Exploring the spatial and temporal dynamics of land use in Xizhuang watershed of Yunnan, southwest China

Over the last two decades, China has introduced a series of agricultural and forestland use reforms, aiming to feed the largest population in the world and maintain ecological services locally and nationally. This paper studies the impacts of local government-driven reforestation on land use and land cover change, as well as its further impacts on livelihoods of upland farmers in Xizhuang watershed. An analysis of aerial photographs and ASTER satellite imagery from 1987 to 2002, respectively, showed that the forest has significantly increased at the expense of decreasing farmland. However, the monoculture reforestation of pine has caused both biophysical and socio-economic consequences. This case study also shows forestry decentralization in China remains incomplete. Land use and land cover change is also a political economic issue. Some of the reforms designed to protect forest resources have had a negative impact on rural livelihoods.     

山西运城市森林火险等级预报系统

利用有关气象及森林火灾资料，分析了林林火灾的发生与气象条件、火条件及森林含水率的关系，计算了森林火险综合预报指标，建立了以预报方程，经试用效果良好。     

古炭屑与古森林火?

森林火普遍发生在地质历史时期中，它对自然植被系统的演替起着重要作用。不同强度和频率的森林火培育出不同类型的植被：频繁的森林火导致草甸的形成，而热带雨林形成的原因之一是森林火的缺乏。古炭屑作为古森林火的遗迹，具有分布广泛、细胞结构保存完好以及原地埋藏等特点，为研究古森林火发生的强度和频率提供了宝贵的材料。古炭屑的出现与当时的气候因素、植被类型和地理状况有密切关系：干旱、少雨的气候常常伴随高频率森林火的发生，表现出古炭屑的数量增多；易燃物种组成的植被易发生森林火，古炭屑的出现也会增多，而耐火树种会降低森林火的强度，古炭屑则出现少。因此，从古炭屑的数量和种类的变化，可探讨古森林火的发生规律，进而推断长期地质历史时期的气候、植被、地理状况的演变。     

ISO-834标准火灾作用后钢管混凝土的轴压刚度和抗弯刚度

火灾后钢管混凝土的轴压刚度和抗弯刚度是钢管混凝土结构变形性能和抗震分析的重要指标，也是火灾后钢管混凝土修复和加固的重要依据之一，本文利用数值方法计算了标准火灾作用后钢管混凝土轴压构件和纯弯构件荷载-变形关系曲线，分析了受火时间、材料强度、含钢率、截面尺寸等因素的影响规律，最后推导了标准火灾作用后钢管混凝土轴压刚度和抗弯刚度的简化计算公式，所得结果可供有关钢管混凝土结构工程设计时参考。     

东营市森林火险天气等级预报系统

利用9210传输的气象资料，选用国家气象中心T106和HLAFS数值预报产品中的要素作为火险天气因子，根据森林火险原因，建立了东营市森林火险天气等级预报系统。     

The global rainforest mapping project JERS-1:a paradigm of international collaboration for monitoring land cover change

The Global Rainforest Mapping (GRFM) project was initiated in 1995 and, through a dedicated data acquisition policy by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), data acquisitions could be completed within a 1.5-year period, resulting in a spatially and temporally homogeneous coverage to contain the entire Amazon Basin from the Atlantic to the Pacific; Central America up to the Yucatan Peninsular in Mexico; equatorial Africa from Madagascar and Kenya in the east to Sierra Leone in the west; and Southeast Asia, including Papua New Guinea. To some extent, GRFM project is an international endeavor led by NASDA, with the goal of producing spatially and temporally contiguous Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data sets over the tropical belt on the Earth by use of the JERS-1 L-band SAR, through the generation of semi-continental, 100m resolution, image mosaics. The GRFM project relies on extensive collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Joint Research Center of the European Commission (JRC) and the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) for data acquisition, processing, validation and product generation. A science program is underway in parallel with product generation. This involves the agencies mentioned above, as well as a large number of international organizations, universities and individuals to perform field activities and data analysis at different levels.     

Promoting social justice and conserving montane forest environments: a case study of Nepal's community forestry programme

This paper analyses participatory forest policy and the ways it has influenced the relationships between people as it relates to the forest resource management. This case study was conducted in the middle hills of Nepal, and information was collected through direct observation, individual interviews, group discussion and secondary information analysis. It substantiates a few examples of how the community forestry programme can be used as a means to promote the participation of the women, the poor and dalit (untouchables) in forest resource management, as well as enhancing social justice and improving the forest resources in their locality. However, it also demonstrates that though the community forestry programme has a positive impact, it faces several constraints and challenges. The local Forest User Group is controlled by a few élites making the poor and disadvantaged vulnerable to further marginalization. The results of the case study strongly indicate that community forestry processes must address the political, economic and social needs of the forest users, and also provide a neutral platform on which the poor can present their cases.     

Fire Severity,Water Repellency Characteristics and Hydrogeomorphological Changes Following the Christmas 2001 Sydney Forest Fires

Soil water repellency can enhance overland flow and erosion and may be altered by fire. The Christmas 2001 bushfires near Sydney allowed investigation of the relationship between fire severity, water repellency and hydrogeomorphological changes. For two sub-catchments with differences in fire severities in Nattai National Park, south-west of Sydney, this paper considers: (1) the links between fire severity based on SPOT image analysis and ground observation of fire severity and repellency; (2) the textural and organic/minerogenic characteristics of eroded sediment; and (3) erodibility, erosion and deposition of soils in both catchments. Ground surveys show that image analysis reflects well the degree of vegetation consumption by fire, but cannot adequately predict the degree of ground litter consumption, associated soil heating and repellency effects. Fire had varying effects on repellency, leaving it unchanged, destroying it or enhancing it, depending on the soil temperature reached. The main post-fire hydrogeomorphological changes have been widespread erosion and colluvial and alluvial deposition of topsoil in foot-slope locations and river systems, but only localised redistribution of the highly erodible, repellent sandy subsurface layer. The fire did not trigger major geomorphological change in the study area, but fires probably cause important topsoil and nutrient depletion and may also affect water quality.     

The postglacial history of three Picea species in New England, USA

Given the difficulty of separating the three Picea species—P. glauca, P. mariana, and P. rubens (white, black, and red spruce)—in the pollen record, little is known about their unique histories in eastern North America following deglaciation. Here we report the first use of a classification tree analysis (CART) to distinguish pollen grains of these species. It was successfully applied to fossil pollen from eight sites in Maine and one in Massachusetts. We focused on the late glacial/early Holocene (14,000 to 8000 cal yr B.P.) and the late Holocene (1400 cal yr B.P. to present)—the two key periods since deglaciation when Picea has been abundant in the region. The result shows a shift from a Picea forest of P. glauca and P. mariana in the late glacial to a forest of P. rubens and P. mariana in the late Holocene. The small number of P. rubens grains identified from the late glacial/early Holocene samples (<5%) suggests that that species was either absent or rare at most of the sites. The occurrence and distribution of the three species do not reveal any geographic or temporal trend during late glacial time, but the data suggest that they were distributed in local patches on the landscape. The results of this study indicate that the recent population expansion of Picea (1000 to 500 cal yr B.P.) was likely the first time since deglaciation that P. rubens was abundant in the region.     

Late Pliocene to late Pleistocene environments preserved at the Palisades Site, central Yukon River, Alaska

The Palisades Site is an extensive silt-loam bluff complex on the central Yukon River preserving a nearly continuous record of the last 2 myr. Volcanic ash deposits present include the Old Crow (OCt; 140,000 yr), Sheep Creek (SCt; 190,000 yr), PA (2.02 myr), EC (ca. 2 myr), and Mining Camp (ca. 2 myr) tephras. Two new tephras, PAL and PAU, are geochemically similar to the PA and EC tephras and appear to be comagmatic. The PA tephra occurs in ice-wedge casts and solifluction deposits, marking the oldest occurrence of permafrost in central Alaska. Three buried forest horizons are present in association with dated tephras. The uppermost forest bed occurs immediately above the OCt; the middle forest horizon occurs below the SCt. The lowest forest bed occurs between the EC and the PA tephras, and correlates with the Dawson Cut Forest Bed. Plant taxa in all three peats are common elements of moist taiga forest found in lowlands of central Alaska today. Large mammal fossils are all from common late Pleistocene taxa. Those recovered in situ came from a single horizon radiocarbon dated to ca. 27,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. The incongruous small mammal assemblage in that horizon reflects a diverse landscape with both wet and mesic environments.