In the past decade, rapid output growth and employment in the producer services of China have interested the academic sphere in spatial cluster and elaboration of locational theory concerning producer services' activities. The article examines spatial clusters and location characteristics of producer services in the Chinese urban system in the years 2000, 2005 and 2010. This study indicates that the location of cities of a large number of employments of service sectors is dispersed in China, comparing to geographical concentration of cities of developed manufacturing industry. Most of producer services experienced a spatially-centralization process in the period 2000-2010. However, there are different cluster modes in various service sectors. According to characteristics of industry agglomeration, these industries are classified into three modes, namely Primate City cluster mode, Rank-Size distribution mode and Balanced distribution mode. Primate City cluster mode means the largest city of industry have overwhelming employment scales, cluster characteristics of information service industry and business service industry. The number of employment of technology and science service industry as well as real estate in the largest cities is slightly more than other classes of cities. Thus these two industries are classified as Rank-Size distribution mode. Although the number of employment of finance and insurance service has increased in the first class cities, the largest city has no advantage of urban system and the number of employ is relatively balanced in urban system. Therefore, this industry is categorized as Balanced distribution mode. Moreover, the analysis of location quotient and scale of employment evidences there is positive correlation between amount of employment and the number of superiority functions. This means that distribution of producer services in China is in accordance with central place theory. Finally, the study also shows there are complementarities and division of labor among of cities in the same provinces and developed metropolitan regions.
With rapid urbanization and economic transition, large Chinese cities have increasingly experienced urban sprawl that has been prevalent in the western countries. Despite of a proliferating literature in the concept, impact, mechanism, measurement and control strategy of urban sprawl, scholars have not reached agreements on its definition and approaches of measuring the sprawl. Based on two commonly accepted core characteristics of sprawl, i.e., the discontinuity of land use and low density of population, we proposed to use land expansion index and population density index to define and measure urban sprawl in large Chinese cities and use the main city area of Hangzhou as a case. Based on the socioeconomic data and land use data derived from four scenes of Landsat MSS/TM/ETM+ images in 1978, 1991, 2000 and 2010, we characterized the urban sprawl of Hangzhou over three periods (1978-1991, 1991-2000, 2000-2010). In particular, this study has employed unsupervised and supervised classification methods to interpret the pattern of urban land, GIS spatial analysis to analyze land patches of “leapfrog” and edge-growth, which reflect the discontinuity of land use in urban sprawl, and statistical analysis to investigate population density on a street (or town) scale. The results reveal that Hangzhou has experienced extensive urban sprawl, with the comprehensive sprawl area amounting to 6.923 km2 during 1978-1991 but dramatically increasing to 137.413 km2 during 2000-2010. Further, population growth rate has lagged behind the land expansion rate in Hangzhou. Moreover, although urban sprawl in different phases displayed distinct characteristics, a polycentric urban development can be identified, with most newly developed urban land concentrated in Binjiang and Xiasha districts. The study indicate that the method of using land expansion index and population density to measure urban sprawl is a simple yet appropriate approach that can be used to other cities in different regions or countries.
Complexity is a measure of the level of organization of the system, when the system is compelled to be far away from the thermal equilibrium condition and enters the ordered state through self- organization, the complex structure appears frequently. As a typical, open and complex giant system, the transport network complexity research received a strong attention of various research areas. At present, the complex research of transport network mainly centralized in road network complex elementary theory (research direction and system), the topology of road network (scaling, small-world, reliability and centricity) as well as the kinetics process of road network. However, few efforts have been devoted to the complexity emergence of road network from dynamic process. Therefore, based on the urban-rural road network spatial databases of Wuhan urban agglomeration ,this article systematically reveals the topological structure evolution and complexity emergence of urban-rural road network with the application of complex network theory. Urban-rural road network is a typical two-dimensional plane picture, lacking of “super planarity”, and overall showing a similar characteristic of stochastic network. Urban-rural road network is a complex network which evolves between random network and regular network so that the whole road network demonstrates a performance of cross-coupling of the randomness and orderliness. Complexity evolution of urban-rural road network system is the result of the joint action of self-organization and hetero-organization mechanism, and the complexity emergence of urban-rural road network is a mutually alternate and ever-changing process in the function intensity, which was mainly influenced by the partial random disturbance and regularity regulation. Transportation network is the material conditions and prerequisites for forming the metropolitan area network system. It is also the main channel of material flow, energy flow and information flow which play important role in the socio-economic development of Wuhan metropolitan area. Urban-rural road network of Wuhan metropolitan area need to strengthen country road upgrading so as to enhance the external connectivity of the nodes. Simultaneously, the size of the node level should be increased and the structure of the road network should be further optimized. The purpose is to improve the clustering coefficient and accessibility of the road and make the road network evolved from tree net to net.
The modernization of agriculture is the most fundamental one of “the four modernizations”, and it has significant differences among the east, middle and west China, the same problems are also existed in the medium and micro level. The time-space analysis on the modernization of agriculture can help us to understand the mechanism of the changes about agricultural modernization. Computing the composite scores based on the figures about the modernization of agriculture in Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region, using various methods to describing it’s characters of the space changing and reveal the reasons. The results show that scores of the agricultural modernization in 3 provinces are increased dramatically. The speed of development about modernization of agriculture in 2005-2010 is faster than that in 1996-2000 and 2000-2005 periods, and the trend of development is more and more balanced. It indicates that the policies have carried out by the government already play important roles to foster the agricultural modernization. The changing of the pattern about 28 cities in 2005-2010 is faster than the previous two periods, and the cities in Shaanxi province change more notable. The traditional agriculture changed slowly, but the modern agriculture is becoming more and more complicated, so it changes more frequently. Besides the factors existed in the system itself, there are also some other factors affect the pattern changing about the modernization of agriculture, such as financial support for agriculture, agricultural loans, regional traffic net, rural human capital and the application of the agricultural technology et, and play an more important role. In order to improve the development level of agricultural modernization in northwest region, we should increase the financial investment, promote the spread of agricultural technology and science, enhance the transportation network, and practice water-saving agriculture.
Place-name landscape, which can reflect the natural environment, national rise and fall, social and economic changes both historically and presently, is an important research branch of Human Geography. This research used GIS to discuss the spatial distribution characteristics of place-name landscape in Beijing and explained their reasons. Firstly, by exploring the origins of place-names, the research carred statistical analysis on them, and classified them into two categories. Secondly, through obtaining Kernel density distribution characteristics of every kind of the place-name through Space Smoothing Algorithm based on Kernel Density Estimation, the research discussed the spatial distribution characteristics of place-name landscape in Beijing. Thirdly, the reasons for the spatial distribution were analyzed. Main conclusions made by this research are as follows: 1)Natural landscape place-names were mainly concentrated in the northern and western mountain areas. 2)By contrast, human landscape place-names tend to centralize in the central and southeastern plains. 3) The spatial distribution characteristics of place-names among human landscape place-names is different. Political, economic, garden, architecture and engineering activities prefer to cluster in the central city, the southeast part of Beijing is proved to be economic and hydraulic engineering activities' concentrated area, military activities tend to centralize in the northwestern and eastern areas, garden construction activities, however, are almost found in the northwest and northeast areas. By studying on the spatial distribution characteristics of place-name landscape in Beijing and their reasons, this research can clearly show the functional zoning in Beijing during Yuan, Ming and Qing, and help to explore the development of social and economic conditions during those historical periods. In addition, this article can enrich research methods and empirical studies of place-name studies in human geography.
By using data envelopment analysis method, this article analysed the efficiency characteristics and dynamic change of Chinese regional travel service industry during 2003-2009. The results showed that: 1) In the aspect of overall characteristics, the comprehensive efficiency of Chinese regional travel service industry presented a growing trend, the pure technical efficiency was the dominant factor of comprehensive efficiency changes, and the total factor productivity of Chinese regional travel service industry also manifested as a growing trend; 2) The comprehensive efficiencies of Chinese regional travel service industry in the eastern regions and western regions were higher than in central regions, and the gap between central and eastern as well as western regions was larger, and the gap between eastern and western regions was smaller. This was mostly because the proportion of the provinces above the national average level of the travel service industry in the middle was lower than those in the west and the east. Another factor was that the advantage of the efficiency in the middle could not make up the disadvantage in technique, which caused that the comprehensive efficiency in the middle was lower than the east and the west; 3) The total factor productivity of travel service industry in the eastern, central and western regions have been improved greatly, and the main growth thanked for the outstanding performance of technical progress in three areas, but the aspect of comprehensive efficiency showed weak improving trend; 4) From the types of efficiency, the provinces which show “high efficiency, high stability" were mainly in eastern regions, and the other types were mainly distributed in the Midwest regions; and 5) From the efficiency change trend on travel service industry of all provinces, the comprehensive efficiency in most province's travel service industry kept growing situation, a few provinces in a downward trend, and on the travel agency total factor productivity, in addition to Xinjiang, the rest all kept growth trend.
Based on the land change survey data of Southern Jiangsu in 2010, by using the related spatial analysis method, the rural settlement spatial pattern characteristics of Southern Jiangsu were analyzed, and on the basis of the district and county aspects the rural settlement spatial pattern was discussed, the driving mechanism of driving force mechanism was constructed. Some conclusions are drawn as follows: The overall distribution of rural settlement is concentrate, Su-Xi-Chang area has a higher density, Ningzhen area is sparse distribution, the overall distribution of rural and landform types has higher correlation. The main factors of rural settlement spatial pattern were summarized. The dynamic mechanism of rural settlement spatial pattern in southern Jiangsu is the formation of many factors. Country renewal development and external factors lead to reconstruction of rural settlement space. In the different stage of transformation development, action condition and function efficiency that influence the rural settlement spatial pattern are different. The quantitative analysis to rural settlement space reconstruction driving force in the regional level and county level indicates that the driving force of influencing rural settlement space reconstruction is mainly economic conditions, urbanization, and industrialization and transportation development. On that basis, the article has constructed dynamic mechanism of the rural settlement space reconstruction, and cleared the dominant force in various stages, as well as the rural settlement spatial morphological characteristics. At last, the main power and the rural settlement spatial mechanism were analyzed.
On the basis of the exposition about concept connotations and indexes between multidimensional poverty and spatial poverty, basic principles contributing to constructing index system of spatial poverty to monitor in concentrated contiguous areas with particular difficulties were put forward, which are, scientific and dominant principles, the availability of data and the operability of the measurement, embodiment of new requirements on poverty and anti-poverty, emphasis on regional characters and ability of characterizing space. Furthermore, index system of spatial poverty to monitor in concentrated contiguous areas with particular difficulties which is consisting of four dimensions (economy, society, environment and policy), thirteen index groups, for example, income and consumption, market connectivity, demographic situation, education, employment, medical services, a sense of security, housing condition, geomorphic elements, natural hazards, ecological security, agro-ecology, food security, policy effectiveness, was constructed according to the principles above. The index system was totally comprised of twenty-seven initial or generated indicators. Moreover, the key issues such as verification, acquisition methods, spatialization of spatial poverty index system and so on were discussed then.
This study focuses on the bedding caves developed in the 2nd Member of the Danxia Formation at Danxia Basin. Investigations of differential weathering of red bed rocks were conducted, especially the weathering features of soft interlaid rock layers and how this weathering effects the development of the bedding caves. Based on field investigations, three bedding caves were selected as study cases, followed by a collection of rock samples with different lithologies, as well as interlayer ground water samples, for laboratory test and analysis. The data reveals that primary factors for bedding cave formation at Mt. Danxiashan are the different lithological characters of rock layers in the cave wall and the rapid weathering and erosion of soft interlaid rock layers. Soft interlaid rocks between layers generally belong to silty mudstone with high content of clay minerals and argillaceous cements. Due to strong absorbability, high porosity and low compressive strength, these soft rocks are vulnerable to weathering and easily broken into smaller pieces. The overlying and underlying rock layers are more resistant sandstones or sandy conglomerates, cemented mainly by calcite and iron oxides, with low porosity and higher compressive strength. During the weathering process of rock layers in bedding caves, factors that are responsible for the disintegration of rocks include the expansion and contraction of clay minerals, dissolution of calcareous cements, and hydration of iron oxides. However, the dominant factors contributes rock decay vary in different lithotypes. For silty mudstones, the repeated expansion and contraction of clays is a significant cause of weathering. As for the weathering of sandstones and sandy conglomerates, the dissolution of calcareous cements plays a more important role. In addition, the infiltration of acid rainwater can also accelerate the weathering processes by ion displacement with minerals in red bed rocks.
This paper puts forward the concept of “ecology and environmental response to the regional economic integration”, and builds response index, response degree model and evaluation system of regional economic integration. By the quantitative analysis of the changes and influence factors on ecology and environmental response to the regional economic integration in Jilin province from 1991~2010, the following conclusions can be drawn: First, the level of regional economic integration continues to increase since 1991, while the level of ecology and environmental reveals a general fluctuation trend of “one up and one down and one up”(N). Second, the ecology and environmental response to the regional economic integration has the “positive response”characteristics. Third, the layout of the regional industrial activity and the accelerating of the market union degree are the main factors which lead to the influence of ecology and environment response to the regional economic integration. Finally,the paper put forward some suggestions about how to speed up the process of regional economic integration and reduce pressure on regional ecology and environmental in order to make the region become healthily, orderly and harmoniously.
Based on the definition of ecological efficiency raised by World Business Council for sustainable development (WBCSD), the article applied undesired-output SBM model of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution of agricultural eco-efficiency in Loess Plateau of East Gansu Province in 2001-2011. The results indicated that: the agricultural ecological-efficiency in Qingyang City is declining overall, and the spatial discrepancy of eco-efficiency is enlarging. According to the spatial distribution of eco-efficiency, Qingyang can be divided into two regions: 1) The high agricultural eco-efficiency region includes Xifeng, Heshui, Ningxian, Zhengning county which possess good ecological environment, abundant water resource and developed agriculture. 2) The low agricultural eco-efficiency region includes Qingcheng, Huachi, Huanxian, Zhenyuan county which have fragile ecological condition and the scarce water resource. The reasons for inducing low eco-efficiency are disproportional factor inputs, low efficiency of resources utilization and excessive redundancy of undesired outputs. Furthermore, the article analyzed the redundancy of elements of agricultural input in the regions where have lower ecological efficiency in order to put forward the way to improve the ecological efficiency.
Flood and drought evolution during 1960-2009 in Yancheng City is analyzed using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Results show that large fluctuation amplitude can be seen in annual precipitation with a slightly decreasing trend detected. An upward trend can be found in January, February, March, June, November and December, while the rest months show a downward trend. Flood and drought can be monitored using multi-scale SPI method, SPI3, SPI6 are more sensitive to the occurrence period and continuous effect of flood and drought. Frequent alteration of flood and drought in 1960s and 1990s can be examined both by annual and seasonal SPI, but drought is quite stable in 1980s. A significant difference can be seen in decadal change of seasonal SPI, and SPI in winter shows an increasing trend while decreasing trend in the rest seasons and annual SPI. Variation in SPI1, SPI3 and SPI6 is stable while variation is larger in SPI12. Variation in annual and summer SPI shows a highly similar change process, while it has relatively larger change amplitude in spring and autumn SPI. A period at about 3-15 months can be checked for multi-scale SPI change; however, a period at about 16-32 months is quite stable in SPI6 and SPI12. A period at about 3-6 years is stable both in annual and seasonal SPI which accompanied with 10 and 20 years period.
Based on the collected water samplings of precipitation, river, spring and well water during the whole year of 2010 in Changsha region, the variation characteristics of δ18O, δD in different water samples were investigated combining with the related meteorological parameters and water-level data of Changsha region, the Xiangjiang River. It revealed that the isotopic compositions (δ18O and δD) had a high values in winter year and a low values in summer year due to different moist sources. The fluctuations of isotopic compositions (δ18O and δD) in river, spring, and well water were slower than in precipitation due to retention effect after the precipitation descends to the surface. The arithmetic average δ18O value in river water was larger than in precipitation during the flood period and in spring and well water during the dry period. The slope and intercept of river water line (RWL) was closely to the global meteoric water line (GMWL), suggesting that the river recharge mainly originating from the precipitation in the monsoon region. The slope and intercept of well water line (WWL) was lower than the spring water line (SWL), indicating that the infiltration process of precipitation into well water had experienced stronger evaporation effect than the process into spring water, which is due to the complex recharge sources between well water and spring water. This may provide a scientific foundation for the future investigation of the conversion correlation among the surface water, groundwater and precipitation in this region. It has vital significance for understanding the three-water conversion correlation pattern and properly exploiting and utilizing water source.
Heavy metals pollution in soil has become an important environmental hazard. At present,anthropogenic activities were the main sources attributing to soil heavy metal pollution. A total of 1957 surface soil samples (0-20 cm) were collected in urban district of Wuxi, and spatial feature and sources of the soil pollution of heavy metals were identified by using spatial analysis and multivariate statistics, the results as follows: 1) Soil As, Cu, Hg, Pb and Zn in Wuxi are all over the corresponding background value caused by anthropogenic activities, even if Hg is over the threshold value of grade II of The Chinese Environmental Quality Standard for Soils, and is the most major pollution factor of soil; 2) Soil heavy metals tend to reduce with the increasing of distance apart from the built-up lands, present a remarkable gradient effect; 3) Two distinct gradient effect zones (zone 1(0-10 km) and zone 2(10-16 km))are divided based on different gradient characters. Anthropogenic activities are the mainly responsible for zone 1, and soil heavy metals concentration in zone 2 are caused by both natural factors and human factors; 4) Soil Co, Cu, Fe and Zn have a positive relationship with natural soil properties (CEC, pH and P); 5) The influence scope of anthropogenic activities on soil heavy metals concentration in Wuxi is about 10km. The positive meaning of this study is helpful for classified management of soil heavy metals pollution that is the strong human-effecting lands can be restored by means of engineering measures (including promoting land-use efficiency, reducing the volumes of wastes as well as the fill and cubage of excavation, etc), as in zone 1 (0-10 km); However, ecological measures (i.e. heavy metal hyperaccumulator plants, etc) may be adopted in zone 2(10-16 km).
Sedimentation rates, element concentrations and grain size distributions of core sediments from Majuan Lake are investigated. According to 210Pb and 137Cs dating, the pollution history of Majuan Lake is investigated based on the geochemical characteristics in core sediments. Our findings indicated that Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn and Cd are the main pollution heavy metals, which have different pollution history and pollution degree. The concentrations of heavy metals in sediments varied smoothly before1987. However, the concentrations of all elements increased obviously since 1987, which are mainly attributed the industries development. In recent years, Cu, Ni, Cr, Pb, and Zn in most sediment from upper profile showed moderate ecological risk level, but Mn and Cd showed strong ecological risk in the sediments. Similar results obtained from Eir and RI methods, while the heavy metal content increased rapidly since 1987 with the peak values appeared in the surface, which indicated the strongly potential risk. The history of elements pollution has strong link with the economy development in the catchment of Majuan Lake.
