Soil Erosion under Different Land Use Types and Zones of Jinsha River Basin in Yunnan Province, China

Severe soil erosion in the middle and upper reaches of Yangtze River has been regarded as a major environmental problem. The on-site impact of soil erosion on agricultural production and the off-site impact on floods and sedimentation in Yangtze Rive are well known. A quantitative assessment of soil erosion intensity is still scanty for developing appropriate soil erosion control measures for different land use types and zohes in this region. This article constructs a localized USLE and estimates the average soil loss in the Jinsha River Region in Yunnan Province, one of the priority areas for soil erosion control in the middle and upper reaches of Yangtze River. The estimation is done under different land uses and zones in this basin. The estimation shows that while soil erosion in the cultivated land is the most severe, 36～40% of the garden and forest land suffers from soil erosion of various degrees due to lack of ground cover and other factors. Soil erosion in the pasture is modest when the ground cover is well maintained. It also confirmed that terracing can reduce soil erosion intensity significantly on the cultivated land. Research findings suggest that sufficient attention must be paid to regeneration of the ground cover in reforestation programs. In addition to mass reforestation efforts, restoration of grassland and terracing of the cultivated land should also play an important role in erosion control.     

Dynamic Assessment on Regional Eco-environmental Quality Using AHP-Statistics Model—-A Case Study of Chaohu Lake Basin

An indicator system closely connected with eco-environment, in which indicator involves in such fields as society, economy, resources, environment and ecology, is first proposed for eco-environmental quality assessment. Then, a hierarchical model with four levels is established by virtue of these indicators and attributes. In the model, weights of indicators and attributes are determined by combining Delphi method with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and a statistic method is used to eliminate the influences arising from the differences in dimension and magnitude of indicators. On these grounds, an AHP-statistics model is provided for regional eco-environmental quality assessment. As a case, such AHP-statistics model is utilized in the dynamic analysis of regional eco-environmental assessment in Chaohu Lake basin. Study results show that natural environmental quality in the watershed was in the declining state while social environmental quality was in a markedly improved situation from 1996, and the synthetic eco-environmental quality was gradually and slowly improved under the common influences of both natural and social environmental factors. Example of application testified the capacities of above methodology to evaluate the real and dynamic state of regional eco-environmental quality.     

Land Use Allocation Based on Interval Multi-objective Linear Programming Model： A Case Study of Pi County in Sichuan Province

Adjusting and optimizing land use structure is one of the essential approaches to solve the conflict between land supply and demand. In this study,an uncertain interval multi-objective linear programming model was established and applied to analyzing the suitability of land use structure in Pi County of Sichuan Province. An adjustment scheme for optimizing land use structure was proposed on the basis of development planning drawn up by the local government. The results are summarized as follows: 1) the opti...     

Temporal Change of Runoff and Sediment Load and their Differential Response to Human Activities：A Case Study for a Well-vegetated Mountain Watershed of Southern China

This study examined the temporal trends of runoff and sediment load and their differential response to human activities in the Lishui river,a tributary of the Yangtze river in southern China.The long-term observation data at four gauging stations,generally involving two periods from 1954 to 1985 and from 2007 to 2011,were used.We detected no significant temporal trend for both the annual runoff volume（Q） and the annual suspended Sediment Load（SL） over more than 30 years before 1985.The flow duration curves and the Suspended Sediment Concentration（SSC） also hold constant before 1985.Compared with the period before 1985,SL has decreased by about 80% though Q remains unchanged for the period after 2007.Detailed examination shows that the flow duration curves after 2007 have changed with a significant decrease in the high-flow component,which acts as a major cause for the decreasing SL.In addition,SSC has decreased by several times,which also contributes to the decrease in SL after 2007.Both decreases in high-flow discharges and in SSC can be linked with recent human activities,mainly including vegetation establishment and dam constructions.The constant Q and the decreasing SL are also reported for the main stream of the Yangtze River and other major rivers in southern China,although they are orders of magnitude larger than our study area in drainage area size.The present study highlights the importance of high-flow discharges on SL and suggests that the use of SL is more appropriate to reflect environmental change than Q.     

Entire Catchment and Buffer Zone Approaches to Modeling Linkage Between River Water Quality and Land Cover——A Case Study of Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan

This study investigated the linkages between river water quality and land use in river catchments in Yamaguchi Prefecture, the western Japan, in order to examine the effect of land use changes of both entire catchment and buffer zone on river water quality. Dissolved Oxygen （DO）, pH, Biological Oxygen Demand （BOD）, Suspended Solids （SS）, Escherichia coli, Total Nitrogen （TN） and Total Phosphorus （TP） were considered as river water quality indicators. Satellite images were applied to generating the land use map. Multiple regression model was applied to linking the changes in the river water quality with the land uses in both entire catchment area and buffer zone. The results indicate that the integrative application of land use data from the entire catchment and the buffer zone could give rise to more robust model to predict the concentrations of Suspended Solids （r^2=0.88） and Total Nitrogen （r^2=0.90）, rather than models which separately considered land use data in catchment and buffer zone.     

How Does Urban Shrinkage Affect Land Use Efficiency? A Case Study of Shrinking Cities in Northeast China

The effect of urban shrinkage has gradually become a new topic. Theoretically, urban shrinkage may exert great influence on land use efficiency(LUE) through various urban subsystems, but there is currently limited research examining these pathways. Using the Super-SBM-Undesirable model and the Structural Equation Model(SEM), this study calculates the LUE of shrinking cities in Northeast China and simulates the process of urban shrinkage affecting LUE. To quantify the process of urban shrinkage a...     

A SIMULTANEOUS APPROACH TO WATER—RESOURCE PROTECTION AND ECONOMIC STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT —A Case Study of Guanzhong Region in the Huanghe River Basin,China

A regional multiple-objective water-resource and economic optimization model was developed using a quantitative method of systematic analysis.Input to the model includes indexes of economic structure and development,water-resource utilization,wastewater and pollutant discharge,and investment in wastewater treatment.The model,which consists of producton-structure and industrial-structure optimization modules,was applied to the Guanzhong region in the middle reaches of the Huanghe(Yellow) River basin in China.By evaluating several alternative production and industrialization schemes,the modal indicate that water pollution will get worsen though wastewater treatment improves if the economy continues to develop at the planned speed without structural adjustment.However,the results also show that not only economic goals but also water-resource protection and pollution-control targets can be achieved under an alternative,recommended production and industrial structure.This example illustrates that economic development and environmental protection can be improved coordinately by the regional multiple-objective water-resource and economic optimization model.It provides an operable approach to the simultaneous sustained development of water resources and economic growth.     

Landscape Effects of Land Consolidation Projects in Central China——A Case Study of Tianmen City, Hubei Province

The goal of land consolidation in China is still to develop agricultural production. The study of landscapeeffects of land consolidation projects (LCPs) faces many difficulties because of the lack of government's interest anddata. This paper, taking Tianmen City of Hubei Province in Central China as an example, presents a methodology foranalyzing landscape effects of LCPs by GIS and Fragstats3.3. It describes landscape effects with indexes of PatchDensity (PD), Largest Patch Index (LPI), Landscape Shape Index (LSI), Interspersion and Juxtaposition Index (IJI),Aggregation Index (AI), and Shannon's Diversity Index (SHDI), showing more regular shape, simpler structure andless habitat diversity after LCPs. It computes ten landscape indexes of four categories of patches including CultivatedLand, Road, Water Channel, and River and Pond. The indexes show that 1) cultivated land becomes more fragmentalin patch area, less irregular in patch shape and more concentrated in block; 2) the transport capacity of roads and irri-gation and drainage capacity of water channels have been improved; 3) the landscape change of river and pond can besummarized as decreasing scale, more regular shape, reducing connectivity and diversity of the class. LCPs can facili-tate agricultural production as well as protect cultivated land and food security. However, it is doubted that the increaseof cultivated land from LCPs results from the reducing in landscape diversity of water area.     

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.     

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

Introduction Rocky desert is a distinguishing phenomenon in China’s subtropical karst region, and it is caused by serious soil erosion, large areas of bedrocks protruding above soil, or alternatively large amount of gravels piling up in the field, leading to reduction or complete loss of soil productivity. This is a form of surface soil deterioration similar to desert (WANG 2002, WANG et al. 2004). Now the rocky desert is being expanded at an astonishing speed, and now it accounts for 30 …     

The Relationship between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index （NDVI） and Climate Factors in the Semiarid Region： A Case Study in Yalu Tsangpo River Basin of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The Yalu Tsangpo River basin is a typical semi-arid and cold region in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where significant climate change has been detected in the past decades. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how the regional vegetation, especially the typical plant types, responds to the climate changes. In this study, the model of gravity center has been firstly introduced to analyze the spatial-temporal relationship between NDVI and climate factors considering the time-lag effect. The results show that the vegetation grown has been positively influenced by the rainfall and precipitation both in moving tracks of gravity center and time-lag effect especially for the growing season during the past thirteen years. The herbs and shrubs are inclined to be influenced by the change of rainfall and temperature, which is indicated by larger positive correlation coefficients at the 0.05 confidence level and shorter lagging time. For the soil moisture, the significantly negative relationship of NDV-PDI indicates that the growth and productivity of the vegetation are closely related to the short-term soil water, with the correlation coefficients reaching the maximum value of o.81 at Lag 0-1. Among the typicalvegetation types of plateau, the shrubs of low mountain, steppe and meadow are more sensitive to the change of soil moisture with coefficients of -0.95, -0.93, -0.92, respectively. These findings reveal that the spatial and temporal heterogeneity between NDVI and climatic factors are of great ecological significance and practical value for the protection of eco-environment in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.     

KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY OF REMOTELY SENSED DATA FROM ECOLOGICAL VIEW ——A Case Study of Urban Spatial—temporal Relationship in the Pearl River Delta

From the ecological viewpoint this paper discusses the urban spatial-temporal relationship.We take regional towns and cities as a complex man-land system of urban eco-community,This complex man-land system comprises two elements of “man“ and “land“,Here,“man“ means organization with self-determined consciousness,and “land“ means the physical environment (niche ) that “man “depends on .The complex man-land system has three basic components,They are individual,population and community,Therefore there are six types of spatial relationship for the complex man-land system.They are individual,population,community,man-man,land-land and man-land spatial realtionships,Taking the Pearl(Zhujiang) River Delta as a case study,the authors found some evidence of the urban spatial relationship from the remote sensing data,Firstly,the concentration and diffusion of the cities spatial relationship was found in the remote sensing imagery,Most of the cities concentrate in the core area of the Pearl River Delta ,but the diffusion situation is also significant ,Secondly,the growth behavior and succession behavior of the urban spatial relationship was found in the remote sensing images comparison with different temporal data ,Thirdly,the inheritance,break ,or meeting emergency behavior was observed from the remoted sensing data.Fourthly,the authors found many cases of symbiosis and competi-tion in the remote sensing data of the Pearl River Delta ,Fifthly,The autoeciousness,stranglehold and invasion behavior of the urban spatial relationship was discovered from the remote sensing data.