两千年来中国自然与人文地理环境变迁及启示

科学理解中国自然与人文地理环境变迁的历史逻辑、基本规律和发展趋势,有助于找准历史方位,确立国土空间开发保护格局优化方向,推进"美丽中国"建设与经济社会可持续发展。本文集成现有研究成果,梳理了两千年来中国自然与人文地理环境变迁过程,总结了主要要素的变迁特点,探讨了这些历史变迁对"美丽中国"建设的启示。研究表明,两千年来中国自然地理环境变化主要表现为气候的多尺度准周期波动、黄土高原破碎化、北方地区沙漠化土地扩张、河口三角洲海岸在泥沙沉积作用下逐步外移、黄河和长江中下游湖泊萎缩、森林和温带草原面积下降。人文地理环境变迁突出表现在人口增长和格局变化、经济中心向东南迁移、耕地向外围扩张、交通网络由道路网和运河网向立体化综合交通网转变。依据上述变化的历史逻辑,未来基本自然地理格局和地理界线仍将长期存在,长江和黄河中下游星罗棋布的湖泊水系已难再现,南粮北运成为历史,但森林覆盖率仍有较大提升空间,交通网络建设仍需进一步推进,同时还要加强沿海城市应对气候变化威胁的防控体系建设。

Changes of the physical and human geographical environment in China during the past 2000 years

Understanding the changes of physical and human geographical environment during the past 2000 years in China is beneficial to establish the position, direction, focus areas, and initiatives of "Beautiful China" construction. In this paper, we integrated the results published in research papers, summarized the general characteristics of geographical environment changes in the history, and explored the implications of these changes on the construction of ecological civilization. The results implied that historical changes in China's land surface had been mainly manifested by the multi-scale quasi-periodic fluctuations and regional differentiation of climate, the fragmentation of the Loess Plateau, the expansion of desertified land in the northern regions, the gradual migration of delta coasts, the large scale shrinkage of lake systems especially in the Yellow River and the Yangtze River basins, and the decline in area of forests and the grasslands of northern China. Meanwhile, the economic and social changes were prominently reflected in the population growth and pattern changes, the migration of economic center to the southeast, the expansion of cultivated land to the periphery, and the transportation network evolution. From the above results, we could achieve the following enlightenments: in the future, the deserts in the northern region would still exist, and the lake systems in the middle and lower reaches of both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River were difficult to restore. The grain transportation from the south to the north disappeared in the history. But there was still much room for improvement in the coverage rate of forests, the transportation network could still achieve a higher level, and at the same time, we must mitigate the risk from climate change in the coastal cities.