In the written speeches, editors in chief from Chinese geographical journals express their viewpoints of development orientations for geographical research and its related academic journals. The main contents are discussed as follows: (1) The role that geography plays in national construction as well as its disciplinary development strategies and priorities; (2) the research directions and existing problems in the fields of geographical specialities; and (3) The guiding principles and selecting topics for the major geographical journals.
A multiple element and integrative geographical study has been developing from previous single element and process study all over the world facing more and more complicated and synthetic target of study. There have been some outstanding achievements in the earth surface process description and human process understanding in Chinese geographical study. Meanwhile there are lots of aspects to be perfected, among which the synthetic and integrated study ability needs to be improved especially. In the following 5 to 10 years, Chinese geographical study should be aimed at theories and approaches of synthesis and integration on the basis of in-depth study of earth surface processes so as to rapidly mix together with all-round modern international geographical development.
A rational institutional framework consisting of relavant research institutes and intellectuals has been formed in China in the process of geographical development. However, geographical development is also meeting challenges in the point of view of either disciplinary development or national demands for new economic construction and social advancement. Generally there are some advantages in practical demands for and professional reserve of Chinese geography as well as the understanding of international geographical developmental trend. Meanwhile there are still some gaps compared with the international advanced standard in the aspects of professionals' train of thoughts relating to integrated studies, problems of interest, research methods and approaches, knowledge structure of professionals as well as public recognition of the role of geography.
Multiple cropping system is essential to Chinese agriculture, which can significantly increase grain yield and promote agricultural economic development. Multiple Cropping Index is fluctuating year by year due to the changing natural conditions and rural social status, so, it is very important to get the change information in time for food security assessment and scientific decision on agricultural development and planning. The discussions about food security in recent years mostly focused on the peril caused by decreased cropland area, whereas neglected the loss of actual sown area due to Multiple Cropping Index decrease. As the only data source for sown area or MCI change assessment on national scale, statistical data not only is time-lagged and poor in creditability but also lack spatially explicit description. In this study, we extract multiple cropping information from 8 km 10-day composite AVHRR/NDVI time series images according to the phenological metrics and farmland practice temporal features, and then analyze MCI changes from the 1980s to the 1990s. This study shows that China's MCI increase as a whole, but 15% of cropland area has suffered MCI decrease that is mainly distributed in the Zhujiang River Delta in South China, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, hilly area of Sichuan Basin and Shandong hilly area of Huang-Huai-Hai region. In the Sichuan Basin and the Huang-Huai-Hai region, the MCI decreased croplands are mostly distributed in hilly area, while MCI of cropland in plain area increase or keep stable.
In this paper, the concepts of agglomeration and cluster are discussed firstly, which shows that the forming of high-tech industrial agglomeration depends on industrial cluster. Based on such a cognition, the location factors that affect the distribution of industrial agglomeration are analyzed in detail. Then these factors are quantified and the model is set up, which validate these factors' influence on high-tech industrial agglomeration. The results indicate that: (1) Agglomeration is the spatial centralization of industry, capital and population. And the location factors that can cause industrial agglomeration are: knowledge spillover environment, human capital conglomeration, climate environment, commercial and trade circumstance, traffic condition and supply chain environment. (2) Among the six location factors, knowledge spillover environment, human capital conglomeration and climate environment are the decisive factors that form high-tech industry.
Integrating the industrial group and economic base analysis, this paper proposes the concept of basic sector group in which key industries belong to basic sectors, and analyzes changes in the economic functions of Beijing during 1992-2002. Based on input-output tables of Beijing in 1992, 1997 and 2002, several critical industrial groups are identified applying principal component-factor analysis and the basic sectors are singled out through net exporting analysis in corresponding years. Industrial group analysis in this paper only emphasizes the inter-industrial goods linkages. During the period, the steel-mechanical industrial group confronted serious resource limitations and environmental protection requirements while the petroleum processing & chemical industrial group developed fairly well and grew into a basic sector group. Strong industrial bases and local demand facilitated the formation of motor vehicle manufacturing group, food processing and manufacturing group, textile & sewing industrial group and construction group, which enjoyed some comparative advantages, but have not developed into basic sector groups yet. Because of Beijing's strong advantages in scientific research and technology, electronic and information technology industry and medical treatment, medicine and medical mechanical manufacturing industry have developed into basic sector groups respectively. Due to the strong intermediate demand and solid industrial bases, a special basic sector group has been made up by advanced services and some manufacturing industries such as papermaking & paper products, printing & record medium reproduction, stationery, education & sports goods and furniture manufacturing. The developed basic sector groups will provide strong industrial support of economic functions in Beijing.
Taihu Basin is the core of the Yangtze Delta. Although it is a complicated hydrological network which has many brooks and lakes in this region, it has no effect on the formation of central place system. The flat terrain, regular farmlands encircled by water and developed market system are the immanent factors contributing to this formation process. Suzhou is the central city of the city hierarchy, and it is located in the geometric center of Taihu Basin. Meanwhile, there is high correspondence of distance between centers on different hierarchical levels. So, based on the development of the centers in Taihu Basin, the formation route of the central place system is put forward: the location of the highest centre is determined by the geometric centre of this region; the distance between the first-level center and the second-level center is determined by regional dimensions, as well as the distance between centers at the second level; subsequently, the remained centers will be generated synchronously after the distance of the advanced hierarchical levels is established. Therefore, a typical from-top-to-bottom formation process of the centers is shown in the central place system of the Taihu Basin. This process is universal. That is, most centres will experienced a changeable, upgraded process from basic to advanced, but the case for a whole region is different. A regional central place system begins with advanced centers, afterwards, centers of the rest levels come into being gradually. Finally, an integrated central place system will exist. Based on the above process, this study will extend and supplement the classical central place theory.
Using the theory and method of the ecological footprint, combining the change of regional land use, resource environment, population, social and economics, this paper calculated the ecological footprint, ecological carrying capacity and ecological surplus / loss in 1986-2002 in the three major regions of Shaanxi Province, namely, the Loess Plateau, the Weihe basin in Guanzhong and Qinling-Daba Mountains. What is more, this paper has put forward the concept of ecological pressure index, set up ecological pressure index models, ecological safety grading systems, and the prediction models of different ecological footprints, ecological carrying capacity, ecological surplus and ecological safety change, also has tested and assessed the ecological footprint demands of 10,000 yuan of GDP. Results show that: (1) The ecological carrying capacity in each region shows a decreasing tendency, the difference of reducing range is obvious, the northern part of Shaanxi is the fastest, the southern part is the slowest, Guanzhong is in the middle. (2) The ecological footprint in each region shows an increasing trend with varying degrees, from small to big, the three regions are successively the Loess Plateau of northern Shaanxi, Weihe basin of Guanzhong, Qinling-Daba Mountains of southern Shaanxi. (3) The ecological pressure index of the period 1986-2004: increasing from 0.44 to 0.91 in the Loess Plateau of northern Shaanxi, an increase of 0.47; from 0.75 to 1.20 in the Weihe basin, an increase of 0.45; from 0.19 to 0.22 in the Qinling-Daba Mountains of southern Shaanxi, an increase of 0.03. Annual average pressure index in the Weihe basin is the greatest, 5.37 times that of Qinling-Daba Mountains, and 1.30 times of the Loess Plateau. (4) The ecological safety in each region: Qinling-Daba Mountains are in a safety state; Weihe basin overloading seriously and in an unsafety state; the Loess Plateau of northern Shaanxi in a critical state with pressure index increasing the fastest.
The problem of inconsistent urban population data is very serious and there is no systematic urbanization data for provincial regions in China. Such situation is caused, partly by frequent changes in the definition of urban population in population censuses and partly by changes in the criteria for the designation of cities and towns. Population census is an important source of national and provincial urban population data. But such data are not consistent due to changes in the definition of urban population in various censuses. These urban population data must be adjusted. This paper discusses the new urbanization process in the reform period first. Then the changing definitions of urban population in various censuses are clarified. A regional approach based on the concept of dual-track urbanization for estimating national and regional urban population data is proposed. Using adjusted urban population data from the 1982 and 2000 population censuses as the benchmark, an annual data series of provincial levels of urbanization is estimated for the period 1982-2000. Based on the estimation results, the major trends of urbanization in Chinese provinces are identified. Some suggestions are proposed for the statistical development of urban population in the future.
Based on the data from 23 cities in 1983 and 1984, Charnes (1989) the first to employ DEA to evaluate the urban efficacy in China. Surprisingly, the corresponding Chinese literature has been in dark, even though scholars have highly recognized DEA and frequently used DEA in economic management and analysis. We, therefore, attempt to employ DEA to evaluate all the cities efficiency. Based on the data from 202 cities through 1990 to 2000, we find that the urban efficiency is relatively low, and diminishing from the east to the west, which coincides with the spatial pattern of economic development in China at present. Decomposing the urban efficiency into scale efficiency, congestion efficiency and pure technical efficiency, we further find it is the scale efficiency that determines the temporal and spatial patterns of urban efficiency. Specifically, both the congestion efficiency and the pure technical efficiency are high, and uniformly distributed across provinces. Scale efficiency, however, is low, and the principal factor among the three decompositions results in the low urban efficiency in China. The findings shed some highlights on how to implement the coordinated development of cities in China at present.
Urban sprawl, which is deemed as the byproduct of ever-increasing automobiles and highways, has brought quite a lot of harm to the sound development of urban areas. Since the 1980s, Guangzhou, the center of the Pearl River Delta in southern China, has experienced a booming period. With the expansion of urban space, sprawl has become more and more serious. The construction of great projects, motorization and the fast growth of express transportation, large scale real estate developments at the fringe of urban areas, as well as the adjustment of local regionalism, has led to the sprawl of Guangzhou. However, the current developmental strategy and spatial policy of Guangzhou, such as blocking the register of new motorcycles, evacuating the spatial structure to obtain more space, setting-up a few bio-corridors, as well as developing central towns in outskirts, may not take effective effect to alleviate sprawl. In order to hold back the current sprawl tendency, Guangzhou should adopt the concept of Smart Growth, pay attention to the quality of growth, make out a clear urban growth boundary, tightly control the large scale estate developments in its suburbs, and prevent the urban areas from excessive mobilization.
Using the data of the 4th and the 5th population censuses and four methods of dividing urban districts of Shanghai, the authors analyzed population redistribution from 1990 to 2000 and modelled population density distribution in 1990 and 2000. The results reflect a tendency of dramatic population decrease in central city and increase in suburban areas in the 1990s, a phenomenon of significant population suburbanization. During the 10 years, the population distribution of Shanghai becomes more homogeneous than before. The diffusion of population from city center to suburbs of Shanghai has a close relationship with the city's 'circle' construction pattern, especially with the inner ring road which had been built in the earlier years. The diffusion is also a short distance one, and the changes of population density occur mainly within a distance of 16 km. The result also indicates that Cubic model is the optimal one to describe population density distribution of Shanghai both in 1990 and 2000, and the exponential model is not the best.
River basin is an important landscape ecology and recreation-scape construction region. Recreation-scape ecological evaluation and planning are the key points for rationally utilizing river basin natural and human resources, establishing coordinated landscape system and promoting sustainable development. The Kunes is a branch of Yili River in Xinjiang, which is topographically characteristized by mountains, grassland and valley with beautiful sceneries for recreational purpose. This paper, taking landscape space of the Kunes river basin as a base, studies the suitability characteristics of the recreation-scape of the basin. Landscapes in the Kunes river basin mainly consist of broadness landscape, which occupies 38.5% of the total basin's area, the concealment landscape, which is 16.3% of the total area and transitional zone between the two types of landscapes, which is 45.2%. The evaluation of the recreation-scape suitability was carried out on seven landscape areas and 31 kinds of behaviors. The suitability of stockbreeding is 27.94%, particularly suiting plain grassland with a suitability of 62.6% and mountain grassland with a suitability of 60%. The suitability of manufacturing and processing industry as a whole is low, being only 4.13%, and with a relatively high suitability of 22.2% in small towns, but unsuitable to the other six types of landscapes. The suitability of the infrastructure construction is relatively low, being 9.92% owing to its great limitations. The suitability of towns and villages is better, being 61.1%. The social public activities are the unique human landscape of minority nationalities with a high suitability 27.8% of the total landscape. The suitability of recreation-scape behaviors is 22.59%, a moderate one with limitations to landscape. From the viewpoint of sustainable landscape resources utilization, recreational behaviors are most suitable to landscape of towns and villages, plain grassland and mountain grassland, and other landscapes are less or unsuitable to visitors, which should be conserved originally.
Wetland, considered as a natural ecosystem and landscape style, has great resource potentiality and environmental function. For a long time, the change of wetland landscape pattern posed by human activity has not only changed the existing wetland function, but also exerted influence on wetland environment. This paper focuses on the fusion of Landsat-TM image with IRS image in Yeyahu wetland for getting color images with higher resolution. Combined with on-the-spot investigation, we set up interpretable symbols, carry out image vectorization, spatial analysis and data statistics using ArcGIS 9.0, and then analyze and research vegetation cover changes and changing characters of Yeyahu wetland resources during the period 1998-2004. The result shows that the decrease of water area leads to the reduction of vegetation and species, non-point pollution in agriculture, and water resource scarcity. On the basis of the above-mentioned technological trajectory and research approaches, we identify the changing characters of wetlands, utilize the principle and method of accumulating effect to propose restoration measures. For the protection of environment, it is necessary to return lands to nature, get back the swamps, and utilize and exploit wetland resources with rationality.
As a basis for conservation management, sufficient information about landscape structure should be provided. In the present study, we reconstructed the former landscape structurel and elucidated the changes in landscape patterns during a period of about 15 years. We used a landsat-5 image (1987) and a landsat-7 image (2002) for analyses. The frequency index, landscape diversity index and landscape fragmentation index and distribution centroid were calculated for analyses. By using GIS and remote sensing techniques, the paper discussed how nature and human activities have changed landscape patterns along the Yellow River in Henan Province. The results showed that within the study area, the irrigable land was the dominant landscape type. From 1987 to 2002, the area of the river, irrigable land, forest and beach landscape types presented a decreasing trend while the area of landscape types of pools, paddy field, dry land and construction land presented an increasing trend. The total number of the landscape patches tended to decrease. With the intensification of human activities, landscape diversity index increased and landscape fragmentation index decreased; and the differences among the proportion of each landscape type decreased and the landscape diversity increased.
On the north bank of east dam at Xuxi River, in the drilling hole No. 7508 columned profile, from -3.7 m to -5.8 m, there is a sand and clay boulder layer with a thickness of 2 m. The drilling hole No. 8179 between east dam and west dam at Xuxi River, on the under part of it, there is a middle, coarse and fine sand layer with a thickness of 4.5 m. The above phenomena indicate that there is a large natural river here before the Xuxi River was excavated by the Kingdom of Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC). We can find other important evidences for the existence of the palaeo-Zhongjiang River. The lock gate at the east dam of Xuxi River nowadays blocks the water systems to connect between Shuiyangjiang River and Taihu Lake. The lock gate is also disadvantageous to irrigation and ship transportation among the drainage area of Xuxi River. The authors suggest that if the canal between Wuhu and Taihu Lake could be excavated and enlarged as soon as possible, that is, if the channel from Wuhu to Guchenghu Lake, Xuxi River, East Dam, Liyang, Yixing and Taihu Lake could be further enlarged, the watershed composed of deposition between Shuiyangjiang River and Taihu Lake could be cleared away, then the channel journey could be shortened and the ships could also be diverted from the shipping line on the Yangtze River for ensuring security navigable rate, exploiting the resources of sand and gravels on the old river channel and stabilizing the dikes of the Yangtze River, hence the problems of irrigation, flood diversion, pollution abatement and flooded fields drainage on the Yangtze River could be solved and the economic sustainable development for the drainage areas of Xuxi River and Taihu Lake could be promoted.
Due to the influences of local topographical factors and terrain inter-shielding, calculation of DSR quantity over rugged terrains is very complex. Based on DEM (digital elevation model) data and meteorological observations, a distributed model for calculating direct solar radiation over rugged terrains is developed. This model gives an all-sided consideration on factors influencing DSR. Using the selected model, normals of annual DSR quantity with a resolution of 1 km×1 km for the Yellow River Basin was generated, with DEM data as the general characterization of the terrains. Characteristics of DSR quantity influenced by geographic and topographic factors over rugged terrains were analyzed thoroughly. The results suggest that influenced by local topographic factors, i.e. azimuth, slope and so on, the annual DSR quantity over mountainous area has a clear spatial difference; and the annual DSR quantity of sunny slope (or southern slope) of mountains is obviously larger than that of shady slope (or northern slope). The calculated DSR quantity of the Yellow River Basin is provided in the same way as other kinds of spatial information and can be employed as basic geographic data for relevant studies as well.
The geographic distribution features and monthly/yearly variation rule of foggy days in China are analyzed based on the monthly mean fog data collected from 604 observational stations for the period 1961-2000. It is shown that there are six fog regions in China: the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, coastal area, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, eastern Gansu-western Shaanxi, Huaihe River Valley, Tianshan mountainous area and northern Xinjiang. On the whole the yearly variation trend of foggy days is descending, it is especially obviously after the 1980s. The areas where the foggy days have obvious tendency present a southwest-northeast trend. The rising trend regions alternate with descending trend regions, having a SE-NW directional wave structure formed. In general, the number of foggy days in autumn and winter is larger than in spring and summer over most fog districts. The monthly variation curves of foggy days are bimodal in the shore area of the Yellow Sea and northern Xinjiang, and unimodal in other regions.
In this paper, the aridity indexes of different habitats in Mt. Xiaowutai were calculated through measuring the effective temperature by means of sugar inversion method, and simulating direct solar radiation and soil wetness index supported by DEM and GIS tools. Furthermore, the relationship between vegetation distribution pattern and the above factors in the study area was analyzed by ANOVA at the landscape scale. The results showed: 1) the values of direct solar radiation, effective temperature and aridity indexes at the forest habitats were significantly lower than those at the subalpine meadow habitats, while the value of soil wetness index appeared an inverse tendency; 2) the aridity indexes, defined as the ratio of either effective temperature or solar radiation to soil wetness index, could interpret the distribution pattern of forest and meadow vegetation better than the effective temperature or soil wetness itself only; and 3) the aridity indexes played a leading role in the distribution patterns of forest and subalpine meadow in the study area, which was consistent with the principle followed by the horizontal distribution pattern of forest and steppe vegetation in a regional scale.
