Using monthly average temperature data at 26 stations in Northeast China in 1961-2010 and the NCEP/NCAR monthly reanalysis data, the interdecadal characteristics of summer temperature anomaly over Northeast China is investigated. It is found that there are 4 different patterns of summer temperature anomaly over Northeast China by applying empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) analysis to monthly mean summer temperature anomalies. The EOF1 presents a pattern with changes in the same direction, holding about 72% of the total variance contribution, and its time factors show multiple interdecadal variation. Three other patterns hold 10%, 4% and 3% of the total variance contribution respectively, showing north-south, east-west and mountain-plain anomaly patterns with changes in different direction, and the influence of ocean, terrain, and the difference of latitude. Multiple interdecadal variation of mode EOF1 has mutation properties further analyzed by mutation and wavelet analysis, and influenced by a period of 20 a, the time factors mainly were minus during 2007 to 2010, which should be paid more attention. Mode EOF1 is significant positive correlation with geopotential height in 500 hPa and U-wind in upper troposphere (Westerly Jet) of 30ºN-40ºN, presenting a global belt distribution. In northeast Asia, the positive correlation zone reaches 60ºN, and geopotential height in 500 hPa changes in nearly the same direction with the multiple interdecadal variation of mode EOF1. Mode EOF1 is significant positive correlation with sea surface temperature (SST) in Asian coast of Pacific, the Western Pacific Warm Pool (including the north-central areas of Indian Ocean), the south Pacific surrounding Australia, the North America coast of the Atlantic, the northern area of the North Atlantic drift, and the northern area of the equator in the Atlantic. It is also significant positive correlation with Pacific Decadal Oscilliation (PDO). Mode EOF1 is closely related with the multiple interdecadal variation of sea-air system in the Northern Hemisphere, and at the same it is influenced by global warming.

Long term (1951-2006) Surface Water Surplus (SWS) for growing season (May to September) over Northeast China is produced by NCAR CLM3.5, which is driven by daily observations from 102 meteorological stations. Temporal-spatial variability of surface dry/wet status is analyzed based on the CLM3.5 simulation. The results show that, 1) in growing season, 30 year (1971-2000) averaged SWS has relatively large spatial difference, with regional SWS ranging from 100 to 800 mm. Higher SWS value locates over eastern, southern and northern parts of analysis domain, indicating a wetter condition over the area. 2) Significant inter-annual and decadalvariabilities are detected in CLM3.5 results; 3) Over Northeast China the SWS has decline trend showing that the surface has been drying during past 50 years. The drying signal is also found in decadal variance of spatial distribution of SWS, and with 2000s showing most dramatic drying, it implies that in the condition of global warming the aridification over Northeast China would enhance; 4) The surface moisture condition is the combined effects of land surface process and climate change; its prediction requires the thorough understanding of surface water budget.

The ecological risk of heavy metals of 10 counties in the rural area around the Poyang Lake were evaluated, and then pollution sources of heavy metals were analyzed through the gray correlation between heavy metal and nine socio-economic indicators. Results showed that Cd contents of vegetable soil around Poyang Lake were severely exceeded the national standard with an excessive rate of 90% .The other heavy metals were not exceeded excepting contents of Cu in some areas. Ecological risk of the vegetable soil around Poyang Lake area is slight, and the total risk index was contributed most by Cd, accounting for 66.53%~ 97.30%.The ecological risk of developed regions around the Poyang lake were higher than lower industrial level regions, indicating that industrial development make a important influence on the spatial variation of heavy metal pollution in soil around Poyang Lake. The socio-economic indices of vegetable production, industrial development, urbanization, transportation development have high grey correlation with heavy metals contents, and GDP and the amount of pesticides use show a weakest impact on heavy metals.

Using spatial analysis techniques, this paper quantitatively analyzes the relationship between the spatial distribution of 655 cities of China and the natural environmental factors including rivers, vegetation, relief degree of land surface (RDLS) and elevation using sotware such as ArcGIS10, ENVI4.5 and Visual FoxPro6.0. The results include the following several aspects. Firstly, the cities are strongly dependent on rivers and the dependence is getting stronger with the expansion of the cities. The cities'sensitivity to rivers reduces as the distance from the cities to rivers increasing. Secondly, the number of cities is becoming larger with increasing vegetation rank generally. In other words, the better the vegetation condition is, the more the cities are distributed. The cities'dependence on vegetation is strong and the dependence is getting stronger with the expansion of the cities. Thirdly, the number of cities is getting smaller with the increasing relief degree of land surface (RDLS) rank generally. That is to say, the bigger the value of relief degree of land surface (RDLS) is, the more the cities are distributed. Relief degree of land surface (RDLS) has a great impact on the distribution of cities and the impact is becoming stronger with the expansion of the cities. Fourthly, the number of cities is becoming smaller with increasing elevation rank generally. In other words, the number of distributed cities is getting smaller as the value of elevation increasing. Elevation has a great impact on the distribution of cities and the impact is getting stronger with the expansion of the cities. At last, the city development suitability was evaluated in different regions of China and the regions were pointed out which are suitable for city development. The regions consist of the Northeast Plain, the North China Plain, the Middle-lower Yangtze Plain, the Pearl River Delta and the Sichuan Basin. In terms of the natural environment, the small and medium-sized cities of high suitability regions have large development potential.

Based on the“lake effect”hypothesis and urban spatial structure theory, a theoretical model of the lakes which influence the economy surrounding the urban is put forward in the paper, and the area surrounding Poyang Lake as a case is empirically analyzed. The result indicates that under the influence of Poyang Lake, the city distribution density and traffic network density in the area show a trend of first slowly increasing then gradually decreasing corresponding to the distance from lake, while they show a increasing trend when the distance further increases. Therefore, the area surrounding Poyang Lake was divided into three urban economic regions according to the extreme principle and special attributes. The empirical analysis clearly shows that the model not only can theoretically explain how the lakes affect the space differentiation of the urban economic regions, but also can provide a quantitative model that can be extended.

The multitime scale features and coupling relationship of precipitation, runoff and sediment discharge of Fenhe River Basin during 47 years between 1959 and 2005 were analyzed in the paper, by applying wavelet analysis method. The results indicated that there were two significant periodic variations at scales of 2-4 a, 14-18 a for precipitation, runoff and sediment discharge. And the main periods of them were nearly the same. This first main period was 16 years, while the second main period was 3 years. At the 3-year scale, the positive and negative phases about the curves of precipitation, runoff and sediment discharge had appeared frequently, and there are many mutation points. Most of the time the changes of precipitation, runoff and sediment discharge had the synchronization during 47 years. At the 16-year scale, the mutation points, recurring cycles of positive and negative phase for three hydrological time series had became less than the 3-year scale. At the same time, there is not always synchronization for three curves. The trends of precipitation, runoff and sediment discharge and their non-synchronization were closely tied to natural factors and high-frequent human activity. And it is very important for human activity to affect the trends.

The loadings of total phosphorus and total nitrogen entering a lake were divided into two categories: point source and non-point source. The SCS (Soil Conservation Service) and the USLE (Universal Soil Loss Equation) models were used to calculate dissolved and particulate non-point source loadings, while the point source loading was estimated from the discharge of industrial, domestic and livestock wastewater. The mass conservation model of total phosphorus and total nitrogen in a lake was established, which was built upon the estimated input loadings of total phosphorus and total nitrogen entering a lake as well as the current concentration of total phosphorus and total nitrogen in the lake. Based on the calculated loadings entering a lake from the watershed and atmospheric deposition, along with the mass conservation model established, the previous annual average concentration of total phosphorus and total nitrogen in a lake was obtained by backward inference. Then, the reference condition of total phosphorus and total nitrogen, which was minimally impacted by human activities, could be established. The reference conditions of total phosphorus and total nitrogen in Chenghai Lake are 0.014 mg/L and 0.247 mg/L with the application of the proposed model. The reference conditions inference model is of clear physical concept, and less data required. Thus, the proposed methodology is applicable to other lakes under similar situations.

Settlements are places of habitation, production and the living for people. In this paper, we studied the spatial patterns and its influencing factors of settlement in the less developed area—Suzhou of Anhui Province. Five pattern indices (including the Area, the Mean Patch Area, the Patch Density, Average Nearest Distance and the Aggregation Index ) were computed and analyzed using FRAGSTATS, and the shape index and the spatial neighboring length and number between the residential area and other patches were calculated using ArcGIS. Here the Nearest Index that determines the type of residential area distribution were counted using the method of settlement geography, and the radius of cultivation were computed using the method of buffer zone. The results indicated that the settlement is the most broadly distributed and dominate the landscape patches. The mean of the residential area is small and the shape is simple but its aggregation index is high. The farmland is the type that has highest neighboring length with residential area, suggesting a complex and close relationship between them. The distribution of residential area is random. Farmland is the most important factor which effect rural settlement spatial pattern, rural settlements'distribution obvious influenced by the central town. More than 50% of the residential areas are distributed in general highway within 1.4 km. By using the buffer analysis method, the settlement cultivated radius is calculated which can reveal the cultivated land distribution and the relationship between the settlement distribution and its influence factor. Through the GIS, the landscape pattern analysis and settlement analysis method, the spatial distribution pattern of the settlement differences and their impact factor can be revealed. It is the effective method to explore the landscape pattern formation mechanism. The research of the settlement in less developed areas of the landscape pattern is feasible. It is a guiding role to study the village layout and planning, discuss settlements and villages'landscape and argue the relationship between the cultivated land and village.

Road traffic networks in 17 cities of Anhui Province are taken as the study object in the article. It investigates that development of road construction in Anhui is from evenness and complexity, and the fractal dimensions of various road networks were calculated with the Hausdorff Fractal Dimension and the Dendrite Fractal Dimension of the fractal technology. And then the authors construct the weight dimension model measured the integrated road network. The various causes lead to the uneven development of traffic network, and there are obvious differences among these regions in Anhui. The result is that area size of the road network influences the fractal dimension of the road network. The authors divide 17 cities into three parts based on their area, and performs the correlation analysis between the weight dimensions, the fractal dimensions of the main road lines and the general economy indexes. The result shows that the fractal dimensions of the road network in various cities and the composite economic indexes are correlative. It can be explained that the evener is coverage degree of the road network, the more complex is the transport network and the better is regional economic development. To further seek coordination relations between highway construction and the economic development in various cities, the authors calculate the fractal dimensions of 17 cities introducing the fractal model of road construction scale-economic output. We discover that economic development exceeds the road scale in 6 cities, basically consistent in 4 cities, and economy development lags in highway construction scale in 7 cities. At the same time, if economic development dropped behind highway construction scale it would not necessarily mean that economic development was clear laggard; contrarily, if economic development was in advance to highway construction scale it would not necessarily mean that economic development must be good. It has relative relation between economic development and highway construction scale.

In order to probe into the difference in energy consumption between regions in different developing period, the paper studies the changes in energy consumption of Fujian and Taiwan and their driving factors. The results indicate that: 1) The energy consumption gap between Fujian and Taiwan got greater then less, and Fujian consumed more energy than Taiwan for the first time in 2008. However, the energy efficiency of Taiwan grew by the mode of Power Function, which was far higher than Fujian. And the energy consumption stucture in Taiwan was more pluralistic. The share of clean and efficient energy in the final energy consumption accounted for over 80%. 2) The main driving factors of energy consumption change were roughly similar in both Fujian and Taiwan, but there were statistically differences between them. On the one hand, the change of energy consumption in Taiwan had more driving causes such as the proportion of tertiary industry and energy efficiency besides the same factors with Fujian. On the other hand, the ratio of spending on R&D to GDP, per capita GDP, the proportion of secondary industry and energy consumption had the opposite effects on the regions. The energy consumption in Fujian showed the trend of growth after driven by above factors, but Taiwan was in adverse. 3) Energy consumption of both regions was similarly affected by the consumption tradition, but the same factors had impacts differently in the two regions. In Fujian, the motorization influence was greatest, then followed by economic development and the rise of scientific-technological input, the proportion of secondary industry and population rising accounted for the least affect. In Taiwan, the motorization influence was most obvious, then the rise of scientific-technological input and energy efficiency took the second place, the population rising, economic development and industrial structural upgrade had the lowwest influence.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) is a major symbol of the contemporary world, which is predominated by two interwoven tendencies, namely globalization and informatization. It is now widely accepted that the world is moving fast towards an information age, while ICT is a major channel to such a historical transformation. Indeed, no technological progress in the last several decades can match the advent of ICT in terms of its profound and extensive influences. Since 1994, the development of ICT in China has been incredibly fast, but there has been“digital divide”between provinces. Indeed, there are huge digital- divide worldwide, which would impact economic spatial distribution. It is against such a background that this article takes a close examination on the development of informatization in China and its spatio-temporal pattern. Based on the literature review, principal components analysis and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, it established ICT development index (IDI) and then calculated IDI and CV value, in order to provide a more comprehensive explanation of ICTs trends and developments. It also tried to gauge and justify the spatial implications of ICTs development, especially the relationship between informatization and economic development, by regression analysis. The findings of this study are follows. First, there are significant regional differences in informatization, and the development of ICT declines gradually from Eastern China to Western China. From 2000 to 2010, the development of ICT in Western China and Central China are much faster than Eastern China and Northeast China, while the regional digital gap is becoming smaller. Secondly, the difference of informatization among provinces is also very remarkable. The provincial spatial pattern of informatization has changed, with lessened digital divide in 2000-2010. Finally, at provincial scale, the spatial distribution of ICT has obviously positive correlation with local GDP development. From 2000 to 2010, with the evolution towards an informatization society, the relationship between informatization and economic development has been more and more related.

To modify the assumed homogenerous space in the urban system model as developed by Krugman (1993), this article uses the fuzzy set theroy, together with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach, and constructs a series of geographic spaces with spatial heterogeneity based on the study case on Zhejiang Province, aimed at examining the importance of economic or geographic features as determinants of the size, number, and location of cities in this province. The simulation of the Krugman’s urban system model shows geographic features indeed play an important role in the simulated broad patterns in the spatial distribution of the Zhejiang’s cities, but the urban systems in the study area evolves primarly because of economic geography features, concisely speaking, the interaction between transport costs and plant-level scale economies. After controling for other parameters, this model might predict more cities in this study case when transportation costs are higher, a share of the manufacturing sector is lower, or the elasticity of substituion is higher. Moreover, in equilibrium, the predicted cities can be found to be located according to a spaital distribution of the hexagonal lattice with the realistic economic as well as geographical enviroments. If true geography is incorporated into the model, the assumed space offers better simulating environments, and, as a consequentce, will improve the proformance behavior of the Krugman’s urban system model. The simulated patterns of city distribution can be postulated by one variant of central place theory proposed by Water Christaller (1966). Furthermore, under the surroundings of dispersed scenarios of four weights, an initial advantage in geography over all regions comes into effect leading to a variety of spatial patterns of urban system simulation in this province. Among them, for the Zhejiang urban system as a whole, cities are distributed consistent fully with those observed when these locations have a certain advantage of economic geography over the others. This might suggest that economic geography effects may dominate dynamic process of urban system development over time across space implying that high market potential might be associated with the predicted cities in this study area.

Integrated the archaeological and DEM data in the eastern Qinghai Province, using a combination of the area archaeological site and burials to estimate the regional prehistoric population, and apply the GIS tools to rebuild the regional cultivated land area of the prehistoric period for time and space. The results showed that regional population and cultivated land increased rapidly during the Majiayao culture of Neolithic Period, and the population had reached the peak during the late Machang culture regional of Neolithic period,in which the population had totally risen up to about 40×10³ and the size of farm land was expanded to 462 km². The population and the farm land were mainly distributed in the valley area of the Huanghe River-Huangshui River. The population and farm land were decreased significantly during the Qijia culture period, but it was rebounded obviously during the bronze age, in which total population increased to 61 000 and the farm land was expanded to 1 076 km², about 1/10 of the total arable land area in the region. With the changes of population and farm land, the influence of human activities on the environment began to appear. In 5-4ka B.P., human activities lead to the reduction of the arbor in the study area, the increase of Androphile, especially Gramineae have sharply increased, as agriculture is closely related with the millet. After 4 ka B.P., a shape reduce of the arbor is due to the change of climate, while strengthening of human activities accelerated the shrinking arbor cover area.

Based on detailed field survey, oxide contents analysis and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of the samples from the Yanbandang(YBD) profile in Liyang Plain, the geochemical characteristics of major elements, the weathering process and environmental change from late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene were discussed. The results showed that the content of oxide is mainly composed of SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and TFe₂O₃ (Fe₂O₃+ FeO) and their percentage are between 86% and 90.8%. Compared to the average upper continental crust composition, Na and Ca have been leached out strongly, while total Fe and Mn relatively enriched in the sediments of the YBD profile. The intensity of chemical weathering in the YBD sequence was significantly higher than that of loess and paleosol in Loess Plateau, slightly higher than Xiashu loess in Zhenjiang, almost equal to the Yucheng profile in Liyang Plain, but obviously lower than the red soil from Xuancheng profile in Anhui Province, which indicated a moderate chemical weathering intensity under warm and moist conditions. Changes of the Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA), the Eluvial Coefficient, the Coefficient of Weathering and Eluviations (BA), the Index of Compositional Variation (ICV) and the analysis of A-CN-K and A-CNK-FM ternary diagrams suggested palpable differences in weathering intensity of the strata. There are four stages of weathering process in the YBD profile: relatively stronger weathering, relatively weaker weathering, intensifying weathering, and relatively stronger weathering. The weathering intensity of the yellowish brown soil at the top and bottom of YBD profile were clearly higher than that of the black brown soil and the black soil. Since the chemical weathering intensity is sensitive to climate change, the geochemical parameters can be used to unravel the environmental change to some extent. The higher CIA value reveals that the climate is relatively warmer and wetter in the end of the MIS3a stage. It becomes cooler during the LGM, but gradually returns to be warm again in early-Holocene. The climate in the mid-Holocene was the warmest and most humid compared to the aforementioned periods.

Following the acceleration of the economic globalization, marine transportation has become the main way of international goods trade. As a result, the port becomes an important influence factor of the economic development which causes more attention concern. In the study, the Huff model was employed to calculate the potential-energy value of the influence which the six ports along the Liaoning coast act on the hinterland city. Then, a quantitative estimate about the spatial evolution process of the port hinterland along the Liaoning coast was performed in 1995-2009. Finally, we qualitative analyzed the driving factors of spatial evolution of the port hinterland. The result showed that: 1) The spatial distribution of the port hinterland in the study area has changed a lot during the past 15 years and the study area has been changed from the single hinterland of Dalian port to a mixed-hinterland of several ports. The hinterland ever belonged to Dalian port along the traffic line between Harbin and Dalian has converted to the hinterland of Yingkou port which caused a decrease on the extent of hinterland in Dalian port and oppositely an increase on the extent of hinterland in Yingkou port. Some local ports (such as Jinzhou port and Dandong port) mainly serving for the surrounding hinterland cities has not experienced a significantly variation on the extent of hinterland. 2) Based on the calculation result of the Huff model, the influence potential-energy value of the six ports has also changed. According the potential-energy value, the influence of Dalian port on the study area decreased in the past years, especially the influence on Liaoning Province and surrounding areas which has experienced an obviously reduction. The Yingkou port has an increased influence along and both sides of the T-shaped traffic line, which make the Yingkou port a more and more important position among the six ports. The influence of Jinzhou port on its original hinterland has become more stable than past years. In addition, there is an expanding trend on the spatial extent of Jinzhou hinterland toward to the central parts of Liaoning Province which represents a rising influence force of Jinzhou port. The Dandong port also has an increased influence on the most parts of the study area, particularly on the middle and eastern area of Northeast China. Following the improving of port infrastructure construction, Dandong port has become a new thoroughfare to the Sea of Northeast China. 3) The influence factors of the hinterland spatial evolution are various and complex. According to the qualitative analysis of the driving factors which caused the spatial structure evolution of the port hinterland along the Liaoning coast, location conditions, transportation infrastructure conditions, the rising of urban influence force and the guidance of government policies are considered as the most important factors.

Albedo determines surface absorption capability for the solar radiation and impacts the surface radiation balance. The albedo on snow and ice is higher comparing other surfaces, and the absorption of energy from the sun is little on an ice or snow field. Monitoring and researching snow and ice albedo characteristics and variation are necessary to provide accurate data and the theoretical basis for hydrological process research of snow and ice. EOS-MODIS satellite data of snow albedo (MOD10A1 on Level3)were used in the article to analyze the regional and seasonal distribution of snow albedo, as well as the inter-annual trends in the source region of the Changjiang River from 2001 to 2010 using softwares such as ArcGIS and ENVI. Based on the meteorological data of 3 stations on the source region of the Changjiang River from 2000 to 2010, the basic features of temporal changes of temperature and precipitation were investigated. The results show that: 1) Snow albedo were different with space distribution in the snow season in the source region of the Yangtze River. The snow albedo was high on the northern source region of the Yangtze River and on the southwest of the source region of the Changjiang River with 0.67 to 0.91, respectively, whereas part of the east of the source region of the Changjiang River was low (0.15 to 0.48). The distribution of snow albedo closely related to spatial distribution of snow depth and effected by altitude. 2) The seasonal spatial distributions of snow albedo changed obviously in the source region of the Changjiang River. The snow albedo for the large proportion area of study area were 0.66-1, 0.4-0.57, 0-0.4 and 0.48-0.66 in winter, spring, summer, and autumn respectively. The variation of the seasonal snow albedo between spring and summer was the largest with difference of 0.3 to 0.5. In monthly scales, the mean snow albedo of the whole source region of the Changjiang River had the largest value in January (0.6), and the lower values in July (0.41) and August (0.42). 3) For the first decade in 21th century, mean annual snow albedo during the snow season had non-significant increasing trend in the most areas of the source region of the Changjiang River, whereas it increased significantly on the high altitude regions. The rate of regional snow albedo in the source region of the Changjiang River is 0.0002/a, but it was up to 0.0012/a on the glacier areas of the study area. There were statistical significantly positive correlations between snow albedo and snow cover and precipitation (snow fall) during the snow season. This suggests that snow albedo was sensitive to snow fall through the snow season. 4)The monthly snow albedo in summer on the source region of the Changjiang River showed a decreasing trend from 2000 to 2010, which is markedly affected by summer temperature, and there was a positive feedback relationship between them.

Permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is elevational, where the permafrost accounts for approximately 75% of the elevational permafrost in the Northrn hemisphere. Located in the transition zone from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau higher than 4 500 m a. s. l. to the Loess Plateau at less than 2 000 m a. s. l., the Bayan Har Mountains (BHM) have typical alpine permafrost. The intensive uplifts of the BHM have resulted in a great variety in climate, permafrost and landscapes on the north and south slopes. Based on field investigations and ground temperature measurements between 2008-2012, the distributive features and controlling/influencing factors of permafrost in the BHM are revealed in detail in this paper. Most permafrost in the BHM is warm (>-1℃), except that at some mountain tops such as Chalaping and the Bayan Har Mountain Pass. The ground temperature in the BHM is principally controlled by elevations. The lowest MAGT of -1.8℃ and the thickest permafrost of 74 m are found at Chalaping higher than 4 700 m a. s. l. The lapse rate of MAGT with rising elevation is 6℃/km on the north slopes and 4℃/km on the south slopes, respectively. The MAGTs are -0.2℃ in Borehole YNG-1 at the north-slope toes, and +0.3℃ in Borehole QSH-1 at the south-slope toes. Permafrost thins rapidly downwards at both slope toes. The MAGTs are lower than -0.5℃ at elevations above 4 570 m a. s. l. on the south slopes and above 4 527 m a. s. l. on the north slopes. The MAGTs are lower than -1℃ at elevations above 4 670 m a. s. l. on the south slopes and above 4 615 m a. s. l. on the north slopes. The zone boundaries of -0.5℃ in mean annual ground temperatures largely coincide with the lower limits of sporadic (discontinuous) permafrost, and zone boundaries of -1℃ correspond to the lower limits of continuous permafrost. The active layer thickness, which usually affected by the lithology (soil types) and moisture conditions, is about 1 m at the Bayan Har Mountain Pass and Chalaping on the north slopes. It increases with declining elevation. However, on the south slopes, it is greatly influenced by some local factors, such as vegetative coverage and soil moisture contents. For example, the active layer is more than 4 m deep in Borehole CLQ-1 at 4 642 m a. s. l., where the surface vegetation coverage is low, and soils and alpine meadows are broken by rodent and insect activities.

Gully density is used to describe the intensity of regional soil erosion and landform development, which is significant to understand the spatial pattern and formation mechanism of loess landforms by analyzing the spatial distribution. According to the principal of quadrat analysis, this article represent a series of maps revealing the spatial distribution of gully density in the Loess Plateau through digital terrain analysis method and Kriging interpolation model, as well as 5 m×5 m DEM data sets. The spatial variation characteristics of gully in the Loess Plateau were investigated. Moreover, some controlling factors on gully development were explored, and relationship between gully density and soil erosion was revealed. Results showed that the spatial variation feature of gully density was obvious, and gully density reached the peak in region of Suide-Mizhi in northern Shaanxi, then, it decreased from north to south in the Loess Plateau. On the macroscopic, the distribution trend of gully was controlled by geological structure so that it was classified into three parts. To the west of the Liupan Mountains as the first part, its value was low with smooth changes. The second part located in the middle and southern parts of the Loess Plateau to the east of the Liupan Mountains, the west of the Luliang Mountains, and its value decreased in gradient from north to south. To the east of the Luliang Mountains as the third part, its value ranged from 1.7 to 6.4 km/km2 with fluctuant change. Rainfall intensity was rather significant for spatial variability of gully erosion, which was coupled with the diversification of gully density in space. In addition, vegetation condition and composition of ground material in the Loess Plateau varied from northwest to southeast, which influenced gully development. Gully density was positively and strongly correlated with the sediment transport modulus in the soil erosion in spatial, especially for regions of the middle Loess Plateau, indicating it is an important factor reflecting the capacity of gully erosion. In conclusion, gully density was significantly indicative on understanding the spatial pattern of loess landform.

Mu Us Sandy Land lies in the farming-pastoral ecotone of northern China, whose ecological environment shows great sensitivity and vulnerability. In this article, temporal series of MOD13Q1 productions, which derived from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor in 2000-2011,were used to establish temporal sequence of annual enhanced vegetation index (EVI) maximum. Departure, slope, standard deviation and coefficient of variance of EVI were calculated to study the spatial and temporal characteristics of vegetation growth status in Mu Us Sandy Land. Results show that: 1) in 2000-2011, annual maximum of EVI value mainly fluctuates slightly in Mu Us Sandy Land and area whose EVI departure range is -0.1≤ ΔE_EVI≤0.1,occupies more than 98.467% of the total area. Area with -0.2≤ΔE_EVI＜-0.1 is the largest in 2001 (1.341%) and the smallest is in 2009 (0.074%). Area with 0.1＜ΔE_EVI≤0.2 is the largest in 2002 (1.050%) and is the smallest in 2001 (0.138%). In the whole region, the average EVI departure values in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2006 are negative while the values in 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 are positive. Vegetation growth status is the worst in 2001 and the second worst is in 2000. Conversely, the best vegetation growth status is in 2010 and the second best in 2002. 2) Annual maximum of EVI in the whole region increases by 0.002 5/a. Area with increasing trend occupies 81.916% of the whole area, which mainly distributes in the middle, eastern and southern parts of Sandy Land. Area with decreasing trend occupies 18.084% of the whole area, which mainly distributes in the northern, western, southern and middle parts of Mu Us Sandy Land. 3) Vegetation grow status mainly improves with slight and moderate fluctuations, whose areas occupie 35.878% and 34.697% of the total area respectively, which locate in the southwest, middle and eastern parts of Mu Us Sandy Land. Area of vegetation with severe fluctuated improving growth status occupies 8.381%. Moreover, areas with slight and moderate fluctuated degraded growth status occupies 7.876% and 7.174% of the whole area, respectively. Vegetation with severe fluctuated improving growth status mainly locates in the southwest and southeast parts of Sandy Land while slight and moderate fluctuated degraded growth status locate in the southwest, western, central and southern parts of Mu Us Sandy Land.

Inland lakes are recorders of the past climate change and indicators of the modern environmental change. Qinghai Lake, the largest inland salt lake in China, locats in the northeast of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and semi-arid region where is under the influence of westerly and Asia Monsoon, is sensitive to climate change. Evidences such as lake shorelines changing can be used to study the fluctuation of lake level in this basin. These can reflect water mass balance of a basin and are closely related with climate parameters of precipitation, temperature, evaporation, humidity, wind, etc. A lake shoreline during the Little Ice Age is obtained by field investigation and geomorphologic analysis and its age is obtained by ¹⁴C dating and precipitation during this time is calculated using hydrological and energy budget model and the methodology of meteorology, hydrology and other software such as GIS. The 14C dating of the bird bones at 3 201 m in Haiyanwan is 200 a B.P. and the 14C dating of the deadwood at 3 201m in a lake shoreline in Hadawan is 195 a B.P. So the area of Qinghai Lake and precipitation can be estimated by the proof coming from the level and age of the lake shoreline in Haiyanwan and Hadawan based on GIS. The lake level and area are 3 201 m and 4 870 km² in 200 a B.P. respectively, which are 8 m higher and 636 km² bigger than those of today, and the precipitation in that time is 416 mm, which is 9% higher than that of today. This result is consistent with the opinion that the climate during Little Ice Age in Qinghai Lake is humid, which has been obtained by relative research and supports the viewpoint that climate in Qinghai Lake may have been influenced by southwest Asian monsoon, which is stronger but the eastern Asian monsoon is weaker during the middle and late period of the Little Ice Age.

Using SPOTNDVI data, the multiple cropping indexes were inversed by remote sensing in 2000, 2004 and 2008 around Bohai in China. Meanwhile, the influencing factors for the changes of the multiple cropping indexes were detected by geographical detection method. The results showed: 1) The Spatial differences of the multiple cropping index were significant. The latitude zonal laws were obvious for the multiple cropping index spatial distribution, which was changed from 280% in the south plain to 70% in the north mountainous region. It was lower to 40%-50% in hills and the plateau mountain region than in the plain of the same latitude, showed a certain vertical zones law. The multiple cropping index was higher than 150% in traditional agricultural areas of plains, including the southern of Hebei Province, the southwest and north of Shandong Province. The lower value regions of the multiple cropping index were located at Shandong Hilly Areas, Bashang Plateau in Hebei Province and Changbai Mountains in Liaoning Province. 2) The regional differences of the dynamic change for the multiple cropping index were obvious in 2000-2008. The multiple cropping index was increased in the traditional agricultural areas of the plains. The regions where the dynamic degree was more than 10% were located in the southwest, northwest and east in Shandong Province, Haihe river plain in Hebei Province. On the contrary, the negative value regions of the dynamic degree were located in the Hilly Areas of Shandong Province, Bashang Plateau of Hebei Province and the Liaohe River plain in Liaoning Province in 2000-2004. There were rebound in declined areas, and remained stable in increase areas in 2004-2008. 3) The level of grain production was an important factor affecting changes of the multiple cropping indexes. There were many factors affecting changes of the multiple cropping index, including the per capita cultivated land area, transfer degree for rural labor force, the basic conditions of agricultural production, the level of agricultural modernization, location conditions etc. In order to improve cultivated land use efficiency and agriculture development, a reasonable and order land transfer should be actively pursued in the plain. Meanwhile, large of new agricultural cooperative organizations should be developed, so that the regional agricultural modernization is improved. On the other hand, the comprehensive consolidation of land should be actively implemented including cultivated land, water, roads, forests, and villages, which promoted the construction of high-standard farmland, to protect regional food security and rural-urban development transition healthily. Developing specialized agriculture in the hills and mountains and highland areas, the quality fruits are developed to enhance industrial competitiveness of specialty agriculture.

Pipeline construction, as a linear project may result in significant effects on the structure and function of regional ecosystem, however a systematic and effective method to quantitatively evaluate this kind of effects is unavailable until today. In this paper, the Dianshi-Zhumadian branch line of the West-to-East Pipeline Project (WEPP)was chosen as a study area, the landscape pattern change along the pipeline was compared before and after construction based on Landsat TM and ETM+ (2002, 2003)images by using landscape metrics. The results shows that oil pipeline construction activity becomes the direct factor affecting land use changes in the area near the oil pipeline, the construction areas increase by occupying farmland, woodland and grassland, and the influence extent of the construction has an inflection point at the 1500-3000 m buffer zone. The connectivity index (COHESION)is more sensitive to impact of the pipeline construction. Paired T test indicates that no significant difference is found on the landscape indices at patch scale, and the landscape pattern change at 0-300 m buffer zone has a similar trend to the other buffers. At the landscape level, it is difficult to determine whether the construction project have produced effects on the landscape pattern changes alone the project. Based on our study, the method by comparing the significance of the difference between landscape indices both in spatial and temporal scales is useful and effective for quantitative evaluation on the environmental impacts, and it can be used to distinguish the effects of projects from the other sources when the environmental impact assessment is conducted in pipeline project construction. However, it is important to note that the response feature of landscape indices to the impact of pipeline project is different at the patch level and landscape level.

The changes of the whole industry by meanings of a series of input and output targets were analyzed in the paper. Fifteen industries with high agglomeration level were selected as subjects of study. According to the relationship between profit and scale indices of input production factors, the main result was found that some manufacturing industries’agglomeration became much more excessive in southeast beaboard China, there were surplus input and output deficit on combination of factors on the progress of spatial agglomeration of manufacturing industries. The result of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)on slack variable showed that when there was a decrease in input factor or an advance in combination of factors, the cost of product could be cut down and the efficiency could be improved by increasing productivity in order to achieve a rational distribution. As a result, the manufacturing industries can be divided into excessive agglomeration industry, appropriate agglomeration industry and promising agglomeration industry. By means of DEA, the excessive agglomeration areas were fund out. The result of the analysis of slack variable can do some help to make policy of tabling the agglomeration suitability of manufacturing industries and rationalization of industry in those excessive agglomeration industry areas.

Chicago, one of the three largest cities in the U.S., has been a major manufacturing city in the Midwestern "Rusty Belt" since mid-1800s. As illustrated by the famous geographic historian William Cronon, Chicago is a "nature’s metropolis", and its growth is largely attributed to its unique geographic location. In its early stage of development throughout the 19th century up to the early 1900s, Chicago’s industries relied on its hinterland for lumber, grain and meat supplies and also provided the surrounding rural areas with agricultural machinery and other industrial goods. Its interdependence with the rural hinterland and its surrounding agricultural patterns can be explained by the von Thünen model. From the early 1900s to 1970s, Chicago gained significant growth in heavy industries (iron and steel, transportation equipment, chemical and construction materials, etc.). Its economic prosperity benefited from its proximity to the Great Lakes and access to Mississippi River (through Illinois River)for cheap waterway transportation as well as a radial railway network centered at Chicago. Weber’s industrial location theory, particularly the role of transportation cost, sheds light on understanding Chicago’s industrial development during this period. In the later 1900s, like many cities in the old "Rusty Belt" (from the Midwest to the Northeast)in the U.S., Chicago lost much of its manufacturing to the suburbia, to the south and even overseas. In addition to the drive for cheaper labor, more spacious land, easy access to interstate highways or better climate, non-traditional location factors particularly government policy and planning have played an important role. Chicago has minimized the impact of loss of manufacturing employment, to a large extent, by diversifying its economy. The purpose of this study is two-fold:to understand the history of Chicago’s manufacturing development in light of the classic location theories, and also in the hope, to learn some valuable lessons from Chicago’s experience and help us craft effective plans and policies in some old manufacturing regions in China.

In early 1990s, the development of Spatial Economics laid down certain theory foundation for the study of spatiality of economy. Such spatial research is defined as the research of economic spatial pattern in spatial economy to explain the reasons and formation mechanism for phenomenon of spatial agglomeration. Some tools, such as Theil entropy index, relative entropy index, Coefficient of Variation and half-logarithm economic growth model, are utilized to analyze the evolution of the spatial and temporal distribution and the variation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)as well as economic growth effect of FDI in the Pan-Yangtze Delta. The models of spatial pattern of FDI and economic impact of spatial variability for FDI are constructed respectively. A wholly trend of diffusing is found on the spatial distribution of FDI in Pan-Yangtze Delta. The diffusing way is along the "Z" shape spool thread, and the diffusing forms include two kinds:one is the contagious proliferation and the other is the hierarchical proliferation. The hierarchical proliferation is more remarkable after 2001. Based on correlated statistical data from 1990 to 2007, variation degree and economic effect of the five provinces and Shanghai city of Pan-Yangtze Delta were worked out. The results showed that FDI have been playing a positive role to the regions economic growth. However, the efficiency is different in different regions. The variation degree of FDI is inverse correlated to economic growth. Based on above findings, three fields should be concerned when making and implementing related policy of FDI. Firstly, trying to create friendly financing environment and further consolidate and enlarge the scale of FDI after world financial crisis. Secondly, establishing expedite FDI spreading corridor and optimizing its special framework. Spatial framework and variation which based on capital efficiency are decided by rent seeking nature of FDI. It is concentrated on Shanghai firstly, and spread to the other provinces. In order to improve the practical efficiency of FDI, open FDI spreading channel should be constructed by every region. Then FDI can be allocated appropriately and effectively used under the market mechanism. Last but not least, the harmony of regional development should be kept to promote national economic revitalization. The blue print of the Pan-Yangtze Delta Area should be designed and even all Yangtze River valleys as soon as possible in the background of harmonious development at the national level.

Regional industrial layout patterns have drawn the attention of many geographers. Focusing on specific industry and (or)specific area, however, most of previous researches are lacking of continuity and comparability. A rational, comparable, and feasible index system is essential for describing and evaluating layout patterns of various industries in different areas. This paper tries to establish such an index system and estimate its rationality and feasibility through the followed case study. The index system is constructed to represent the industrial layout patterns from perspectives of centricity, inequality, spatial agglomeration, and correlation between observed industry and other industries and economic factors. Firstly, the proportion of employment in the center to that in the region and to that in the sub-center, are recommended to represent the centricity of the industrial layout. Secondly, the authors set up indices of ubiquity, measured by the proportion of subregions with one or more enterprises of the observed industry, and concentration ratio to represent the inequality of industrial distribution among subregions. The concentration ratio can also be estimated excluding the center. Thirdly, spatial agglomeration of an industry is measured by distances between the center and sub-centers and other industrial agglomeration areas, and distances among industrial agglomeration areas without regard to the center. Finally, it is also important for recognition of industrial layout patterns to investigate their relationship with the spatial distribution of other industries, population, land use and other socio-economic factors, which can be measured by Pearson correlation coefficient, similarity coefficient or grey relational degree. Taking Nanchong as a case, we classify 2-digital industries from the aforesaid perspectives respectively with quantitative analysis methods. At last, four typical comprehensive patterns of industrial layout are concluded. The case study provides evidence for rationality and flexibility of the index system, which can also be used in industrial layout pattern recognition and classification in all kinds of areas, at different times and on multi-scales.

The financial crisis has been taking the place of the industrial crisis to be the symbol of the economic cycle since 1980s when the human society entered the era of knowledge economy and the era of globalization. Nowadays the assertion that financial crisis has become the main form of economic crises is strongly proved by the financial crisis breaking out in 2008, which has been called as a global crisis and a crisis of the century because of its vast destructiveness and profound impacts. This paper explored an issue:how does the global financial crisis contagion happen in the geographic dimension? According to the research on the financial crisis erupting in 2008, the process of global financial crisis contagion can be divided into three geographic stages based on the different mechanisms and characteristics of crisis contagion among different regions of the world. At the first stage, the financial crisis was transmitted from New York City to other major financial centers in the world with a geographically point-to-point transmission characteristic. The sub-prime mortgage crisis became the direct incentive for the financial crisis. Information played a crucial role at this stage. A series of bad news about the significant losses of many huge financial institutions due to the sub-prime crisis flied fast among financial centers. It triggered the confidence crisis over the major world financial markets, which finally developed into a devastating blow to financial system. Crisis contagion at this stage has its own characteristics:fast transmission speed, violent vibration and profound impact. The second stage that the crisis was transmitted from the major financial centers in the world to the developed countries is actually a process of crisis contagion from the financial sector to the real economic sector. The geographic characteristic of crisis contagion at this stage is a point-to-plane transmission process. The liquidity crisis deriving from the confidence crisis in financial system reduced the capital flow to the real economy, which made the production activity of most developed economies drop dramatically. The pessimistic anticipation of individuals and enterprises further weakened the demand of consumption and investment. The developed economies entered a vicious circle. The crisis at the second stage was self-enhanced. At the third stage, the crisis contagion from the developed countries to the developing countries was a result of the reduction of capital inflows to developing countries and the reduction of international trade amount. The crisis contagion at this stage has its own characteristics:the geographic contagion characteristic was a plane-to-plane transmission process;the speed of crisis transmission was relatively slow;crisis affected different developing countries in different ways, and economic recovery was slow because the deep-seated problems of the world economy were revealed at this stage. This paper analyzed the mechanism and characteristics of the global financial crisis contagion on every geographic stage, which enlightened the financial crisis contagion-proof measures for China. At first, an early-warning mechanism for crisis should be built up by establishing a comprehensive index system, a full-coverage information network and a immediate reaction mechanism, most of all, by enhancing the development of qualified personnel;secondly, the government should promote financial development under market-orientation principle and at the same time, should adopt appropriate regulation especially on certain important financial areas to prevent risks;thirdly, the domestic demand should be expanded to improve the ability to withstand the future crisis by creating more job opportunities, extending basic social security coverage, stimulating consumer demand in the rural areas and exploring potential markets;fourthly, the industrial structure should be further optimized, in order to improve the overall national strength.

The airport system is an important component for the organization of aviation transportation. It is an effective way to analyze the constitution of air transportation and urban systems by identifying the spatial structure of airport system. Centrality is one of the basic methods. Based on network analysis, three common indices, degree centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality were used to measure centrality for individual cities in the paper. That is to say, "Being central" is not limited to being connected to others, but also being close to all others and being intermediary between others. In the airport system of China, degree centrality shows the "Ding Pattern" for the top class and the "Flyover Effect" for the national network. Closeness centrality makes it measurable for the airport service. Betweenness centrality is a good measure to analyze regional hubs and the core-periphery pattern. On individual cities, Beijing and Shanghai are clearly the top two central cities in all three indices;and rankings on other cities by the betweenness centrality differ significantly from those by the degree and closeness centralities. Based on the three centrality indices, an Exploratory Weighted Method (EWM)were put forward, namely system centrality, to do a further research. The results showed the hierarchical structure with the "Ding Pattern" in the top class and the "Flyover Effect" in the national network. Besides, the spatial pattern by the system centrality accords well with the five airport clusters designed in the National Civil Airports Deployment Plan.

Potential model has been widely applied in measurement of spatial accessibility to health care services, and such approach can be used to evaluate the fairness of the distribution of health care facilities. The existing formulas had integrated three main factors including the service capacity of health care facilities, the population in demands and travel impedance between population location and provider location. It is worth mentioned that a vital factor that the impact from the health care facilities with different levels (different grades and scales)to the selections of residents with some approximate service demands was considered in the study, and such factor was integrated into the existing formulas to improve the comprehensiveness and accuracy of potential model when measuring spatial accessibility. Based on the data of Rudong county in Jiangsu Province by the end of 2007 which refer to hospitals, residents, traffic network and so on, the improved potential model was applied to assess the variation of spatial accessibility to hospitals in Rudong county as positive area. Through the study, the following conclusions were reached:Based on the proper travel friction coefficients, the improved potential model proposed can be more reasonable and comprehensive to measure spatial accessibility to health care facilities, and can be accurate to reveal the health care resource quantity which any population location can access in the context of competition by those demanders due to travel impedance within certain threshold travel time, furthermore, health professional shortage areas of positive area can be defined effectively with certain standards developed by public health management sector, which can support the basis for decision-making of health service planning. On the whole, such approach was explored for spatial accessibility to health care services and the designation of health professional shortage areas by covering more factors closer to reality in this research.

The industrial location selection is the important micro perspective of understanding the underlying mechanism of urbanization. The characteristics and influencing factors of enterprise location and its urbanization effect were discussed based on the analytical frame of western location factors. The results of the questionaire survey showed that the enterprise location deviated from the western industrial location theory anticipation of being located or approaching to the metropolis. On the contrary, the enterprises mainly centrer around towns or countries and with the spatial pattern of "scattering around large scale areas and concentrating on small scale areas". At the same time, most of the enterprises never relocated or only moved within short distance. If they want to relocate, their intention of moving to development areas or medium and large cities is not very strong. The influcing location factors, such as transportation expenses, technological cost, transactional cost, agglomeration economies, labour cost, land cost, capical and private factors were examined, which resulted in the phenomenon of in situ urbanization in coastal aeras in Southeast of China. The article testifies and perfects the western industrial location theory.