Rocky land desertification and its driving forces in the karst areas of rural Guangxi,Southwest China

With a subtropical climate, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has a typical karst landscape. Rocky desertification has become a serious environmental issue due to its high vulnerability caused by the joint effect of natural settings and human activities, because of which its eco- environment has been deteriorated in recent years, and farmland has been disappearing sharply at the same time. This, in turn, has exacerbated the poverty level in the rural areas of the region. In this study, we monitored the spatial distribution of rocky land desertification and its temporal evolution using Landsat TM/ETM images of 1985, 1995, 2000 and 2005. We also analyzed the driving forces of the desertification and its expansion. Through constructing regression models by using all the relevant variables and considering the lagged effects as well as fixed effects, we quantified the exact role of different factors causing rocky land desertification in the study area with some new findings. The new findings in this study are greatly helpful for preserving, restoring and reconstructing the degraded mountain environment in Guangxi and other karst areas in Southwest China, and also for alleviating poverty in the rural areas in the future.     

Spatial patterns and driving forces of land change in Tibetan-inhabited Three Rivers Headwaters region,China

The Three Rivers Headwaters Region(TRHR) plays a key role in regulating water supply and climate of East Asia. A comprehensive understanding of the processes and driving forces of the long-term land use dynamics of the TRHR is needed to guide sustainable land resource management and regional ecological conservation strategies. This study examined long-term land change patterns in the TRHR and investigated the driving forces of the change. First, Landsat TM/ETM+ images covering TRHR of four time points from 1987 to 2016 were used to derive land use patterns, and statistical metrics were applied to quantify the spatial and temporal changes. Second, Principal Component Analysis and correlation analysis were employed to analyze environmental and social-economic data to identify the driving forces of land use change. Third, potential influences of the religion of Tibetan Buddhism on land use change were explored using GIS analysis, questionnaire survey and field observation. Results showed that areas of barren land, agricultural land, and built-up land largely increased, while areas of grassland and forest greatly decreased, with the highest change rate occurring in the most recent decade of analysis(from 2007 to 2016). Among the three headwater regions, the Yellow River Headwater Region showed an overall higher changing speed than the other two headwater regions. The regional driving forces of change in TRHR includedsocial-economic development, climatic condition, pressure of population growth, and environmental protection activities. It was also found that Tibetan Buddhism can help slow down the changes caused by human activities.     

Impacts of land use change on landscape patterns in mountain human settlement: The case study of Hantai District(Shaanxi,China)

Mountain area is an important geographical unit of land,and its ecology is sensitive and fragile.Over the past few decades,human activities have caused dramatic changes in land use in mountainous areas,which caused changes in landscape patterns and impacts on the ecological environment.It is unknown how the mechanism of land use affects the landscape pattern at different scales.The Hantai District,a typical human settlement in the mountain area in Shaanxi,China,was chosen as the study area.Based on the remote sensing images,the mathematical models and landscape indexes were adopted to evaluate the impact of land use change from 1998 to 2017 on the landscape pattern at different scales,and its main driving forces were analyzed.The results showed that the urbanized land expanded largest from 15.39%to 24.30%,and cultivated land experienced the largest decline from 43.54%to 35.35%.Changes in land use have made the patch morphology of most land types developed from a natural random to a sawtooth shape,and its spatial pattern evolved from a ruleset to a fragmented expansion.This reflects the continuous strengthening of human intervention in the process of regional development.Under the jurisdiction of Hantai District,the biggest change in landscape pattern is in Hanzhong City and Qili Town.The improved economy and increasing population and urbanization rate were the main factors that cause these changes.This research could provide necessary information for understanding the evolution mechanism of land resources in mountainous human settlements for mountainous areas with significant geomorphic differentiation.     

黔桂喀斯特山地与山区类型划分技术与应用

科学界定山地和山区类型是认识山地、因地制宜促进山区可持续发展的基础,可为山区分类开发、分类施策提供依据。本文采用均值变点法确定滑动窗口尺寸,运用空间分析工具对SRTM进行处理以获取山地坡度、起伏度,并提取了黔桂喀斯特各类山地空间范围和规模,以此对县级层面黔桂喀斯特山区类型进行了划分。主要结论如下：①二次使用均值变点法确定移动窗口面积与平均地形起伏度拟合的对数曲线拐点,其表征的是黔桂喀斯特山区地形起伏度最佳统计单元—移动窗口面积为6.50 km²。②黔桂喀斯特山地占比大,山地与非山地面积之比约为89:11,且山地省际空间分异明显,贵州喀斯特山地以中山、中低山为主,占贵州部分的57%;而广西喀斯特山地以丘陵为主,占广西部分的59%。③黔桂喀斯特山地区均为山区县,其中,18个纯丘陵县、10个半山区县、15个准山区县、21个显山区县、32个整山区县。整山区县个数多,多分布于乌蒙山区和黔桂峰丛洼地山区,多数为国家扶贫开发工作重点县。     

Land use change and anthropogenic driving forces: A case study in Yanhe River Basin

Human activities alter land use patterns and affect landscape sustainability. It is therefore very important to investigate the relationship between land use change and human activities. This study focuses on the detection of changing land use patterns in the Yanhe River Basin in northern Loess Plateau of China between 1995 and 2008. Landscape metrics were used to analyze the changing land use patterns and to explore the related anthropogenic driving forces. Results show that:1) Totally, 186 590 ha of cropl...     

Tradeoffs and synergies between ecosystem services : A comparison of the karst and non-karst area

Under the influence of various natural and human factors, the relationship between the ecosystem services provided for human beings by a karst ecosystem is becoming increasingly complex, profoundly limiting the effective and sustainable development of the social economy and ecosystem protection in karst areas. Taking Guizhou, China as an example, which includes both karst(including five different landforms) and non-karst area, the study explored and compared the tradeoff and synergy between ecosystem services in both terrain types. The results showed higher change rates of water yield and soil retention in karst areas than those in non-karst areas, with only small differences in the carbon storage and crop production change. The ecosystem service relationships in the karst area from 1995 to 2005 were consistent with the relationships in the non-karst area. However, differences were observed in most of these relationships from 2005 to 2015. The relationships between ecosystem services in different karst landforms from 1995 to 2005 remained the same, but there are differences found in the relationships of ecosystem services from 2005 to 2015. The trade-off and synergistic relationships between ecosystem services in the different landforms were closely related to the changes of climate and land use, particularly related to rainfall, rainfall erosivity, farmland, and forestland.     

Human driving forces: Analysis of rocky desertification in karst region in Guanling County,Guizhou Province

Karst rocky desertification is one of the major ecological and environmental problems that threaten the sustainable development of southwestern China. It is caused by irrational and intensive land-use patterns in karst geo-ecological environment. Therefore, it is vital to identify how human forces work on this degraded environment. Based on the soil erosion information in 2000 and remote sensing images of Guanling County collected in 2000 and 2007, four grades of karst rocky desertification data in 14 villages of Guanling County were extracted. Impacts of population, affluence, and other human forces on karst rocky desertification were analyzed using STIRPAT model. The results show that: 1) Factors of population and affluence had strong influence on karst rocky desertification. In the STIRPAT model analysis, the population and affluence coefficients were positive, indicating that the increase in population and affluence would lead to more serious desertification. 2) Factors of farmer correlated with karst rocky desertification negatively, especially the way of viewing the relationship between people and nature, and the level of knowledge about rocky desertification. Government behavior was not a significant factor in this analysis. 3) The findings provide evidence that STIRPAT model can be used to analyze the relationship between human driving forces and rocky desertification.     

Land use and land cover change within the Koshi River Basin of the central Himalayas since 1990

Land change is a cause and consequence of global environmental change.Land use and land cover have changed considerably due to increasing human activities and climate change,which has become the core issue of major international research projects.This study interprets land use and land cover status and the changes within the Koshi River Basin(KRB)using Landsat remote sensing(RS)image data,and employs logistic regression model to analyze the influence of natural and socioeconomic driving forces on major land cover changes.The results showed that the areas of built-up land,bare land and forest in KRB increased from 1990 to 2015,including the largest increases in forest and the highest growth rate in construction land.Areas of glacier,grassland,sparse vegetation,shrub land,cropland,and wetland all decreased over the study period.From the perspective of driving analysis,the role of human activities in land use and land cover change is significant than climate factors.Cropland expansion is the reclamation of cropland by farmers,mainly from early deforestation.However,labor force separation,geological disasters and drought are the main factors of cropland shrinkage.The increase of forest area in India and Nepal was attributed to the government’s forest protection policies,such as Nepal’s community forestry has achieved remarkable results.The expansion and contraction of grassland were both dominated by climatic factors.The probability of grassland expansion increases with temperature and precipitation,while the probability of grassland contraction decreases with temperature and precipitation.     

济宁市耕地动态变化及驱动因素分析

根据济宁市耕地历年总量及人均耕地数量变化情况可以看出,55年来耕地数量总体呈明显波动减少趋势,各县(市、区)的变化也存在差异。定性与定量相结合的分析结果表明,济宁市耕地动态变化的驱动因素主要为经济发展对耕地占用的巨大需求和比较经济利益对耕地占用的巨大压力。为遏制耕地数量减少,对耕地数量快速减少区、平稳减少区和增加区采取的措施有所区别。     

济宁市耕地动态变化及驱动因素分析

根据济宁市耕地历年总量及人均耕地数量变化情况可以看出，55年来耕地数量总体呈明显波动减少趋势，各县（市、区）的变化也存在差异。定性与定量相结合的分析结果表明，济宁市耕地动态变化的驱动因素主要为经济发展对耕地占用的巨大需求和比较经济利益对耕地占用的巨大压力。为遏制耕地数量减少，对耕地数量快速减少区、平稳减少区和增加区采取的措施有所区别。     

Land use changes in Northeast China driven by human activities and climatic variation

Human-induced land use/cover change (LUCC) forms an important component of global environmental change. Therefore, it is important to study land use/cover and its change at local, regional and global scales. In this paper we conducted the study of land use change in Northeast China, one of the most important agricultural zones of the nation. From 1986 to 2000, according to the study results obtained from Landsat images, widespread changes in land use/cover took place in the study area. Grassland, marsh, water body and woodland decreased by 9864, 3973, 1367 and 10,052km², respectively. By comparison, paddy field, dry farmland, and built-up land expanded by 7339, 17193 and 700km², respectively. Those changes bore an interactive relationship with the environment, especially climate change. On the one hand, climate warming created a potential environment for grassland and marsh to be changed to farmland as more crops could thrive in the warmer climate, and for dry farmland to paddy field. On the other hand, the changed surface cover modified the local climate. Those changes, in turn, have adversely influenced the local environment by accelerating land degradation. In terms of socio-economic driving forces, population augment, regional economic development, and national and provincial policies were confirmed as main driving factors for land use change. Foundation item: Under the auspices of the Knowledge Innovation Programs of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KZCX2-YW-341), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40871187, 40801208)     

Spatial-temporal Dynamics and Driving Forces of Land Development Intensity in the Western China from 2000 to 2015

The change in land development intensity is an important perspective to reflect the variation in regional social and economic development and spatial differentiation. In this paper, spatial statistical analysis, Ordinary Least Squares(OLS), and Geographically weighted regression(GWR) methods are used to systematically analyse the spatial-temporal characteristics and driving forces of land development intensity for 131 spatial units in the western China from 2000 to 2015. The findings of the study are as follows: 1) The land development intensity in the western China has been increasing rapidly. From 2000 to 2015, land development intensity increased by 3.4 times on average. 2) The hotspot areas have shifted from central Inner Mongolia, northern Shaanxi and the Beibu Gulf of Guangxi to the Guanzhong Plain and the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration. The areas of cold spots were mainly concentrated in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Yunnan, and Xinjiang. 3) Investment intensity and the natural environment have always been the main drivers of land development intensity in the western China. Investment played a powerful role in promoting land development intensity, while the natural and ecological environment distinctly constrained such development. The effect of the economic factors on land development intensity in the western China has changed, which is reflected in the driving factor of construction land development shifting from economic growth in 2000 to economic structure, especially industrial structure, in 2015.     

岩溶碳循环及碳汇效应研究与展望

碳酸盐岩风化是全球碳循环的重要组成部分,具有大气与土壤CO₂汇效应,受生态系统因子驱动与全球变化影响,岩溶地区碳汇具有地表和地下双碳汇特征。简要介绍岩溶碳循环与全球变化关系,论述岩溶碳汇的相关科学问题和主要进展,分析岩溶增汇潜力与土地利用变化,进一步提出基于岩溶关键带理念的碳酸盐岩风化过程概念模型。碳酸盐岩风化产生的碳汇可能是全球碳循环“遗漏碳汇”的贡献者,同时具有缓解土壤CO₂向大气释放的作用,进而成为全球碳循环模型中“土地利用变化项”(E_LUC)的重要调节者(减源效应)。碳酸盐岩风化过程能快速响应短时间尺度变化环境因子,是岩溶关键带中连接生物、水文与地球化学过程的核心驱动机制。岩溶碳循环可理解为是土壤-生态系统碳循环的延伸或横向组成部分,共同组成岩溶地区完整的陆地浅表层碳循环系统。碳酸盐岩风化对大气CO₂浓度上升的负反馈效应,石漠化治理与生态修复工程的持续推进,蕴藏着巨大的岩溶固碳增汇潜力。应加强土壤CO₂季节及其区域变化监测与研究,构建基于土壤CO₂...     

KARST ENVIRONMENT AND ECO-POVERTY IN SOUTHWESTERN CHINA： A CASE STUDY OF GUIZHOU PROVINCE

1INTRODUCTIONIn the 1980s and 1990s, there was widespread belief a-mong environmentalists that uncontrolled population growth would be responsible for environment degrada-tion of all types. This neo-Malthusian belief originally surfaced in the publication of ThePopulationBombin the late 1960s. In ensuing years this belief, combined with work on environment carrying capacity and a growing environmental movement, led to the seeming-ly commonsense conclusion that high population growth and …     

邹平县土地利用时空变化及驱动力分析

采用土地利用动态度分析方法和GIS技术,通过建立土地利用空间数据库,构建土地利用时空变化模型,分析上一轮规划以来邹平县土地利用时空变化特征及驱动力。研究结果表明,从1996到2005年近10年间,邹平县土地利用／覆被变化明显。其中耕地和未利用地面积减少量最大,耕地面积逐年减少的主导原因为城镇工矿及交通水利等建设用地的逐年增加,这与邹平县城镇化水平不断提高及经济快速发展密不可分,而城镇工矿用地与GDP、非农业人口存在很强的线性相关关系;未利用转出地类主要为农用地,这一定程度上缓减了因建设占用农用地所引发的农用地规模不断下降的压力。     

LAND USE CHANGE AND ITS SOCIO-ECONOMIC DRIVING FORCES UNDER STRESS OF PROJECT IN OLD RESERVOIR AREA —— Case Study of Linshui Reservoir Area of Dahonghe Reservoir in Sichuan Province

The old reservoir areas built in 1950s- 1970s left behind many socio-economic problems, because of the administrative backward migration and little migration fund, and all these problems would be tied to land. Based on interviewing with peasant households, combining land use survey and socio-economic statistical index, this paper analyzed land use change and its corresponding driving forces in Linshui reservoir area of Dahonghe Reservoir. Results showed that land use change in the reservoir area was mainly embodied on low-lying land submergence and migration requisition land. The former changed the land use patterns, and the latter mainly reconstructed original land property and made land over-fragmented. Cultivated land per capita was 0.041ha in this area, below the cordon of cultivated land per capita enacted by FAO. Currently, there were still 30.25% of peasant households being short of grain in trimester of one year, and there were 35.27% of people living under the poverty line. The conditions of eco-environmerit in Linshui Reservoir Area were worse, and healthy and sub-healthy eco-environment accounted for less proportion, composed of green belt around the reservoir area and paddy field ecosystem, and economic forest and orchard ecosystem, respectively. The stress of the reservoir project was macroscopic background to analyze the driving factors of land use change, and real underlying diving factor of the land use change in the area was the change of cultural landscape under the stress of reservoir project. The rapid increase of population was the key factor to induce the change of man-land relationship in the reservoir area, the low level of rural economy was the crucial factor to decide how migrants input for production, and the belief of migrants, influencing the land use patterns in a certain extent, was the inducing factor to keep land use stable. The low-lying submergence and infrastructure construction accompanied the reservoir project were leading factors driving land use change in the area, while changes in land use patterns, after the reservoir being built, were the responses of peasant households＇ behaviors to land use change.     

LAND USE CHANGE AND ITS SOCIO-ECONOMIC DRIVING FORCES UNDER STRESS OF PROJECT IN OLD RESERVOIR AREA——Case Study of Linshui Reservoir Area of Dahonghe Reservoir in Sichuan Province

1IN TR O D U C TIO NA s old as hum anity itself, land use change has runthrough the w hole history ofhum an existence and evo-lution. This change has not only objectively recordedthe space patterns of the earth surface changed by hu-m ankind,but also redi…     

Land-use change and socio-economic driving forces of rural settlement in China from 1996 to 2005

While urbanization has accelerated, the rural population in China has started decreasing in recent years. However, the expan- sion of rural settlement has not been sufficiently curbed. The questions of why this has happened and who has driven the land-use change （LUC） of rural settlement in China have aroused great interests among researchers. In this paper, it is suggested that population is not always a positive driving force for the LUC of rural settlement in China. Furthermore, socio-economic driving forces other than urbanization, population and industrialization are analyzed. On a national scale, the major driving forces are the per-capita rural housing area and the cultivated land area. On a regional scale, the main driving forces in the eastern China are the house-building capacity of rural households and the per-capita rural housing area; while in the central China, the main driving forces are rural housing investment, the proportion of primary industry employees in the rural working population, and the cultivated land area. For the western China, the main driving forces are rural register population and cultivated land area.     

贵州省喀斯特地区泥石流灾害易发性评价

贵州省独特的喀斯特山地环境对地质灾害的孕育有其特有的作用机理。本文初选了10个相关因子进行GIS的方差分析及相关性分析,以筛选喀斯特山区泥石流灾害的主要影响因子及灾害易发性评价。结果表明,研究区内土壤侵蚀因子对泥石流灾害的贡献作用最为显著,断层的影响作用不明显。土壤侵蚀、坡度、坡向、岩石性质、土地利用方式、归一化植被指数（NDVI）、到沟谷的距离及>25 mm日数8个影响因子,具有良好的独立性和代表性,是研究区内泥石流易发性评价的最佳指标;泥石流主要分布在贵州西部云贵高原边境、北部大娄山、东北雾灵山及苗岭等地带,占全省面积的29.51%,贵州中部及东南部泥石流易发程度较低;极高易发区泥石流的分布密度是极低易发区的19倍,其主要的环境特征表现为坡度大、植被覆盖率较低,旱地与工矿用地分布多,土壤侵蚀严重;加强旱地、工矿用地及低植被覆盖区的合理利用及管理,是减少泥石流灾害发生的有效途径。     

Land cover change in different altitudes of Guizhou-Guangxi karst mountain area,China: patterns and drivers

Topography, especially altitude, will influence the way, process and characteristics of land cover changes in mountainous area, simultaneously, the vertical difference of land cover changes will affect soil quality and regional ecological environment. Therefore, the gradient relationship analysis between land cover changes and altitude is very important for regional sustainability. This study investigated land cover dynamics based on land cover data from a typical mountainous area in the Guizhou-Guangxi karst mountain area, China, in 2000 and 2010, then explored the relationship between altitude and land cover change and analyzed different drivers of land cover change at different altitudes. Our findings are as follows. 1) From 2000 to 2010, the total area of land cover transition was 7167.04 km~2 or 2.8% of the region. The increasing area of build-up land(926.23 km~2) was larger than that of forest(859.38 km~2), suggesting that the urban construction speed was higher than that of reforestation. 2) Intensity of land cover transition in northwestern Guizhou-Guangxi karst mountain area was much larger than that of southeast part and their transition trend was also significantly different, which was consistent with regional population and economy. 3) Human activity was the most dramatic at altitudes between 0–500 m. For 500–1000 m, grassland mainly converted to forest and build-up land. Area of land cover transition was the greatest between 1000–1500 m, while above 1500 m, the transition of grassland was the most obvious. 4) The drivers of land cover change varied. Land cover change was positively correlated with gross domestic product and population density but was inversely related to relief amplitude. There were correlations between land cover change and distance to roads and rivers, and their correlations varied with altitude. By revealing patterns and causes of land cover changes in different altitudes, we hope to understand the vertical dependence of land cover changes, so as to improve land productivity and protect land ecological environment scientifically.