RIVER SYSTEM AND DISTURBANCE FACTORS IN THE LAKE TOBA

Situated at an elevation of 905 m above sea level in the Province of North Sumatra, Lake Toba and its surrounding landscapes are regarded as a natural heritage in a certain extent, as a quoted national treasure. Unfortunately degradation of the land and water resources in the watershed along Lake Toba is taking place at an alarming and totally unacceptable rate. The quality of the lake is partly depended on input the quality of the rivers. When compared to the control area the water quality that influenced by the piggeries are highly polluted. It can be concluded that the Salbe River at the downstream of the piggeries has been polluted and apparently it is a serious problem to the catchment area management. It should be noted that the polluted river would influence the water quality of the Lake Toba. Based on calculation, the permissible BOD5 according to B- river standard is 238 mg/L, it means the river still in B standard but the condition and quality are decreasing continuously. Following the Indonesian health standard the permissible BOD is - 461 mg/L. It means BOD in the river should be reduced 461 mg/L or clean program is needed.     

日本国内旅游业的发展及其地域特征

日本旅游业已成为国民经济的重要部门，据2002年日本交通省的统计表明，观光产业GDP已占国内生产总值的2．2％，这一数字与美国相近。但与西方国家显著不同的是，在美、英、法、意等旅游业发达国家中，国际旅游业占据举足轻重地位，而日本的旅游业却以国内旅游为主体。据日本最大旅行社JTB的统计，2002年日本旅游出行人数为34013万人次(其中出国旅游1664万人次)，而同年日本接待的外国入境游客刚刚超过500万人次。本文旨在介绍和分析日本国内旅游业的发生、发展的变化特征，以及国民不同的旅游方式和旅游地域差异。     

长江三角洲主要城市产业结构转换的综合评价

文章在对地区产业结构转换影响因素系统分析的基础上，采用定量分析方法，对长江三角洲15个主要城市的产业结构转换能力、产业转换速度、产业转换方向以及它们之间的关系进行探讨。研究表明：长江三角洲主要城市产业结构转换能力的区域差异明显，产业结构转换能力与区域经济发展所处阶段有很大的关系；产业结构转换能力、速度与经济发展水平呈正相关。     

Geography Education: The Glass Is Half Full and It's Getting Fuller

This article examines the recent progress of geography education as an academic subfield of geography and as an area of activity in K–12 education. Challenges to both endeavors are described. A restructuring of geography education's research program that focuses on spatial thinking and reasoning and merges applied and theoretical research is proposed.     

Water Quality Impacts of Climate and Land Use Changes in Southeastern Pennsylvania*

This study investigates potential changes in nitrogen and phosphorus loads under a warmer and wetter climate, urban growth, and combined changes in the Conestoga River Basin and its five subbasins in southeastern Pennsylvania. A GIS‐based hydrochemical model was employed for assessing the sensitivity of the basins to the projected changes in 2030. Under the HadCM2 climate change scenario, mean annual nitrogen and phosphorus loads are expected to increase, with great increases in spring but slight decreases in fall primarily because of changes in monthly precipitation. When climate change and urbanization occur concurrently, mean annual nitrogen loads further increase by 50% in the most urbanizing subbasin. Point source nitrogen control could mitigate negative effects of climate and land use changes, reducing mean annual nitrogen loads to the contemporary baseline level.     

The diurnal and seasonal characteristics of urban heat island variation in Beijing city and surrounding areas and impact factors based on remote sensing satellite data

Based on the land surface temperature (LST), the land cover classification map,vegetation coverage, and surface evapotranspiration derived from EOS-MODIS satellite data, and by the use of GIS spatial analytic technique and multivariate statistical analysis method, the urban heat island (UHI) spatial distribution of the diurnal and seasonal variabilities and its driving forces are studied in Beijing city and surrounding areas in 2001. The relationships among UHI distribution and landcover categories, topographic factor, vegetation greenness, and surface evapotranspiration are analyzed. The results indicate that: (i) The significant UHI occur in Beijing city areas in the four seasons due to high heat capacity and multi-reflection of compression building, as well as with special topographic features of its three sides surrounded by mountains,especially in the summer. The UHI spatial distribution is corresponding with the urban geometry structure profile. The LST difference is approximately 4-6℃ between Beijing city and suburb areas, comparatively is 8- 10℃ between Beijing city area and outer suburb area in northwestern regions. (ii) The UHI distribution and intensity in daytime are different from nighttime in Beijing city area, the nighttime UHI is obvious. However, in the daytime, the significant UHI mainly appears in the summer, the autumn takes second place, and the UHI in the winter and the spring seem not obvious. The surface evapotranspiration in suburb areas is larger than that in urban areas in the summer, and high latent heat exchange is evident, which leads to LST difference between city area and suburb area. (iii) The reflection of surface landcover categories is sensitive to the UHI, the correlation between vegetation greenness and UHI shows obviously negative.The scatterplot shows that there is the negative correlation between NDVI and LST (R2 = 0.6481).The results demonstrate that the vegetation greenness is an important factor for reducing the UHI,and large-scale construction of greenbelts can considerably reduce the UHI effect.