Table of Content

25 June 2009, Volume 64 Issue 6 Previous Issue    Next Issue

Original Articles

Self-developing Ability of Rural Households and Its Impact on Growth of the Household Income: A Geographical Study LI Xiaojian1, 2, ZHOU Xiongfei1, QIAO Jiajun2, WANG Li2, WANG Yuchan1 2009, 64 (6):  643-653.  doi: 10.11821/xb200906001 Abstract ( )   PDF (1734KB) ( )   Save Using the improved method of entropy value of information and the multi-linear regression, we analyze the data for 1251 households of the 11 villages in Henan province. Based on conception of copulas of time and space, we quantitatively analyze the essential relation between farmers  self-developing ability and sustainable income-increasing for various geographical environments. We conclude: (1) Farmers  self-developing ability influences farmers  agricultural income, but the effects of geographical factors, such as the farmland, types of geographic conditions, etc. are more significant. The effect of farmland size is the largest for the mountainous areas, the less for the hilly areas, the smallest for the plain areas. The effect of farmers' self-developing ability is opposite to the effects of farmland size. (2) The farmers  self-developing ability and farmers  inputs of labor have a great influence the non-agricultural income of farmers, while the geographical factors do not have direct effect on farmers  non-agricultural income. The transportation conditions of the location of farms have indirect influence on agricultural income of farming households through influencing farmers  self-developing ability. (3) In different periods of farmers  developing process, the contribution of farmers  self-developing ability's to farmers  non-agricultural income is different. In the beginning stage of non-agricultural development of farmers, non-agricultural development of farmers relys almost completely on the inputs of labor, and the self-developing ability has almost no effect on the non-agricultural development of farmers. In the intermediate stage of non-agricultural development of farmers, the developing ability and input of labor contribute 50% to the non-agricultural development respectively. In the late stage of development, the ability s contribution falls to 15%. (4) The increment of return of non-agricultural income relies on the improvement of the ability of farmers and transportation conditions. In the period of lower return, the contribution of ability is about 2/3, but in the period of lower-middle return, the increment of return relies on the improvement of transportation conditions. In the upper-middle period, the effect of transportation conditions begin to decrees, and in the period of high return, the effect of transportation conditions comes to zero while the increment of return relies on the increment of ability. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Appraisal of Land Resources Security in Guangzhou Based on Major Function Regionalization ZHENG Rongbao1, LIU Yihua2, DONG Yuxiang3, ZHU Gaoru3 2009, 64 (6):  654-664.  doi: 10.11821/xb200906002 Abstract ( )   PDF (1977KB) ( )   Save Based on the theory of scientific concept of development, the space of Guangzhou is divided into the optimized development zone, the emphasized development zone, the limited development zone, the forbidden development zone, and the land reserved zone. After that, this paper constructs the security evaluation indexes from four aspects consisting of land quantity security, quality security, economic security and ecological security. The values of land security in Guangzhou were calculated through model of support vector machines by a grid of 30 m ×30 m as the smallest appraisal units. The main conclusions are drawn as follows: (1) The forbidden development zone is 2766.00 km2, accounting for 37.21% of the city's total area. The land permitted to develop is 1851.07 km2, or 24.90% of the city's total; the emphasized development zone 1457.09 km2, or 19.60%; the optimized development zone is 992.46 km2, or 13.35%; and reserved zone area is 370.61 km2, or 4.99%. (2) Five types of safety grades are identified, with the value ranging from 16 to 86, but different districts are in different safe ranks. The best safe condition is Nansha district and the worst is Liwan district. (3) The result shows that the situation of land security in Guangzhou can not be optimistic. The percentages of dangerous and unsafe areas add up to 32.35%, which are mainly concentrated in remote mountainous suburbs and center of the city. GDP of the per unit construction area, the per capita living space and NDVI are the main factors affecting land resources security in Guangzhou. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Simulation for Evolvement of Residential Spatial Patterns in Real Scene Based on Multi-agent TAO Haiyan, LI Xia, CHEN Xiaoxiang 2009, 64 (6):  665-676.  doi: 10.11821/xb200906003 Abstract ( )   PDF (2055KB) ( )   Save Multi-agent modeling provides a new method for urban research. And it is of theoretical and practical significance to adopt multi-agent modeling, a bottom-up approach, to build up the actual residential decision model, and to research the formation and evolvement of the urban residential spatial patterns. However, many multi-agent models usually describe space as homogeneous space which is beyond expression of real geo-space. In order to simulate the urban residential patterns, some evaluation indices of urban residential suitability in the human-environment science are introduced. Integrating multi-agent model with GIS can provide a heterogeneous and dynamic simulated environment. The model based on multi-agent is constructed as follows: simulated inhabitants wander through the universe to find the optimal place of residence according to constraints as their incomes and preference of residential environment. Evaluation indices, such as traffic accessibility, life convenience and landscape beauty, have been chosen and quantified by GIS. The migration decision of agent depends on the current residential pressure. It is suggested that the probability of leaving its current location increases monotonically with an increase in the residential pressure. Current residential pressure of an agent is estimated by the pressure caused by both basic house price and house environmental price. On the Swarm platform, Java language and component of Swarm-GIS are used to realize the model. The proposed model is applied to simulate the formation of residential spatial patterns in Haizhu district of Guangzhou, Guangdong province. The results of simulation reveal that downtown area is still the first choice of housing location for middle and high income residents in Guangzhou, which shows a different residential mode from Western developed countries. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient of simulated house price and actual house price exceeds 0.6, which indicates that the simulation result can reflect the rules in real practice. Although some uncertainty remains in the model, such as the lack of unified criteria for residential environment evaluation, randomness of house choice and the simplification of the model, the simulation can help us to understand and explore causes and dynamics of residential space patterns, and provide an important analytical tool and simulation method to develop and verify urban theories. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Essential Geography Landscapes and Ecological Culture in Nanjing YAO Yifeng 2009, 64 (6):  677-686.  doi: 10.11821/xb200906004 Abstract ( )   PDF (1849KB) ( )   Save Historical cityscapes have changed because they were the expressions of the dynamic interaction between natural and cultural forces in geographical condition. Geography was the most stable, inheritable and lasting forces for its founding and development. Therefore, usually the planning of cityscapes is only limited in the architectural space, from individual buildings, streets and blocks to the whole city. My research is from the viewpoint of geography system to study the historical changes of the cityscape. Nanjing, a city located along the Yangtze River, originated 2500 years ago where ten dynasties established their capitals. Nanjing's geographical condition is characterized by three ranges of low mountains and hills, two branch rivers and three lakes. A well known praised name for ancient Nanjing: Zhongshan Mountain was taken as a dragon prone and Stone City was as a tiger crouch. From its boring time to the last dynasty the planning ideas of Nanjing's landscape was in the line with the system of its mountains and hills, lakes and rivers. However, modern Nanjing has been departing farther from the background of the harmonious development of city and nature for contemporary construction. The mountain ranges with the historically gathered "imperial spirit of capital" has been fatally ruined and dissected. My research focuses on the following ideas: an analysis of the characteristics of systems of the mountains and rivers in the historical periods, and an investigation of sites of historical sites along with the system, in order to search for the laws of historical evolutions and spatial structure changes of cultural landscape in geographical system. Further research is needed to get a better understanding of the key core and the landmark in historical geographical condition which once played an important role in its origin and development process. Thus distinguishing and preserving the sites is important for keeping the characteristics of the cityscape, conserving the natural continuous characteristics of mountain ranges and rivers, identifying geographical system to composite the mountains, rivers, urban park zones, avenues and Ming Dynasty wall into a whole landscape system, and extending the traditional preservation planning and cityscapes planning to that of geographical landscape system. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Adaptation of Agricultural Production to Climate Change in Northeast China: A Behavioral Economics Interpretation YUN Yaru, FANG Xiuqi, TIAN Qing 2009, 64 (6):  687-692.  doi: 10.11821/xb200906005 Abstract ( )   PDF (999KB) ( )   Save Climate change is playing an increasingly important role in the decision making of agricultural production. This paper attempts to bring some insights from behavioral economics into the adaptation of agricultural production to climate change. In this study, crop planting is taken as an individual or domestic economic behavior. We found that behavioral psychology methodology is more applicable for the analysis of the process of agricultural decision making than traditional economy. The research surveyed in this paper covered 554 farmers of 11 counties in Northeast China and the result shows that agricultural production behaviors are consistent with the theories of behavioral psychology in general. The decision making of agricultural production is affected by the cognition biases and modes of thinking. Under the state of uncertainty, agricultural judgment always shows systematic deviation from traditional economy theories, and all of these irrational behaviors cause the time-lag phenomenon between climate change and human adaptation. Two representative factors contribute to the deviation: 1) The farmers' agricultural production behaviors tend to be irrational because of the influence of heuristic bias including representativeness, availability and anchoring. Representativeness bias causes people to be insensitive to prior probability of outcome and sample size in choosing crops species, especially exaggerating the representativeness of small samples. In this case, farmers erroneously decide to plan some more lucrative crops with more thermal demands, even though it is not fit for the local weather condition. The result also shows that affected by availability bias, the local farmers are inclined to assume the weather condition of the coming year will be exactly the same as the current year or will follow the changing trend of recent several years in making the coming year agricultural plans. The plan based on the weather condition assumption is exactly suitable for the reference year while it is uncertain for the actual weather condition. The change of climate will be reflected in the agricultural decision making for the next year. For the agricultural income estimation, farmers are used to forecasting based on the history price, especially the price of the previous year. The selling price will be affected by the supply and demand balance and farmers need to do adjustment within a specific threshold correspondingly. Climate change has significant impacts on the agricultural output and the insufficient adjustment makes it hard for the farmers to sell their products at the peak of price. So the actual farmers' income will also be lower than expected due to the climate change. 2) Affected by the inherent characteristic of local agricultural production, farmers in Northeast China are used to taking conservative behavior in choosing crop strains based on the relatively low reference point. References | Related Articles | Metrics

The Critical Cluster Model and Its Application in Accessibility Assessment of Public Bus Network CHEN Xiang1, LI Qiang1, WANG Yunjing1, CHEN Jin2, TANG Qiao3 2009, 64 (6):  693-700.  doi: 10.11821/xb200906006 Abstract ( )   PDF (1316KB) ( )   Save The Critical Cluster Model (CCM) is a network optimization model that can be used to identify neighborhoods facing transportation difficulties during an evacuation process. It defines the Bulk Lane Demand (BLD) as the ratio of population to exit capacity that is adversative to the meaning of accessibility. Based on this context, this paper applies CCM to assess the accessibility of public bus network by introducing multiple bus lines in the certain road sections and considering the spatial distribution of population being assigned to each bus stop. The bulk bus line demand, as the substitution of original BLD, is therefore used to reflect the people,s convenience in taking public buses. An application of CCM in accessibility assessment of public bus network in Beijing tests the flexibility of this method. Considering the importance of accessibility in urban transportation, the modification of CCM by introducing other factors should be the focus of further studies. References | Related Articles | Metrics

An Empirical Study on the Locational Choices of Foreign Banks in China HE Canfei, FU Rong 2009, 64 (6):  701-712.  doi: 10.11821/xb200906007 Abstract ( )   PDF (1818KB) ( )   Save The gradual approach of reforms and deregulations in China,s banking sector has guided foreign banks in China. Foreign banks are highly concentrated in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Xiamen. They initially chose special economic zones and the capital city of Beijing, later diffused to Shanghai, Tianjin, Dalian and Guangzhou, and recently to some inland cities. Branches or sub-branches are more likely to agglomerate in Shanghai while representative offices favor both Beijing and Shanghai. The statistical analysis indicates that banking opportunities, banking sector size and externalities associated with financial centers direct the city choices of foreign banks in China. Foreign banks significantly favor cities with fewer restrictions on foreign banking activities and tend to be located in cities with more international trade and foreign enterprises, suggesting the significance of following the customer strategy. The location choices of foreign banks within China are also dependent on the investing banks, countries of origin. Representative offices and branches or sub-branches show some different locational behaviors in China. The importance of informational externalities and first-mover advantages would fuel the spatial agglomeration of foreign banks in China. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Evolvement of Spatial Pattern of Economy in Jiangsu Province at County Level JIN Cheng, LU Yuqi 2009, 64 (6):  713-724.  doi: 10.11821/xb200906008 Abstract ( )   PDF (1839KB) ( )   Save This article, taking Jiangsu Province as an example, describes the spatial changes of the diverse economy of Jiangsu at county level since the 1990s through the related analysis of ESDA as well as other tools such as Moran's I, Getis-Ord General G, Getis-Ord Gi and the function of variogram and its amount of fractal dimension as scale index. Based on four time discontinuity surfaces, some conclusions are drawn as follows. (1) Considering the overall spatial economic framework, the county economy of Jiangsu province shows a strong trend of spatial natural correlation. The similar areas cluster in space. The space structure of the hotspot distribution tends to be the circular space structure centered on Wuxi and Suzhou. (2) The development of the spatial economic growth framework is likely to be more stochastic and unstable in the aspect of spatial distribution. Hotspot areas are changing frequently without obvious appearance of geographical concentration. (3) According to the space-time mechanism, the Jiangsu spatial economic framework tends to be more continuous and self-organized, the random of the spatial differential pattern keeps decreasing and the mechanism of the structural differentiation caused by natural correlation in space is becoming more and more remarkable. The homogeneousness of economic development in the direction of northeast-southwest is typical for its relatively small spatial difference. As to the opposite direction, the spatial difference is great. (4) The driving force of the evolvement of Jiangsu economic framework can be identified through the following aspects: the basis of historical development, the economic location and the policies on regional development. References | Related Articles | Metrics

The Application of Major Function Oriented Zoning in Fujian Province WANG Qiang, WU Shidai, LI Yongshi, TANG Xiaohua, CHEN Guozi 2009, 64 (6):  725-735.  doi: 10.11821/xb200906009 Abstract ( )   PDF (1913KB) ( )   Save The study on coordinated development of regions embodies scientific development concept in the new decision-making environment. To deal with regional development problems in the long run, during the period of the 11th Five-Year Plan, land development in Fujian Province are spatially divided into four kinds of major function regions, including optimal development region, key development region, restrictive development region, and prohibited development region. According to each region's function, the governments make practical regional policies to promote regional development and rational distribution of population and economy. This paper deals with the scientific subject of Major Function Oriented Zoning (MFOZ) of Fujian Province to provide theoretical and methods information, focusing on the problems and solutions in the process of MFOZ on national level. This paper takes the view that the project of MFOZ should apply an integrated unit which contains county-scale and township-scale in order to avoid "indiscriminate" consequences, if obvious differences exist in both the natural environment and social development in the region. Therefore, this paper brings forward the demarcation thought of MFOZ for mountain provinces: Firstly, we regionalize the prohibited development region from all the protected areas as the main body. Secondly, comprehensive evaluation of resources are carried out at the county level to screen out the optimal development region and key development region in the plain areas of province. Then the indicators for current land exploitation intensity level are used to identify the optimal development region and the key development region. Thirdly, we make comprehensive evaluation of resources at the township-level to identify the key towns in landlocked mountainous regions. Finally, according to the division, the two spatial scales are used to integrate the major function regions. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Research on Influence of Residents' Place Attachment on Positive Attitude to Tourism with A Mediator of Development Expectation: A Case of Core Tourism Community in Jiuzhaigou XU Zhenxiao1, ZHANG Jie1, Geoffrey Wall2, CAO Jing1, ZHANG Honglei1 2009, 64 (6):  736-744.  doi: 10.11821/xb200906010 Abstract ( )   PDF (1347KB) ( )   Save Drawing from the literatures of Place Attachment and Anticipation Theory, a theoretical model of influence of place attachment of core tourism community's residents on supporting for tourism development with a mediator of expectation was proposed. The model consisted of five latent constructs of place attachment, development anticipation, benefits perception, cost perception and support attitude of residents, and seven path hypotheses and is based upon 188 questionnaires by residents of Jiuzhaigou, China, a major nature-based tourist destination. The model and the hypotheses were tested by utilizing a three-stage structural equation modeling approach involving Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The path analysis of each dimension revealed that path coefficients of each sub-dimension in place attachment and development expectation were consistent in two sub-SEMs, which implied the reasonability of the supposed sub-dimensions in each structural factor. The paper found that the influence on benefit perception or the cost perception of tourism by place attachment is different, and the former is always stronger than the later with or without an intermediary role in the case. Further, self-identity dimension, as the most directly perceived and likely identified dimension for residents, was found play the most important role in the SEM of residents' benefit perception, finding of which also rich the traditional evaluation model about social and cultural impact of tourism. There also had a positive support attitude from the residents with a benefit perception of tourism but a negative impact for supporting with a cost perception. The study also revealed that residents' expectation of tourism development as a mediator is subsistent and effective. Through the mediator of development expectation, the influence of residents' place attachment on perception as well as support of tourism was strengthened. Again, as a mediator, development expectation played a more important role in the SEM of residents' benefit perception than that in cost side. References | Related Articles | Metrics

An Analysis of Composite Sceneries of Chinese Attractions in the Vision of Tourism Geography JIA Wenyu 2009, 64 (6):  745-752.  doi: 10.11821/xb200906011 Abstract ( )   PDF (1354KB) ( )   Save Composite sceneries of Chinese attractions can be found in 34 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities and SARs). The number of each scenery ranges from 3 to 108. A total of 2395 composite sceneries were collected for the study. These sceneries are mainly named even-number characters, and four-character sceneries are particularly prominent, accounting for 99% of the total. The "eight sceneries" occupy an important position, accounting for 64.80%. Composite sceneries can be classified into two types: natural and human scenes. The names of composite sceneries have the structural characteristics: dynamic and static unity, temporal and spatial unity, illusive and actual unity and subjective and objective unity. The ways of structuring words have two main types: the type of noun/modifier-core phrase + modifier-core phrase and the type of noun/verb-object phrase + verb-object phrase. The names of composite sceneries have many artistic characteristics, such as using elegant words, describe vividly, using verbs to name some actual static things and pointing out the things, cores. Generally speaking, composite sceneries have their unique characteristics, such as changing with times, and serving as tour guides as well as a mixture of elements and so on. Composite sceneries can give useful enlightenment to the study of the tourism geography. References | Related Articles | Metrics

The Spatial Pattern of Poverty and Deprivation in Transitional Chinese City: Analysis of Area-based Indicators and Individual Data YUAN Yuan1, WU Fulong2, XU Xueqiang1 2009, 64 (6):  753-763.  doi: 10.11821/xb200906012 Abstract ( )   PDF (1742KB) ( )   Save  In transitional China, part of urban population has experienced poverty along with the adoption of a market-based economy and the deepening reform of social welfare system since the 1990s. However, the current literature, which is mainly concentrated on economic dimension and absolute poverty, neglects multiple dimensions of new urban poverty and the comparison of absolute and relative poverty. Based on a brief review of western literature on poverty and deprivation, this paper provides a hypothesis that there exists a combination of urban poverty and deprivation in inner city and a separation in outer city in transitional socialist countries. This paper takes Guangzhou as a case study for spatial analysis. Firstly, the MLSP (Mninimum Living Standard Programme) recipients data and fifth census data are used to calculate comprehensive socres of multiple deprivations on the sub-district scale by factor analysis, and to educe new pattern by overlapping the spatial distribution of poverty and deprivation. One of the new patterns is poverty-concentrated and mutiple-deprived area mainly located in inner city, and the others are poverty-based area without deprivation and deprivated area without poverty which are mainly located in outer city. Secondly, in order to avoid ecological fallacy and prove the hyphothesis entirely, this paper analyzes individual data from a survey on six cities and eighteen neighbourhoods. This paper sets a threshold of deprivation at individual level by factor analysis and index judgement. Poor families in deprivated condition are mainly from neighbourhoods located in inner city, and the location quotient of poor families without deprivation is higher than the average level in workers, village in outer city, and the location quotient of deprived families without poverty is higher in rural migrants, enclave in outer city. Thirdly, this paper argues that the mechanism of this new spatial pattern of urban poverty and deprivation is rooted in the uneven outcome of spatial policies both in socialist and transitional China. The uneven policies, consisting of housing policy, construction policy and regeneration policy, resulted in different living conditions of registered urban poor and rural migrants, which led to spatial pattern different from that of Western countries under market economy. References | Related Articles | Metrics