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).
Man-land relationship includes human dependent upon nature and human activity to nature. Contents of man-land relationship are changed with development of human society. Man-land relationship research is the basis for development of modern geography. Various schools of geography such as determinism, possibilism, cultural landscape and human ecology are focusing studies on man-land relationship. The earth system science should carry out interdisciplinary studies between natural and human sciences, to reveal interaction between man and nature as well as the corresponding countermeasures. Developments of information techniques and knowledge economy bring about new opportunities and challenges for human society. Characteristics of man-land relationship in information era differ from those in industrial era. The way and intensity of interaction between human activities and nature will be obviously different. The understanding to nature will be systematically deepened, and ideas of time and space are changing in information era. Knowledge and techniques are becoming main driving forces for social and economic development. Owing to the entirety of the earth, the complexity, protracted nature and potentiality of the interactions among various spheres of the earth, many global environmental issues, such as climate warming, ozonosphere depletion, environmental pollution, etc., are becoming the foci of the countries and public concern throughout the world. The realities impel us to learn lessons and experience accompanied with the traditional development models and to explore new development models for human society. Man-land relationship research covers extensive domains. The hotspots of both global environmental change and sustainable development are closely related to man-land relationship. Global environmental changes have been arisen from slow accumulation process of human impact, and sustainable development is a new development model, which has been obtained by self-examination to development course and model of the human society.The main frontiers of man-land relationship research include the following issues: global environmental change and its regional response, regional sustainable development and mechanism regulation of man-land relationship, studies on social ecological and environmental ethics, etc.
The Digital City is a multi-resolution, multi-scale, multi-space and time, multi-kinds description of a city in three dimensions with techniques such as 3S, telemetry, simulation and Virtual Reality (VR) based on such techniques as computer, multimedia and large-scale storage, and taking the wide band web as vinculum. By this technique, the modern city's information can be collected, collated and generalized,and the complete spatial data model can be established on the geographical coordinate system so as to facilitate each person's acquaintance of the past, present and future of the city rapidly, entirely and visually through the web. At the present time, studies on Digital City at home and abroad make no substantive advancement, but still remain at building hardware and software conditions, or at most, at the preliminary stage of the study. The paper mainly probes into the key techniques such as Virtual Reality, Urban Spatial Data Infrastructure, integrated model study of many kinds of GIS systems, 3D-GIS, the urban planning in three dimensions, city simulation and digital society supported by VR and Digital City, etc.
The small watershed management information system is an integrated system of GIS and erosion model, land productivity model and cost-benefit analysis model. It can be applied in watershed planning and management in Loess Plateau.The system is developed for decision support in soil and water conservation with the functionalities of data management, data query, database updating, displaying, output and model analysis. The basic geographic unit for system integration is land-unit. The land-unit was defined as a piece of land with the homogeneous geographic characters such as elevation, soil type, land-cover, slope, aspect, etc. Based on the land-unit, three model groups were integrated with GIS. In order to realize those functions, basic integration methods were analyzed and the integration method of DLL and its extension was adopted. Then based on the method accompanied with Avenue programming language, the system was fully integrated in Arcview environment. A landunit based flow network model was developed for simulating the processes of drainage and sediment transportation among land-units, and it provides parameters for erosion model, economic model and yield model. The soil erosion model calculates soil loss for each land-unit in a watershed. Yield model and socio-economic model estimate crop productive and economic benefit in the watershed, such as river beach, check dam, agro-forest, terracing, etc. These three models are integrated with each other and fully linked to database system. Based on the result of model simulation, the soil and water loss, land productivity and economic benefits in a watershed can be estimated for different land planning and engineering strategies. The optimized management for watershed can be done through comparisons of varied planing. The arithmetic process and parameters of each model are also described in this article.
Based on previous research on spatial conceptual data model of GIS, the authors present an object-oriented holistic GIS data model, and discuss data organization, data storage and access mechanism of holistic GIS system. Firstly, six features of holistic data model are introduced, and a conceptual data model is presented with a key concept, Complex Object, which is introduced in detail. Secondly, data organization means of holistic GIS are introduced. Several basic concepts such as Object Set, Layer, Database, Map or Map Window, and Workspace are introduced into the data organization system. Object Set has three types: Simple Object Set, Compound Object Set and Continuous Field. A Layer is a concept related to map display in our holistic GIS software. A Database is defined as a set of stored objects, which is either a small size file or a large-scale database. Map is a frame used to load layers, and can contain multiple layers.A Workspace is a warehouse, which stores basic data info, Maps, Point, Line and Region Symbols,etc. Thirdly, data storage and access mechanism of holistic GIS are introduced. In respect of storage, database table structures of Simple Object Set, Compound Object Set and Field are analyzed, and table structure of 3D data structure and time attribute is also introduced. In order to quicken the pace of accessing to database tables,the spatial index mechanism based on quadtree data structure is built. Further data access mechanism is discussed. Fourthly, SuperMap Deskpro, a GIS software based on holistic data model, is introduced. This software is fulfilled through completely using object-oriented thinking. It can effectively store and access to geographic entities' information including location, attribute, topological relationship and semantic relationship. In respect of Layer Organization, it not only accords with users' direct apperception of geographical world,but also supports users to rationally organize data to meet actual needs. SuperMap Deskpro supports users to use files to store small amount of data, and at the same time users can also use large-scale business database such as SQL Server and Oracle to manage large amount of data.
On the basis of taking into account the main feedback relations of carbon cycle terestrial surface system,the authors employ highly integrated and simplified methods to establish a carbon cycle zero-dimension model of land surface system (CCZDM),and study carbon fluxes among four carbon reservoirs (land biota, litter carbon, soil carbon and atmospheric carbon), by taking impact of human activities and ocean influence as external factors. The CCZDM supposes that Human Being's impacts are not enough to break the natural balance of carbon cycle before the year 1860, but since then the balance has been broken owing to the industrial revolution. A large quantity of CO 2 was emitting into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, intensifying agriculture and destroying segments of the vegetation cover of the earth. With the increase of atmospheric CO 2 , the global temperature increased accordingly, which, in turn , affects carbon cycle of terrestrial system. The changes of four carbon reservoirs and temperature are simulated through CCZDM from the year of 1860 to 1997 and the results show that the simulated data are compatible with observational as well as other research findings. This demonstrates that the model is reasonable and the parameter values are correct. The study of CCZDM can provide theoretical guides to that of two-dimension carbon cycle of land surface system.
The vulnerability of eco-environment and its sensitivity to global environmental change characterize the transitional area of farming and pasturing in Northeast China. The moisture regime is a principal factor, by which the spatial differentiation and variation of the physiographical environment are influenced directly. The temperate and precipitation changes in the last 45 years (1951～1995) were analyzed using wavelet analysis method, mainly on the multi-scale properties and law of the changes. The result of the wavelet analysis indicates that changes of the precipitation at each sampling site were dynamic and the distribution of the relative higher and the lower period was in alternation. During the 45 years, the variation trend of the precipitation was impalpable. The temperature changed periodically but rose gradually in the 45 years. An important reflection to regional environmental change is desertification. The relation between the temporal and spatial distributions of precipitation and the plant growth also was analyzed. The result shows that the fluctuation coefficient of plant output is greater than that of precipitation. This phenomenon has a significant effect on the structure and the function of the regional system and the expansion of desertification. By using the vegetation index (NDVI), the result of comparison of land cover for two periods of time indicates that under the impact of the natural conditions and the human activities, regional change of land cover is obvious. The seasonal change of NDVI values of different vegetations shows that the correlation between monthly average NDVI and precipitation is 0.871～0.953, and the correlation between monthly average NDVI and the temperature is 0.832～0.895. For the study area, the trend of land desertification and salinization did not change at all from the 1950s to the 1990s. The vulnerable soil parent materials, strong wind force as well as concentrated precipitation and its great annual variations have effective impact on the desertification in the area. So the temperature and precipitation change is the major driving force for the land degradationand the environmental change.
This article summarizes research progress in some basic problems on paleogeographic revolution of the Tibetan Plateau in the last 50 years, especially recent decade. Based on reviews of current viewpoints and analysis of Miocene and Pliocene paleogeographies, it was suggested that altitude of the Tibetan Plateau was less than 1000m before 3.6Ma BP and intense uplift of the plateau began at that time. The ages of last three glaciations in the plateau are 725～581,289～136 and 82～10ka BP respectively, which are comparable with oxygen isotopic stages in deep sea. Large ice sheet did not exist in the Tibetan Plateau in the Maximum Glaciation of Pleistocene. Environmental changes were frequent with high amplitude and desiccation occurred in the Tibetan Plateau since the last interglacial period. Important phases and events of paleogeographic evolution in Cenozoic are: tropical and subtropical lowland controlled by planetary wind system between 38 and 22Ma BP, appearance of paleo-monsoon and development of main planation surface between 22 and 3.6Ma BP, intense uplift resulting in the formation of the modern monsoon and development of water system between 3.6 and 1.7Ma BP, entrance of cryosphere and maximum glaciation between 1.1 and 0.6Ma BP, and intense uplift and desiccation of climate in the inner plateau. Finally, some important problems need to be researched in future are suggested. It is indicated that key to breakthroughs in paleogeographical research lies in analysis of depositional basins and stratified landforms in and around the plateau, precise dating and explanation of high-resolution environmental information.
This paper systematically discusses the impacting factors on human height development from fetus to adult and the future trend. The results show that development of body's height is progressing according to certain time series, and it is the function of time. The stature of fetus increases with the month age, which has no obvious difference in various regions and from various mother's bodies.However, the heights of newborn babies have no clear difference in different regions and sex, and there are statistical differences between city and countryside. The clear difference of body's stature between city and suburb appears from infancy to preschool period,and this kind of difference will last to adult period. These indicate that spatial environmental factors and socio-economic factors are mainly factors affecting body's stature after newborn period. The impact of spatial environment on body's stature is an extensively diverse factor which has many meanings and can be controlled, which includes the effects of natural environment and social surrounding. With the development of socio-economy, there is increasing effect of social environment on body's height and weight, which brings a series of social medical and public health problems. It has theoretical and practical importance on development of human physique (including body's stature and weight) to study the relation between spatial environmental factors and body's stature.
During the last two decades, a lot of innovations have appeared in the field of urban and regional research. New paradigms and approaches such as dynamics of complex systems, self-organization, evolution theory, have been recognized for better understanding the evolutional process of regional spatial structure. It can be seen as a cumulative and aggregated order which results from numerous locally made decisions. Therefore the basic force driving the evolution of regional system is inherently microscopic. Regional system is an evolving complex system which grows from simple to intricacy. Inspired by the concept of biology, regional system also evolves into a complex, multiplex and vitality state by certain natural selection and adaptation. The understanding that the region is a complex adaptive system (CAS) means that microscopic simulation emphasizing the way in which locally made decisions and interaction between all kinds of local agents such as households and enterprises give rise to global patterns is highly appropriate. The methodology of CAS model is a part of theory of CAS. The CAS such as urban and regional system is conceived as societies of autonomous agents who are able to act both on themselves and on their environments. The general behavior of the regional spatial evolution is produced by the combination of actions of the households and enterprises. The determinants of an agent's behavior have a local character and there is no global constraint on the system's evolution. These agents can adapt to other agents and environment continuously by learning from their own experience. The classifier system is a good learning algorithm for representation of the agent's adaptation. Therefore, it is a good alternative way of simulating the evolutional process of the regional spatial structure by modeling behaviors of these local active agents and their interactions. It is easy to build and understand the CAS model. The CAS model can overcome the limit of perfect rationality by introducing learning algorithm and integrate any qualitative or quantitative description of an agent, whose behavior may be very complicated. The flexible modeling method allows for a much more detailed representation of spatial interactions and of some local properties and also makes it possible to introduce new agents or new rules in the model without changing the other parts. This paper basically reviews the simulating ideas and methodology aiming at two types of traditionally modeling strategy on the study of regional spatial evolution, in addition, primarily introduces the theory of complex adaptive system, one of the most important achievements of studies of complexity, and besides, discusses the general characteristics of the region as a complex adaptive system, expounds the technical problem of regional simulation based on the CAS and the original idea of the CAS model.
Urbanization process has come into a rapid growth period since the 1990s. Beijing, the capital city of China, is stepping into a metropolitan developmental stage. The investment for city construction and real estate will be more than 50 billion yuan each year within next 5 years based on Beijing International Metropolitan Planning for holding Olympic Games in Beijing, 2008. However, Beijing's real estate market has entered a booming period in 2001 when a new real estate project opened out each day in average. Moreover, up to 100 real estate projects have been developed in some of the spatial points within the central city fringe. According to characters of location in urban land development, this paper tries to find a growing pattern which is more suitable to describe spatial characteristics of urban land development. Based on analyzing more than 2000 land samples in Beijing's land market from 1992 to 2000, a logistic growing pattern of urban land development has been illustrated in Beijing metropolitan area both in concentric areas and radiate sectors. Four stages, i.e.,preliminary, accelerated, decelerated and saturated stages, are in the life circle of spatial land development within a limited area based on the principle of diminishing marginal benefit. Although some of the areas,such as old downtown and Shijingshan fun-shaped area, have been in a pre-saturated stage, most parts are in an accelerated stage according to the results of analysis and prediction in the paper.
According to the targets and action plans towards sustainable development set up in China's Agenda 21-Shanghai Action Plan, based on seven principles, this paper selects ten indicators including total population, total GDP, total fixed investment, water quality index etc.to study Shanghai's regional development process during 1978-1998 through correlation coefficient and regression analysis. The aim of the study is to approach the characteristics and regulations of Shanghai's regional development and to provide bases for future needs. Research showed that the confliction between economic growth and environmental improvement has come to relax in the latest 20 years especially during the period with moderate economic growth rate at 7-8%. More close correlation occurred during 1990-1998 compared with that in 1979-1989. From the regression analysis, GDP was an indicator that can be forecasted with a relatively small error.
This paper makes an in-depth analysis on the type, process and effect of enterprises' spatial transfer in Chongqing municipality after a comprehensive investigation. At present, the enterprises transfer from urban region to the outside mainly focuses on such sectors as auto and motorcycle accessory, food and beverage, textile and garment industries.From now to the near future, its transfer area mainly involves outskirts, then ambient cities and medium-sized cities, finally up to farther cities and counties in the Three Gorges Area. On the basis of the analysis of enterprises' spatial transfer,the paper makes a key study on the spatial amalgamation and cooperation pattern between the urban enterprises and the enterprises in the Three Gorges Area. Meanwhile, the analysis and discussion are made to the different patterns. Now, the spatial transfer of the enterprises in Chongqing is at the fledgling stage and only involves outskirts of the urban area. The amalgamation and cooperation of the enterprises between urban area and Three Gorge Area is mostly exogenous with a characteristic of vertical cooperation in the link between enterprises. Endogenous network for the spatial link between enterprises has yet to be established. The amalgamation and cooperation between urban enterprises and the enterprises in the Three Gorges Area has boosted the development of the enterprises in the Three Gorges Area as well as the improvement of their production technology and played an active role in the development of the socioeconomy in the Three Gorges Area.
In this paper the areal model of agricultural integration is defined as the major model of agricultural integration adapted to the sort of leading products, marketing orientation, the degree of rural economic development and the organization level of farmer household in different regions. The formation mechanism of areal models of agricultural integration is as follows:1) sort of leading products is the fundamental factor; 2) marketing orientation is the key factor; 3) the degree of rural economic development is the restrictive factor ; 4) the organization level of farmer household is an important factor; and 5) location,resources and environment are the external conditions. There is great intraprovincial imbalance of social and economic development within Jiangsu Province,and the areal models of agricultural integration should be differentiated with concret conditions of each region.The processing factory driving model,special market radiation model and leading products based model are recommended as the major areal models of agricultural integration in Southern Jiangsu, and the intermediary organization servicing model and the plural participation model are recommended as the major areal model of agricultural integration in Northern Jiangsu. Some typical examples of areal model both in Southern and Northern Jiangsu are analysed in detail: 1) the dairy integration model in Nanjing city region;2)the model of Yangchenghu crab integration in Wuxian county;3)the pearl integration model of China's Weitang Pearl Market; 4)the model of garlic integration in Dafeng county; 5)the model of egg integration in Hai'an county;and 6)the model of laver integration of Yucheng Group Company.
The emergence and recent rapid growth of rural industry in China is a striking and in many ways unique phenomenon. How to explain it with the approach of locational analysis is a very important and interesting topic to economic geographers. However, for more than a century, the phenomenon of spatial agglomeration of economic activities has been occupying the central position in the study of economic and industrial geography, so it is very difficult to provide powerful explanations to China's highly dispersing rural industrialization with normative or modern locational analysis. Based on the hypothesis of "economic man", this paper integrates a new set of theoretical tools involving new economic and industrial geography, new institutionalist and evolutionary economics and normative locational analysis, and advances an integrative framework of locational analysis which synthesizes four location factors: institutions, technology, market and resource endowment. In this framework, each location factor affects the industrial location behaviors through affecting the transaction costs or the production costs. In particular, the paper argues that the institutional factors and the mechanism of transaction costs are critical for understanding the high speed and scattering distribution and great regional imbalance of China's rural industrial development.
