Spatial dynamics of retail structure and the venerable retail hierarchy

The retail system is continuously adapting itself to changing demographic conditions, consumer behavior and economic conditions. Existing retail units, getting larger in order to achieve economics of scale, and new forms of large-scale retailing do not fit easily in the traditional spatial pattern of retail concentrations. Neverteless the spatial distribution of retailing in urban areas, as schematized by Berry thirty-five years ago, still has its value. Through an upward hierarchical movement the retail system has adapted itself to an inflexible spatial system, in which downtown has still a dominant position. Future developments, however, may weaken the position of central shopping areas in favour of peripheral locations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Methodological aspects of surveying the volume, structure, activities and perceptions of city centre visitors

Counting pedestrians on a street and visitors entering a store is a method used to measure the attractiveness of these places. Their volumes are governed by daily, weekly, monthly and yearly cycles and are subject to random influences. This must be taken into account especially where comparison counts reveal changes. When single streets or stores are counted, it must be ascertained whether this figure is representative of the whole city centre and its retailing. Pedestrian volumes can be used for adjusting interview samples to the distribution in time and space of the city centre visitors. Counts of the qualitative characteristics of the pedestrian with respect to composition of groups reveal that surveys among pedestrians are biased in relation to the size of the group. Special attention in surveys should be given to the linking of activities. Whereas much emphasis is given to the accessibility of the city centre from outside, the ‘inner accessibility’ of the city centre is just as important. Long distances are often walked and many destinations visited. This is best recorded by conducting interviews at public transport stops and car parks. The attractiveness of the city centre depends not only on its physical structures but very much on the subjective perception of them; therefore judgements on accessibility, goods and services offered and the urban ambiance should be recorded. Retailer's attitudes concerning the qualities of the city centre should also be compiled for comparison. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Geothermal resource assessment of the United States

Geothermal resource assessment is the broadly based appraisal of the quantities of heat that might be extracted from the earth and used economically at some reasonable future time. In the United States, the Geological Survey is responsible for preparing geothermal assessments based on the best available data and interpretations. Updates are required every few years owing to increasing knowledge, enlarging data base, improving technology, and changing economics. Because geothermal understanding is incomplete and rapidly evolving, the USGS complements its assessments with a broad program of geothermal research that includes (1) study of geothermal processes on crustal and local scales, (2) regional evaluations, (3) intensive study of type systems before and during exploitation (4) improvement of exploration techniques, and (5) investigation of geoenvironmental constraints.     

赤道太平洋对流活动异常对我国夏季降水和气温的影响

利用月平均ＯＬＲ、降水和气温资料,研究了ＥＮＳＯ期间赤道太平洋对流活动与我国夏季降水和气温的关系。结果表明：春季、夏季中、西太平洋对流活动异常与我国夏季江淮地区的降水有密切关系;春季和前一年冬季西太平洋对流活动异常与东北地区夏季降水有显著相关。前一年冬季中、西太平洋对流活动异常与我国降水的显著相关区是不同的,前者为华南、西南地区,后者为东北至内蒙古一带。气温与同期中、西太平洋对流活动的相关不显著。     

The role of anthropogenic activities in karst spring discharge volatility

The traditional hydrological time series methods tend to focus on the mean of whichever variable is analysed but neglect its time‐varying variance (i.e. assuming the variance remains constant). The variances of hydrological time series vary with time under anthropogenic influence. There is evidence that extensive well drilling and groundwater pumping can intercept groundwater run‐off and consequently induce spring discharge volatility or variance varying with time (i.e. heteroskedasticity). To investigate the time‐varying variance or heteroskedasticity of spring discharge, this paper presents a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average with general autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (SARIMA‐GARCH) model, whose the SARIMA model is used to estimate the mean of hydrological time series, and the GARCH model estimates its time‐varying variance. The SARIMA‐GARCH model was then applied to the Xin'an Springs Basin, China, where extensive groundwater development has occurred since 1978 (e.g. the average annual groundwater pumping rates were less than 0.20 m³/s in the 1970s, reached 1.20 m³/s at the end of the 1980s, surpassed 2.0 m³/s in the 1990s and exceeded 3.0 m³/s by 2007). To identify whether human activities or natural stressors caused the heteroskedasticity of Xin'an Springs discharge, we segmented the spring discharge sequence into two periods: a predevelopment stage (i.e. 1956–1977) and a developed stage (i.e. 1978–2012), and set up the SARIMA‐GARCH model for the two stages, respectively. By comparing the models, we detected the role of human activities in spring discharge volatility. The results showed that human activities caused the heteroskedasticity of the Xin'an Spring discharge. The predicted Xin'an Springs discharge by the SARIMA‐GARCH model showed that the mean monthly spring discharge is predicted to continue to decline to 0.93 m³/s in 2013, 0.67 m³/s in 2014 and 0.73 m³/s in 2015. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of Human Activities on Depositional Process of Tidal Flat in Quanzhou Bay of China

As a very important component of a coastal system,tidal flats come to be a focus of the studies on land-ocean interaction in the coastal zone because those areas are subjected to intense human activities and are highly sensitive to the global change.The Quanzhou Bay,located along the middle part of Fujian coast of China,covers about 136.4km2,and the area of coastal wetland in the entire bay from intertidal to subtidal with 6m of water depth accounts for 96% of the total area.Seven short cores were collected and divided in situ with the interval of 5cm on the coastal wetlands of Quanzhou Bay on April 19,2006.The sediment samples were scattered and the grain sizes were measured by using Mastersizer 2000.Human beings' activities on tidal flat have disturbed the vertical distribution of sediments in stratigraphic sequence and accelerated the sedimentation rates.Grain size analysis results show that the grain size diameters increase and sediment becomes worse sorted towards the sea under the strong human disturbance;Spartina alterniflora can play a role of trapping the fine sediment;but near the bank,the sediment becomes coarse and there are two peak values on frequency curve influenced by the sandpile.The trough formed by human activities along the coastline changes the transport path of water and suspended sediment.The sediments are transported through the trough and deposit in it during the flood;the ebb flow is retarded by the flow output through the adjacent trough,and the deposited sediment can not be re-suspended;then,the sedimentation rate increases.In situ observation show that the sedimentation rate is about 8-10cm/yr.     

辽南早元古宙变质热液型金矿床成矿机理探讨

辽南早元古宙辽河群变质岩系中的金矿床为变质热液成因金矿床,矿床的形成与吕梁期变质变形作用关系密切。金矿化带的展布与金矿体的产出受韧性剪切带控制。剪切带内岩石具有明显的动态性组构特征,直接赋矿围岩为辽河群盖县组糜棱岩化千枚岩、变砂岩及云母石英糜棱岩等。韧性剪切带为含矿流体的运移提供通道。作者定义这类金矿床为变质热液型含金剪切带金矿床。     

Five-year bio-monitoring of aquatic ecosystems near Artigas Antarctic Scientific Base,King George Island

Fildes Peninsula, in King George Island, Antarctica, has a great concentration of international facilities, and it has clearly been affected by human activities. The objective of this 5-year study was ...     

Impacts of anthropogenic activities on the Changjiang(Yangtze)estuarine ecosystem(1998–2012)

Estuarine ecosystem has greatly changed in the recent decades due to anthropogenic perturbations in the Changjiang Estuary. Change patterns and impact factors were analyzed based on the continuous data...     

现代河流沉积物碎屑及矿物组分研究新进展

现代河流沉积物忠实地记录了流域盆地内的母岩、风化、搬运和沉积过程中的化学、物理过程以及人类活动的改造作用,是探索和验证源- 汇系统等理论的重要媒介。本文以全球现代河流砂组分数据库为基础,总结了碎屑组分、重矿物组分在不同大陆的分布特征,探讨了其在物源识别、源区贡献率计算、沉积物产生及搬运过程中气候- 构造等影响因素的评估、对源- 汇系统的研究启示等方面的应用。今后建议加强基于大数据的沉积物组分对气候- 构造- 人类活动的响应、沉积物产生及通量、高时间分辨率的沉积物组分变异性、不同物源定量化方法的差异等方面的研究。