Based on the long-term serial NOAA/NDVI dataset during 1983-1999 and SPOT/VGT dataset in 2001, the land use/cover change information in the 13 provinces of northern China was extracted based on the analysis of the cultivated landscape characteristics at first, then the effects of human activities on cultivated land process were explored by GIS and the driving forces of cultivated land change were investigated. The conclusions can be drawn as follows: (1) The constant increase of weak ecological function land as desert and cultivated land and the decrease of the ecological function land of forest and shrub were the main characteristics of the land use/cover change in the 13 provinces from 1983 to 1999, which showed the effects on the ecological adjustment function. However, such situations were changed to some extent in the 2000s because of the eco-construction policy of the government. (2) From 1983 to 2001, the Barycenter of cultivated land tended to move from northeast to southwest with the topography and transportation situations being the main influences on the cultivated land distribution. It is found that the cultivated land use intensity decreased noticably with the increase of distance from the main communication arteries. (3) The improvement of the people's living standard is closely related with the cultivated land change. The structural adjustment in the agricultural land caused by economic development and the improvement of the people's living standard is an important factor affecting the cultivated land change in northern China from 1983 to 2001.
Serious soil erosion is one of the major issues threatening sustainable land use in semiarid areas, especially in the Loess Plateau of China. Understanding the effects of land use on soil and water loss is important for sustainable land use strategy. Two sub-catchments: catchment A (CA) and catchment B (CB) with distinct land uses were selected to measure soil moisture, runoff and soil nutrient loss in Da Nangou catchment of the Loess Plateau of China. The effects of land use patterns on runoff and nutrient losses were analyzed based on soil moisture pattern by kriging and soil nutrients using multiple regression model. The results indicated that there were significant differences in runoff yield and soil nutrient losses between the two sub-catchments. With similar land uses, the CA produced an average sediment yield of 49 kg ha-1 and 22.27 kg ha-1 during two storm events. Meanwhile, there was almost no runoff in the CB with dissimilar land uses during the same events. Buffer zones should be established to re-absorb runoff and to trap sediments in catchment with similar land use structure such as the CA. Moreover, land use management strategy aiming to increase the infiltration threshold of hydrological response units could decrease the frequency of runoff occurrence on a slope and catchment scale.
Land use and land cover changes have a great impact on the regional hydrological process. Based on three periods of remote sensing data from the 1960s and the long-term observed data of groundwater from the 1980s, the impacts of land use changes on the groundwater system in the middle reach of Heihe River Basin in recent three decades are analyzed by the perspective of groundwater recharge and discharge system. The results indicate that with the different intensities of land use changes, the impacts on the groundwater recharge were 2.602×108 m3/a in the former 15 years (1969-1985) and 0.218×108 m3/a in the latter 15 years (1986-2000), and the impacts on the groundwater discharge were 2.035×108 m3/a and 4.91×108 m3/a respectively. When the groundwater exploitation was in a reasonable range less than 3.0×108 m3/a, the land use changes could control the changes of regional groundwater resources. Influenced by the land use changes and the large-scale exploitation in the recent decade, the groundwater resources present apparently regional differences in Zhangye region. Realizing the impact of land use changes on groundwater system and the characteristics of spatial-temporal variations of regional groundwater resources would be very important for reasonably utilizing and managing water and soil resources.
Agricultural landscape along the riparian zones is designated as important landscape components for partly controlling water quality, biodiversity, as well as for their aesthetic role in landscapes. Therefore, the change of agricultural landscape along the riparian zones is at the top of the agenda for many policy makers and landscape planners. As a basis for conservation management, sufficient information about landscape structure should be provided. In the present study, we reconstructed the former landscape structure and elucidated the changes in landscape patterns during a period of about 15 years. Two sets of maps were used: a landsat-5 TM image (1987) and landsat-7 ETM image (2002). The frequency index, landscape diversity index and landscape fragmentation index were calculated for analyses. The results showed that: (1) the areas of the irrigated land, river, forest and beach landscape classes presented a decreasing trend while the areas of landscape classes of pool, paddy fields, dry land and construction land increased. (2) Disturbed by human activity, landscape diversity index increased but landscape fragmentation index decreased. In short, Human activities have had important influences on agricultural landscape of the riparian zones along the Yellow River in Henan Province.
Landsat ETM/TM data and an artificial neural network (ANN) were applied to analyse the expansion of the city of Xi'an and land use/cover change of its surrounding area between 2000 and 2003. Supervised classification and normalized difference barren index (NDBI) were used respectively to retrieve its urban boundary. Results showed that the urban area increased by an annual rate of 12.3%, with area expansion from 253.37 km2 in 2000 to 358.60 km2 in 2003. Large areas of farmland in the north and southwest were converted into urban construction land. The land use/cover changes of Xi'an were mainly caused by fast development of urban economy, population immigration from countryside, great development of infrastructure such as transportation, and huge demands for urban market. In addition, affected by the government policy of "returning farmland to woodland", some farmland was converted into economic woodland, such as Chinese goosebeery garden, vineyard etc.
In this paper, a quantitative research on the relationship between different underlying surface and sand-dust storm has been made by using 40 years meteorological data of five different types of underlying surface in northern China, which include farmland, grassland, sandland, gobi and salt crust. These metrological data comprise sand-dust storm days and strong wind days. By analyzing, we can find that there are certain correlations between the days of sand-dust storm and strong wind for different underlying surface, which has great influence on sand-dust storm. But there are pronounced differences in different types of underlying surface. The sand-dust storm days of grassland, gobi and salt crust, with smaller interannual variation are obviously less than strong wind days. On the other hand, the sand-dust storm days of farmland and sandland increase evidently, even in many years, are much more than strong wind days. The differences are mainly induced by the influencing mechanism of different underlying surface on sand-dust storm. Grassland, gobi and salt crust with stable underlying surface are not prone to sand-dust storm under strong wind condition. Whereas, the underlying surface of farmland and sandland is unstable, that is easy to induce sand-dust storm under strong wind condition.
Due to the influences of local topographical factors and terrain inter-shielding, calculation of direct solar radiation (DSR) quantity of rugged terrain is very complex. Based on digital elevation model (DEM) data and meteorological observations, a distributed model for calculating DSR over rugged terrain is developed. This model gives an all-sided consideration on factors influencing DSR. Using the developed model, normals of annual DSR quantity with a resolution of 1 km × 1 km for the Yellow River Basin was generated, with DEM data as the general characterization of terrain. Characteristics of DSR quantity influenced by geographic and topographic factors over rugged terrain were analyzed thoroughly. Results suggest that: influenced by local topographic factors, i.e. azimuth, slope and so on, and annual DSR quantity over mountainous area has a clear spatial difference; annual DSR quantity of sunny slope (or southern slope) of mountains is obviously larger than that of shady slope (or northern slope). The calculated DSR quantity of the Yellow River Basin is provided in the same way as other kinds of spatial information and can be employed as basic geographic data for relevant studies as well.
Late Pleistocene glaciation was restricted to only a few high mountains in eastern China. The Gongwang mountains constitute one of the typical places once glaciated. Geomorphic mapping of the area and the TL dating provides evidence for at least four distinct glaciations. YJT-I glacial advance occurred about 100 ka BP and two TL absolute ages (101,100 ±7780 a BP; 104,000±8300 a BP) indicate this advance happened during the Penultimale Glaciation. The early stage glacial advance (YJT-II advance) during the last glaciation occurred about 40,920±3400 a BP. The last glacial maximum advance (YJT-III advance) about 18-25 ka BP, which sustained by two TL ages (18,230 ±1420 a BP; 25,420 ±2110 a BP). The Penultimale and the early stage glaciations were more extensive and the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the late-glacial period (YJT-IV advance, 10 ka BP) were progressively less extensive. Correlated with the other mountains in eastern China, these glacial advances in the Gongwang mountains just like the advances in the western part such as Diancang mountains, Yulong mountains of Yunnan Province and the glacier series are more complete than the adjacent mid-latitude regions such as Taibai mountain and Taiwan mountains and are roughly representative of climate changes during the last glacial cycle in Yunnan Province.
Based on 740 stations of daily precipitation datasets in China, the precipitation- concentration degree (PCD) and precipitation-concentration period (PCP) of different intensity durative precipitation events were calculated to analyze their statistical characteristics, mainly including spatial and temporal distributions, variations and climatic trends of the two parameters of the durative heavy precipitation events in China. It is proved that these two parameters of heavy rainfall can display the temporal inhomogeneity in the precipitation field. And it is also found that there is a good positive relationship between the precipitation-concentration degree and annual rainfall amount in the Eastern and Central China. This method can be applied in flood assessment and climate change fields.
The method of time series is applied to analyze the variation of precipitation and temperature from 1961 to 2002 in the mountainous areas of the Tarim River Basin, as well as water consumption in the headstream and mainstream areas. Those hydrologic parameters are verified. Quantitative results indicate that the precipitation and temperature in the headstream areas have an increasing trend to different extent. The increasing trend of precipitation is less significant than that of the temperature (α= 0.05). Runoff of three headstreams also increases especially from 1994 to 2002. Compared with the perennial runoff, the annual runoff has increased by 25.163×108 m3/a. However, inflows of the mainstream areas has only increased by 0.9985×108 m3/a. So the runoff at the different hydrologic stations in the headstream areas has a linear decreasing trend. It is shown that the degraded trend of eco-environment of the Tarim River Basin hardly changes in the special water period for ten consecutive years. Given runoff of three headstreams is accounted in normal period from 1957 to 2003, the annual runoff of the headstream areas would be only 22.57×108 m3. Therefore, more attention should be given to ecological safety of the Tarim River Basin.
On the basis of the geomorphology, paleosol, paleoclimate and loess age, major changes of the Loess Plateau were studied. There are five major changes in the evolution of the Loess Plateau in China. Among them, the first, second, third and fourth major changes have taken place since the formation of the Loess Plateau, and the fifth major change will happen in 100 years. The first major change, which occurred at about 2.50 Ma BP, was a transition from red earth plateau to the Loess Plateau, and reflects the climate from the warm-sub-humid to the alteration between cold-and-dry and warm-and-humid. The driving force of this first major change was climate. The second major change, which took place at about 1.60 Ma BP, was a vital transition of the main rivers in this area from non-existence to existence, and represented an important change on the Loess Plateau's neotectonic uplift from the slow rising to periodically accelerated rising, and making the river's erosion go from feeble to strong. The driving force of the second major change is tectonic uplift. The third major change which occurred at about 150 ka, was a great transition of the Yellow River's inpouring from a lake outlet to a sea outlet. At that time, the Yellow River cut the Sanmen Gorge. The transition led to the transformation of loess material from internal transportation to external transportation. The driving force of the third major change was running water erosion. The fourth one that occurred at about 1.1 ka was a change of the Loess Plateau from natural erosion to erosion accelerated by human influences. The driving force of the fourth major change is mainly human activities. The fifth major change, which is the opposite change to the fourth one, in which the motive power is human activity, too.
Conversion of cropland to forestry and grassland is an important method to reduce soil erosion and improve the biophysical environment in the Loess Plateau. The feasibility, methods, and environmental effects of cropland conversion were studied based on 11 typical watersheds of national experimental bases instead of different geographic areas of the Loess Plateau. Between 1986 and 2000, cropland, sloping cropland and non-agricultural land decreased by 8%, 92.5% and 8% respectively, while forestry increased by 15.7%. The land use change not only decreased annual soil erosion by 74%, but also increased vegetation coverage by 100% and improved the soil condition and biodiversity. This can be achieved by building basic farmland, increasing capital and scientific input, and planting trees and grasses according to the natural biophysical restrictions.
This paper, taking Hexi Corridor as an example, analyzes the alternating intimidation and the dynamic evolving relation between urbanization and eco-environment in arid area of West China. We argue that the harmonious development system of the urbanization and eco-environment would go through four phases: rudimentary symbiotic phase, harmonious developmental phase, utmost increasing phase and spiral type rising phase. Throughout the four phases, the elements of the system would influence each other, coerce each other, and complete the spiral type rising process from low-grade symbiosis to high-grade harmony together. The study on Hexi Corridor shows that the urbanization level in Hexi Corridor has increased gradually from 1985 to 2003 accompanied with the fluctuations of eco-environment state. The response of eco-environment to urbanization has been evident, but lagged behind the urbanization course. At present, the harmonious development system in Hexi Corridor was in its harmonious developmental phase. However, the coupling degree has increased quickly and approached 90 yet, which is signaling that the system is about to enter the utmost increasing phase, and the ecological crisis will enter the latent period. We have found that the coupling degree can well reflect the interactive coercing and dynamic evolving situation between urbanization and eco-environment in Hexi Corridor. From the temporal change of the coupling degree, it can be concluded that urbanization sometimes needs to pay a certain cost for the damage of the eco-environment in its initial stages, but as the urbanization continues, the state of the eco-environment would be meliorated.
The investigations on the organic carbon (OC) of core sediments were carried out in Chongming east tidal flat (CM) during Scirpus mariqueter growing stage (from April to December 2004) in Yangtze Estuary. The Yangtze River annually transports a runoff discharge of 30,000 m3/s, carrying about 480 million tons of sediments to the estuarine and coastal area, which formed a great OC pool. In the sampling spots, seven quadrats of 50 cm × 50 cm and five sediments cores of 20 cm deep (40 cm deep in December) were randomly established in order to collect vegetations and core sediments samples during the low tide each month except November. After pretreatment, the core sediments were sieved and their OC contents were measured according to the potassium dichromate method. The results show that the higher surface sediment OC content in summer comes from allochthonous terrigenous particle settlements on the Chongming east middle tidal flat S. mariqueter zone. In autumn and winter, the decomposing of the defoliated S. mariqueter increases the surface sediments OC content. Settling velocity, sediment temperature and S. mariqueter growth are the main factors that can control the sediment carbon content. Summer is the "carbon losing" period of the tidal flat sediments, while from September, it changes into the "carbon accumulating" period of sediment OC pool because of the decomposing of dead S. mariqueter community in the sediments. From this alternation of "carbon losing" period and "carbon accumulating" period, we conclude that carbon in the OC pool of the middle tidal flat S. mariqueter zone sediments mainly comes from the atmospheric carbon rooted by S. mariqueter photosynthesis.
