of urbanization and eco environment, andclassifies it into four stages, whichare low level coordination stage, resisting stage, ameliorating stage and harmonious stage. Finally, the authors demonstrate the coupling relationship between urbanization and eco environment in Zhejiang province, and points out that industrialization is still the main momentum of urbanization in Zhejiang.In spite of the emergence of partial inflexion in the coupling curve between waste water and urbanization in Zhejiang, becausethere is no complete conversion in industrial structure, once policies concerning environmental protection change, the coupling curve between eco environment and urbanization will fluctuate. That is to say, Zhejiang is still at the resisting stage.

Supported by the key knowledge innovation projects,i.e., a preliminary study on the theories and techniques of the remotely sensed temporal-spatial information and digital Earth; and a study on the integration of national resources and environment and data sharing, the authors have set up a spatial-temporal information platform by the integration of the corresponding scientific and research achievements during the periods of the 8th- and 9th-Five Year Plan, which comprehensively reflected the features of land-use change, designed a series of technical frameworks on the spatial-temporal database construction based on remote sensing techniques, e.g., the construction of remotely sensed database and land-use spatial database of the mid-1980s, the mid-1990s and the end of the 1990s, which laid a foundation for the dynamic monitoring of land-use change and the corresponding studies. In this paper,the authors have analyzed comprehensively the features of land-use change in the 1990s, revealed the spatial-temporal change of land use supported by remote sensing and GIS technologies as well as analyzed the geophysical and socio-economic driving factors.The findings are as follows: the arable land has been increased in total amount, the balance of decrease in the south and increase in the north was resulted from the reclamations of grassland and forest land. On the whole, the forest land area had a process of decrease, and the decreased area was mainly distributed in the traditional forest areas. Areas with plentiful precipitation and heat in the south, however, had distinct effects of reforestation. The rural-urban construction land had a situation of persistent expansion, and the general expansion speed has been slowed down during the last five years of the 1990s with the exception of the Western China where the expansion speed has been accelerated. The land use change in China in the 1990s had distinct temporal and spatial differences due to two main reasons, which were policy control and economic driving. Hereby, conclusions and proposals brought forward by the authors were as follows: the spatial diversity rules of the modern land use change in China must be fully considered in the future land use planning. At the same time, the pertinence of physical geographical zones must be considered during the planning of eco-environment construction. And, based on the increasingly maturity of the infrastructure, the traditional thoughts on planning and management of resources must be shifted so as to fully realize the optimized allocation of land resources at regional scale.

In the paper,three kinds of fractal dimensions were summed up to characterize spatial structure of urban systems which were respectively named as aggregation dimension, grid dimension, and spatial correlation dimension.Correspondingly, the methods of the determinning of the fractal dimensions were advanced, including gyration radius method,Sandbox method,and density-density correlation function method.

Being the core and frontier issue in the global environmental change and sustainable development disciplines, studies on land use/cover change (LUCC) has gained increasingly attention. China, restricted by its large population and less land, is one of the developing countries facing serious ecological and environmental problems in the world. Many problems of sustainable development confronting China have inherent and inevitable associations with LUCC. Therefore, systematic LUCC researches, aiming at the implementation of sustainable development strategies in China, have great significance in both academic and practical respects. Their relations between the problems of sustainable development and LUCC, and the research objects, contents, investigative methods and key issues of LUCC based on sustainable development in China are briefly discussed in this paper. The interrelationship between LUCC and sustainable development in China is very complex. Generally speaking,the linkage can be shown as the balance between land water resources demand and supply. Thus, the orientation and content of LUCC and sustainable development researches should be developed along with the critical issues for sustainable development driving force of human being scenarios of LUCC optimized decision making for sustainable development. Meanwhile, different situations under different temporal and spatial dimensions should be incorporated into the researches. The key issues to be studied are how to reveal the land supply and demand relationships under the multiple driving forces, as well as its changing extents and influences. Upon them, the framework of scientific decision making and comprehensive management for LUCC in China, which is confined by the sustainable development relationship between food and resources supply, ecological protection and economic growth, is proposed.

To characterize the equilibrium extent of structure of urban land use, an index formula based on information entropy is advanced as follows: J=-∑NiP i log P i/ log N In the formula,P i=A i/A=A i/∑NiA i,where A is the area of urbanized area of a city, A i is the land area of a certain function type,and N is the number of land function types Correspondingly, the difference of an index is defined as I=1-J,which can be used to reflect the inequality of urban land use When information entropy is generalized to describe the spatial morphology of urban land use by means of making ‘nets’ on maps,information dimension as one of the fractal dimensions can be computed to qualify the spatial patterns of urban land use .

By using the multi-stage nested Theil decomposition method and the wavelet analysis of the Theil index sequence, this paper studies the spatial and temporal scales of regional economic disparities in China from 1952 to 2000. The main conclusions are: (1) the regional economic disparities in China, including the disparities within-province, between-provinces, within-region (the eastern, central and western regions) and between-regions, have existed since 1952. (2) The first stage decomposition of Theil index shows that the dynamic trend of disparity in the eastern region is consistent with that of whole China. The disparity in the central and western regions remains small, and the evolution is rather slow. The disparity between the three regions has been continuously increasing. (3) The second stage decomposition of Theil index reveals that the within-province disparities is the most significant component of all in the overall regional inequalities, which is more significant than that of the between-province and between-region disparities components, constituting the important part of the overall regional inequalities. In addition, the influence of within-province disparities in the eastern region on the overall regional inequalities is more significant than that of in the other two regions, and, the influence in the western region is more significant than that of in the central region. (4) Based on the decomposition and approximation of Theil index sequence using wavelets by different time scales, we elicit a conclusion that the evolutionary process of regional economic disparity in China is not a simple inverted U-shaped pattern but a compound of several U-shaped patterns. The result tells us the evolutionary process of regional economic disparity in China does follow the inverted U-shaped patterns a time scale of 16 years. That is to say that the regional inequality tends to rise in the first stage of economic development, and falls slowly over the peak in the second stage of economic development. However, if we shorten the time scale to 8 or 4 years, then a link of several U shaped patterns will appear.

Land cover changes are not simple processes. There are complex simultaneous patterns of land-cover change, ranging from modifications in land cover to conversions and maintenance. There is a functional complexity within types of land-cover change, and a structural complexity between types of land-cover change, both in terms of spatial arrangements and temporal patterns of change. Land-cover change needs to be measured in its complexity to fully understand it. It is important to differentiate between land cover and land use when measuring patterns of changes. Land-use/land-cover change is a kind of extremely complex phenomenon. For all researchers involving in the study to avoid the unilateralism like blind-person touching elephant, they should search a new synthesis of studies. Therefore, the traditional approach of land use study is not effective and new topics are needed to be further found. A generalized and comprehensive understanding is required for the drivers of land-use change. We need a network of case studies that represents the spatial heterogeneity of the region and a multi-level approach that allows for a linkage between regional and local scale land-cover dynamics. Case study comparison is a major tool to derive generalizations of land-use/land-cover change research. We should develop new methods in mathematical modeling, descriptive models, empirical study, systematic case study and mechanism study. Linking house-hold-level information to remote sensing data is becoming a major tool to increase our understanding of land-use dynamics. The drivers of LUCC are always present but interact differently according to the temporal and spatial dynamics of the situation. A thorough understanding and modeling of these complex interactions is a prerequisite to generate realistic projections of land-cover change. The more important hypotheses for LUCC are those that frame the integration and synthesis of the science.

Rural hollowing is one of the special patterns of rural areal system evolvement in the process of urban-rural transitional development. Recently, the evolvement trend of rural hollowing is quickened by the speedy regional urbanization and non-agricultural population growth, thus to research the lifecycle of rural hollowing evolvement, driving forces of rural hollowing development, rural space reconstructions and rural hollowing regulation thoroughly are the new historical tasks for geographical study in the new epoch. By the comparative study methods, this paper reviews and forecasts the study progress of rural hollowing, points out flaws in the existing studies and predicts the key points in future studies. Results indicate that the existing studies of "hollowed village" mainly focus on the conception, characteristics, space model, different stages and process of rural settlement hollowing, main driving forces, some problems resulted from village hollowing, and countermeasures to control the trend of hollowed village development. The influencing factors of rural hollowing evolvement include four aspects, namely, resource environment, economy and society, mechanism and institution, management and policy. Under the background of ensuring the warning line of cultivated land, guiding new countryside construction, reconstructing optimal rural space and regulating rural hollowing evolvement, the studies should be enhanced in the future on the formation mechanism, regional types and developmental ways; scenario simulation of new countryside construction and potential assessment of "hollowed village" under the condition of urban and rural harmonious development; technical system of "hollowed village" consolidation.

According to remote sensing data, 30% of the total land area in terms of use patterns had changed in Bohai Rim during 1985-1995.Cultivated land change was the most important type, which was mainly transformed to rural dwelling land, forest, grassland, urban land, orchard and water area. Based on the analysis of cultivated land transformation and its relation between population and agroeconomic development, this article clarifies that land management policy, increase of per capita living space, adjustment of agricultural production structure and urbanization are the major driving forces of land use change in the region. Among the driving forces, the land management policy, especially the policy for cultivated land preservation was the most important factor that affected the regional land use change which facilitated the transformation of other land-use types into cultivated land through balancing those occupied. Population growth did not necessarily bring the increase of cultivated land. The even lesser cultivated land through improving crop yield could still satisfy the increasing demand for food. Population growth, variation of population density had no crucial affection on land use change but the increase of per capita living space could exert greater impact on regional land use change. Agroeconomic development incurred the adjustment of production structure and made cultivated land be transformed to orchard, water area and forest/grass land with the consideration of ecological environment. Urbanization drove land use change in aspects of both cultivated land quality and level of labourers.

Regional inequality is one of the major subjects of research on China,and is a major concern to the Chinese government.On the basis of analyzing the structure differences of some major indexes for measuring regional inequality,the rural regional inequality changes in China at provincial level from 1980 to 2002 is described by different methods respectively.It is found that the changes of different indexes show the same trend in a longer period of time,but some in a shorter period.All the methods showed that China's rural regional inequality has an overall increasing trend with a short period of decreasing in the whole process of reform.However,the decomposition of the Theil's regional inequality reveals that since 1987,the interregional inequalities among the eastern,central and western regions have been more serious than the provincial inequality within regions.The further factor decomposition of the Gini index shows that farmers' wage component contributes more than 66% to the total inequality index and is the most important factor resulting in rural total regional inequality.It is proposed that any conclusions from a short period of data analysis are inadeguate.When analyzing driving forces of regional inequality,long-term data should be used.The further decomposing analysis of different indexes shows that each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.The Gini index is suitable for factor analysis but cannot be decomposed by regions.The greatest advantage of the Theil's index is that it can be decomposed by different levels of regions and is very useful for different spatial scale analyses of regional inequality.Standard Deviation is more suitable for simple analysis of regional inequality in China.Compared with the above three indexes,the Atkinson index is rarely used.But when regional inequality is very small,it is the only one that can be used for analysis.

This paper presents a new method to simulate the dynamics of multiple land uses based on the integration of neural networks,cellular automata and GIS. Recently, cellular automata (CA) have been increasingly used to simulate urban growth and land use dynamics. However, simulation of multiple land use changes using CA models is difficult because numerous spatial variables and parameters have to be utilized. Conventional CA models have problems in defining simulation parameter values, transition rules and model structures. In this paper, a three-layer neural network with multiple output neurons is designed to calculate conversion probabilities for competing multiple land uses. The neural-network-based CA model is directly developed in a GIS environment by using ARC/INFO GRID AML. The GIS provides both data and spatial analysis functions for constructing the neural network. Real data are conveniently retrieved from the GIS database for calibrating and testing the model. The GIS functions are also used for the neural network calculations. The neural network has multiple output neurons to generate conversion probabilities at each iteration. Land use conversion is decided by comparing the conversion probabilities. The model is carried out by iterative looping the neural network for simulating multiple land use changes. Complex global patterns can be generated from local interactions through the neural network. The simulation results are not deterministic because a stochastic variable is used and site attributes are dynamically updated at the end of each loop. The proposed method can overcome some of the shortcomings of the currently used CA models in simulating complex urban systems and multiple land use changes by significantly reducing the tedious work in defining parameter values, transition rules and model structures. The model has been successfully applied to the simulation of land use dynamics in the Pearl River Delta.

Based on the analysis on the characteristics of land use change and its related social and economic conditions in the past ten years in some typical counties of Guizhou Province, an index system representing land use change and human driving forces is submitted in this paper.Upon these indices, a relationship between land use change and human driving forces is discussed to reveal the mechanism of land use change under the driving of human forces and the relative weight of the driving forces.The result from factor ananlysis shows that the amount of food of per capita and the ratio of agricultural population are more important in driving the land use change.The correlation coefficients between the indices representing land use and driving forces tell the connection between factors, and population density and grain production are correlated more closely with the land use indices.The contribution of human driving forces to land use change in the study area is studied by the method of multiple regression, from which we can conclude than human driving forces can interprete the land use change at the level of 70%-90%.

It has been recognized for long time that there exists conflict between heritage protection and tourism development, especially in those developing countries where local governments appealed more on economic benefits from heritage tourism. Since China adopted the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Culture and Natural Heritage in 1985, 21 cultural heritages, 3 natural heritages and 4 mixed heritages have been inscribed in the list. Considering the fast development of heritage tourism in China, academic research literature is still less than hoped. What readers could find in this paper is a special relationship between demands on tourism development and need to protect World Heritage Sites (WHSs) in the country. To observe the conflict between the two sides, a comprehensive investigation and study is done with technical support of GIS, quantitative geography and other geographical analysis methods. According to the results of the research, there are many forces that enhance heritage tourism development in this most rapidly growing country of Asia, including densely populated urban market versus limited number of WHSs; closer distance between population centers and WHSs (easy access from major tourism market to WHSs); being at a special stage of industrial transforming of the country (switching from secondary industry to tertiary industry and service-oriented industry); more preferences of potential domestic tourism market; and being in a shortage of financial resources for heritage protection. Therefore, tourism development of WHSs is a natural result in current economic and social situation. Meanwhile, findings of the analysis also demonstrate that heritage protection is the most important consideration while taking them as major tourism attractions, because heavy pressure of tourism development calls for more efforts to preserve those sites. Only a well-balanceddevelopment model could maintain a sustainable development of WHSs and secure the long-term benefits.

This paper empirically examines Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) with time series data from 1985 to 1999 and provides a basis for the environmental policy evaluation of Beijing. The results lead to two main conclusions:1) The environmental policy and the environmental investment of Beijing municipal and central governments have made the turning point of EKC come early, being around 10000 15000 yuan at constant price of 1978, or 25000 40000 yuan at present price of 1999, or 3000 5000 US dollars by exchange rates of middle price in the year end of 1999, or 15000 20000 US dollars calculated in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) way,and if the GDP per capita grows at the rate of 8%, the turning point will come true during 2005 2010. 2)The relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation takes on an inverted U, but different regions may have different turning points, different time spans for realizing the turning point of EKC, and different slopes for the rising declining pattern. Four points are identified from this examination of the EKC for Beijing: First, this analysis suggests that it is not appropriate to generalize the emergence of EKC for all environmental indicators. Among the 12 main environmental indicators of Beijing, only two do not have enough explanatory meaning for the EKC. On the whole, the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation in Beijing has an obvious EKC character. Second, the efficient environmental policy and the huge environmental investment of the Beijing municipal and central governments have made its turning point of the EKC arrive early. Third, the EKC should not be widely assumed and it is necessary to refer to various and more flexible explanations. In other words, economic factors may be important, but social and natural factors should also be taken into account, such as environmental policy, environmental awareness of residents and the spread of environmental technology. Finally, the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation theoretically takes on an inverted U, but different regions may have different turning points, different time spans of reaching the EKC turning point, and different slopes of rising declining pattern.

Along with the changes of glbal climate and intensification of human interference capacity to nature, water cycle in catchment evolvement from unitary natural pattern to dual dynamic pattern made up of original natural water cycle and artificial water cycle, and intrinsic water resources status change greatly So it is very important to study water resources bearing capacity in dual water cycle pattern According to characteristics of water resources bearing capacity, this paper establishes imitate model with system dynamics theory The model consists of modules about water resources exploitation,industry,agriculture,population and environment, which are integrated with a group of dynamic equations such as level equation,rate equation, assistant equation and so on And then programme in DYNAMO language is worked out After inputting original data and various velocities of variables, one can get water resources bearing capacity at varying development schemes Finally by applying the model to study water resources bearing capacity in Guanzhong region of Shaanxi province where water resource is inadequate lack, water resources bearing capacity indexes at four different schemes are, obtained from that acquires the satisfaction scheme which can promote coordinated development of society,economy and environment In natural and manpower dual water cycle patterns, comparing system dynamics with other methods, the former is easier to get regional water resources bearing capacity of vary schemes, the calculation results are much more represented, and can factually simulate harmoneous development status among society,economy and environment It is thus innovative and maneuverable to study water resources bearing capacity with system dynamics

Based on data of the fifth census of Beijing in 2000 and of the second census in 1982, methods of Factor Analysis and Cluster Analysis are used to analyze the social spatial structure of Beijing Metropolitan Area and its evolution. In 1982, the main components of social space in Beijing Metropolitan Area include: population of workers and cadres, agricultural population, population of intellectuals, and population of the mining workers; and four types of social areas are identified: (1) high population density, worker areas, (2) intellectual areas, (3) government cadre areas, and (4) mining worker areas. The authors also find that, in 2000, the main components of social space in Beijing Metropolitan Area include the following: population of ordinary workers, agricultural population, temporary population, population of intellectuals and national minorities, and housing condition; and six types of social areas are identified: (1) high density and crowded areas, (2) intellectual and national minority areas, (3) areas of low population density and large living space, (4) temporary population areas, (5) areas of urban population in the outer suburb, and (6) agricultural areas. The authors also extract the model of the social spatial structure of Beijing Metropolitan Area in 1982 and 2000, respectively. In a word, the main components, types and models of social areas, and the forming mechanisms of the social spatial structure of Beijing Metropolitan Area in 2000 changed much, comparing with those in 1982. The model of the social spatial structure of Beijing Metropolitan Area in 1982 is very simple, which shows typical homogeneity as a whole, while the social spatial structure in 2000, which mainly exhibits a zonal pattern, accompanying with a multi-nuclear and a sectoral one, tends to be complex, and shows typical heterogeneity. Finally, the authors put forward a model of interlaced mechanism of the evolution of social spatial structure at the macroscopical, medium and microcosmic levels, and think that it is this kind of mechanism that propelled the social spatial structure of Beijing Metropolitan Area to change from one in the planned economy to one in the market transition.

This paper carries out a systematical literature survey and critical review on the research progress of urban land use theories in the West, which are classified into historical morphological, locational economics, social behavior, and political economics by their research approaches. The historical morphological approach is good at exploring the spatial differentiation laws and the evolutionary models of urban land use, but its simple circular models are inconsistent with actual situation. The locational economics approach provides strong quantified economic explanation on the spatial structure of urban land use through deep decomposing the price components of urban land, but it pays more attention to “why” than to “what”. The behavior analysis approach becomes more comprehensive and practical because it additionally takes social driving forces into account, but it is based on the two concepts of “uncertainty” and “stochastity” of individual decision makers of land use, thus its theoretical explanation power is rather limited. The political economics approach focuses on the impact of the social production system and “power” on the process of urban land development, and greatly extends and enhances our understanding on inner dynamic mechanics of urban land development. Finally, this paper emphasizes that China should adopt and strengthen the application of locational economics and political economics approaches in its researches on urban land use in the future.

During the past 50 years, profound changes took place in the field of spatial structure of Chinese urban system. This paper will focus on the spatial relations (including network relations and territorial relations) in the inner urban system, and classify the ranks of spatial combination areas of Chinese urban system with different values of Distance Friction Coefficients b. Concerning Chinese urban system, two major regions (1^st grade urban system) and seven sub-regions (2^nd grade urban system) have formed, the Southern Major Region centralized with Shanghai and the northern one with Beijing. The Southern Major Region consists of four 2^nd grade regional urban systems including the Shanghai System (Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Fujian), Wuhan System (Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi), Guangzhou System (Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan) and Chongqing System (Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Tibet). The Northern Major Region consists of three 2^nd grade regional urban systems including the Beijing System (Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Mongolia), Shenyang-Harbin System (Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang) and Lanzhou-Urumqi System (Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai and Xinjiang). Besides, 64 local urban systems (3^rd grade) have formed in the Chinese urban system, among which the 3^rd Grade Shanghai System covers Wuxi, Ningbo, Hangzhou and Jinhua Systems, and the 3^rd Grade Beijing System includes Beijing System and Datong System.

As is well known China is experiencing a rapid progress in ReBAM tourism in recent years The situation has caught more and more attentions from many researchers The spatial distribution of attractions in the ReBAM has just been qualitatively demonstrated, while there is a big lack of quantitative analysis due to the limitation of data availability For this paper, the authors take 235 specific attractions as samples, which are picked from 14 districts apart from 4 old districts of Beijing, and explore deeply into attraction categories and spatial characteristics of Beijing on the basis of a large amount of statistical data and the predecessor's research According to the method of compound category, the authors cut attractions into nine categories with the attributes of tourism resource and travel activities But only four categories among the nine can be found in Beijing, and they are natural sightseeing resorts, human sightseeing resorts, artificial entertainment resorts and sports resorts Then the authors try to disclose the characteristics of attractions categories and spatial distribution in Beijing with the support of ReBAM theory, space structure and metrological geography and the method of GIS and call in survey Several quantitative methods are used such as rotating radius, spatial distribution curve, discrete index of attraction and so on With the data and the methods, the authors reach the following conclusions: The point of 60 km away from the city center is the critical point of attractions' spatial distribution, at that place where the pushing force of classified rents and the pulling force of traffic resistance get into balance So the area within 60 km from the city center is the optimal place for tourism industry, all the four categories can be found there While relatively less categories can be found in the area beyond 60 km away from the city center Most of the attractions are natural landscape category, which include natural sightseeing attractions and sport and recreation attractions rely on natural resource

Geo informatic Tupu is a methodology of spatial and temporal geographical analysis. It synthesizes the succinctness of comprehensive landscape maps and the abstractness of mathematical models. It has been developed on the basis of modern spatial technique and information science, which also is integrated with virtual reality technique, to provide series of scenarios for constructing the past and predicting the future. It is an outcome of the Chinese traditional research achievements combining with relative modern technologies. Its development process can be identified into 4 stages: (1) from 1955 to 1956, Chen carried out an experiment on comprehensive landscape mapping in the area of Taihu Lake; (2) in the early 1960s, Chen proposed the concept of Tupu by analyzing the development of cartography; (3) in 1964, Chen preliminarily summarized the early applications of Tupu method; (4) in 1998, Chen proposed an embryonic form of Geo informatic Tupu after exploration for about 40 years. Tupu is a kind of Chinese traditional methodology that uses iconic or graphic language to integrate and express spatial and temporal analyses. Geo informatic Tupu is used, by applying a series of multi dimensional graphic solutions and constructing spatial models, to formulate the current situation, reconstruct the past and forecast the future. In other words, Geo informatic Tupu can be used not only for data collection and data mining, but also for virtual scientific forecast and decision making programs. Geo informatic Tupu has four important functions: (a) the spatial and temporal changes can be reconstructed and simulated by means of Geo informatic Tupu; (b) complex phenomena can be succinctly expressed by using the vivid expression capacity of maps; (c) the complexity of simulation by mathematical models can be greatly reduced because spatial information in multi dimension can be unfolded in two dimension plane; and (d) it is helpful to mathematical model constructors for understanding the spatial information and its processes. In this paper, on the basis of analyzing the research achievements in the geo informatic Tupu, in the strategy of ecosystem development, in the strategy of differential land use (DLU) and in the integration of geogephical information system with mathematical models, a system of sustainable development modelling is proposed. In this system, a major theoretical issue is how to transform the information concerned with sustainable development into sign map, diagnosis map and action map. An analysis of results on the software for automatically programming mathematical models and on the Open GIS has shown that the theoretical issue can be resolved in near future. In short, the system of sustainable development modelling is realizable.

The pattern, process and their relationships are fundamental issues in geography. Patterns and processes in nature, such as ecosystem distribution, regional climatic changes, land use and land cover, and rainfall or runoff series, display complex behavior and often intertwine with scale problems. Many scale-dependent phenomena have been exemplified in scientific researches, and scale issues are found at the center of methodological discussions in both physical and human geography. However, some existed research works failed to make a distinction among the concepts of scale and scaling, to employ consistent scaling paradigm, and to adopt an objective criterion for assessing the scaling effects in geography. This paper attempts to calibrate those deviations and to present new branch subject of geography-Scaling Methodology of Geography. After introducing scaling approaches, upscaling and downscaling, in geography, we place a focus on the research objects, categories and contents of proposed subjects, and three basic principles, scientific principle, economic principle and operational principle, are proposed in scaling works. Finally, ten key issues are presented for establishing the scaling methodology of geography. The key questions are as follows: (1) how does spatial heterogeneity scale in scaling ? (2) how do ratio variables change with scale in scaling? (3) how do dominating processes change with scale in scaling? (4) how does property of processes change with scale in scaling? (5) how does sensitivity change with scale in scaling? (6) how does predictability change with scale in scaling? (7) what is sufficiency for simple aggregation and disaggregation in scaling? (8) how do disturbance factors change with scale in scaling? (9) can scaling transcend several scales and scale fields? (10) is noise factor changeable with scale in scaling?

One important role of high speed transportation network is to promote the spatial agglomeration of traffic flow, which leads to changes of spatial interaction. Air transportation in China grew rapidly in the past two decades and is playing more and more important roles in state transportation system. Due to the improvement of aviation service and the expansion of air transport network, the inter city linkages among domestic cities are getting enhanced, and hierarchical network is taking shape. In this paper, air passenger network in China is analyzed. The results of dominant flow analysis indicate that the air passenger flow between cities increased quickly in the past two decades, and “Hub and Spoke” network has been formed basically. Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai are the most important hubs in China's domestic air passenger network, and Urumqi and Kunming are important local hubs. According to the statistical analysis, the passenger flow between cities is closely related to the distance, urban scale, and urban function. In China, about 90% of domestic air passenger traffic takes place between cities where the inter city transport distance is less than 2 400 km. In order to raise the efficiency of air transportation system, it is very important to organize the passenger network between hub and local airports.

According to the statistical and survey data at provincial and county levels, trend of cultivated land change and its driving forces in Shandong Province during the last 50 years are discussed in this paper. It was found that (a) since the 1950s, the total area of arable land and per capita availability are reducing. For example, the total area under cultivation reached its top in 1955, and declined after the year of 1955. Per capita cultivated land decreased nearly in a straight line year after year and changed from 0.192 hm 2 to 0.075 hm 2 ,and the trends of decrease will continue with further development of economy and increase of population; (b) according to the GIS spatial analysis, the movement of the gravity center and the relative change indices of the cultivated land in Shandong Province have regional differences, the change is smaller in the eastern part than that in the central-western, the distribution core of the cultivated land in the whole province has been shifted 10.62km northeastward; (c) as a result of the principal component analysis, the eight driving forces variables affecting arable land changes were analyzed which could be classified into three types, i.e., the dynamic development of economy, pressure of social system and progress of science and technology in agriculture. As to the specific factors, per capita net living space, population and yield of grain per ha are the main driving forces, which play an important role in the changing of cultivated land;(d) by using regressive equation, along with population growth and economic development, the prediction of cultivated land in Shandong Province is done for 2005 and 2010, the prediction result is that Shandong's farmland area will be 6 435.47×10 3hm2 in 2005 and 6 336.23×10 3hm 2 in 2010. The analytical results and conclusions of this paper will provide scientific basis for sustainable agricultural development in Shandong Province.

The spatial variability of soil properties is very important to agriculture, soil quality assessment, sustainable development and global change research Geostatistics is a means of spatial variability, spatial structures and spatial prediction that is used widely for soil properties overseas However, this kind of research was started relatively late in China On the other hand, our research on soils paid more attention to chemical and biological properties than to physical properties This paper aimed to study spatial distribution characteristics of soil depth in China, especially that of physical ones using Geostatistics and Geographic Information System, and provide raster data for global change research This paper built the China Soil Geographic Database which includes soil physical and chemical properties database and 1 627 soil samplers database by data from the second national soil surveys and primarily studied the spatial distribution characteristics of the thickness of soil layer using GIS and Geostatistics The spatial distribution features were quantitatively described by semi variogram Based on the semi variogram, the maps illustrating soil thickness are made by ordinary Kriging with cell of 30km×30km Soil thickness being studied has relatively good spatial structures, and their experimental semi variogram could be fitted by exponential model with nuggets And optimal interpolation could be done depended on the semi variogram features Basically, the experimental semi variogram of soil properties being studied increases with increasing lag distance to approach or attain a maximum The range of soil thickness semi variogram is up to 680km, which is consistent with average distances among patches with the same feature in the distribution maps This indicates the significant trend known as “drift” in distribution maps

As the typical representative of mixed zone of agriculture and husbandry in arid and semi-arid region,Yulin Prefecture not only has its special spatial pattern in physical geography,butalso has typical characteristics of fragile ecosystemand differentiation rule in ecology.This paperapplied the basic theory and method of landscape ecology to analyze the landscape pattern of fragile environment in this area.The driving forces of ecological differentiation in this region are also identified quantitatively.At last the differentiation dynamics of landscape ecology in the regional ecosystemare studied.

The Tibetan Plateau is a unique geomorphic unit composed of some basic geomorphic types, such as extreme high mountains,high mountains, hills, plains, and tablelands of high altitude or sub-high altitude. Different opinions for the exact scope of Tibetan Plateau exist. According to latest research achievement and the long time fieldwork, questions related to the area and boundary of the Plateau have been discussed in view of geography, and the principles taking geomorphic characters as the main rule and considering the integrity have been made to define the boundary. The 1∶1 000 000 geomorphological map was compiled based on 1∶100 000 aerial photographic map,1∶500 000 topographic map and interpretation of satellite images. By refering to the 1∶3 000 000 relief map, the boundary of the Plateau was delineated.The position of the boundary was quantitatively determined with GIS and GPS.The map of electronic version of the Tibetan Plateau was compiled. The main conclusion is that Tibetan Plateau starts from the southern edge of the Himalayan Range, abuts on India,Nepal and Bhutan,connects the northern edge of Kunlun, Altun and Qilian Mts., and joins Tarim Basin and Hexi Corridor in Central Asia.The west of it is the Pamirs and Karakorum Mts., bordering on Kirghizistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir. The east of it is Yulongxueshan, Daxueshan, Jiajinshan and Qionglaishan Mts.as well as south or east piedmont of Minshan Mts. Tibetan Plateau joins the Qinling Mts.and Loess Plateau with its eastern and northeastern part. Tibetan Plateau in China's territory starts from the Pamirs in the west and reaches to Hengduanshan in the east. It bestrides a longitude of 31 degrees with a length of 2 945 km from east to west,and bestrides a latitude of 13 degrees with a length of 1 532 km from south to north. It ranges from 26°00′12" N to 39°46′50" N and from 73°18′52"E to 104°46′59"E, covering an area of 2 572.4×10 3 km 2. Administratively, it embraces 201 counties (cities) in 6 provinces, namely, the Tibet Autonomous Region (73 counties/cities,1 176.0×10 3 km 2, part of Cona, Mêdog and Zayü), the Qinghai Province(40 counties/cities,721.0×10 3 km 2, some counties only partially), Dêqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Northwest Yunnan Province(9 counties/cities,33.5×10 3 km 2), West Sichuan Province ( 46 counties/cities about 254.0×10 3 km 2 ,such as Garze Autonomous Prefecture, Aba Tibetan and Qiangzu Autonomous Prefecture,and Muli Autonomous County, etc.),Gansu Province(21 counties/cities, 74.9×10 3 km 2), and Southern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (about 12 counties/cities, 313.0×10 3 km 2).

Urban-rural integration is an urbanization process suitable to Chinese conditions. For China it is a new task. The focus of research on urban-rural interaction and integration is to evaluate the status and development extent of the urban-rural relationship scientifically. Urban-rural interaction and integration means the highest stage of urbanization. Urbanization means the absolute equality between the urban areas and rural areas. This paper tries to debate and testify the predications that urban-rural integration is actually the free change of natural resources and economy and social elements between city and countryside, and the amount and speed of the exchange are decided by the correlative-degree of urban and rural areas.For a long period of time, we only used one evaluating indicator-the proportion of non-agricultural population to total population to measure the degree of urbanization. We think that is far from enough. The equality between city and countryside also includes the equality of status and other rights. So we start our tentative research based on the analysis of the representation, characterization and the influencing factors of urban-rural interaction, and the authors constructed the evaluating indicator system by AHP. The system reflected the characteristics of interaction between urban and rural areas in all aspects, which can be used in practice. By this system, the comprehensive evaluation indicator correlative-degree was used to evaluate the development level of urban-rural interaction in 31 provinces (municipalities) of China in 2000. The result of evaluation revealed the real condition of the factor's transfer between urban and rural system, and showed development level of interaction between them. The method of correlative-degree of urban-rural interaction was a valuable attempt in quantitative research of urban-rural interaction.

In order to analyze ecological values of a regional ecosystem, this paper provided a systematic analysis on the value of regional ecosystem services based on the concept of sustainable development in ecological economics. We have not only estimated the natural capital but also the economic capital and social capital in a regional ecosystem. The total capital of 23 ecosystems serves for 9 sub-ecosystems. There are several main appraisal approaches that could be used in ecosystem valuation. Because the regional ecosystem services are uncertain, this must be considered a minimum estimate. For the total capital, natural capital contributes to more than 1/3 of human welfare in the regional ecosystem every year, and therefore represents part of the total economic and social value. Sustainable development can only be achieved when natural capital is increased in a regional ecosystem.

The authors hold that TEBC-tourist environmental bearing capacity,is a special resource of scarcity which asides by specific laws of distribution and the human should utilize the resource reasonably-but, "overbering" is harmful for the development and protection of the resource;"hyperbearing" means waste and letting idle of the resource. "Tourist capacity" is defined by the author as an inner index of TEBC, it is mainly determined by the tourism activities and contents. Besides this index, two other indexs are involved in the determination of TEBC, that is, economic capacity and psychological capaciy of local people, and accordingly, the authors design the evaluation method by means of mathematics model. On the basis the above method,the authors made quantitative analysis on the TEBC of Mt. Tai and as a result, concluded that the amount of daily TEBC for Mt. Tai is 16 600 people and the annual amount is 4 300 000. And also from the view of time and space, the authors analyse the principles of changing of TEBC resources, and with the statistics in hand, the authors also analyse the utility intensity and developmental potentiality of the main scenic regions of Mt. Tai in different time and space. And finally, directing against the utilization condition of TEBC of Mt. Tai, the authors put forward space-time regulation measurements.