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    Assessment of ecological benefits of key national ecological projects in China in 2000-2019 using remote sensing
    SHAO Quanqin, LIU Shuchao, NING Jia, LIU Guobo, YANG Fan, ZHANG Xiongyi, NIU Linan, HUANG Haibo, FAN Jiangwen, LIU Jiyuan
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2022, 77 (9): 2133-2153.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202209001
    Abstract2623)   HTML311)    PDF (10476KB)(1986)      

    We propose a theoretical framework for assessing the ecological benefits provided by national key ecological projects in China over the past 20 years. A dataset consisting of six primary indicators and nine secondary indicators of ecosystem structure, ecosystem quality, and ecosystem services for the period 2000-2019 was generated using ground survey and remote sensing data. Ecological benefits were quantitatively evaluated following the implementation of national key ecological projects in China. Areas with medium, relatively high, and high degrees of ecological restoration accounted for 24.1%, 11.9%, and 1.7% of the national land area, respectively. Degrees of ecological restoration were higher in areas with a greater number of ecological projects. Areas with relatively high and high degrees of ecological restoration were mainly concentrated in the Loess Plateau, the farming-pastoral zone of northern China, the Northeast China Plain, and an area spanning the border areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing, and Hunan. The relative contributions of climatic factors and ecological projects to changes in vegetation net primary productivity were 85.4% and 14.6%, respectively, and the relative contributions of climatic factors and ecological projects to changes in water erosion modulus were 69.5% and 30.5%, respectively. The restoration potential of national vegetation coverage was 20%, and the restoration potential percentages of forest and grassland vegetation coverage were 6.4% and 23%, respectively. Climatic conditions can inhibit ecological restoration. Areas with relatively high and high degrees of ecological restoration were mainly distributed in areas with an annual average temperature greater than 0 ℃ and annual precipitation greater than 300 mm. Therefore, the limitations associated with climate conditions should be considered during the implementation of national ecological projects. The implementation of single ecological projects or single ecological restoration measures should be avoided, the use of combined measures should be emphasized, and the benefits of ecological investment funds should be maximized.

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    Landscape Pattern Change of Regional Wetland along the Yellow River in Henan Province in the Last Two Decades
    DING Shengyan, LIANG Guofu
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2004, 59 (5): 653-661.   DOI: 10.11821/xb200405002
    Abstract1112)      PDF (1126KB)(1501)      

    With remote sensing data and GIS, the classification system of wetland landscape of the region along the Yellow River in Henan Province is established. Using the indexes of the landscape pattern, such as landscape diversity index, landscape dominance index, landscape fragmentation index, distribution centroid and extended dimension, this article presents the dynamic change of wetland landscape pattern from 1987 to 2002. The results showed that: (1) The total area, the patch number and other index of wetland reduced obviously. The total area of wetland reduced 19.18%. The number of patches increased 21.17%, the patch density increased 50%, and the total perimeter length increased 1,290,491 m from 1987 to 2002. (2) Disturbed by human activity, landscape diversity index decreased from 1.1740 in 1987 to 0.9803 in 2002. While landscape dominance index increased from 0.4355 in 1987 to 0.6291 in 2002, and landscape fragmentation index increased from 0.0141 to 0.0172, which means that the shape of wetland was much irregular. (3) During the last nearly 20 years, the total area of the rice wetland increased, while the area of other types decreased. Among these wetland types, the area of the marsh wetland decreased most obviously. In 1987, it occupied 0.5% of the total area, but in 2002, it only occupied 0.11%.

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    Cited: Baidu(115)
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    LUO Xiaolong, SHEN Jianfa
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2006, 61 (4): 435-445.   DOI: 10.11821/xb200604010
    Abstract986)      PDF (470KB)(1160)      

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    Spatiotemporal Features of Soil and Water Loss in the Three Gorges Reservoir Areaof Chongqing
    LI Yuechen, LIU Chunxia, ZHAO Chunyong, HUANG Jianhui
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2008, 63 (5): 502-513.   DOI: 10.11821/xb200805006
    Abstract1115)      PDF (2857KB)(1373)      

    The soil and water loss (SWL) has been the most serious eco-environmental problem in the Three Gorges Reservoir area of Chongqing. In this paper the authors analyze the spatiotemporal features of SWL from 1999 to 2004 based on RS and GIS. The results are shown in the following aspects. (1) The SWL area in the Three Gorges Reservoir area presents a decreasing trend from 1999 to 2004, and the intensity of acute and extremely intense SWL reduces evidently. (2) The SWL mainly exists in purple soil, yellow soil, limestone soil, paddy soil and yellow brown soil distributed areas. The moderate (quite obvious SWL), intense (relatively high SWL), extremely intense (relatively obvious SWL) and acute SWL (high SWL) are mainly distribuited in purple soil and yellow soil areas. (3) The dry slope land and sparse woodland that are influenced intensively by human activities are hit by most serious SWL. The total SWL area exceeds 70%. About 90% of the high intense SWL happens on the dry slope land. (4) The SWL in the study area shows an obvious vertical differentiation characteristic. The SWL mainly occurs in the low mountain and hilly regions with an elevation of 200-1500 m, being more than 90% of the total area. The SWL types are mainly intense and extremely intense. There is almost no SWL in the regions of river valleys and terraces where the elevation is lower than 200 m, or in regions where the elevation is higher than 1500 m with high vegetation coverage . (5) SWL is well correlated with slope. About 70% of SWL happens on the steep slope greater than 15o and high intense SWL does as well, especially, above extremely intense SWL occupies over 80%. (6) There is no obvious correlation between SWL and aspect. The affected areas and intensity are similar in different aspects. (7) The SWL concentrates mainly in the regions where the values of R are between 300 and 340. The area of SWL in the regions where the values of R are from 340 to 357 is small, but the extremely intense SWL is relatively well correlated with the high R values.

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    Choice of Appropr iate Scale for Land Use Monitoring: A Case of the Tarim River Basin
    ZHAO Jin, CHEN Xi, BAO Anming, DUAN Yuanbin
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2007, 62 (6): 659-668.   DOI: 10.11821/xb200706011
    Abstract1009)      PDF (2376KB)(1238)      

    After wastelands reclamation in the Tarim River Basin in recent 50 years, one third of the stream flow in the Tarim River (the longest continental river in China) has been cut off. The natural ecosystems are seriously degenerated, and the situation of land use is tempestuously changed. Therefore, it is urgent to resolve the problems that whether there exist the changing laws of scales and what kinds of scales are suitable in monitoring land use. Adaptive choice of scale is one of the important issues in ecology and geography. In different studies, the choice of methods and standards vary with purpose. This article summarized methods on how to choose appropriate scale based on land-use data of the Tarim River Basin in Xinjiang of China in the 1950s. Regarding the areas of land use types as the scales, the parameters are selected, the histograms of the areas of patches are charted, and then normalized scale variance calculated under 9 scales (1:2 000 000, 1:1 000 000, 1:500 000, 1: 250 000, 1:100 000, 1:50 000, 1:25 000, 1:10 000 and 1:5 000), furthermore, some landscape indexes of patch area counted to examine and add result of normalized scale variance as well, which include Shannon-Weaver's landscape diversity index, Simpson's diversity index and fractal dimension respectively. The scale laws of general land use and 4 main land use types including woodlands, shrub land, sandy land and saline or alkaline lands in the mainstream area of the Tarim River are lucubrated by interpreting the land use data in the 1950s. The result showed that: (1) Normalized scale variance of the Tarim River reached maximum at scale of 1:50 000 in the 1950s, that 20km×20km grid sizes, diversity of patch size at 1:50 000 richer than in other scale's, so 1:50 000 used as appropriate scale of the Tarim River. In addition to appropriate scale of sandy land at scale of 1:100 000, the optimal scale of woodland, shrub land and saline land is at 1:50 000. (2) Shannon-Weaver's diversity index, Simpson's diversity index and fractal dimension of saline land have the same results as normalized scale variance. Diversity indexes and normalized scale variance of sand land proved the appropriate scale being in the same scale domain. It is noticed that there is a significant difference in woodland and shrub land. The optimal scale of diversity indexes are at 1:10 000 rather than 1:50 000. (3) Fractal dimension of sandy land and saline land showed a marked increase and up to 1.35 at 1:10 000 and similar at other levels, however, fractal dimension of woodland and shrub land are close at all scale levels and no more than 1.2, which reveals that hierarchical structure areas of sandy land and saline land are probably changed at scale of 1:10 000, while woodlands and shruby lands's are distributed under the same hierarchical structure in the region.

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    Geodetector: Principle and prospective
    Jinfeng WANG, Chengdong XU
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2017, 72 (1): 116-134.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb201701010
    Abstract18474)   HTML956)    PDF (5884KB)(14816)      

    Spatial stratified heterogeneity is the spatial expression of natural and socio-economic process, which is an important approach for human to recognize nature since Aristotle. Geodetector is a new statistical method to detect spatial stratified heterogeneity and reveal the driving factors behind it. This method with no linear hypothesis has elegant form and definite physical meaning. Here is the basic idea behind Geodetector: assuming that the study area is divided into several subareas. The study area is characterized by spatial stratified heterogeneity if the sum of the variance of subareas is less than the regional total variance; and if the spatial distribution of the two variables tends to be consistent, there is statistical correlation between them. Q-statistic in Geodetector has already been applied in many fields of natural and social sciences which can be used to measure spatial stratified heterogeneity, detect explanatory factors and analyze the interactive relationship between variables. In this paper, the authors will illustrate the principle of Geodetector and summarize the characteristics and applications in order to facilitate the using of Geodetector and help readers to recognize, mine and utilize spatial stratified heterogeneity.

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    Cited: Baidu(53) CSCD(342)
    The influence of regional dual-nuclei structure on provincial economic development in China:An empirical study based on spatial Dubin model
    DAI Hongwei, HU Xifei
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (10): 2375-2391.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202310001
    Abstract1665)   HTML407)    PDF (1154KB)(1025)      

    At present, the empirical analysis of regional dual-nuclei structures at the national level is still relatively rare. How to define the provinces with the characteristics of dual-nuclei structures and analyze their impact needs further empirical discussion. In this paper, the spatial Dubin model and the data of 259 prefecture-level cities are used to analyze the distribution characteristics of regional dual-nuclei structure in China and its influence on provincial development. The empirical results show that 11 provincial-level regions (hereafter provinces) in China show the characteristics of dual-nuclei structure. The regional dual-nuclei structure plays a significant role in promoting the economic development of the province, but the northern and southern regions show great differences. The regional dual-nuclei structure has a promoting effect on provincial industrial agglomeration and helps to promote the improvement of local scientific and technological innovation. In general, compared with some single-core provinces with small scale and weak radiation driving force in some provincial capitals, the regional dual-nuclei structure can make up for these shortcomings to a certain extent by virtue of the number of central cities and spatial distribution, which is more conducive to driving local economic development and scientific and technological innovation.

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    Coupling correlation between economic resilience and industrial structure evolution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region
    ZHANG Xuebo, FU Wenshuo, MA Haitao
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (10): 2392-2411.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202310002
    Abstract925)   HTML279)    PDF (5210KB)(685)      

    Regional economic resilience is closely related to the state of the regional industrial structure. During the process of the region undergoing and recovering from external shocks, whether and how the spatio-temporal correlation between economic resilience and the evolution of the established industrial structure should be further explored. The micro and mesoscopic views of enterprises and industries, multi-year economic growth data, and enterprise status in the counties of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region were employed to measure regional economic resilience at the county level and divide its economic development stages. In addition, a spatio-temporal correlation between regional economic resilience and industrial structure was appropriately tested, and the main industries affecting regional economic resilience were distinguished. Finally, the coupling mechanism of regional economic resilience and industrial structure evolution was analyzed. The major findings are as follows: (1) The periods of rapid and slow economic growth occur alternately in the study region, and the economic resilience shows a fluctuating growth trend. Meanwhile, central urban areas such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang exhibited high economic resilience, and a typical center-periphery structure gradually took shape. (2) There was a significant spatial correlation between regional economic resilience and industrial structure. In economically developed regions, such as Beijing and Tianjin, the agglomeration of high economic resilience and high industrial structure was evident. There was a two-way causal correlation and consistency in time-series changes. (3) The industrial structure in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region had gradually improved. Compared to the effect of industrial structure, the effect of competitiveness contributed more to economic resilience. Primary industries as well as those pertinent to consumer services and social services have played a pivotal role in improving regional resisting economic resilience. Besides, the development of consumer services and social services leads to the strengthening of the region's recovering economic resilience. (4) The evolution of the industrial structure achieved the evolution of the development path, which was revealed in the distinction of economic resilience at the county level. In addition, the coupling correlation between regional economic resilience and the evolution of industrial structure in the study region was mainly revealed in the time scale, which had not yet led to the fundamental restructuring of the regional spatial structure, and the center-periphery structure is still relatively significant.

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    Green water in China: Geological structure and its significance
    WANG Guangqian, ZHANG Yu, XIE Di, ZHONG Deyu
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (7): 1641-1658.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202307006
    Abstract533)   HTML76)    PDF (4432KB)(1007)      

    Terrestrial recycling of green water, which is created through a continuous cycle of evapotranspiration, atmospheric transport, and terrestrial precipitation, serves as bridges connecting hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and anthroposphere. Limited knowledge of terrestrial recycling may underestimate the impact of human activities on water and ecology. This study focuses on the structure of China's green water recycling (CGWR) and quantifies the contributions of natural and human ecosystems. Results indicate a high green water recycling ratio (50.4%) and a large recycled amount (2.75 trillion m3/a) over China, with significant south-to-north transport structures over eastern China, southwest-to-northeast transport structures from southwestern China to northern China, and high self-recycling structures in western China. The grassland-dominated Qinghai-Tibet Plateau provides the largest amount of green water (about 800 billion m3/a) and serves as the most critical region for CGWR. The forest-dominated southern hilly region and Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan region play a crucial role in supplying green water to a wide area of China. The cropland-dominated Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain and the grassland-dominated Loess Plateau are the key hubs for south-to-north and southwest-to-northeast transport of green water. The structure of CGWR is driven by large-scale geosystems such as ecosystems and atmospheric circulation systems, and has strategic implications in the following three aspects. First, CGWR serves as the "domestic cycle" of water, based on which a general domestic-level water governance framework can be established. Second, CGWR is a representative picture of the water-related processes in the Mountain-River-Forest-Farmland-Lake-Grassland-Desert (MRFFLGD) system and serves as a critical pivot to actualize the conservation and improvement of the MRFFLGD system. Finally, CGWR, together with inter-basin water resources transfer and virtual water transfer, forms a complete picture of China's inter-basin water transfer. The scientific coordination and integration of the three processes present a new approach for achieving spatial equilibrium between China's water resources and economic development.

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    Dynamics and driving mechanisms of cultivated land at county level in China
    ZHANG Jie, LIU Yujie, ZHANG Ermei, CHEN Jie, TAN Qinghua
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (9): 2105-2127.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202309001
    Abstract1680)   HTML390)    PDF (7676KB)(1124)      

    The land conversion processes concerning non-agricultural and non-grain production areas have prominently decreased arable land availability, which substantially impacted grain production capacity and threatened national food security. Thus, it is critical to establish a novel scientific approach to identify spatio-temporal evolution patterns of land conversion and its influencing factors in different stages. This study evaluates the evolutionary characteristics of non-agricultural and non-grain fields by constructing a comprehensive index system that considers factors like cultivated land resources, social and economic conditions, and farmers' subjective perspectives, using a county as the basic research unit. For a comprehensive analysis, a geographical detector model was utilized to quantify driving factors in different stages. The results indicated spatial clustering effects for non-agricultural and non-grain fields throughout China, particularly in the eastern region beyond the "Hu Huanyong Line". Further analysis revealed a spatial pattern for non-grain conversion phenomenon was more intense in the southwestern than the northeastern fields. Over the past four decades, non-agricultural fields recorded an area expansion, but the year-wise area increase was gradually reduced, while non-grain areas exhibited a "growth-stable" change pattern. Although progress in non-grain was less in primary producing areas over the last 40 years, an increase of 1.49 times and 1.33 times was recorded from 2010 to 2020 in PSB (production and sales balance area) and Mrt (marketing) areas, respectively. Compared to the period 1980-2000, the rate of non-agricultural conversion in primary producing areas decreased by 77% during 2010-2020, while the rate of non-agricultural conversion increased by 1.63 and 4.65 times for PSB and Mrt regions, respectively. Based on these findings, this paper puts forward suggestions, such as setting control rules and subsidy mechanisms according to area classification, promoting control policies based on regional considerations, strengthening dynamic monitoring and risk warning, as well as enhancing supervision and assessment.

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    Mechanism and regional practice of ecological industrialization and rural revitalization: A case study from Yangxian county, Shaanxi province
    WANG Yongsheng, LIU Yansui
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (10): 2412-2424.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202310003
    Abstract636)   HTML171)    PDF (2245KB)(563)      

    Rural area has abundant ecological resources. Ecological industrialization has become the emerging trends in rural areas and the new driving forces for rural revitalization. This study summarized the evolution of China's ecological environmental policies, and clarified the promotion mechanisms of regional ecological industrialization development to rural revitalization from the perspectives of ecosystem and human society, ecological products and economic development, ecological industrialization and rural revitalization, and discussed the models and pathways of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization by developing modern organic industry based on the regional ecological resources from the case study of Yangxian county in southern Shaanxi province. Three stages of China's ecological environmental policies were summarized, including "Focus on economy and light on environmental protection", "Environmental protection and scientific development" and "ecological civilization construction". Relationship between natural ecosystem and human social welfare reflects the objective needs of social and economic development and subjective initiative of human utilization of nature. The crucial ecological products and economic development was the engine of "nature-ecology-society-economy" in the core of benefits. The core of ecological industrialization and rural revitalization is the guarantee mechanism of "human-land-industry-right". Organic industry development is the typical model and important direction of ecological industrialization. In Yangxian county, the organic production paradigm of "product-industry-production area" promotes the transformation of organic practitioners from single subject management to multi-agent operation, and the transformation of land use type from resource optimal allocation to man-land coordination. In the future, coupling of ecological protection and socio-economic development can be realized by the model construction of modern organic agriculture and rural revitalization in Hanjiang River basin from the aspects of improving organic products quality and yield, enhancing organic industrial integration and value, reducing consumption and increasing efficiency in production areas.

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    China's regional economic development and policy system evolution: A three-dimensional analysis framework based on dynamic perspective
    XIA Tian, XIA Ying, LIU Xiaoyu, SUN Jiuwen
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (8): 1904-1919.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202308004
    Abstract2067)   HTML445)    PDF (2025KB)(1448)      

    Despite the initial development goals achieved, China's macro-economy is still deeply affected by the external environment and stuck in its own structure at the same time. In retrospect, not until 1949 with the founding of the People's Republic of China did China's budding regional economy witness the prominence of a fixed development pattern shifting from a spontaneous to an actuating one. After comparing the three regional economic practices, this paper finds that each development stage has its corresponding development strategy. At the same time, several development patterns, namely, the coastal and inland areas, the three regions, and four plates were formed accordingly. Furthermore, through combing the literature and historical facts, this paper determines the historical starting point, division criteria and division scheme of China's regional economic development before summarizing three main lines and also contradictions therein: the government-market relations against the background of market reform, the coastal-inland relations against the tide of economic zonation, and the urban-rural relations against the trend of urbanization. Based on the above, the paper constructs a three-dimensional model out of the spatio-termporal process of China's regional development before proposing new historical stages from the perspective of economic system modernization. These historical stages are: industrial economy, special zone economy, district economy, regional economy and urban network economy. Finally, from the urbanization angle, this paper concludes that for different urbanization stages, regional policies should be industrial policies, factor policies, fiscal and tax policies sequentially.

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    Estimation of soil carbon storage change from land use and management at a high spatial resolution in China during 2000-2020
    TONG Rongxin, LIANG Xun, GUAN Qingfeng, SONG Yu, CHEN Yuling, WANG Qinyi, ZHENG Lina, JIN Qun, YU Yanping, HE Jie, XIONG Xuehui, LIAO Weilin
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (9): 2209-2222.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202309006
    Abstract745)   HTML128)    PDF (1496KB)(643)      

    Soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and soil carbon sinks play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle of terrestrial ecosystem. However, many previous studies of soil carbon storage and sinks utilized low-resolution land use dataset, with limited focus on soil carbon sinks from farmland and grassland management. To address this issue, this study employed a series of accounting models to estimate the carbon sink from farmland and grassland management, the carbon sink from forest management, changes in soil carbon storage, changes in carbon storage due to land use conversion from 2000 to 2020, as well as the soil carbon storage in China in 2000 and 2020 using a 30 m-resolution land use dataset. The results showed that the national carbon sink from farmland management in China was approximately 17.918 Tg C a-1 and the carbon sink from grassland management was approximately 20.171 Tg C a-1 during 2000-2020. The carbon sink from forest management in China was approximately 81.622 Tg C a-1 during 2000-2020. The soil carbon storage (0-100 cm) in China increased from 86.074 Pg C in 2000 to 86.771 Pg C in 2020. The soil carbon storage increased by approximately 34.850 Tg C a-1 from 2000 to 2020. The land use transformation during the study period resulted in a decrease of approximately 17.621 Tg C a-1 in soil carbon storage. The findings of this study can help researchers understand China's carbon storage and provide scientific data to China's 2060 Carbon Neutrality Target.

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    Hydrological mechanism and disaster-causing effects of subsurface stormflow
    CUI Peng, ZHANG Guotao, ZHANG Chendi
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (7): 1627-1640.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202307005
    Abstract547)   HTML82)    PDF (3723KB)(770)      

    Subsurface stormflow is a special form of subsurface flow in the vadose zone of steep slopes in mountainous and hilly regions, and it is also one of the most important runoff generation mechanisms in the process of flash flood formation. However, the systematic summary on the scientific connotation, mechanisms, and disaster-causing characteristics of the subsurface stormflow in current research is very rare and this limits the development of the theoretical system of runoff generation, routing, and modeling methods of flash floods. Herein, we clarify the scientific connotation and definition of subsurface stormflow based on the division of the development periods of the subsurface stormflow research around the world as well as the analysis of physical processes for the runoff generation. Meanwhile, three physical conditions for the occurrence of subsurface stormflow, together with their influences on the nonlinear response process, are highlighted. The influences of the subsurface stormflow on the dynamic development of flash floods, landslides, and debris flow hazards are analyzed and summarized. Finally, three key research directions are proposed: water transport processes and hydrological connectivity mechanism of the macropores in the vadose zone, processes and mechanisms of water exchange at the geotechnical channel interfaces inside the slopes, and the formation mechanism for flash flood from multiple runoff generation processes with complex slope topography conditions. This work can provide new research perspectives for the formation mechanism and hydrological theoretical framework of flash floods in complex mountainous regions, and better support the national scientific and technological needs for flash flood forecast as well as disaster prevention and mitigation.

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    Theory, method, and empirical studies of travel behavior resilience
    HUANG Jie, WANG Jiaoe
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (10): 2507-2519.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202310008
    Abstract626)   HTML124)    PDF (2929KB)(466)      

    Resilience study has long been a focal point in various fields of geography, social science, urban studies, and psychology. Recently, resilience study from multiple disciplines has scrutinized at individual scale. As an important behavior in daily life of human beings, travel behavior is of spatial dependence, spatio-temporal dynamics, and individual heterogeneity. Moreover, how to understand interaction between travel behavior (demand) and traffic supply and their dynamics is a fundamental question in transport studies when transport systems encounter unexpected disturbance. Based on fundamental theories from multiple disciplines including ecology, traffic engineering, and psychology, this paper refines the definition of travel behavior resilience. Also, this paper proposes a conceptual theoretical framework of travel behavior resilience based on dynamic equilibrium characteristics of traffic supply and demand. In general, travel behavior presents three stages of variations, namely, dramatic reduction, rapid growth, and fluctuation recovery, which has been helpful to capture travel behavior resilience triangle. Then we construct a corresponding evaluation methodology, which is suitable for multi-scale and multi-dimensional perspectives. We emphasize that the evaluation of travel behavior resilience should be process-oriented with temporal continuity or capture inflection points of travel behavior. Using multi-source big data such as mobile phone signaling data and smart card data, this paper offers empirical studies on travel behavior resilience, and explores its spatial heterogeneity and group differences. With the location-based analysis, we confirm that people show the greater travel behavior resilience at places where people are engaged in various socio-economic activities. With the group-based analysis, we find that age, socio-economic attributes of mobility groups significantly affect travel behavior resilience. Overall, travel behavior resilience can be one pillar and also offer geographic perspectives to broaden resilience studies. In future, the study of travel behavior resilience on multiple scales and perspectives can explore spatial heterogeneity of traffic re-equilibrium, transport modal differences, and then contribute to urban spatial structure studies. Indeed, the study of travel behavior resilience can provide scientific and technological support for urban management and resilient city construction.

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    A systematic review of centenary studies on natural resources and environmental carrying capacity
    WANG Yafei, FAN Jie
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (11): 2676-2693.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202311003
    Abstract232)   HTML68)    PDF (2515KB)(203)      

    Carrying capacity, a concept entrenched in the natural resources and environmental field for nearly two centuries, has continually evolved to address the conflicts and sustainability of the human-nature relationship. This paper introduces an analytical framework for understanding carrying capacity within the context of the human-nature relationship. It systematically reviews the progression of international carrying capacity studies, analyzes global research trends, and compares these with Chinese studies, highlighting key research directions in China. Historically, carrying capacity traces its roots to (neo)Malthusian theories. Its evolution spans four distinct stages: resource carrying capacity (since the 1800s), environmental carrying capacity (since the 1970s), ecosystem carrying capacity (since the 1990s), and natural system carrying capacity (since the 2010s). The concept of carrying capacity varies widely across global disciplines and even within the same discipline, showcasing diverse applications. Carrying capacity has sparked controversy due to its connection to political economy theories and factors such as technological progress, market mechanisms, and spatial and temporal constraints. Therefore, it is imperative to engage in a restrained and explicit discussion and application of carrying capacity. Presently, China's carrying capacity studies align closely with the international community, capitalizing on regional-scale studies employing a holistic and systematic human-nature relationship approach. However, there is an opportunity for enhancement in terms of global-scale perspectives and the integration of natural and social sciences theories and methodologies. This paper proposes fostering innovation and application in carrying capacity research within the Chinese context. This entails integrating various disciplines and theories, exploring scale effects and mechanisms, utilizing model-data fusion and integration, applying case studies in various spatial units and typical zone types, and improving policy systems and institutions.

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    Spatial pattern and optimization zoning of characteristic villages based on tourism space in China
    KONG Xuesong, FU Mengxue, JIANG Ping
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (10): 2554-2573.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202310011
    Abstract417)   HTML80)    PDF (5867KB)(410)      

    Characteristic villages are important carriers of rural industry revitalization and urban-rural leisure tourism. Although a large amount of characteristic rural resources and their tourism potential have been constantly exploited, the spatial synergistic relationship of different types of characteristic villages remains unclear. This paper analyzes the differentiation pattern, spatial linkage, and function complementary features of national characteristic villages, which include 6819 traditional villages, 7586 forest villages, 1199 key rural tourism villages, 1652 ethnic minority villages, and 487 famous villages with Chinese history and culture. The tourism development potential of characteristic villages is evaluated based on the identification of agglomeration areas of characteristic villages. The collaborative optimization zoning of rural tourism space is proposed based on the location matching degree analysis between characteristic villages and tourism facilities. The results show that the characteristic villages in China are densely distributed in the east and sparsely in the west, and the agglomeration regions are characterized by coastal areas (near the East China Sea), and riverside areas (along the Yangtze and Yellow river). The formation and development of characteristic villages are the results of the interaction of multiple factors, among which, the urbanization rate of county, annual precipitation, population density, and tourism industry scale index have significant effects. The high potential areas for tourism development of Chinese characteristic villages have formed a rhombic distribution pattern, which takes the central cities of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration as strategic fulcrums. This paper divides the whole country into priority development area, characteristic mining area, resource integration area, collaborative improvement area, and optimization guidance area, which points out the direction of spatial pattern optimization and coordinated development of characteristic rural tourism.

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    The characteristics and multi-scale governance of rural space in the new era in China
    GE Dazhuan
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (8): 1849-1868.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202308001
    Abstract2035)   HTML405)    PDF (3252KB)(1463)      

    Deconstructing rural spatial characteristics is the precondition for building rural spatial governance system in the new era, and multi-scale rural spatial characteristics and its governance path would effectively support the modernization of the national governance system. Based on the comprehensive, regional and mobile thinking paradigm of geography, this paper deconstructs the multi-scale rural spatial characteristics, identifies its internal operating logics, summarizes its governance dilemmas, constructs a multi-scale rural spatial governance framework that is based on geographical analysis paradigm, explores feasible governance paths, and constructs a multi-scale rural spatial governance system research plan, namely, "characteristics identification-dilemma analysis-governance framework-governance path". The paper finds that: (1) to analyze the operating logics of the multi-scale rural space through the comprehensive, regional and mobile analytical thinking of geography, it is necessary to understand the mechanism of action of scale synthesis, scale differentiation and scale flow to the multi-scale rural spatial characteristics, highlighting the comprehensive characteristics of rural space, strengthening rural spatial heterogeneity, and integrating rural spatial mobility. (2) The lacking urban-rural spatial overall planning, unsmooth spatial mobile network and not-reflected different types of rural spatial value are the key dilemmas in the rural spatial governance, which need to be addressed. (3) The multi-scale rural spatial governance framework of "comprehensive spatial governance-spatial zoning governance-spatial mobile governance" could effectively solve the problems of urban-rural spatial integration, regional spatial coordination and spatial network blockage. (4) Integrating urban-rural comprehensive governance, innovating regulation control to improve regional governance and balancing the configuration of spatial development right to achieve mobile spatial governance are feasible paths for multi-scale rural space governance. In conclusion, clarifying the multi-scale rural spatial characteristics in the new era and constructing a scientific governance system could provide theoretical support to promote integrated urban-rural development and rural vitalization strategy.

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    Acta Geographica Sinica    1958, 24 (1): 84-102.   DOI: 10.11821/xb195801008
    Abstract2000)      PDF (1371KB)(1494)      
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    Measurement and spatio-temporal pattern of urban-rural integrated development in China
    ZHENG Yuhan, LONG Hualou
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (8): 1869-1887.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202308002
    Abstract1040)   HTML215)    PDF (7275KB)(972)      

    Urban-rural integrated development is an advanced stage in the evolution of the urban-rural relationship, and it is also the basic path and main goal for the implementation of rural revitalization. Scientifically understanding and identifying the integration stage and its current level of urban-rural development in China is the prerequisite basis for promoting urban-rural integrated development and rural revitalization. Based on the concept connotation, this paper constructed a multi-dimensional evaluation system of urban-rural integrated development at the prefecture level. The process status and spatiotemporal divergent characteristics of urban-rural integrated development in 336 prefecture-level regions in China from 2000-2018 were portrayed and revealed. The results show that: (1) The current state of urban-rural integrated development in China is generally at a low-to-middle level, showing a heterogeneous spatiotemporal pattern with apparent gradient divergence. The integrated development level of the Pearl River Delta, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and the Shandong Peninsula is high, but the regions distributed to the west of the "Hu Line" develops slowly. (2) According to the level and characteristics of integrated development, the 366 prefecture-level regions can be divided into four types: integrated development, tending integration, imbalanced development, and lagging development, with a more active transformation between the latter three types. (3) The development level of urban-rural economic integration is higher than that of demographic and social integration, while the development process of urban-rural spatial and ecological integration shows some natural zonal divergent characteristics. Finally, we identified the problem areas for different types of integrated development and explored the regional promotion path of urban-rural integrated development, which could provide scientific references for the strategies of regional urban-rural development and rural revitalization.

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    Geospatial enabled monitoring for urban SDGs: Progress, challenges and prospect
    BAI Jianjun, CHEN Jun
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (11): 2647-2658.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202311001
    Abstract324)   HTML71)    PDF (1020KB)(180)      

    On the basis of analyzing urban SDGs monitoring and evaluation, this paper expounds the conceptual connotation of geospatial enabled monitoring and its differences from traditional statistical-based monitoring for urban SDGs. Meanwhile, through document comparison and analysis, the development and latest progress of urban SDGs monitoring and evaluation has been revealed, suggesting a transformation of urban SDGs monitoring and evaluation from traditional statistical-based monitoring to geospatial enabled monitoring. In addition, this paper systematically analyzes the research progress and current situation of geospatial enabled monitoring from the aspects of monitoring index system, geospatial data acquisition for monitoring, and monitoring ideas and methods. Results showed that the number of urban SDGs indicators is too large and the relationship is complex, with the lack of clear core and key indicators, which need to be optimized and improved according to the specific situation. The lack of standard, public and directly available data requires the development of appropriate methods for spatial data generation and multi-source data utilization, and the establishment of data products for urban SDGs monitoring and evaluation. Besides, the lack of scientific and efficient monitoring and evaluation methods is also one of the main problems facing the current urban SDGs studies. Finally, through the analysis of current challenges in urban SDGs monitoring, future research in geospatial enabled monitoring for urban SDGs are proposed, including the establishment of scientific and efficient monitoring and evaluation methods, the establishment of a standardized and unified monitoring index system, the construction of data production sharing and monitoring and evaluation knowledge service platform, and the strengthening of the application research of big earth data and related disciplines support for the monitoring and evaluation of urban SDGs.

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    On the problems of urbanization in the Yangtze River Deltaunder the background of global change
    Cheng ZHU, Fengqing JIANG, Li WU, Mengxiu ZENG, Tianjiao JIA, Shenglu ZHOU, Yuemin NING, Jun YU, Xuezhi FENG
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2017, 72 (4): 633-645.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb201704006
    Abstract2173)   HTML26)    PDF (1583KB)(2965)      

    Urbanization is an inevitable way for China's modernization and the long-term national policy making of sustainable economic development. In the context of global change, some scientific issues, such as the influences of climate change on the development of urbanization, the response mechanism and adaptation model to the climate change in the rapidly urbanized region and the strategies for sustainable development of urbanization, have not been responded. Thus, this paper analyzes the scientific problems of urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta, a rapidly urbanized region in China, under the background of the global change. Firstly, we briefly review the progress of the research on the response of urbanization to the global change, and then based on the relevant research results we aim to focus on some problems in the urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta under the background of global change. Furthermore, from the perspective of environmental archaeology we mainly discuss the evolution of the relationship between regional climate change and urbanization development in the Yangtze River Delta. We analyze the impacts of global warming, extreme climate and human activities on the development of urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta based on the historical data of disasters and environmental problems. We think that, in the process of urbanization, the human and economic geography research should be strengthened. Finally, some priority research areas related to urbanization in this delta region are suggested.

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    Cited: Baidu(3) CSCD(9)
    Response of vegetation phenology to extreme climate and its mechanism
    ZHANG Jing, HAO Fanghua, WU Zhaofei, LI Mingwei, ZHANG Xuan, FU Yongshuo
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (9): 2241-2255.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202309008
    Abstract554)   HTML125)    PDF (1461KB)(528)      

    Global climate change caused by human activities results in frequent extreme climate events, and shifts the physiological processes of plants, and the carbon, water cycle and energy balance of terrestrial ecosystems. Vegetation phenology is the most sensitive biological indicator to climate change. In recent years, the responses of vegetation phenology to climate change mainly focus on the mean state of the climate, while the response mechanisms of vegetation phenology to extreme climate are still unclear. In this paper, the response of vegetation spring and autumn phenology to various extreme climatic events and their mechanisms were reviewed. We found that extreme low temperature and extreme precipitation directly delayed the vegetation green-up date and advanced the leaf senescence, while extreme high temperature and extreme drought led to stomatal closure, inhibited photosynthesis and transpiration, and thus advanced leaf senescence at middle and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Currently, the studies on the response of vegetation phenology to extreme climate events pay less attention to compound extreme climate events, and there are only few studies on the lag effect of vegetation phenology response to extreme climate events and the recovery process of vegetation after the occurrence of extreme events. Under future climate change scenarios, it is necessary to modify the vegetation phenological models by considering the impact of extreme climate events and couple it into the dynamic global vegetation models to improve the simulation accuracy of the carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystems.

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    Co-evolution of tourism economy and urban ecological resilience in Shandong province
    WANG Songmao, NIU Jinlan
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (10): 2591-2608.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202310013
    Abstract327)   HTML75)    PDF (4027KB)(305)      

    Exploring the co-evolution characteristics of tourism economy and urban ecological resilience can provide theoretical support and quantitative basis for the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. From the perspective of evolutionary resilience, this paper constructs an index system of urban ecological resilience based upon "resistance, response and innovation". The theoretical framework of the co-evolution of tourism economy and urban ecological resilience is analyzed with the synergetics. Taking Shandong province as an example, this paper uses the Haken model, kernel density estimation and spatialtemporal weighted regression to analyse the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics and influencing factors of co-evolution of tourism economy and urban ecological resilience. The results show that: (1) From the time dimension, the tourism economy shows a trend of continuous rise at first and then a temporary decline, and the urban ecological resilience shows a trend of stable growth. In terms of spatial distribution, the tourism economy and urban ecological resilience show a spatial pattern of "high-high and low-low concentrations" and "dual core leading", respectively. (2) Tourism economy is a sequence parameter of co-evolution, which dominates the development and evolution of the entire system in this stage, and mainly shows the effect of positive feedback. The co-evolution of tourism economy and urban ecological resilience presents an inverted "V" trend, and forms a spatial pattern of Jiaodong Economic Circle > Lunan Economic Circle > Jinan Economic Circle. (3) There are obvious regional differences in the influencing factors of the co-evolution, and the level of economic development, foreign investment, environmental regulation, financial development, and innovation capability have obvious positive effects. The industrial structure and human capital have barely negative effects. The government intervention shows significantly positive effect in the Jiaodong Economic Circle, but not significantly negative effect in the Lunan Economic Circle and the Jinan Economic Circle.

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    Comprehensive evaluation and spatial differentiation of community resilience in Guangzhou based on response of the city to public health hazards
    YANG Ying,LIN Lin,ZHONG Zhiping,OU Yingying,XU Qian,MENG Meiyun,HAO Shan
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2019, 74 (2): 266-284.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb201902005
    Abstract1620)   HTML88)    PDF (4146KB)(1396)      

    Due to the increasingly serious public health hazards situation, it is important to explore the pattern of spatial differentiation by evaluating community resilience comprehensively. Empirically, it not only helps to figure out the level of public health and the ability of community to deal with the health hazards, but also promotes health equity and community health governance. As for the theoretical contribution, it is innovative to apply community resilience at a micro-scale and public health perspective in China. The study constructs theoretical frameworks of community resilience based on social-ecosystem resilience theory in the basic unit of Guangzhou's communities. A community resilience evaluation model with gray correlation TOPSIS method is established, which contains 23 indicators and 32 variables from five dimensions, including natural environment, built environment, social capital, economic capital and political institution. Conclusions are drawn as follows: Firstly, the community resilience of Guangzhou was identified into five ranks (Excellent, Good, Average, Poor and Fail), and the overall structure turns out to be an olive-shaped pattern, while the community resilience for the urban area is superior to the rural communities. Secondly, the spatial features of community resilience show the trend of gradient decline (from center to edges, from middle-east to west and from south to north). It is indicated that subsystems differ significantly in spatial pattern while communities in all ranks are clustered geographically. There are four types of spatial distribution, which are "double centers type", "core-periphery type", "extensive dispersion with localized concentrations type", and "edge extension type". Finally, the safe area of public health is distributed in the central and southern parts of the city while the dangerous area is in the west, which should be the focus of the defense area of public health security.

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    Cited: CSCD(2)
    The spatial differentiation pattern and influencing factors of Chinese urban residents' perceptions of living conditions
    ZHANG Yuangang, ZHANG Hongmei, ZHAO Xiaotong
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (10): 2574-2590.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202310012
    Abstract407)   HTML86)    PDF (3955KB)(317)      

    Governing the country is a matter of routine and people-oriented strategy, and improving the people's well-being is "the greatest thing in the country". At present, China is facing the challenge that the national well-being declines with the economic development. This study is based on the national large-scale regional space and adopts the survey data collected in 2020 by the "China People's Livelihood Survey" research group of the Development Research Center of the State Council. The data cover 31 provincial-level regions (hereafter provinces) across the country, including 164 cities at prefecture-level and above, and the number of valid samples is 26370. The research adopts the methods such as the trend surface analysis and spatial analysis of hotspots and coldspots to construct the spatial differentiation and agglomeration pattern of urban residents' perceptions of living conditions in the 31 provinces; the multi-level regression model is used to explore the multi-dimensional influencing factors of perceptions of living conditions at the individual and city levels. The findings are as follows: (1) The differentiation of the living improvement, living condition evaluation, future life confidence and perceptions of living conditions of urban residents in China shows a pattern of high in the west and low in the east, and high in the south and low in the north. (2) The living conditions of urban residents show the characteristics of "continuous agglomeration", and the evaluation of living conditions shows the characteristics of "coexistence of massive agglomeration and scattered distribution", and shows the characteristics of high in the south and west and low in the north and east together with the future life confidence and overall perceptions of living conditions. (3) On average, the highest and lowest values of life improvement, urban residents' living condition evaluation, future life confidence and perceptions of living conditions are also located in the west and east respectively. (4) The influencing factors at the individual level are reflected in gender, age, education level, employment status, household registration status and satisfaction evaluation of urban public services. Among them, satisfaction evaluation of urban public services is reflected in government services, social security status, fair law enforcement status, food safety status, housing status, education status, medical services, transportation status, environmental status, etc. (5) The city size has a significant impact on the perceptions of living conditions of urban residents. Compared with large cities, the perceptions of living conditions of residents in small and medium-sized cities is higher, while that of residents in megacities is lower. In addition, the positive impact of satisfaction evaluation of public services in megacities on the perceptions of living conditions of urban residents has been weakened. Specifically, it mainly weakens the positive correlation strength of medical status evaluation and traffic status evaluation on the well-being effect. The research provides a practical and theoretical reference for the research, judgment and governance direction of China's national perceptions of living conditions.

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    Experience and future research trends of wetland protection and restoration in China
    JIANG Weiguo, ZHANG Ze, LING Ziyan, DENG Yawen
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (9): 2223-2240.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202309007
    Abstract723)   HTML157)    PDF (4952KB)(613)      

    Wetland is an important natural resource for human beings and plays an irreplaceable ecological function in the terrestrial ecosystem. In order to curb the continued loss of wetlands around the world, international organizations and many countries have taken a series of major protection and restoration measures. This paper reviews the wetland protection and restoration measures of international organizations and some countries, comprehensively interprets China's wetland protection and restoration management experience, and proposes that future research on wetland resources should be carried out from the aspects of international frontier and national strategy, social economy and intelligent services. The results show that: (1) The 27 International Wetlands Day from 1997 to 2023 provide new goals and tasks for the protection and management of wetlands in corresponding years. The important topics and outcomes of the 14 International Convention on Wetlands Conferences from 1980 to 2022 provide new directions and new challenges for wetland development in the coming period. In the future, we should enhance ecological functions of wetlands, promote the sustainable development of wetlands, and overcome the technical bottleneck of ecological restoration of fragile wetland ecosystems from 2020 to 2035. (2) During the 30-year period from 1992 to 2022, China embarked on a new phase of wetland protection and restoration. The overall experience of wetland protection and restoration with Chinese characteristics has been formed through "national strategic deployment-legal policy establishment-project planning and implementation". Emphasis was placed on the need to provide for and prepare planning for the long-term protection of wetlands at the national legal level, to innovate restoration and management techniques and application systems, and to effectively address the complex issues of wetland protection and restoration through collaborative division of labor among multiple departments. (3) The research on the future trend of wetlands should be directed towards the exploration and practice of "United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and several international conventions" in support of the sustainable development of wetlands. Wetland protection, restoration and management services should be promoted for "national strategic needs and local social and economic high-quality development". Research on the cross-integration and academic innovation development also should be enhanced for "disciplinary development - global supervision - comprehensive assessment-intelligent decision-making".

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    The impacts of urban population agglomeration and human mobility on economic performance
    LEI Weiqian, JIAO Limin
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (8): 1969-1982.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202308008
    Abstract692)   HTML139)    PDF (1935KB)(612)      

    As a product of certain type of social interaction, urban scaling laws assume that urban attributes such as urban economic outputs are largely determined by urban population size (internal interactions), implying the assumption of agglomeration economies. Urban population agglomeration represents a local network effect, while the global network effect on a larger spatial scale between cities should also be considered in terms of the improvement of social productivity. Taking 275 Chinese cities at prefecture level and above as the research object, we constructed an urban human mobility network by Baidu migration data and portraied the degree of external interaction by human mobility between cities. We comparatively analysed the non-linear relationship between population size within cities and external interaction and urban economic outputs under the urban scaling framework. Results show that there is a significant super-linear scaling relationship between urban economic output and external interaction, revealing the higher multiplier effect of external interaction on urban economic outputs. The role of network spatial interaction cannot be ignored and it has become an important complement to agglomeration economies. Further, indicators such as urban population density, agglomeration and network externalities are introduced to quantitatively and comprehensively measure the effects of urban population agglomeration and interurban population mobility and their synergistic effects on urban economic outputs. The agglomeration effect brought about by urban population size remains the main driver of regional economic development, and the ability of cities to benefit from exchange and cooperation on a larger spatial scale has yet to be enhanced. This study contributes to fully understanding the origins of urban scaling laws from taking both internal and external interaction into consideration, deepening the recognization of the agglomeration effect and network effect of regional economic growth. This paper is supposed to support for promoting high-quality integrated urban development and deepening the practice of coordinated regional development.

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    The finding and significance of the super altitudinal belt of montane deciduous broad-leaved forests in central Qinling Mountains
    ZHANG Baiping, YAO Yonghui, XIAO Fei, ZHOU Wenzuo, ZHU Lianqi, ZHANG Junhua, ZHAO Fang, BAI Hongying, WANG Jing, YU Fuqin, ZHANG Xinghang, LIU Junjie, LI Jiayu, JIANG Ya
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2022, 77 (9): 2236-2248.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202209007
    Abstract5375)   HTML294)    PDF (3374KB)(1475)      

    Mountain altitudinal belts are the miniature of horizontal differentiation and succession of climatic and vegetational zonation. However, altitudinal belts' vertical range, transition model, inner structure and combining pattern vary from place to place. In Mt. Taibai of the central section of China's north-south transitional zone, we have found an altitudinal belt with the largest range in the world, namely, the montane deciduous broad-leaved forest, which extends continuously from the mountain base to about 2800 m, including basal oak belt, typical oak belt of two sub-belts and cold-tolerant pioneer birch belt of two sub-belts, which could otherwise develop independently. Characterized by a "three layers and five sub-belts" structure, this "super altitudinal belt" is much vertically broader than the threshold of 1000 m for normal altitudinal belts. Its formation is closely related with its transitional geographic location, integral spectrum of altitudinal belts in central Qinling Mountains, rich and diverse species of deciduous woody plants, and their strong competitiveness. The finding of the super altitudinal belt has multiple significance: Its existence is another significant physio-geographic feature of China's north-south transitional zone; it shows that an altitudinal belt may have rather complex inner structure and broad vertical range in some special mountain environment. This broadens our understanding of altitudinal belt structures and their mechanisms, and is of great significance for developing structural theory for montane altitudinal belts. This finding also demonstrates that there are many big questions for us to explore and study in the north-south transitional zone, and it is expected that our finding could trigger in-depth study of local climate and biodiversity responsible for the formation of this super belt, and of the complex structure and ecological effect of China's north-south transitional zone.

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    Spatio-temporal differences of enhanced aeolian sand activity in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau over the past 1500 years
    TANG Daobin, YANG Kunmei, ZENG Lanhua, LIU Xiangjun, XIN Cunlin, XU Yantian
    Acta Geographica Sinica    2023, 78 (9): 2284-2298.   DOI: 10.11821/dlxb202309011
    Abstract385)   HTML75)    PDF (3417KB)(379)      

    Based on previous studies, aeolian sand activity in northeastern Tibetan Plateau (NETP) had strengthened during the past 1500 years, but the reasons are still unknown, concerning climate change, human activities, or a combination of both. In this study, according to the natural environment and population distribution, the NETP is divided into two regions: Zone I, which mainly includes Qinghai Lake Basin, Gonghe Basin and Hehuang Valley, has better hydrothermal condition and the larger population than Zone II that is comprised of Yellow River source area and Qaidam Basin, with cold and dry climate and sparse population. Then, this paper summarizes the published ages of aeolian sand, aeolian sand activity records, paleoclimate proxy indicators and the related records of human activities in these two zones. Also, we analyze the spatio-temporal differences and influencing factors among the increasingly enhanced aeolian sand activity during the past 1500 years in the NETP. The results show that there are spatio-temporal differences of enhanced aeolian sand activity in the NETP over the past 1500 years. Aeolian sand activity in Zone I significantly strengthened during the relatively warm and humid period of 1.5~1.0 ka ago, while that in Zone II did not enhance until since 1.0 ka. The time when the aeolian sand activity began to strengthen in Zone I was 0.5 ka earlier than in Zone II. Through the comprehensive analysis, the study shows that the destruction of natural vegetation caused by increased human activities is the reason why the enhanced aeolian sand activity in Zone I was 0.5 ka earlier than that in Zone II. The enhanced aeolian sand activity in Zone II were mainly caused by climate change over the past 1.0 ka. This study provides an insight in the spatio-temporal differences of the enhanced aeolian sand activity in the NETP over the past 1500 years, as well as a reference for ecological environment governance and predicting the change of aeolian sand activity under the trend of global warming in the future.

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