THERMAL EFFECTS OF BUILDING＇S EXTERNAL SURFACES IN CITY——Characteristics of Heat Flux into and out of External Wall Surfaces

This study examined the thermal effects of building‘s external wall surfaces, using observational data of spatial-temporal distribution of surface temperature, air temperature, and heat flux into and out of external surface. Results indicate that external wall surface temperature and nearby air temperature vary with the change of orientation, height and season. In general, the external wall surface temperature is lower near the ground, and is higher near the roof, than nearby air temperature. But north wall surface temperature is mostly lower than nearby air temperature at the same height; south wall surface temperature during the daytime in December, and west wall surface temperature all day in August, is respectively higher than nearby air temperature. The heat fluxes into and out of external wall surfaces show the differences that exist in the various orientations, heights and seasons. In December,south wall surface at the lower sites emits heat and north wall surface at the higher sites absorbs heat. In April, all external wall surfaces, emit heat near the ground and absorb heat near the roof. In August, west wall surface all day emits heat, and other wall surfaces just show the commensurate behavior with that in April.     

Development-Conservation Dilemma in the NilgiriMountains of South India

The Nilgiri Mountains of south India is considered unique by anthropologists, geologists, climatologists, botanists as well as tourists. It has remained a subject of constant study and research over the last two centuries. Man-nature balance had continued undisturbed in the Nilgiris for thousands of years until the early 19th century when it became a British colony attracting, in due course, various developmental activities. Subsequently, the Nilgiris and its popular hill stations emerged as favourite places for the British population in India for rest and recuperation, game and for raising commercial plantations. In the process, the traditional indigenous crops were replaced by “English“ vegetables and the natural forests gave way to commercial plantations of coffee, tea and other exotic species of trees.     

Paleomagnetic Excursions Recorded in the Yanchi Playa in Middle Hexi Corridor, NW China Since the Last Interglacial

Paleomagnetic determinations on lithologieal profiles of two paralleled long drillin gcores covering the past 130 kyr B.P., GT40 and GT60,from the Yanchi Playa in the arid Northwestern China indicate that a series of pronounced paleomagnetic excursions have been documented. By correlating our results with published regional and worldwide reports 4 excursion events out of 10 apparent reversal signals (labeled from GT-1 to GT-10) were identified as excursion events coeval with the Mono Lake Event (28.4 kyr-25.8 kyr), Laschamp Event (43.3 kyr-40.5kyr), Gaotai Event (82.8 kyr-72.4 kyr) and the Blake Event (127.4 kyr-113.3 kyr), respectively. GT-9 correlates with the above-mentioned Gaotai Event,GT-7 and GT-6 correspond to two stages of the Laschamp Event and GT-5 to the Mono Lake Event. It is noteworthy that the so-called Gaotai Event has not been reported as a pronounced paleomagnetic excursion in the Northwestern China. Every magnetic excursion event corresponds to paleointensity minima, anteceding those established abrupt paleoclimatic change events, such as the Younger Drays and the Heinrich Events (H1-H6). Here, we tentatively propose that these geomagnetic excursions/reversals can be viewed as precursors to climate abruptness. During the transitional stages when the earth‘s magnetic field shifted between a temporal normal and a negative period, the earth‘s magnetic paleointensity fell correspondingly to a pair of minima. Although more precise chronology and more convincing rock magnetic parameter determinations are essentially required for further interpretation of their intricate coupling mechanism, these results may have revealed, to some extent, that the earth‘s incessantly changing magnetic field exerts an strong influence on the onset of saw-tooth shaped abrupt climate oscillations through certain feedback chains in arid Central Asia or even North Hemispheric high latitude regions.     

Approach to Mountain Hazards in Tibet, China

Tibet is located at the southwest boundary of China. It is the main body of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the highest and the youngest plateau in the world. Owing to complicated geology, Neo-tectonic movements, geomorphology, climate and plateau environment, various mountain hazards, such as debris flow, flash flood, landslide, collapse, snow avalanche and snow drifts, are widely distributed along the Jinsha River (the upper reaches of the Yangtze River), the Nu River and the Lancang River in the east, and the Yarlungzangbo River, the Pumqu River and the Poiqu River in the south and southeast of Tibet. The distribution area of mountain hazards in Tibet is about 589,000 km^2, 49.3% of its total territory. In comparison to other mountain regions in China, mountain hazards in Tibet break out unexpectedly with tremendously large scale and endanger the traffic lines, cities and towns, farmland, grassland, mountain environment, and make more dangers to the neighboring countries, such as Nepal, India, Myanmar and Bhutan. To mitigate mountain hazards, some suggestions are proposed in this paper, such as strengthening scientific research, enhancing joint studies, hazards mitigation planning, hazards warning and forecasting, controlling the most disastrous hazards and forbidding unreasonable human exploring activities in mountain areas.     

LOCATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH： CASE STUDY IN CHINA

This paper explores how location could affect economic growth and it has always been omitted in economic analysis. Geographic factors can affect economic activities. Three mechanisms of location affecting economic growth have been studied: consumption, production and migration. The initial superior location will take such advantages as lower transport costs and lower price level, so it could have higher consumption utility, higher productivity, and attract more human capital, then lead higher growth. Those regions with the superior location will have higher utility due to more product varities and the comparative lower price, and higher wage due to the production technology, and it would attract more individuals with higher human capital to move to this location. It is a kind of agglomeration, meaning the superior location will hold more advantages and higher growth rate, otherwise those locations with poor geographic factor will be even worse. Based on Chinese provincial economic growth experiences of these years, this paper does some empirical analysis by regressing on some variables including the geographic ones. In this paper, the dummy variables and population density are used to measure the location factor. And we find evidences supporting the view that dominant locations such as coastal areas grow faster, on the contrary,middle and western provinces grow slower. Location does affect economic growth.     

EVALUATION OF ECOLOGICAL SERVICES OF JILIN PROVINCE, NORTHEAST CHINA

1INTRODUCTIONEcosystem services can be divided into two major cat-egories, one is system function, and the other is sys-tem services and goods provision, which provide not only materials such as food and medicine, but also support and maintenance of whole system. Ecological services contribute to the whole economic system, both directly and indirectly, and consequently repre-sent parts of the total value of our economy system (COSTANZA etal., 1997; GUO etal., 2001). Sustainable d…     

IMPLEMENTATION OF CLEANER PRODUCTION STRATEGIES TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE CITY

Rapid urbanization and growing size of cities will have an increasing impact on the global environment in the 21st century. As an engine of urban development to drive economic growth and technological innovations, industry has moved its focus from controlling environmental hazards to stimulating sustainable industrial development throughout the entire product lifecycle. These process- and technology-driven innovations for industrial production are prerequisites for enhancement of urban environment and sustainable development of cities. In this review, problems of environment and resources scarcity associated with rapid urbanization are demonstrated. And, on the basis of expatiations on the concepts and policies of the cleaner production (CP) and other similar initiatives with the goal of preventing pollution at the source and of managing the raw material more efficiently, two different ways to link the practice of cleaner production in industrial sector with performance of urban environment are discussed in detail. Then, the introduction, practice and legislation of CP strategies in China are outlined, and possibility for China to develop CPC (Cleaner Practices for Cities) approaches in the demonstration cities is discussed. Finally, some suggestions on implementation of CPC strategies are put forward.     

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND ITS IMPACTS ON HUMAN SETTLF, MENT IN THE CHANGJIANG RIVER DELTA IN NEOLITHIC AGE

Dating data, altitude of Neolithic sites, climatic changes from sedimentary records and previous research results were collected and analyzed to detect possible connections between climatic changes and human activities in the Changjiang River Delta in the Neolithic Age. The results indicated that hydrological changes greatly impacted the human activities in the study region. Low-lying geomorphology made the floods and sea level changes become the important factors affecting human activities, especially the altitude change of human settlements. People usually moved to higher places during the periods characterized by high sea level and frequent floods to escape the negative influences from water body expansion, which resulted in cultural hiatus in certain profiles. However, some higher-altitude settlements were not the results of climatic changes but the results of social factors, such as religious ceremony and social status. Therefore, further research will be necessary for the degree and types of impacts of climatic changes on human activities in the study area at that time.     

SPATIAL-TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF REGIONAL DISPARITIES OF INTERNET DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA

This paper attempts to summarize the disparities of lnternet development in China spatially-temporally. The major objective is to measure the differences between Eastern, Central and Western China. Methods of map presentation, correlation, Lorenz curve, Gini Coefficient and location quotient analysis are conductcd in this study.For convenience, the indicator of regional lnternet development is simplified as the number of domain names registered under .CN in each province. The data used are collected from the semi-annual surveys of the Statistical surrey Report on the Internet Development in China since 1999. There are several findings: 1)The number of domain names in each province (city) declines gradually from the east to the west. 2) The gap between the highest growth provinces (cities) and the lowest ones is rather large. 3) Although the absolute differences between the eastern, ccntral and western China have been enlarged, the relative diffcrences in each province (city) have remained constant.4) Provinces (cities) are classified into three types according to location quotient changes, namely, rising type,changeless type and declining type. Compared with industrial and economic growth, lnternet sector in the eastern and western China is relatively ascending, while that in the central China is descending. 5) The number of domain names at provincial level is not statistically consistent with GDP.     

CHARACTERISTICS OF ZONAL ANOMALY OF ANNUAL PRECIPITATION IN THE NORTHEASTERN CHINA

The characteristics of zonal anomaly and change rule of temporal distribution of annual precipitation in the northeastern China are revealed in this paper with EOF (Empirical Orthogonal Function) and REOF (Rotated Empirical Orthogonal Function) methods and results are drawn in the standard relief maps with GIS technology for practical application. Data used in the study were obtained from 208 meteorological stations over the northeastern China from 1961 to 2001. EOF results show that the first 3 loading vectors could give entire spatial anomaly structure of annual precipitation. In the Northeast Plain including the Songneng Plain and the Liaohe Plain, there is a regional compatibility (whether wet or dry) of annual precipitation change and this precipitation pattern has occurred since the late 1980s to the present. There also exist annual precipitation patterns of wet (or dry) in south and dry (or wet) in north and wet (or dry) in east and dry (or wet) in west. REOF results display 8 principal precipitation anomaly areas by the first 8 rotated loading vectors: the west plain, the Liaodong hills, the Sanjiang Plain, the Liaoxi hills,the Changbai Mountains, the Hulun Buir Plateau, the southwest plateau and the Liaodong Peninsula.