Modelling sustainable urban growth in a rapidly urbanising region using a fuzzy-constrained cellular automata approach

This article presents an application of a fuzzy-constrained cellular automata model to simulate the spatio-temporal processes of urban growth in the rapidly growing Gold Coast City in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Urban growth has been captured in the model as a continuous process in space and over time, which has been affected by a set of primary and secondary transition rules. The primary transition rules deal with the propensity of a local area for development and the impact of its neighbouring cells on such development, while the secondary transition rules reflect the influences of environmental and institutional factors on urban growth. Application of the model demonstrates its re-applicability to different regions and the effectiveness of the cellular automata technique in studying urban dynamics. It also provides tools to explore sustainable urban growth options under different socio-environmental and planning control factors. A sustainable urban future of the region is achievable if development is managed to maintain a balance amongst ecological conservation, economic growth and the contemporary Australian lifestyle.     

The inclusion of differentially assessed lands in urban growth model calibration: a comparison of two approaches using SLEUTH

This research sought to understand the role that differentially assessed lands (lands in the United States given tax breaks in return for their guarantee to remain in agriculture) play in influencing urban growth. Our method was to calibrate the SLEUTH urban growth model under two different conditions. The first used an excluded layer that ignored such lands, effectively rendering them available for development. The second treated those lands as totally excluded from development. Our hypothesis was that excluding those lands would yield better metrics of fit with past data. Our results validate our hypothesis since two different metrics that evaluate goodness of fit both yielded higher values when differentially assessed lands are treated as excluded. This suggests that, at least in our study area, differential assessment, which protects farm and ranch lands for tenuous periods of time, has indeed allowed farmland to resist urban development. Including differentially assessed lands also yielded very different calibrated coefficients of growth as the model tried to account for the same growth patterns over two very different excluded areas. Excluded layer design can greatly affect model behavior. Since differentially assessed lands are quite common through the United States and are often ignored in urban growth modeling, the findings of this research can assist other urban growth modelers in designing excluded layers that result in more accurate model calibration and thus forecasting.     

MASCULINISM,POWER, AND DISCOURSES OF EXCLUSION IN BRIAN BERRY’S “SCIENTIFIC” GEOGRAPHY

This paper examines the impact of changes in industry mix, changes in technology, differential plant growth, plant entry and plant exit on metropolitan labor productivity growth between 1963 and 1997. Analysis is based upon unpublished plant-level data from the United States Bureau of the Census. We show that manufacturing productivity varies markedly between metropolitan areas in the United States. The most influential components of productivity growth are technological changes within incumbent plants and changes in industry mix. Significant differences in the relative contributions of these components of productivity change exist across metropolitan areas. Regional differences in rates of plant openings and plant closures also exert considerable impact on metropolitan productivity improvement.     

莫莫格国家级自然保护区的鱼类多样性

2008～2010年,在鱼类资源调查的基础上,分析了莫莫格国家级自然保护区的鱼类多样性特征。调查结果显示,莫莫格国家级自然保护区有鱼类物种5目11科42属49种,其中本区土著种5目10科38属45种,包括中国特有种4种,中国易危种5种,冷水种8种,国家II级保护动物1种。土著种群落中,有鲤形目(Cyprini-formes)鱼类32种,鲤科(Cyprinidae)鱼类29种,鮈亚科(Gobioninae)鱼类13种;古北界北方区黑龙江亚区黑龙江分区的物种为22种;源于东部平原和北方平原生态类群的鱼类有27种;适应于江—湖缓流环境和淡水定居生活的鱼类有33种;草上产卵和水层产卵繁殖的鱼类有37种;杂食性和初级肉食性种类有28种,它们均相对占优势。莫莫格国家级自然保护区与嫩江的鱼类群落物种结构Jaccard系数和Morisita-Horn相似性指数分别为0.918和0.838;稀有种(包括中国易危种)和常见种分别为14种和25种;物种多度格局近似于对数正态分布。这些结果表明,莫莫格国家级自然保护区的鱼类多样性与嫩江密切相关,鱼类区系复杂,物种组成与生态类型多样;群落结构相对较稳定,多样性程度相对较高,但仍面临着稀有种(包括中国易危种)尚占有一定比例而导致群落结构脆弱的潜在威胁。保持嫩江鱼类群落结构的稳定,对维护和发展莫莫格国家级自然保护区的鱼类多样性具有特别重要的意义。     

陕北风沙区大保当煤矿开采的生态影响分析

陕北风沙区位于毛乌素沙地东南缘,是毛乌素沙地向黄土高原的过渡地带,自然环境十分脆弱。本文通过对陕北风沙区大保当井田进行实地调查研究,结合遥感影像,运用图形叠置法、类比分析法和生态机理法分析了在该地区进行煤矿开采对当地自然植被、野生动物以及神木臭柏自然保护区的影响,并提出相应的生态保护措施。     

A comparison of different Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis (Rhodophyta) parts in biochemical characteristics,protoplast formation and regeneration

Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis is a commercially exploited alga. Its filaceous thallus can be divided into three parts, holdfast, middle segment and tip. The growth and branch forming trend and agar content of these three parts were analyzed, respectively, in this study. The results showed that the tip had the highest growth rate and branched most, although it was the last part with branch forming ability. The holdfast formed branches earliest but slowly. Holdfast had the highest agar content. We also assessed the difference in protoplast formation and regeneration among three parts. The middle segment displayed the shortest enzymolysis time and the highest protoplast yield; whereas the tip had the strongest vitality of protoplasts formation. Juvenile plants were only obtained from the protoplasts generated from the tip. These results suggested that the differentiation and function of G. lemaneiformis was different.     

Combined effects of light intensity and NH^＋4-enrichment on growth,pigmentation, and photosynthetic performance of Ulva prolifera （Chlorophyta）

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of light intensity and enhanced nitrogen supply on the growth and photosynthesis of the green-tide macroalga, Ulva prolifera. Thalli of U. prolifera were grown in natural or NH 4 +-enriched seawater under two different light intensities for 7 days, and then the growth rate, pigmentation, and photosynthetic performance of the thalli were evaluated. The results show that the relative growth rate(RGR) was markedly higher under the high light level than under the low light level. Enrichment with NH 4 + enhanced the RGR under high light intensity, but did not affect RGR under low light intensity. In low light conditions, NH 4 +-enrichment resulted in a marked decrease in the maximal photosynthetic rate( P m) and the maximum carbon fixation rate( V max), but it did not affect the half saturation constant for carbon( K 0.5) or the ratio of V max to K 0.5, which reflects the carbon acquisition efficiency. In high light conditions, P m, K 0.5, and the dark respiration rate( R d) increased under NH 4 + enrichment, but V max and the V max / K 0.5 ratio decreased. Regardless of the light intensity, NH 4 +-enrichment did not affect the apparent photosynthetic efficiency( α), which refl ects the ability of the alga to use light energy at low light levels. Under both low and high light intensities, the chlorophyll a(Chl a), chlorophyll b(Chl b), and carotenoids(Car) contents in thalli were higher in NH 4 +-enriched than in natural seawater, except that there was a decrease in the Chl b content of thalli in NH 4 +-enriched seawater under low light intensity. Therefore, NH 4 + enrichment improved the growth and photosynthetic performance of U. prolifera under high light intensity, but not under low light intensity. We discuss the possible mechanisms underlying these physiological responses.     

湖北省棉花产量的变化与棉田布局的战略调整*

本文揭示了湖北省棉花亩产的增长具有北高南低的特点,分析了鄂北地区种植棉花的自然优势和经济效盆大于江汉平原,从而提出湖北省棉花北移的战略调整的设想。     

Book Reviews

Books Reviewed Colbert C. Held, Middle East Patterns: Places, People, and Politics Barbara A. Weightman, Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East, and Southeast Asia Henry J. Bruman, Alcohol in Ancient Mexico Brian W. Blouet, Geopolitics and Globalization in the Twentieth Century M. A. B. Siddique (ed.), International Migration into the 21st Century: Essays in Honour of Reginald Appleyard Michael R. Haines and Richard H. Steckel (eds.), A Population History of North America Emilio Moran, Human Adaptability: An Introduction to Ecological Anthropology Jeremy Leggett, The Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era Susan B. Marriott and Jan Alexander (eds.), Floodplains: Interdisciplinary Approaches William S.Logan, Hanoi: Biography of a City Alex Krieger and David Cobb (eds.) with Amy Turner, Mapping Boston Eric Sandweiss, St. Louis: The Evolution of an American Urban Landscape Carl Abbott, Greater Portland: Urban Life and Landscape in the Pacific Northwest Arthur D. Murphy, Colleen Blanchard and Jennifer A. Hill (eds.), Latino Workers in the Contemporary South Yanek Mieczkowski, The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections     

An assessment of land cover change as a source of information for conservation planning in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve

Determining changes in land use/land cover (LULCC) can be used to assess and monitor habitat loss as one of the five global priority causes of biodiversity loss. In South Africa, two national land-cover (NLC) datasets have been developed from satellite imagery obtained in circa 1990 and 2013/2014. The Vhembe Biosphere Reserve (VBR), designated in 2009, is located in the north of the Limpopo Province in South Africa and has a surface area of 30,457 km². The aim of biosphere reserves is to provide a landscape-scale framework for conservation and sustainable development of an area. The area within a biosphere reserve is prioritised by designating it into one of three zones 1) Core, 2) Buffer, and 3) Transitional Zones. Two national parks and six provincial reserves (PAs) are the current and form part of the proposed updated core areas (pCAs) of the VBR. Intensity analyses was used to assess LULCC in the VBR. The pCAs cover 39.7% of the surface area of the VBR. The PAs cover 39.7% and only 15.8% of the surface area of the pCAs and VBR respectively. Based on the NLC 2013/2014 a majority of the VBR, pCAs and PAs consisted of indigenous vegetation dominated by Woodland/Open bush, Grassland, and Thicket/Dense bush. The extent of transformed land in the VBR declined from 1990 to 2013 by 1697.7 km². The total amount of change and mean annual change in the VBR was 53.1% and 2.31% respectively. The overexploitation of fuel wood by rural communities in rural areas of the VBR, was partly responsible for the targeted loss of Woodland/Open bush to Thicket/Dense bush and Grasslands. The unquantified presence of novel vegetation and alien invasive plants means that the NLC 1990 and 2013/2014 overestimates the quantity and distribution of the remaining indigenous vegetation in the VBR. In order to address this the distribution of alien and indigenous invasive plant species in the VBR needs to be determined and used to update future NLCs. Assuming a worse-case-scenario of all the coal deposits in the VBR, including the Kruger National Park, being mined it would amount to 24.7% of the surface area of the VBR. Only 6.8% of the area of all the coal deposits in the VBR was transformed with 93.2% currently remaining untransformed. It is recommended that transformation of indigenous vegetation to one of the seven transformed land cover categories and more specifically from coal mining should be restricted to the VBR's Transition Zones.