Regional development and regionalization: Retrospect of China’s historical enlightenment

Chinese had noticed regional differences in ancient times and thus arouse the concept of regional sustainable development which was successfully applied to delta cultivation and civilization. Over the long term of regional development and regional exchange, much experience therefore was accumulated based on coastal zones, toward both inner land and open ocean. Regionalization, a basic job preceding sustainable development of a region, has also been carried out in China since ancient times. More important, patterns of regionalization were retained, these presents serve as references even today. Reflections on China’s historical enlightenment can assist us in locating the breakthroughs in regional development in the 21st century: facing the oceans with the seaport cities as nucleuses.     

Food Security of Shifting Cultivation Systems： Case Studies from Luang Prabang and Oudomxay Provinces, Lao PDR

Introduction The shifting cultivation system is one of the most important agricultural systems in Luang Prabang and Oudomxay provinces, where many production systems are found in the uplands. The factors, determining the systems, include ethnicity,Journal…     

Rehabilitation and Sustainable Use Pattern of Rocky-desertified Land in Southwest China＇s Poverty-stricken Karst Mountainous Areas ——A Case Study in Benggu Township, Xichou County, Yunnan, China

The rocky desert in a karst area directly causes the lack of soil, water and forest, hence leading to the poverty there. In 1990, the villagers from the Muzhe Village in Benggu Township, Xichou County, Yunnan declared a war against rocky desert in an attempt to ask the fields for more yields. They invented a distinctive land rehabilitation and sustainable use pattern called ＂transforming heaven and earth＂ that had been practiced in Southwest China＇s karst areas. The key mechanism of the pattern was to develop terraced fields with well conserved soil, water and fertility by exploding rocks in the fields, building stone walls, gathering more soil, and improving soil quality and productivity for the fields in combination with building of irrigation facilities and roads, as well as with forestation and agriculture structure adjustment. The purpose of the pattern was to alleviate poverty in the karst areas by improving soil productivity and promoting agricultural development. A typical area was studied with the help of Participatory Rural Appraisal （PRA） and the pattern was carried out there for fifteen years, have produced excellent ecological benefits and good economic benefits. Its application in the area approved that it was a sustainable land use pattern for rocky desert areas.     

Assessment of the ecological security in the three gorges reservoir area by using the ecological footprint method

The ecological footprint concept and its calculation models are useful for the measurement of the sustainable level of social and economic development.The ecological security situation of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area(TGRA) was evaluated using this concept in this study.The construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir has led to the change in the ecology and immigration status of TGRA.The ecological footprint method is an important means to study the regional ecological security.Our results suggested that,by excluding the areas for biodiversity conservation(12% of the total land),the ecological footprint per capita was 0.57895 ha,which exceeded the ecological carrying capacity in TGRA.The total ecological deficit was found to be 11,522,193.34 ha,accounting for 95.02% of the ecological carrying capacity.These findings suggested that the ecological security of TGRA was not good.In order to compensate for the ecological deficit,it was essential to introduce natural resources from other regions.     

ECOLOGICAL SECURITY EVALUATION OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN KARST MOUNTAINOUS AREA——A Case Study of Du＇an Yao Autonomous County in Guangxi

Ecological security is the main task and applied field of present geography, resources and environment sciences and ecology. Ecological security evaluation will efficiently promote ecological security and environmental construction in regional land use. In this thesis, the authors put forward the index system of ecological security evaluation in karst mountainous area on three aspects, the pressure of resources and eco-environment, the quality of resources and eco-environment, and the ability of environmental protection and ecological improvement. Using the evaluation method with single index, based on the case study ofDu‘an Yao Autonomous County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the system ofsynthetic regionalization ofecological agricultural economy was formed, which includes three regions, south region with basic security and synthetic agricultural development, east region with critical security and agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry balanced development, mid-west and south region with ecological insecurity and compounded agriculture and forestry management. Meanwhile, for these regions, the countermeasures of sustainable agricultural development were pointed out, which provide the basis and example for ecological regulation and control of sustainable agricultural development in counties of karst mountainous area.     

Spatio-temporal Characteristics of Residential Land Growth in Hefei of Anhui Province, China

We used the maps of urban land-use in 1978, 1991, 1994, 2000 and 2004, and softwares such as ArcGIS, Fragstats to analyze the spatio-temporal process of urban residential space quantitatively. Some methods, such as di- rection analysis and landscape pattern analysis, were employed. The results show that: 1) the residential land grew very rapidly in Hefei from 1978 to 2004, and the increased land was distributed mainly in the central city zone surrounded by a moat; however, after 1994, it was distributed mainly outside the 1th Ring Road; 2) the expansion speeds were very different in different directions: there exists a fastest expansion of residential land in the directions of NE-NNE, SW and SSE, and a slowest one in the directions of E and SEE; 3) the residential land growth went through four stages: slow circular expansion in 1978-1991, 'axes fan wings' expansion in 1991-1994, more rapid circular expansion in 1994-2000 and 'fan-wings' expansion in 2000-2004; 4) the expansion intensity was also different in all directions in the period of 1978 to 1994, and the most was in SW and then NW; and 5) there were more and more residential land area, and the spatial agglomeration was improved increasingly.     

ON EVOLUTION OF MAN—LAND SYSTEM IN OASIS—Taking Minqin Basin as a Case

Human beings have had a tremendous impact on natural ecosystems and are now the principal power to change the biosphere.It is logical that we should pay close attention to the interaction between human systems and environ-mental systems.Taking Minqin bsin ,Gansu Province,as a case,this paper focuses on the evolution of regional physic-cal environments and the cultural systems by which people maintain their relationships with those environments.This pa-per presents the conceptural framework for the man-land system.Expecting to accelerate the regional sustainable develop-ment,it also analyses the evolutionary mechanism of regional man-land system.On the basis of reviewing and analyzing the evolution of man-land system in Minqin basin,the paper also brings forward an adujusting mode for the studied area, which consists of three aspects:to build up a concept that economic growth must harmonize with environmental qualityˊs and land productivityˊs improvement;to make a whole planning and management in the drainage area;and to push for-ward the technique of water-saving irrigation and establish water-saving agricultural system. Itˊs meaningful for resource exploitation and sustainable development of Chinese northwestern arid area,which is represented by Minqin basin,by under-standing what great changes the basin has experienced is experiencing at the global background,and studying its time standing what great changes the basin has experienced and is experiencing at the global background,and studying its time order and territorial structure ,the systemˊs character and law of evolution,trend and the regulating ways to improve man-land relationship.     

AN ASSESSMENT OF LAND USE CHANGES IN FUQING COUNTY OF CHINA USING REMOTE SENSING TECHNOLOGY

Fuqing County of southeast Chian has witnessed significant land use changes during the last decade.Re-mote sensing technology using multitemporal Landsat TM images was used to characterize land use types and to monitor land use changes in the county.Two TM scenes from 1991and 1996 were used to cover the county and a five-year time period.Digital image processing was carried out for the remotely sensed data to produce classified images.The images were further processed using GIS software to generate GIS databases so that the data could be further spatially analyzed taking the advantages of the software.Land use change areas were determined by using the change detection technique.The comparison of the two classified TM images using the above technologies reveals that during the five study years,a large area of arable lands in the county has been lost and deforestation has taken place largely because of the dramatic in-crease in built-up land and orchard.The conclusive statistical information is useful to understand the processes,causes and impacts of the land use changes in the county.The major driving force to the land use changes in the county ap-peared to be the rapid economic development.The decision makers of the county have to pay more attention to the land use changes for the county‘s sustainable development.     

A GIS-based Tupu Analysis of Dynamics of Saline-alkali Land in Western Jilin Province

Based on Tupu theory, this paper studied the dynamic changes, conversion modes, expansion intensity and landscape attributes of the saline-alkali lands in Changling County, Zhenlai County and Da'an City of the western Jilin Province in 1980-2000 with the help of GIS. The results show that the saline-alkali land rather sharply increased in Da'an during 1995-2000; the main conversion processes in the three counties were from grassland to saline-alkali land and from saline-alkali land to grassland; and the typical shapes, spatial expansion speed and mode, and landscape attributes of the saline-alkali land were different in the three counties, which were closely related to local topography, predominant wind orientation, water resources distribution, etc. The corresponding spatial expansion mode was marginality in Changling, random in Zhenlai and more kernels in Da'an, respectively. Landscape attributes also responded to the spatial-temporal dynamic changes of the saline-alkali land and the landscape indices of Da'an fluctuated greatly. The frame of this research may provide fundamental reference for landscape analysis and give some suggestions for regional sustainable development.     

LAND COVER CHANGES AND LANDSCAPE DYNAMICS ASSESSMENT IN LOWER REACHES OF TARIM RIVER IN CHINA

The Tarim River Basin, located in the typical arid region, is one of the key regions of LUCC research in China and plays an important role in maintaining the sustainable development of the westem China. In recent years, the ecological environment of the Tarim River Basin has degraded greatly. In the lower reaches, in particular,the riverbed has been dried up for more than 20 years, which accelerated the desertification and has been a great threat to people‘s lives. Taking the section of the Tarim River between Qiala Lake and Taitema Lake as a typical region, an investigation on land cover changes was carried out with the support of remote sensing information of 1988 and 2000 respectively. The changes of land cover in this region were obtained: 1) Cropland tended to increase. 2)Urban or Built-up Area in 2000 was 324.4ha more than that in 1988.3) Waters expanded by 3476.51ha. 4) Woodland and Grassland decreased, while Barren Land increased by 3824.9ha. The total amount of land use/land cover change between 1988 and 2000 is small, which is only 0.355% of the total area. It shows that the developmental pace of the lower reaches of the Tarim River is relative slow. Based on these results, the authors assessed the landscape dynamics of this region and pointed out that the degree of desertification was strengthened and the landscape dominated by sand land was further characterized by salt desert.     

Brownfield Redevelopment Toward Sustainable Urban Land Use in China

Brownfield redevelopment is a new urban land use strategy to pursue the ideal of sustainable development. It relieves environmental pressure and resolves the glaring contradiction between urban land idleness and urban sprawl. It addresses issues of urban land use and farmland protection in China. This paper compares brownfield with greenfield, and defines brownfield and its redevelopment. It elaborates general and special government policies for this sustainable land use strategy in the context of China. General policies contain two aspects: clarifying brownfield redevelopment's priority in Chinese urban planning and land use and setting a general quantitative redevelopment target. The extent of the government's special policies, which aim at coordinating three factors in the redevelopment process, namely govern- ments, developers and users, are divided into five areas: statistics and categorization, assessment and remediation, fi- nancial supports and tax incentives, environmental and legal liability, and publicity and guidance. The paper concludes the major functions of different levels of Chinese government in the redevelopment process, i.e. making general strategy, formulating legislation, spectifying regulations and technical standards, estimating and categorizing brownfield sites, drawing up brownfield planning, providing information and financial support, guiding developers, publicizing the strategy to the public, and checking reuse results.     

Measuring Tourist’s Water Footprint in a Mountain Destination of Northwest Yunnan, China

Monitoring and minimizing tourist’s water consumption is essential for the sustainable development of mountain destinations in the world. However, available data and a generally accepted protocol on such measurement are still limited. This study uses water footprint accounting to quantify tourist’s water demand in the Liming valley, a World Heritage site and a rapidly growing tourism destination in Northwest Yunnan, China. Both the water for direct and indirect use is taken into account based on the consump...     

Land Use Change During 1960-2000 Period and its Eco-environmental Effects in the Middle and Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River： a Case Study in Yiliang County, Yunnan, China

Land use/land cover change (LUCC) is a focus of the research of global environmental changes.The middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River,which are the most ecologically fragile mountainous area in China as well as one of the areas in China with most notable LUCC, have been on the Chinese Government‘s list of priority areas for ecological restoration. This paper is to reveal the trend of LUCC and the ecological degradation arising from it, and to provide a basis for the future sustainable use of land resources in the region based on a detailed analysis of Yiliang County. Based on the county‘s land use/cover maps in 1960, 1980 and 2000 drawn with the aid of aerial photograph interpretation, field investigation and GIS based spatial-temporal data analysis, LUCC during 1960-2000 period and the ecological degradation arising from it were analyzed. Using the Markv model, the paper brings out a forecast of what the county‘s LUCC would be like if the county‘s current land use continues, as well as the reasons and countermeasures for restoring degraded ecosystems.     

Urban Spatial Restructuring in Transitional Economy —— Changing Land Use Pattern in Shanghai

For almost three decades, China has been undergoing significant transition from a planned economy to a market economy. Fast-paced economic growth and urbanization, interacting with market-oriented reforms in land re- sources allocation, have caused profound spatial restructuring of Chinese cities. This paper examines urban expansion and land use reconfiguration in Shanghai’s central city from 1979 to 2002, with a special focus on the effect of the adoption of the land-leasing system in 1988. The empirical research, which employs GIS-based spatial analysis tech- niques to explore land use data for multiple years, indicates fundamental changes in the spatial characteristics of urban development in Shanghai after this important land policy reform.     

Method for evaluating the degrees of land use sustainability of mountainous county and its application in Yunnan Province,China

The evaluation of sustainable land use is the key issue in the field of studying the sustainable land utilization. In general analysis, the sustainable land use is evaluated respectively from its ecological sustainability, economic sustainability and social sustainability in China and other countries in recent years. Although this evaluation is an important work, it seems insufficient and hard to comprehensively reflect the whole degree of land use sustainability. Thus, to make up this deficiency, this paper brings forward the evaluation indexes, which make it possible to quantitatively reflect the whole degree of land use sustainability, namely, the concept of ＂degrees of overall land use sustainability＂ （Dos）, and research and measurement development of the method of and calculation in Dos. Taking the evaluation of the degree of land use sustainability in county regions of Yunnan Province as the actual example for analysis, results are basically as follows：
1） The degree of land use sustainability （Dos） is the ration index to organically and systematically integrate the degree of ecological friendliness （DeF）, the degree of economic viability （Dev） and the degree of social acceptability （Dsa）, able to comprehensively reflect the whole sustainability degree of regional land use
2） Based on the value of Dos, the grading system and standard for the sustainability of land use may be established and totally divided into five grades, namely, the high-degree sustainability, middle-degree sustainability, low-degree sustainability, conditional sustainability and non-sustainability. Meanwhile, the standard for distinguishing sustainability grades has also been confirmed so as to determine the nature of sustainability degrees in different grades. This makes the possibility for the combination of nature determination with ration in research result and provides with the scientific guideline and decision-making gist for better implementation of sustainable land use strategy.
3） The pract     

Comment on “who will feed china”

With respect to population, cultivated land, yield potential per unit area, consumption standard and so on, this paper discusses and analyses the main ideas and conclusions of the article “Who will feed China”, and puts forward advantageous proposals. The author thinks that this should arouse our urgent and crisis feelings of developing agriculture and make us take feasible measures. Only doing so can we feed ourselves and can our economy get sustainable and stable development.     

DESIGN AND APPLICATION OF DYNAMIC MONITORING AND VISUALIZATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM OF KARST LAND ROCKY DESERTIFICATION

In order to study the spatial-temporal change and environmental management of regional karst LUCC (land use and land cover change) and its causative environmental effect-rocky dcsertification by integrating qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis, and relying on RS, GIS and GPS (3S) techniques, karst land rocky derification dynamic monitoring and visualization management information system (KLRD.DMVM.IS) is framed, which includes design aim and structure model, function design, database design and model system design. The model system design gives priority to dynamic monitoring, drive force diagnosis, comprehensive evaluation and decision support of karst rocky desertification. From the viewpoint of model type, mathematic expression and its meaning, the dynamic monitoring models are concretely devised to reflect the spatial and temporal changing features and the trend of karst LUCC and rocky desertification. Taking Du‘an Yao Autonomic County of Guangxi as an example, the KLRD.DMVM.1S is systematically analyzed in the application of the process and trend of karst LUCC and rocky desertiflcation in Du‘an County, and it provides the technical support for the study on karst land rocky desertification.     

基于主成分分析的济宁市环境承载力研究

该文以济宁市环境承载力为研究对象,运用主成分分析法,从影响环境污染状况、环境治理状况、人口状况、经济发展状况、自然资源状况、物耗能耗状况等19个指标中,提取出影响环境承载力动态变化的3个主成分,对济宁市环境承载力年际变化进行了综合评价。结果表明:2006—2010年,济宁市环境承载力呈现逐年上升的趋势。该研究评价结果较好,可以为该地区的可持续开发规划提供理论参考。     

DESIGN AND COMPILATION OF AGRICULTURAL ELECTRONIC ATLAS AT COUNTY-LEVEL

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Integrated Futures for Europe＇s Mountain Regions： Reconciling Biodiversity Conservation and Human Livelihoods

Europe＇s mountains cover nearly half of the continent＇s area and are home to one fifth of the European population. Mountain areas are hotspots of biodiversity and agriculture has played a multifunctional role in defining and sustaining mountain biodiversity. Ongoing trends of agricultural decline are having negative impacts on mountain biodiversity. This paper presents results from an interdisciplinary European research project, BioScene, which investigated the relationship between agriculture and biodiversity in six mountain study areas across Europe to provide recommendations for reconciling biodiversity conservation with social and economic activities through an integrated rural development strategy. BioScene used scenario analysis and stakeholder participation as tools for structuring the analysis of alternative mountain futures. Three main BioScene scenarios were evaluated： Business as Usual （BAIT）, Agricultural Liberalisation （Lib）, Managed Change for Biodiversity （MCB）. BioScene brought together ecologists, economists, sociologists and rural geogra- phers, to carry out interdisciplinary analysis of the scenarios： identifying key drivers of change, assessing the biodiversity consequences and evaluating costeffectiveness. BioScene used a sustainability assessment to integrate the research outputs across natural and social science disciplines to assess the broader sustainability of the scenarios in terms of biodiversity, natural resources, rural development, social development, economic development and institutional capacity. The sustainability assessment showed that the MCB scenario was potentially the most sustainable of the three BioScene scenarios. Through the reconciliation of potentially conflicting objectives, such as conservation, economic development and human livelihoods, and with a strong participatory planning approach, the MCB scenario could represent an alternative approach to BaU for sustainable rural development in Europe＇s mountains. BioScene confirms the necessity for natural and social scientists to work together to seek solutions to environmental problems. Interdisciplinary research can assist with the definition of integrated strategies with the potential to reconcile the ecological, social and economic parameters that determine a sustainable future for European mountain areas.