Land use changes have a great impact on water resources and environment of arid inland regions. In the Heihe river basin, two typical areas were chosen to compare their spatial diversities of land use change and their impacts. Based on three periods of remote sensing data since the 1960s and the quantitative index system, the characteristics of land use pattern changes and land use type changes were compared and analyzed between the two areas, and the impact of land use changes on the stability of oasis system and spatial distribution of water resources in different areas were quantitatively assessed. The results indicate that different land use pattern changes have led to the formation of two different modes in the last 35 years. One is obvious shifting of oasis to headwater and upstream regions; the other is progressive prolongation around downstream old oasis periphery. The former leads to excessive centralized consumption of water resources in the upstream and headwater regions, and rapid decrease of the available water resources in the mid- and down-streams. Within the 35 years, the desertified land at downstream increased by 85.1% and irrigated oases shrank by 25.5%; however, the latter is different. The spatial distribution of water resource utilization centralized in the downstream regions with a small range, and the stability of the whole oasis system was quite high. In view of the relationship between water and land of the whole river basin, reasonable planning of land use mode and land resource distribution in an arid inland river basin is very meaningful to the improvement of the sustainable development of the whole river basin.
The changing rules of the landscape elements and their distribution in east Xuzhou coal mining area are analyzed by means of remote sensing images obtained in 1979, 1987 and 2001. From 1987 to 2001, the land area for urbanization and industrial purpose got expanded; the intensity of construction was becoming higher and higher; the waterlogged area resulted from mining subsidence increased; and the lands covered by plants decreased. About 9.55% of the farmland was transformed into construction land and 5.15% into waterlogged land. About 5.25% of the construction land was converted into farmlands by reclamation, being mainly derilict mining sites; and 3.21% into waterlogged land, being mainly located near mining industrial square. Some 14.86% of the subsided waterlogged land was reclaimed into farmland, being mainly located near the edge of the subsiding basin with less subsidence; and 10.88% into construction land, being mainly located near Hanqiao and Quantai coal mining industrial squares. Generally speaking, the area of farmland decreased 13.04%, construction land increased 37.62% and waterlogged land resulted from mining subsidence increased 137.62%. So, according to the land condition, it is very important to reclaim and reuse subsided waterlogged land effectively for different purposes, such as eco-agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, animal husbandry and processing industry.
In this paper, a new land cover classification system has been built according to the following ideas. Firstly, the formation of "Land Cover" has far-reaching geographic and biologic background, but global environmental change research and remote sensing give it new connotations. Land cover mainly represents morphological property and dynamic characteristics of the earth's surface. Vegetation is the primary component of land cover, but not only one. The functional properties of land cover, such as reflectivity, hydrothermal flux and net emissions of CO2 vary with different components and structures of covers. Secondly, spectral response and characteristics of seasonal variability are the fundamental characteristics of land cover. According to the difference in spectrum, it is easy to distinguish green land cover(mainly vegetation), blue land cover (mainly water), grey land cover (mainly urban or built-up land, and semi-desert), white land cover (mainly snow and ice), non-vegetated land cover(mainly desert), etc. Similarly, characteristics of land-cover's seasonal variability derived from remote sensing images can make some typical land cover easy to be distinguished further, such as evergreen land cover has high NDVI index and no remarkable change in a year, deciduous forest single peak of NDVI sliding curve in a year, annual double crops double peaks, and annual triple crops triple peaks. Therefore, we can make the classification criteria quantified with the characteristic values indicated by NDVI including greenness value, green-up period, green-end period, crest value, trough value and waveform of NDVI sliding curve in a year, etc. Moreover, mixed cover should be differentiated by its structural characteristics and functional properties. Based on these ideas, a two-level land cover classification system has been proposed for the clustering of Poyang lake basin's land cover by using multi-temporal SPOT4-VEGETATION sensor data. The primary types include Evergreen Cover, Seasonal Green Cover I (Woody), Seasonal Green Cover II (Herbaceous), Seasonal Green Cover III (Crops), Seasonal Green Cover IV (Mixed), Grey Cover and Blue Cover. The secondary level includes 20 types. According to area proportion, the main land-cover types in Poyang lake basin are evergreen cover (40.05%), crop-forest-grassland mixed cover (38.29%), and crops (16.63%) at present.
Land use change plays an important part in the studies of global environmental change and regional sustainable development. The change of soil quality can particularly reflect the impacts of human socio-economic activities on environment. Taking the coastal plain of south Hangzhou Bay as a case study, we analyzed the effects of land use changes on organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), total salinity (TS), pH value in soil genetic layers, and assessed soil quality change related to different land use types from 1982 to 2003. The results show the following points: (1) The general change of soil quality in the coastal plain of south Hangzhou Bay declined obviously in A layer and rose slightly in B (or P) layer and C (or W) layer. The contents of TP decreased generally in all soil genetic layers, but the variation difference of other soil quality indices was relatively great. (2) The change of soil quality in the areas where land use changed was far more remarkable than that in the areas where land use remained unchanged. The value of quality variety is A layer > B (or P) layer > C (or W) layer. (3) The changes in soil tillage, cultivation, fertilization, irrigation and drainage activities related to land use may make some pedogenetic processes disappeared and bring in other new processes which will affect the soil quality and soil genetic layers directly.
A prerequisite in using conventional statistical methods, like regression models in land-use changes model, is that the data analyzed with these methods should be statistically independent and identically distributed. But spatial data, like land-use data, have a tendency to be dependent (spatial autocorrelation), which means that when using spatial models, a part of the variance may be explained by neighbouring values. In other words, values over distance may be more similar or less similar than expected for randomly associated pairs of observations. This indicates that standard multiple regression models cannot capture all the spatial autocorrelative characteristics in the data. Spatial dependency contains useful information but the appropriate methods have to be used to deal with it. To overcome this defect, correlograms of the Moran's I are used to describe the spatial autocorrelation for data of Ongniud Banner. And in this paper, mixed regressive-spatial autoregressive models (spatial lag models), which incorporate both regression and spatial autocorrelation, were constructed. The following results were obtained: (1) Positive spatial autocorrelation was detected not only between dependent variables but also between independent variables, indicating that the occurrence of spatial autocorrelation was highly dependent on the aggregation scale. (2) The Moran's I decreased with the increase of the aggregation levels, a result of the non-linear smoothing character between Moran's I and distance. (3) The residuals of the standard regression model also showed positive autocorrelation,indicating that the standard multiple linear regression model failed to consider all the spatial dependencies in the land use data. (4) The mixed regressive-spatial autoregressive models (spatial lag models) yielded residuals without spatial autocorrelation but with a better goodness-of-fit. (5) The mixed regressive-spatial autoregressive model was statistically sound in the presence of spatially dependent data, in contrast with the standard linear model.
There has been a rapid tourism development in China in recent years. Researchers have been studying many aspects of tourism. However, community participation in tourism is scarcely studied; research in this aspect is far behind the scene of tourism development. Therefore, the study of community participation in China must be based on the understanding of the differences in the background and perspective between China and the West. A contrastive analysis would reveal differences in community participation in the Chinese and Western contexts, so that China can use Western theories for reference in constructing Chinese models. The current studies in China are based on fieldwork of anthropology. Fieldwork lasted four years in the communities of the Dai minority in Xishuangbanna of Yunnan Province, of the Yulong River and of Shiwaitaoyuan in Yangshuo of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.The studies in the West are based on the second-hand materials data from the Western researchers. There are very distinct differences in the community participation in tourism development between China and the West. In social implication points of interests, degree of involvement, participant roles, and stage of involvement are all different between the West and China. Though both China and the West are after economic gain, the West has seen the (potential) negative impacts while China is still only after profit. In terms of participation in tourism, the West plays an active role, while all participants in China participate passively. At a result, the parties involved would find themselves in the following chain of reaction: community's pursuit of interest unsatisfied→confrontation and conflicts→government passively reacting to issues concerned→measures proposed→some temporary policies made→impacts on the tourism development in communities→new problems found→new solutions sought after→readjusting the ways of community involvement and the direction of tourism development. The passive state that the residents, the government and the enterprises participate in would eventually lead to the passivity of sustainable tourism development. Community participation in the West is very substantial, from that in planning to management, operation, financial gain and protection of the culture, while community participation in China is superficial or non-existent, where participation is only at the economic level. As long as China has not caught up with the West in areas of democracy, in non-governmental organizations, in the stage of tourism development, in the land tenure, the government plays a crucial role in the decision-making, management and finding out what the community wants in tourism development. Avoid the mistake of thinking that the government can make decisions for the community, that the residents are ignorant and powerless, that they are in a disadvantaged position and have no direct role to play in influencing the direction of tourism development. In fact, the ability for community participation can be developed.
Geography of finance has attracted great attention of geographers and other relevant scholars since the 1990s. The literature indicates that the investigation on changes of locations and spatial systems of banking services is one of the main themes. Results based on developed countries have found the tendency of centralization in the spatial systems both in international and sub-national scales. Globalization, deregulation, and technological change have been the main factors accounting for the changes. As compared to the developed economies, less developed region in China has been developing with different backgrounds. In addition to the relatively slowing-down globalization, its economy stays at the lower level but the growth is fast. The impact of technology is increasing but not practically strong. Henan as China's largest province serves as a typical case as its per capita GDP is lower than the national average; its annual growth rate has been among the national top five in the past five years. By using survey data from Henan Province, this paper found the similar centralization of the locations of banking services. More services have been shifted from counties to central cities, particularly the regional cities attracting more services. Many factors may explain these changes. Institutional changes, however, play a significant role. Banks were quasi-government authorities before 1978. Their organization was closely linked with hierarchy of government structure. Since China's reform and establishment of market-oriented economy, banks have been gradually operating as firms. Economic growth and its consequent requirement for banking services become the main factors determining bank locations. The particular importance of institutional factor in spatial systems of banking services can be proved at high significant levels in pooled OLS stimulation models. The questionnaire interviews of 58 bank offices further support the findings from the quantitative analysis. Locations of bank offices in Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan Province, indicated a spreading coverage along the urban expansion. "Higher income level" was evaluated by the sampling offices as a most important factor in the formation of bank networks since 1979. Therefore, in the areas with increasing number of fast growth companies, as well as the residential areas with rich class, concentration of banking services has been very evident. Spatial restructuring of banking services provides convenience for prosperous areas, notwithstanding, the peripheries outside the central areas may suffer from disadvantage in banking services. Attention should be given to its research.
Industrial clusters have become one of the most popular concepts in local and regional development research and practice not only in the more advanced countries but also in less-developed parts of the world. Since 1978, the great institutional transitions from the planned economy to the market economy and the speeding industrialization have inspired local clusters mushrooming in China. In this paper, drawing upon a global-local nexus perspective and deriving insights from the new regionalists on industrial districts, the regulationists on regulation approach and literature on Global Production Networks (GPN), the author tries to develop a broad conceptual framework, which focuses on the strategic coupling among social systems of production, institutes and regulation mechanisms, local production networks and global production networks, for understanding local cluster and learning industrial district. Using this framework, this paper presents a case study of the Xuchang hair-goods industry, an export-oriented local cluster in the middle Henan province of China, and explores the processes to make global-local nexus and their impacts on promoting restructuring and upgrading of traditional local clusters in China. The case study shows that the technological learning and industrial upgrading in those local clusters within the low road are likely to achieve, and the processes to approach the high road and learning industrial district depend on some critical dynamic factors such as the national institutional change and the active responses of local authorities and entrepreneurs, the relational networks embedded in local institutions and culture, and the extending of global production networks and the dynamic upgrading of global-local nexus. Therefore, developing learning industrial district should be an important strategy and policy to promote China's economic development and technological innovation.
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