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    Ecological Environment and Ecosystem Services
  • Ecological Environment and Ecosystem Services
    Wenhui KUANG, Tianrong YANG, Fengqin YAN
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    Development of Xiong'an New District (XND) is integral to the implementation of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) Integration Initiative. It is intended to ease the non-capital functions of Beijing, optimize regional spatial patterns, and enhance ecosystem services and living environment in this urban agglomeration. Applying multi-stage remote sensing (RS) images, land use/cover change (LULC) data, ecosystem services assessment data, and high-precision urban land-cover information, we reveal the regional land-cover characteristics of this new district as well as across the planned area of the entire BTH urban agglomeration. Corresponding ecological protection and management strategies are also proposed. Results indicated that built-up areas were rapidly expanding, leading to a continuous impervious surface at high density. Urban and impervious surface areas (ISAs) grew at rates 1.27 and 1.43 times higher than that in 2000, respectively, seriously affecting about 15% area of the sub-basins. Construction of XND mainly encompasses Xiongxian, Rongcheng, and Anxin counties, areas which predominantly comprise farmland, townships and rural settlements, water, and wetland ecosystems. The development and construction of XND should ease the non-capital functions of Beijing, as well as moderately control population and industrial growth. Thus, this development should be included within the national 'sponge city' construction pilot area in early planning stages, and reference should be made to international low-impact development modes in order to strengthen urban green infrastructural construction. Early stage planning based on the existing characteristics of the underlying surface should consider the construction of green ecological patches and ecological corridors between XND and the cities of Baoding, Beijing, and Tianjin. The proportion of impervious surfaces should not exceed 60%, while that of the core area should not exceed 70%. The development of XND needs to initiate the concept of 'planning a city according to water resource amount' and incorporate rainwater collection and recycling.

  • Ecological Environment and Ecosystem Services
    Jian PENG, Xiaoxu HU, Mingyue ZHAO, Yanxu LIU, Lu TIAN
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    As a hot spot in geography, ecology and related disciplines, ecosystem services have been playing a vital role in bridging the human society with the ecosystem. A deep understanding of the relationship among ecosystem services is a critical enabling factor for sustainable management and decision-making in multiple ecosystem services, in turn realizing the dual goals of economic development and ecological protection and thus contributing to the overall wellbeing of human. Through a systematic review of the concept of ecosystem service trade-offs, this article explores their characteristics in terms of spatial scales, temporal scales and reversibility, considering human's wellbeing at different levels as the ultimate goal of ecosystem service trade-offs and ecological compensation as a baseline method of protection in trade-offs. Such ecosystem services trade-offs are expressed by quantitative indexing and integrated modelling. While such trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services could present significant variations by spatial and temporal scales, scenario simulation and multi-objective analysis are effective ways to support decision-making in ecosystem service trade-offs. Based on these findings, the multi-scale correlation of ecosystem service trade-offs, the flow of ecosystem service based on telecoupling, and the consumption and compensation of ecosystem services are identified to be the main directions for future research on ecosystem service trade-offs.

  • Ecological Environment and Ecosystem Services
    Cheng MA, Xiaoyue WANG, Yaxin ZHANG, Shuangcheng LI
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    Beijing, as the political, communicational, cultural, and technological center of China, has been experiencing rapid urban expansion in recent years. This fast urbanization resulted in greater demands for ecosystem services from peri-urban ecosystems. Based on emergy analysis and using impact matrix, this study took the urban ecological conservation area (ECA) of Beijing as an example to evaluate the ecosystem services flows and the level of dependence between natural and urban systems. In terms of ecosystem types, results show that forest ecosystem contributes the most to ecosystem service provision in ECA, which represents 79.7% of total ecosystem services emergy in 2012. Meanwhile, cropland and aquatic ecosystems account for 19.7% and 0.6%, respectively. From the perspective of ecosystem services types, biomass production and water retention are the two dominative service types provided by forest ecosystem, accounting for 40.4% and 35.8% of forest ecosystem services emergy respectively. Food supply is the most significant emergy component in cropland ecosystem, which represents 70% of cropland ecosystem service emergy. Water supply, flood storage and aquatic product supply are the three most important emergy components in aquatic ecosystem, which account for 35.1%, 28.6% and 28.2% of the total aquatic emergy respectively. Results of emergy impact matrix suggest that forest biomass, soil water, groundwater and cropland biomass are the four vital providers of ecosystem services to urban system. At the temporal scale, results demonstrated that forest and aquatic ecosystems played more and more significant roles in water retention and water supply while cropland ecosystems became less and less important in food supply from 2004 to 2012. Urban system also transformed from a positive influencing to a passive receiving factor of ecosystem services in this period. Accordingly, more attention should be paid to conservation of forest and aquatic ecosystems in future urban planning in order to achieve better ecosystem service provision.

  • Urban Research
  • Urban Research
    Jiaming LI, Yu YANG, Jie FAN, Fengjun JIN, Wenzhong ZHANG, Shenghe LIU, Bojie FU
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    As two rising great powers, China and India have undergone similar development processes, but they also exhibit significant differences in development paths and patterns. The significant differences in political systems, economic systems, and developmental environment between the two countries have attracted great attention from scholars. This research focuses on the regional differences and spatial evolution processes in urbanization and urban systems between the two countries from a geographical perspective. Based on the demographic censuses of both countries and the urban population data from the United Nations, this paper systematically compared and analyzed the spatial characteristics of urbanization and urban systems in China and India using various methods including spatial analysis, parameter estimation, and nonparametric estimation. The results indicate that: (1) Since the 1990s, the regional differences in urbanization in China have transformed from south-north differences to coastal-inland differences, whereas the north-south differences in India have been stable. (2) In terms of the spatial scale at the province (state) level, the population densities and urbanization rates were positively correlated in both countries. The correlation is more significant when the urbanization rate is higher than 50%. However, in recent years, the correlation between population density and urbanization rate kept increasing in China, while such correlation has been decreasing in India. (3) Currently, the urban system is dominated by large and medium-sized cities in China and India, which complies with the characteristics of the rank-size distribution. But the economic reform has exerted significantly different effects on the spatial evolution of the urban systems in the two countries. The economic reform has changed the major driving force for urban development in China from geological and historical factors to the spatial structure of the economic system. However, in India, the driving forces for urban development have always been geological and historical factors, and the economic reform even decreased the effect of the spatial structure of the economic system on urban development.

  • Urban Research
    Lucang WANG, Rongwei WU, Wei LI
    2017, 72(6): 1001-1016. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb201706005
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    Aging and urbanization are two major population issues currently facing the world. Urban agglomeration is an advanced form of urbanization that encompasses the spatial organization of cities within a specific geographical area, and in which the process of aging differs from that in other regions. Based on county-specific data from population surveys in 2000 and 2010, we determined the spatial patterns and variations of aging populations in 20 urban agglomerations in China using geographical detector-based and coefficient of variation methods. We also examined the contributing factors of population aging variability. Results demonstrated that in 2000, older people accounted for 7.32% of the urban agglomeration demographic structure, with 12 of the 20 urban agglomerations defined as adult-type populations. In 2010, however, older people accounted for 9.00% of the urban agglomeration demographic structure and, except for those in the Pearl River Delta and Ningxia areas along the Yellow River, all the urban agglomerations entered the elderly population stage. Moreover, high-age and moderately high-age regions expanded towards inland urban agglomerations, with population aging increasing obviously and population type changing from adult to aging. In addition, significant regional differences in the incremental increases in the number of older people and growth rates of the aging populations existed in the urban agglomerations. Low-age and high-age regions had smaller increments and growth rates, whereas moderately low-age, mid-age, and moderately high-age regions had greater increments and growth rates, indicating a declining aging rate in the order of regional, national, and local urban agglomerations. Within each urban agglomeration, the distribution pattern of aging showed the coexistence of uplift and collapse. The distribution pattern of aging within national urban agglomerations changed from an increasing to collapsing structure, and population aging in central China reduced. Conversely, regional urban agglomerations changed from a homogeneous to an increasing structure, and population aging in the central region increased. Population aging of urban agglomerations was the result of internal and external factors, with changes in base period aging, population age structure, and population fluidity being the predominant factors. Universal uplift of the population age structure was a key factor affecting aging and population types in urban agglomerations. Furthermore, low-age population immigration into urban agglomerations had a "diluting effect" on population aging, and aggregation and diffusion effects caused by different development stages of urban agglomeration played important roles in aging and population migration.

  • Urban Research
    Shisong CAO, Deyong HU, Wenji ZHAO, Shanshan CHEN, Qingwen CHENG
    2017, 72(6): 1017-1031. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb201706006
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    It is important to apply impervious surface product to the study of urban agglomeration spatial structure. Under the background of China's rapid urbanization, study on comparative analysis of urban agglomerations spatial structure between China and USA can provide policy proposals of urban agglomeration space optimization for Chinese government. Taking Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) and Boswash as study areas, firstly, this paper maps the extent and density of impervious surface for BTH and Boswash respectively in seven periods of 1972, 1982, 1991, 1995, 2001, 2006 and 2011. Furthermore, at different scales of urban agglomeration and metropolitan region, landscape pattern index, gravitational index and spatial analysis were used to analyze differences of spatial structure between BTH and Boswash. The results showed that (1) impervious surface area increased rapidly in BTH, while it remained stable in Boswash. (2) BTH spatial structure had experienced different periods including isolated city development, dual-core city development, group city development and network-style city development, while Boswash spatial structure was more stable, and its spatial pattern had shown a "point-axis strip" feature. (3) The spatial pattern of high-high assembling region of impervious surface had showed a "standing pancake" feature in BTH, while a "multi-center gather and disperse group" in Boswash. (4) All of the percentages of impervious surface area in ecology, living, and production land in BTH were higher than those in Boswash. At last, from the perspective of urban agglomeration space optimization, the development proposals for BTH were proposed.

  • Urban Research
    Ziyu ZHAO, Ye WEI, Ruiqiu PANG, Shijun WANG, Zhangxian FENG
    2017, 72(6): 1032-1048. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb201706007
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    Application of the concepts of alter-based centrality and power has become a focus in the research on city networks in recent years. In this paper, the conditionality of recursive theory utilization to city networks is analyzed from the perspective of network topology structures. In addition, an urban network is constructed on the basis of Baidu migration data and measured using the complex network method, improved alter-based centrality, and the power method. The results show, in the first place, that the use of recursive theory for the analysis of urban networks has specific data structure requirements, suitable for tree structure, but not for the local existence of complete network structure measurements. Secondly, small world phenomena and spatial patterns of population mobility exhibit obvious core-periphery structures at national and regional scales. This means that the national urbanization development strategy and important transport facilities play key roles in enabling the population mobility network. In this context, the Harbin-Beijing-Xi'an-Chengdu-Dali line exhibits a significant network of spatial differences in terms of boundary divisions. Thirdly, the use of alter-based centrality and power reveal hierarchical characteristics, differences in the urban network, and the influence of different effects, including spatial ones, on the identification of network city resources. In this case, the network includes not just Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Guangzhou, high power quintessential cities with high centrality, but also a number of smaller lower power hub cities, including Wuhan, Taiyuan, Guiyang, and Fuzhou, as well as gateway cities that exhibit both low centrality and high power, such as Lanzhou and Yinchuan. Thus, the concepts of centrality and power are of great significance in broadening our understanding of complex urban diversification.

  • Urban Research
    Nana CUI, Changchun FENG, Yu SONG
    2017, 72(6): 1049-1062. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb201706008
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    In this paper, we take Beijing as a case study and employ the residential leasing parcel data from 2004 to 2015 within the Sixth Ring Road of Beijing metropolitan area. Also, we use the GIS data of Beijing's public facilities, such as bus stations, railway stations, park, hospital, primary school and so on. With the help of ArcGIS, GS+, Surfer and Geoda Software, we explore the spatial pattern of residential land parcels, residential land price and determinants of residential land price in Beijing. In the first place, we use the methods of Spatial Trend Analysis, Nearest Neighbor Index (NNI), Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) to explore the spatial pattern of residential land parcels and their price in Beijing. In the second place, we compare the spatial econometric models (SLM and SEM) with traditional OLS model to further explore the determinants of residential land price in Beijing. Based on the analysis, the main conclusions are drawn as follows. (1) The number of residential land leasing parcels is not balanced among years and ring roads. The residential land leasing parcels in the last 20 years are mainly concentrated between the fifth and the sixth ring roads in Beijing. (2) Residential land parcels are generally distributed along the main roads (such as Beijing-Shijiazhuang Expressway, Beijing-Kaifeng Expressway, Beijing-Shanghai Expressway and Beijing-Tibet Expressway) and the subway lines (such as Line 1, Line 5, Line 6, Line 15, Fangshan Line, Daxing Line and Yizhuang Line), which is more obvious in outer suburban areas. (3) Generally, there exists an inverted U-shaped curve trend, indicating that residential land price declines gradually from the city center to the city fringes as a whole, and spatial pattern of residential land price has turned from mono-centric structure to poly-centric structure. (4) Residential land price demonstrates a spatial cluster distribution pattern. There exists obvious spatial autocorrelation in residential land price and it is easy to distinguish "cold spots" from "hot spots". (5) In the model selection, we compare the spatial econometric model (SLM and SEM) with the traditional OLS model. The result shows that SLM is the best, followed by SEM, indicating that there indeed exist spatial spillover effects and spatial dependence in residential land price rather than error dependence. The residential land price is mainly affected by the surrounding residential land price, distance to bus station, distance to subway station, distance to key primary school, area of land parcel, FAR and the type of land leasing. However, in this paper, one drawback is that we fail to take macroeconomic policy factors into consideration, which may play a key role in the formation of residential land price. Also, we have not considered the subway's impact in different periods such as planning period, construction period and operation period on residential land price, which needs to be further studied.

  • Rural Development
  • Rural Development
    Dazhuan GE, Hualou LONG, Yingnan ZHANG, Shuangshuang TU
    2017, 72(6): 1063-1077. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb201706009
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    This paper establishes a model of coupling relationship between grain yield and agricultural labor changes, and preliminarily discusses the coupling process of the changes of grain yield and agricultural labor proportion at county level. Using county-level statistical data of farmland and agricultural labor in 1991, 2000 and 2010, two coefficients were developed to analyze the coupling relationship between grain yield and agricultural labor changes, one is grain-labor elasticity coefficient (GLEC), and the other is agricultural labor-transfer effect coefficient (ALTEC). Results showed that: (1) During the process of agricultural development transformation in China, different types of coupling relationship modes between grain yield and agricultural labor changes coexist at the same time. During 1991-2010, the number of counties with three different coupling modes, i.e., grain yield increasing and agricultural labor decreasing, both increasing of grain yield and agricultural labor and both decreasing of grain yield and agricultural labor, account for 48.85%, 29.11% and 19.74% of the total counties in the study area, respectively. Interestingly, the coupling mode of grain yield increasing and agricultural labor decreasing is mainly found in the traditional farming area of China. The coupling mode of both increasing of grain yield and agricultural labor is located in the pastoral areas and agro-pastoral ecotone in the underdeveloped western China, while the coupling mode of both decreasing of grain yield and agricultural labor is distributed in the areas experiencing rapid agricultural development transition, especially in the developed southeastern coastal China. (2) From 1991 to 2010, the number of counties which experienced a decline of agricultural labor proportion was 1961, among which 1452 counties with an increasing of grain yield, accounting for 72.38% of the total number of counties. The coupling curve between grain yield and agricultural labor proportion changes showed a stepped fluctuation, and the discrete trend of the coupling relationship was continually strengthened. (3) The mean of GLEC and ALTEC increased from -0.25 and -2.93 during 1991-2000 to -0.16 and -1.78 during 2000-2010, respectively. The changes of GLEC and ALTEC illustrated that the influence of agricultural labor changes on increasing grain yield is diminishing gradually. (4) "Hu Huanyong Line" is a significant boundary presenting the coupling relationship between grain yield and agricultural labor changes.

  • Rural Development
    Xiaoyun LI, Yu YANG, Yi LIU, Hui LIU
    2017, 72(6): 1078-1090. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb201706010
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    Agricultural production will be confronted with more serious challenges under climate change. Understanding households' adaptive behaviors and the influence of government policies on them is the fundamental step to improve relevant policies for enhancing farmers' ability of adaptation against drought. The econometrics method is used in this study to evaluate the farmers’ adaptive behaviors and their influencing factors, especially the regulation of government policies, like early-warning and policy supports, based on a household and village survey in three provinces of the North China Plain (NCP). The results show that: (1) Most of households are apt to take adaptive measures when facing drought; and the more serious droughts are, the more the adaption measures will be taken. (2) The adaptation behaviors of farmers are affected by the regulation of government policies. The enthusiasm to take adaptations of households can be enhanced obviously by the governments' early-warning information and relevant policy supports, especially when the warning information is released by multiple channels and the subsides or multiple supports are provided by the township government and the village. However, most of the households have no support from governments at all levels. Besides, TV as the present main channel has very little effect on the farmers' hehaviors. (3) Adaptive behaviors vary along with households' characteristics. Farmers who live in irrigated areas, and who have more agricultural members in the family with larger cultivated land block acreage, are more inclined to take adaptive measures. These findings can provide references for the government to take measures to combat drought.

  • Transportation Logistics and Tourism Geography
  • Transportation Logistics and Tourism Geography
    Guoqi LI, Fengjun JIN, Yu CHEN, Jingjuan JIAO, Sijing LIU
    2017, 72(6): 1091-1103. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb201706011
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    The logistics nodes and logistics enterprises are the core carriers and organizational subjects of the logistics space, and their location characteristics and spatial differentiation have significant impacts on the urban logistics space distribution and logistics resources allocation. Based on Tencent Online Maps Platform from December 2014, 4396 logistics points of interest (POI) were collected in Beijing, China. Adopting the methods of industrial concentration evaluation and kernel density analysis, the spatial distribution pattern of logistics in Beijing are explored, the interaction mechanism among the type difference, supplydemand factors and location choice behavior are clarified, and the internal mechanism of spatial differentiation under the combined influence of transportation, land rent and assets are revealed. The following conclusions are drawn in the paper. (1) Logistics enterprises and logistics nodes exhibit the characteristic of both co-agglomeration and spatial separation in location, and logistics activities display the spatial pattern of "marginal area of downtown area, suburbs and exurban area", which have a low coupling degree with logistics employment space. (2) The public logistics space, namely, logistics parks and logistics centers, is produced under the guidance of the government, and the terminal logistics space consisting of logistics distribution centers serving for the specific industries and terminal users is dominated by enterprises. They have obvious differentiation in location. (3) In the formation of the logistics spatial location, the government can change the traffic condition by re-planning the transport routes and freight station locations, and control the land rent and availability of different areas by increasing or decreasing the land use of logistics, to impact the enterprise behavior and form different types of logistics space and function differentiation. In comparison, logistics enterprises meet the diverse demands of service objects through differentiation of asset allocation to promote the specialization of division and form the object differentiation of logistics space.

  • Transportation Logistics and Tourism Geography
    Kai BAI, Xianyang HU, Yangyang LV, Tao DU
    2017, 72(6): 1104-1117. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb201706012
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    Recently, people start to seek and experience space of slow living to resist and escape from the "constraint and pressure" caused by modern society. This becomes evident in some particular areas and provides empirical cases to extend the placeness theory. By selecting the Old Town of Lijiang as a case study, this research aims primarily to explore the manifestation and formation mechanism of the placeness feature of Lijiang from multiple identities. The data used in this study were collected through interviews of natives, non-native operators, tourists and government officials, and content analyses of web-blogs. The results show that, location, locale and sense of place, jointly build up the dimensions of identity with placeness of slow living in the Old Town of Lijiang. To be more specific, location includes relative location and absolute location; locale comprises external environment, internal space and social activity; and sense of place consists of two dimensions of affection and continued behavior. This study has indicated that identity with placeness of slow living in Lijiang is established by multiple subjects. Natives' slow living philosophy, which has formed on the basis of their history and culture, is the foundation of the lifestyle in the Old Town of Lijiang; non-native operators popularize the placeness feature and reinforce it to be a place character; at the same time such place character can satisfy tourists' needs and it is further promoted due to tourists' identity with the Old Town. Therefore, the combined effect of these three subjects has made slow living an indispensable feature of placeness in Lijiang. In addition, the paper has demonstrated the unique features in the touristic place, as well as the formation mechanism of identity with placeness under different paradigms.

  • Transportation Logistics and Tourism Geography
    He ZHU, Jiaming LIU, Ziwen SANG, Wendong WEI, Zongcai WEI
    2017, 72(6): 1118-1132. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb201706013
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    Being a unique local cultural form derived from The Epic Gesar (human intangible cultural heritage), the Gesar culture remains primarily in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China. Due to its historical value, studying the classification, spatial distribution and contribution factors of Gesar culture is of great significance to explore the relationship between man and environment in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and protecting the Gesar human intangible cultural heritage. Guoluo, which boasts the richest Gesar cultural resources in China, is taken as a case in this study. Based on the definition and classification of Gesar cultural resources, this article examined the relationship between the spatial distribution characteristics of Gesar cultural resources and the physical geography factors (including elevation, water source, slope, aspect, and accessibility) in Guoluo. Subsequently, the influencing mechanisms of the above factors on the spatial distribution of cultural resources were further discussed. It was concluded that, (1) Gesar cultural resources can be divided into 4 categories, 11 sub-categories, and 60 small categories; (2) the distribution of Gesar cultural resources, especially the inheritors type, presented a pattern of cluster; the most concentrated spaces for 3 Gesar cultural resources types were identified; (3) the spatial distribution of Gesar cultural resources is closely related to the physical geography conditions. Specifically, most of them were concentrated in the proximity of water source with relatively low altitude. Moreover, the three types of Gesar cultural resources have been affected by different factors including slope, aspect, and accessibility.