With the further study on the Cenozoic stratum in the field of stratigraphy at home and abroad, the stratigraphic classification constantly has been updated by the international stratum field since 1996. Up to now, the status of the Quaternary period of the Cenozoic Era is uncertain in the International Stratigraphic Chart (ICS, 2008), which might include Pleistocene, and its age of the bottom limit can go back to about 2.6 MaB.P. Along with the higher international status of Chinese experts on Quaternary research, the advice on the stratigraphic classification of Cenozoic Era will become more and more important.

Through investigation of the middle reaches of the Jinghe River, we choose the slackwater deposits for palaeohydrology study. On the basis of field survey, samples of the slackwater deposits were collected and the grain-size distribution, the magnetic susceptibility variation, the loss on ignition and the content of calcium carbonate were determined. All of these indexes showed that the slackwater deposits were typical in the study area. According to the stratigraphic correlation and cultural remains including fragments of pottery and burnt earth, we identified the corresponding palaeoflood which occurred in the late period of Longshan Culture (4200-4000 a B.P.). Supported by the hydrological technique, we reconstructed that the peak discharges of the palaeofloods were 19490-22040 m³/s. Meanwhile, reconstruction of modern gauged flood proved the hydrological method was reliable. And the relationship between drainage area and flood peak discharge illustrated that the results were reasonable. Thus, the results prolong the flood data sequence of Jinghe River and provide significant data for engineering construction, flood control and disaster alleviation in the middle reaches of the Jinghe River.

The Shlehe River Basin is located in the western part of the Qilian Mountains, where climate is very dry. Ten boreholes were drilled at 5 sites on various types of land surface and terrain in the source areas of the Shule River valley for monitoring permafrost, and measured temperature tubes were assembled in the boreholes. According to records of borehole and measured temperature, the elevation of permafrost lower limit was determined to be 3750 m (a.s.l.) and volume of ground ice was little because loose stratum is alluvium composed of coarse soil. The permafrost state was affected by local factors obviously. Discrepancy of a slope gradient can lead to a ground temperature difference of 0.5 ^oC, while discrepancy of slope aspect can result in a ground temperature difference of 1.0 ^oC. Influences of soil water content on ground temperature of shallow layers are even greater than those of slope aspect. Discrepancy of ground condition can result in significant difference in ground temperature and depth of active layer. Contrast to permafrost of central-eastern Qilian Mountains, permafrost in the Shule River source areas is not affected by ecological processes and its formation and preservation were directly driven by climate. So the permafrost of the Shule River source areas was typical of that of arid regions.

The precipitable water vapor, transfer flux of water vapor and divergency of transfer flux of water vapor over the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau in summer half year (from April to September) is calculated by using NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data obtained from 60 years from 1948 to 2007. The distribution and variation characteristic of precipitable water vapor in summer half year over the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau is analyzed. The transfer of water vapor over the whole plateau and its surrounding is analyzed. THe result shows that there is a significant high center of precipitable water vapor at the middle troposphere over the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau in summer half year. The characteristics of ‘ moist pool’ are significant, and there are three high centers of precipitable water vapor in the ‘moist pool’ , which are southwest, southeast and south sides of the plateau. The variation of pricipitable water vapor over the whole region is great from April to September. The velocity of moisture increase is faster than its decrease. Water vapor comes into the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau mainly through three moisture channels, which are westerly zone channel, Indian Ocean via the Bay of Bengal channel and South China Sea via the Bay of Bengal channel. The water vapor entering the plateau is mainly from the southeast plateau, the southwest plateau, and the middle Himalaya Mountains.

The Muzhaerte River Valley is located on the southeastern slope of the Tumur Peak, the largest center of modern glaciation in the Tianshan Mountains of China. Four sets of moraines are well-preserved in the valley and on the piedmont. The landforms contain vital information about the variation of the palaeo-environment, and studies on them make it easy to understand the change of ancient glaciers and to reconstruct the palaeo-environment in this region. Electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of a well-exposed section, end moraines and associated outwashes, fluvial sediments on the Kezibulake moraines were carried out using Ge centers in quartz grains, which are sensitive to the sunlight and grinding. Considering the principles of geomorphology and stratigraphy and the available data of the palaeo-environment, some conclusions can be drawn as follows: the first set of moraines, consisting of 3-4 end moraines, were deposited in Little Ice Age; the Tugaibieliqi end moraine was the sediment of the Neo-glacial; the Pochengzi end moraines and the Kezibulake moraines were determined to deposit in the last glaciation and in MIS6. The Pochengzi end moraines and their dates demonstrate that at least three large glacial advances occurred during the last glaciation, corresponding to MIS4, MIS3b and MIS2, respectively. Furthermore the result shows that the glaciers were compound valley ones in MIS2 and MIS3b, while they were piedmont ones in MIS4 and MIS6. The length of the ancient Muzhaerte glacier was about 92~99 km during the Pochengzi glaciation and about 120 km during the Kezibulake glaciation.

This paper studies the changing trend of annual and seasonal mean temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, precipitation and sunshine duration etc. by using the observational data of 9 meteorological stations over the Nujiang River Basin in Tibet from 1971 to 2008. It also analyzes the variation trend of meteorological elements by climatic linear trend methods, and discusses the correlation between the linear trend of elements and latitude, altitude and longitude. The results show that the annual mean temperature has increased over the Nujiang River Basin with a rate of 0.26 ^oC/10a during the past 40 years, which is lower than that in Northeast China and Northwest China, and is higher than that in the Huaihe River basin and South China, and similar to that over the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. The trends of mean maximum and minimum temperatures are increasing, the trend of diurnal temperature range is significantly decreasing at a rate of (-0. 13~-0.57) ^oC/10a. The annual precipitation increases significantly and the linear increasing rate is 21.0mm/10a, while that in all seasons increases. The annual sunshine duration decreases over the Nujiang River Basin with a rate of -31.7 h/10a, and the maximum decrease is in summer, and the rate of decrease is greater than that in the Huanghe River basin and eastern margin of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. In addition, the variation of maximum frozen soil depth shows a significant declining trend over the upper reaches of the Nujiang River Basin in Tibet, resulting from the increasing soil temperature, especially in Amdo. Correlation analysis demonstrates that sunshine duration is significantly negative with precipitation (all seasons) and surface vapor pressure (in summer and autumn). Results indicate that the principal causes for the decrease of sunshine duration are the significant increase of surface vapor pressure and precipitation in most parts of the Nujiang River Basin. The correlation between total cloud amount and diurnal temperature range is negative significantly, and is positive evidently with precipitation in summer, hence the relative humidity is not the main affecting factor with the decrease of total cloud amount. The amplification of annual temperature and precipitation became greater with the increase of altitude and latitude. The linear trend of sunshine duration is positively related with longitude, and the decreasing amplitude of sunshine duration in summer and winter decreases with increasing longitude.

In the rapid urbanization of China, the phenomenon of urban sprawl is becoming more and more obvious. Firstly, this paper introduces the basic concept and characteristics of Western urban sprawl. Then it explains the difference of urban sprawl between Occident and China, which is closely linked with economic and social development. So it establishes an urban sprawl evaluation system with AHP on the basis of western experiences and approaches from the traditional perspective of spatial pattern. Then the coordinating degree between economy and society is used to amend the evaluation system. In order to get the value of the coordinating degree, a synthesized index system of economy and society which contains 10 indexes is built. In addition, the method of principal component analysis and fuzzy math is applied in the assessment process. In order to demonstrate the whole evaluation system, the data of Hangzhou city are used to conduct an actual assessment and analysis. The result indicates that the degree of urban sprawl is relatively great, which is accordant with the judgement from the spatial form of Hangzhou. Based on the result, we discuss the control mechanism of urban sprawl and some proposals are put forward from many aspects.

The present research on the evolution of regional spatial pattern has focused less attention to the interaction relationship between the spatial pattern variable and its influencing factors. This paper aims to establish a variable-relationship model of economic development at county level in Jiangsu from 2000 to 2010, and uses the ESDA analysis model to conduct a study on the evolution process of its spatial pattern. The conclusions can be drawn as follows: (1) The spatial association features of all variables in the regional pattern evolution tend to be more remarkable, but different variables differ from each other in spatial differential features in different periods. (2) The ESDA detects that the variables in economic development and its influencing factors have different spatial corresponding degrees in the evolution process, which indicates different probable potential relationships between them. Furthermore, quantile regression gives different marginal effect degrees of different influencing factors on the economic development during 0.1~0.9 quantile points, which confirms the existence of the relationship mentioned above. (3) The result achieved by quantile regression optimal fitting reveals the evolution pattern of regional economic development is featured by the following aspects. Firstly, a "layered structure" of the "Suzhou-Wuxi" core hotspot and the "Huaian-Suqian" core coldspot will be formed. Secondly, the evolution pattern exhibits a greater evolution differentiation trend in low value cluster than in high value cluster, which manifests the prominent inland characters of core coldspot areas and the prominent coastal characters of sub-core coldspot areas. Lastly, the boundary of high and low value clusters is generally stable in the central Jiangsu. The results obtained above show that the evolution pattern of regional economic development by quantile regression optimal fitting has a high consistency with the realistic spatial evolution pattern.

In this paper the spatial-temporal evolution processes of KRD land in Guizhou Province was analyzed mathematically by using 1:100000 scale digital-distribution maps of KRD land obtained by user-computer interactive interpreting method from Landsat images in 1986, 1995 and 2000. The following conclusions are obtained: (1) From 1986 to 2000, the change in total area of KRD land in Guizhou was not obvious, but the mutual transformation of different KRD types is extremely remarkable. (2) The change patterns of KRD land are divided into three kinds: simple change mode, continuous change mode and returned change mode, and characterized by continuous change mode. (3) The forward and reversion evolution processes coexist, with the ratio of the former to the latter being 82.29%, demonstrating that the situation is getting better partially and on the whole it is worsening. (4) The rate of the KRD evolution is 398.31 km² per year, and the change rate of different type KRD land is inverse proportion to its degree of degradation. (5) The change frequencies of moderate and potential KRD land is highest and obviously higher than that of light KRD land. The regional characteristics of KRD spatial evolution and its influencing factors are analyzed, and some suggestions on comprehensive control of KRD land are put forward.

From the 1950s to the present, the research perspective of urban resident's travel demand transits from trip-based to activity-based， while the study units divide Traffic Analytical Zone (TAZ) into the individuals and even household. This paper summarizes that there are many problems of trip-based travel demand model in theory and practice. For this, the researches of activity-based and intra-household interaction come into being. Activity-based approach is the theoretical foundation of household-based travel behavior analysis, while its own foundation dated from the seminal work of Chapin (1974) and Hägerstrand (1970). Many literatures have confirmed that activity-based analysis could solve the problems using trip-based models so commendably that its contents extend and deepen from the 1980s to now. Thought most activity-based models still focus on the theories, household-based travel models gradually become the mainstream in transport planning in Western countries. Researches of household-based travel behaviors require to synthetically consider the effect on individual's activity-travel behavior of family attribute, the constraint to individual's behavior from household demand, and the couple constraint between household members. These aspects are briefly reviewed in this article. We discover that trip-based approach is hardly competent for studies of intra-household interaction. By contrast, activity-based approach could employ utility-based model, rule-based model, micro-simulation model and complex multi-variable model, such as structural equation model, to better interpret resident's activity-travel behaviors. Finally, Tianjin's time-use dairy survey data are used to confirm the theories of intra-household activity-based approach and to deeply understand the Tianjin's activity-travel behaviors. We model the socio-demographics as exogenous, and activity duration time and relevant travel time as endogenetic in the context of structural equation model (SEM). The final LIRSEL model fits well. The estimate results confirm that travel is derived of activity participation, and activity-based approach can better solve the problems of trip-based model, such as linking the discrete travels through activities interaction. Moreover, significance of activity-travel interaction between household heads positively exists. In particularly, males dominate the outside work-related activities and females dominate the outside household-related activities, and they jointly participate in non-work activities in Tianjin's households. Furthermore, comparing the total effect and direct effect on household heads' travel time of socio-demographics, which takes both the indirect effect of activities and other household members into consideration, we found the significance is not the same and positively argue that the total effect contains more actual information about activity-travel behavior. In conclusion, theories and confirmed model have proved that activity-based approaches are much better than the trip-based one, especially in terms of the intra-household interaction. In the future research, we should spread this perspective and approach to a better understanding of the behavior and transportation in transiting China.

Abstract: Based on the statistics of 121 metro systems in the world, this paper analyses the worldwide metro construction from 1863 to 2003. Linear regression is introduced to show the relationship between the metro scale and urban population, as well as surface area. And by applying the hierarchical cluster analysis, three types of metro systems are identified in terms of their scales and network indexes: the first metro system with 10 samples, which is huge and with complex network, such as London and New York; the second metro system with four samples, which is relatively big but with limited network patulous potential, such as Athens and Vienna; and the third metro system with 107 samples, which is relatively small but has great patulous potential in network, such as Beijing and Montreal. Our findings suggest that metro scale, as well as network indexes, show great differences among five major continents. Metro systems in Europe and North America embrace a more mature network; however, metro systems in Asia and South America have greater network patulous potential. Also we find that in most cases urban population has more impacts on metro scale, especially to the samples in the third metro system. However, when it comes to the first metro system, surface area has significant impacts on metro scale. Finally three linear regression models are implemented to calculate the theoretical scales of 53 Chinese major cities, and it shows that theoretic metro scales in these cities range from 37.2 km to 129.9 km. These metro systems can be divided into four classes based on their model calculations. According to the result, Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing should develop the biggest metro systems in China. With the progress of urbanization in China, metro systems will grow rapidly in the coming years, especially in the developed regions.

In order to analyze the contents of heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, As and Hg) in agricultural surface soils, a large scale survey was conducted in Chongming Island. 28 soil samples were collected from vegetable plot, 65 samples were collected from paddy fields and 9 samples were collected from watermelon fields. Different assessment standards of heavy metals were also used for comparison. Results showed that the content of Pb, Cd, Cr, As and Hg averaged 21.597 mg·kg^-1, 0.176 mg·kg^-1, 69.395 mg·kg^-1, 9.209 mg·kg^-1 and 0.128 mg· kg-1, respectively. In comparison with the background value of soil in Shanghai, mean concentrations of heavy metals in soils all exceeded their corresponding natural background values, except for Pb and Cr. The contents of Cd, As and Hg were 33.0%, 1.2% and 26.3% higher than the background value of Shanghai, respectively. In addition, inverse distance interpolation (IDW) method was also applied to study the spatial variability of heavy metals based on GIS. The results indicated that most of agricultural soils were good, and the ratio of ecology, good soil, certified soil and disqualified soil were 1.26%, 97.14%, 1.47% and 0.12%, respectively. Taking the background value as a reference, the ratios of all the soil samples above the limit were Pb 10.1%, Cd 85.7%, Cr 27.0%, As 55.4% and Hg 55.2%, respectively. Of the three land use types, vegetable plot was polluted most seriously by heavy metals, which is probably related to the over-application of pesticides. The annual deposition fluxes of Pb, Cd, As and Hg were 7735.470 μg·m^-2·a^-1, 208.432 μg·m^-2·a^-1, 2237.738 μg·m^-2·a^-1 and 52.783 μg·m^-2·a^-1, respectively.

Large-scale and dense sediment samples and associated hydrological data were collected in July 2005 and May 2007 from submarine sectors of Chongming Eastern Shoal, Hengsha Eastern Shoal, Jiuduan Shoal and Nanhui Shoal, which are four important tidal flats located at the mouth-bar river segment of the Yangtze Estuary. Based on the above data, the grain size and related parameters, compositions, classifications in sediments and their distributed characteristics are analyzed, and then mainly impacted dynamic factors on the distributions of sediments are discussed. The results are shown as follows: sediments located at these tidal flats of the Yangtze Estuary are mainly composed of sand, silty sand and silt. The median grain size in sediments is relatively complex with a range from 2.5φ to 8φ. The distributions of sorting coefficients in sediments ranging from 1 to 2 are agreed with that of the median grain size. Moreover, it is suggested that sediments of the tidal flats is coarser, better sorted or finer, and worse sorted. The skewness and kurtosis in sediments are ranged from 0.1 to 0.8 and from 1 to 4, respectively. In addition, the distributions of the grain size parameters, including sorting coefficient, skewness and kurtosis in sediments of Chongming Eastern Shoal, Hengsha Eastern Shoal and Jiuduan Shoal are of similar characteristics because there are closely positive correlated relationships among these parameters. However, due to the location difference between Nanhui Southern Shoal and Eastern Shoal, three parameters of grain size in sediments such as sorting coefficient, skewness and kurtosis have relatively large distinctions. Moreover, the tracks of sediment transport can be described based on the distribution of sediments which may reveal sediment transport controlled by the two dominant hydrodynamic factors of current and wave. It is appreciable that coarse sediments with better sorted is subjected to dominant ebb current action and intense wave action resulted from rapidly dissipated wave energy. In addition, due to the effects of obstructed branches, guided current and broken wave actions of the Deep Water Channel Project, grain size in sediments located on two sides of the groyne is of uneven distribution characteristics.

From the essential meaning of urbanization, this paper establishes a comprehensive evaluation index system, including four aspects changing: population, economy, society and land. Based on the method of entropy, the measure and evolution of China's urbanization are analyzed since 1981. The results show that China's comprehensive urbanization level continues improving. Economic growth and geographical landscape are the main features of rapid evolution of urbanization, followed by the population urbanization, and the medical care level of social urbanization is the least advanced. The evolution of all the four subsystems has unique characteristics. The analysis of multiple regression model shows that the driving factors have been diversified. The market force is the most powerful driving force of China's urbanization, followed by intrinsic force, administration force, exterior force. From different stages of urbanization, the effects of market force, exterior force and the administration force on urbanization are increasing, while intrinsic force is decreasing. China's urbanization is the main endogenous process, hence more policies should be formulated to strengthen the market economy reform and coordinate urban and rural development.

Based on a review on urban allometric equation, this paper analyzes the allometric growth relationship between urban area and urban population in China by using the data of the urban built-up area and the total population of cities and towns in 1990, 2000 and 2005. After an in-depth discussion of the standard value of the scaling factor, the paper concludes that urban growth in China is negative allometry in 1990 and positive one in 2000 and 2005. Sample cities in the eastern and western China also show the same law. In contrast to this, cities in central China maintain the original proportion of built-up land growth with population growth; however, they show positive allometry in 2005 because of the promotion policy for central China. The conclusion is closely related to the changes in migrant population, housing system reform and the rapid expansion of development zones.

The wide application of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) has been argued to be critical to business success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially to those in the developing countries. Such advances have initiated debates on the spatial implications of new ICTs. Existing literature is mainly concentrated on spatial impacts of new ICTs at urban and city level, while the spatial transformation at firm level has not yet been given enough attention by geographers. Drawing upon existing literature, this paper examines Shangyu clothing cluster in Zhejiang Province and PPG company in Shanghai City as case studies to look into the spatial impacts of ICTs on SMEs. The paper argues that application of new ICTs tends to lead to "dispersed concentration" of SMEs at local level, while "time-cost" plays an important role in transforming the spatial organization of firms under new ICTs.

Modeling consumer behavior has experienced from using aggregate models to individual-based models. During the latest decade, multi-agent technique has been extensively developed with the help of the ever-advancing computer technology. Currently, the method of combining individual-based consumer behavior models and multi-agent simulation systems has become the state-of-the-art method in related research and practical fields. The major advantage of such type of method is that it enables the related professionals to integrate the complexity of various aspects, predict the dynamic processes of the whole or part of the shopping space, and support planning and development based on the behavior of individual consumer. The paper introduces a multi-agent simulation platform developed by the authors based on NetLogo, including the construction of the platform and the procedures of the simulation. The core of the simulation system consists of four major consumer decision models: go-home decision, direction choice decision, rest decision, and store patronage decision, which are constructed differently from conventional choice models based on principles of bounded rationality. The simulation platform is applied to the study of consumer behavior in East Nanjing Road as a validation to the model system. A survey was carried out in the street in 2007. The data recorded the activity diary of consumers and were used for estimating the models. The simulation is carried out using the given distributions of consumers' entry locations and start time, to replicate the observed behavior. Aggregate consumer behavior is more concerned in practice. Therefore, after twenty times of simulation for reducing random fluctuations, individual agent behavior is aggregate. Three aspects of the aggregate simulated behavior are compared with the observed aggregate behavior. The first aspect is the number of consumers conducting different activities overtime, including the total number of consumers in the street, the number of consumers in the stores, the number of consumers taking rests, the number of consumers who are walking, and the number of consumers who have gone home. The second aspect is the number of consumers in street segments over time. The third aspect is the number of consumer visits and duration in individual stores. The results show that in general the simulation platform can predict the aggregate consumer behavior well. Particularly, the activity-time distributions are simulated very well except that the walking behavior is simulated poorly mainly due to the small number of observations. The number of consumers in street segments are simulated not well enough although the general trend in segments with a large number of observations are captured. This means the proposed model system can capture the aspatial behavior better than spatial behavior. This might be due to the fact that the complexity of consumer spatial behavior was affected by many environmental factors and personal variations, and however, it was only modeled using limited explanatory variables. Further studies are needed to be done on consumer behavior in relation with the environment.

Based on the cost-income data of farm produce and the China Agricultural Yearbook, this paper divided the intensity of cultivated land use into labor intensity and capital intensity, then analyzed their temporal and spatial change at both country and provincial scale in the period of 1980-2006. The results showed that: (1) On country scale, labor intensity of food crop farming decreased from 398.5 day/ha in 1980 to 130.25 day/ha in 2006; and shows a continuous decrease with a steep decline in 1980-1986, a slower decline in 1987-1996, and another steep decline in 1997-2006. On the contrary, capital intensity shows an increasing trend from 1980. In the internal composition of capital intensity, the proportion of seed, chemical fertilizer and pesticide input decreased from 90.36% to 73.44% ; the proportion of machinery increased from 9.64% to 26.56% . The less emphasis on yieldincreasing input and more emphasis on labor-saving input are the main reasons for a slow increase of yield per unit area after 1996. (2) On provincial scale, the economically developed areas have lower labor intensity and higher capital intensity. The less developed areas have higher labor intensity but lower capital intensity. From the internal composition of capital intensity view, labor-saving input accounts for more proportion in the developed areas than other areas. That is because in these developed areas, as more and more labors engaged in off-farm work, labor input has become a constraint factor in food production. Farmers increase the labor-saving input for higher labor productivity. However, in less developed areas, the major constraint is the shortage of capital; food production is still depending on labor and yield-increasing inputs.

Land use and land cover change (LUCC) is a major part and also a main cause of global environmental changes, and it has emerged recently as an important focus for land change studies. Based on the systematic summary of the progress of studies in LUCC in the latest decade, including its theories, methods and applications, a series of problems that should be urgently resolved in the study are put forward, and some important study directions and priorities for future are reviewed. Results show that LUCC model plays an important role and is an efficient tool to support the analysis of the causes, processes and consequences of land use systems and to support land use planning and policy. Second, spatio-temporal patterns of LUCC are the research core of LUCC models. The development of models has experienced an evolvement from single non-spatial to the combination of non-spatial and spatial models, however, at present most models are static models and ignore the temporal dimension of land-use change. Third, feedback is one of the important characteristics of LUCC; however, the majority of the existing LUCC models are very weak in analyzing and presenting the feedbacks of LUCC. In this regard, how to get a better understanding of the feedbacks at different time and space scales will be one of new tasks in LUCC models. Fourth, the objective of LUCC models is to study the dynamic relations of a coupled human-environment. Currently, most LUCC models are partial-equilibrium ones. Future LUCC models will focus on studies on the human-environment system from a systematic and holistic point of view. Fifth, multi-scale analysis in LUCC models is needed for a better understanding of land use change. Early LUCC models used to take a single scale or level of analysis into account. Recently, a number of LUCC models which implement multiple scales can be distinguished. The scaling will be a key issue in future LUCC models. Finally, although many methods of model validation are available, there is not a uniform standard and criterion of model validation. The weakness in reference data also limits the performance of model validation. All these will challenge the development of future LUCC models.

In China, there are standard per capita indicators for the land used for urban and rural settlements. Tender auction has been the major access to the acquirement of operating sites. Land used for transport facilities and water conservancy facilities is mainly influenced by important governmental and regional policies. However, there are neither corresponding standards for industrial land nor adequate mark transparency for its procurement. Therefore, how to improve the efficiency of industrial land use is of prime importance for land use planning and governance. We found that most of the existing research papers introduce a weighted indicator to evaluate land intensive use, without the guidance of economic principles. The exiting method cannot be well applied for the compilation of land use planning and the process of management and implementation. We propose a means named total factor productivity, simple and practical, to evaluate the economic efficiency of industrial land use and compare the effects of intensive use in different cities of Fujian province in China. Also, a variant TPF method is feasible in the absence of labor incomes ratio. It is unable to arrange the order of factor use efficiency, but it could indicate the input structures of capital and labor and regional differences of their use efficiencies. Furthermore, the case study shows that the longer distance from Xiamen and Fuzhou, the lower inputs and outputs the other cities of Fujian province have. It seems that Xiamen and Fuzhou analogize the city in Thunen's isolate country while other cities like the suburbs in the book. Therefore it is necessary to consider the impacts of location on land intensive use, and finding the reference atlas is the crux.

Nanjing is a major city in the Yangtze River Delta of China. Since the 1990s the city space has been expanding rapidly in relation with the fast economic development and urbanization. The policies of land saving and intensive land use has been emphasized by the government to protect the arable land from converting into urban land. After analyzing composition of present policy instrument in Chinese cities, this paper noted that urban planning and land use regulation were the regular basis. The effectiveness of urban planning control and administrative efficiency of growth management efforts were discussed. Firstly, the paper substantively studied the process of urban expansion along two transportation lines based on the remote sensing data of Nanjing obtained in 1986, 1996, 2002 and 2005, and assessed the effectiveness of urban growth management with the efficient index on newly converted urban land (Eg), the cumulatively efficient index (E) and the ratio of idle land area. The E of Nanjing master urban plans was about 70% in the first five years. The Eg was relatively low, being 0.29-0.7. Secondly, the logistic regression analysis with the data of 478 land parcels from the sampling sites revealed that the urban plan significantly decreased occurrence frequency of the idle land parcel (p < 0.001), and the administrative factors were significantly related with the frequency of idle land parcel. Concentration and reserve of rights in land use administration and urban plan management have negative effect on idle land frequency. Finally, some urban planning and land use policies such as enlargement of the urban planning area, rights reserve in urban plan administration and land use transformation approval have been suggested to improve the land use efficiency. The results and suggestions should benefit urban land management in land saving and intensive use of urban land, and the methodology of quantitative assessment on effectiveness of urban growth management should give examples for the similar studies in China.

The theories of "Rank-Clock", "Rank-Distance Clock", and "Half-Life of City" suggested by Prof. M Batty, a famous urban geographer in the world, has been introduced in this paper. Using data of population and cities' rank at and above prefecture for more than 50 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the "Rank-Clock", "Rank-Distance Clock" and "Half-Life of City" depicting the evolving characteristics of cities' hierarchy in China have been researched and drawn up. As well, using some historical population data, the "Rank-Clock" characteristics of a few historical cities in China for the last 2000 years have been researched and discussed briefly. The outcomes of the "Rank-Clock" study indicate that variations of the "Rank-Clock" of metropolises in China appear more slowly and the cities' rank order is stable. As for the regional spatial differences, variations of the "Rank-Clock" of cities located in eastern China are more evident, and their rank order advances more quickly. Correspondingly, although variations of the "Rank-Clock" of cities located in northeastern China are also greater, the direction of variations is opposite compared with that of eastern cities and their rank order drops markedly. Furthermore, variations of the "Rank-Clock" of a few cities located in western and inland China are relatively small, and their rank order is kept beyond the top 100 cities for the study periods. The outcomes of the "Rank-Distance Clock" study show that changes of "Rank-Distance" in some cities with higher rank order are relatively small, and changes of cities with lower rank order and/or newly established cities increase more quickly. As to the whole urban system of China, the Rank-Distance changes placidly, only in the periods of 1980-1985 and 2000-2005, the significant changes of the Rank-Distance took place, representing two rapid urbanization processes occurred in the early days of "reform and opening up" and the beginning of the 21st century. The results of the "Half-Life of City" study display that as a whole city system of China, because of the shorter temporal span of the system, the "Half-Life of City" is not evident. Even if that is how things stand, taking the 1980s as a demarcation line of time, there is a clear duration difference between the forwards and backwards half-life of the top 100 cities. Just starting from the demarcation line, the speed of replacing old cities by new developing ones is quickening. The outcomes of the "Rank-Clock" study for some historical cities show that rank changes of the cities with political functions are closely related to their political status as old administrative capitals. And rank changes of the cities located in eastern and coastal areas of China are closely related to their geographical conditions and economic policy.

Distribution of foreign investment in Guangdong Province has been one of the main reasons for the regional disparity in the province. This article aims to find out the temporal and spatial pattern and determinants of foreign investment in Guangdong in the past over 20 years since China's adoption of reform and opening up policy. The distribution and diffusion of foreign investment in Guangdong, and differences in the temporal and spatial pattern and determinants of foreign investment from different origins are examined. The study shows that the tempora1 and spatia1 pattern of foreign investment in Guangdong has been continuously evolving. Foreign investment in Guangdong has undergone diffusion from the growth pole to the surrounding areas. As the investment environment in Guangdong has become more mature, the attraction of favorable policy to foreign investment has gradually decreased, while the factors of regional economic development level and regional market scale have become the most important dynamics of the location of foreign investment. The temporal and spatial pattern and dynamics of foreign investment from different origins differ greatly. Finally, suggestions are made regarding the improvement of investment environment and the utilization of foreign investment in Guangdong.

Based on the statistics of glacier area variation measured in Chinese Tianshan Mountains since 1960, the response of glacier area variation to climate change is discussed systematically. Results show that the total area of the glaciers has reduced by 11.5% in the past 50 years, which is a weighted percentage according to the glacier areas of 10 drainage areas divided by Glacier Inventory of China. The annual percentage of area changes (APAC) of glaciers in the Tianshan Mountains is 0.31% , after the standardization of the study period. According to the 14 meteorological stations in the Tianshan Mountains, both the temperature and precipitation display a marked increasing tendency from 1960 to 2009 with a rate of 0.34 ℃· (10 a)^-1 and 11 mm·(10 a)^-1, respectively. The temperature in dry seasons (from November to March) increases rapidly with a rate of 0.46 ℃·(10 a)^-1, but the precipitation grows slowly at 2.3 mm·(10 a)^-1; while the temperature in wet seasons (from April to October) grows with a rate of 0.25 ℃·(10 a)^-1, but the precipitation increases at 8.7 mm·(10 a)^-1.

Global warming, a global concern, has led to significant vegetation changes especially in the past 30 years. The Hulun Buir Grassland in Inner Mongolia, one of the world's three prairies, is undergoing a process of prominent warming and drying. It is necessary to investigate the effects of climatic variations (temperature and precipitation) on vegetation changes for a better understanding of acclimation to climatic change. NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), which can reflect characteristics of plant growth, vegetation coverage, biomass, and so on, is used as an indicator in monitoring vegetation changes. GIMMS NDVI from 1981 to 2006 and MODIS NDVI from 2000 to 2009 were adopted and integrated in this study to extract the time series characteristics of vegetation change conditions in Hulun Buir. The responses of vegetation coverage changes to climatic variations from the yearly, seasonal and monthly time scales were analyzed combined with temperature and precipitation data of seven meteorological sites. In the past 30 years, vegetation coverage change was closely correlated with climatic factors, and the correlations were different on different time scales. Annual average of vegetation change was better correlated with precipitation, suggesting that rainfall was the main factor for driving vegetation change. Correlations between seasonal average of vegetation coverage and climatic factors showed that the sensitivity of vegetation growth to hydrothermal condition change was different in different seasons. The sensitivity of vegetation growth to temperature in summer was higher than in the other seasons, while that of vegetation growth to rainfall in both summer and autumn was higher, especially in summer. Correlations between monthly average of vegetation coverage and climatic factors during growing seasons showed that the response of vegetation change to temperature in April and May was stronger, indicating that the temperature effect occurred in the early stage of vegetation growth. Correlations between NDVI of the current month and precipitation of the month before the current month were better from May to August, showing a hysteresis response of vegetation growth to rainfall. Grasses turned green and began to grow in April, and the impacts of temperature on grass growth was obvious, therefore, the increase of NDVI in April might be due to an advanced growing season caused by climatic warming. In summary, relationships between annual variation of monthly vegetation and climatic factors represent temporal rhythm controls of temperature and precipitation on grass growth.

The precipitation suitability degree and given year had no good linearity and temperature and light suitability degree had increased with year and synthesized climate suitability had improved in jointing to tasseling period. Duing the tasseling to milky mature period, the temperature suitability degree and given year had no good linearity and light suitability degree had went down and precipitation suitability degree had increased and synthesized climate suitability improved with year. The correlative relationship between unit yield and light suitability degree in emergence to jointing, jointing to tasseling, and tasseling to milky mature are notability. The correlative relationship between unit yield and temperature suitability degree in sowing to emergence tasseling to milky mature are notability. The correlative relationship between unit yield and precipitation suitability degree in jointing to tasseling and tasseling to milky mature are notability. The climate changes are favorable for maize production, because of temperature suitability degree increasing in the future.

Desertification is becoming one of the most serious global social-economicenvironmental issues of our time, which threatens human survival and development. Climate change and human activities are the two kinds of driving forces in desertification, and assessing their relative role in desertification has important significance for deeply understanding the driving mechanism of desertification and preventing desertification expansion. This paper systematically reviewed the methods of assessing the relative role of climate change and human activities in desertification from qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative aspects. The authors found that there were some disadvantages in the previous researches. For example, the subjectivity in assessment was obvious, the assessment cannot be easily repeated, and the assessment and its results were always based on administrative regions and less taken and expressed in continuous space. According to the progress of previous researches and the works conducted by the authors recently, we thought that the key point of assessing the relative role of climate change and human activities in desertification was breaking through the bottleneck that restricted the expression of the relative role of two drivers in continuous space. Meanwhile, the authors put forward a quantitative approach to assess the relative role of climate change and human activities in desertification basing on selecting NPP as a common indicator to measure the relative role of climate change and human activities in desertification and identifying the ecological process of "driving force affecting-desertification land dynamically responded" into several scenarios. Besides, validation and scale of assessment should be taken into account when quantitatively assessing the relative role of climate change and human activities in desertification.