认识自然地理学的发展态势, 有助于把握学术前沿。当代自然地理学不仅研究组成自然环境的各个要素及其相互作用, 研究空间过程和区域差异, 也研究随时间进程而发生的各种过程及其中的各种关系, 将一定时间或空间尺度上获得的结果推演到其他尺度, 将自然地理学的研究成果应用于解决实际的资源、环境管理问题。国际自然地理学的新领域可以概括为自然地理系统、自然地理过程、景观与环境变化、人类活动与环境变化、全球自然地理学和文化自然地理学。中国现代自然地理学源于本土地理学并受欧美地理学和俄罗斯地理学的影响, 在满足国家和社会需求方面表现突出, 但在学术思想、理论和方法方面, 独立的建树和自主创新尚待加强。我国自然地理学未来发展趋势是走向更加综合、站在全球变化的高度、走向更深入地揭示关键过程及其动态变化的机理机制、更加重视高新技术的运用、更加密切地为实现区域可持续发展服务, 并需要加强科学思维、科学方法和科学工具的研究和创新。

As one of world's worst natural disasters inflicting countries, China is frequently suffered by the ravages of natural disasters,which have had a negative effect on people's lives and caused huge economic losses annually. Presently, the study of vulnerability has played an important part in the research on natural disasters, which emphasizes the relationship between human society and the effects of disasters, and measurement of the capability to overcome natural disasters in different regions with distinctive economy. The purpose of the vulnerability analysis is to identify appropriate actions that can be taken to reduce the potential natural disaster damages, so it is of great practical significance to study China's vulnerability to natural disasters. Traditional methods for vulnerability analysis calculate sub-indices based on disaster frequency, loss, the economic impact and the population of each region, and then use the sub-indices to obtain a composite index for regional vulnerability. However those methods has a shortcoming, which are sensitive to weight set for sub-indices and the selection of the vulnerability functions. As a result, the analytic results are less convincing, so a data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based model for analysis of regional vulnerability to natural disasters is presented here to improve the traditional methods, and data from 2001 to 2008 of China are analyzed. Under the framework of the regional natural disaster system, this paper firstly constructs an input-output DEA model for the regional disasters system from three aspects, including the danger of regional disasters, the exposure of regional soc-economy and the regional natural disaster losses, using the efficiency calculated by the DEA to imitate the regional vulnerability to natural disasters, and then it makes an analysis of the differentiation of the regional vulnerability to natural disasters. The result shows that the overall level of vulnerability to natural disasters of China is high, and the geographical pattern for vulnerability is Western Region > Central Region > Eastern Region. In addition, there is a negative correlation between the level of regional vulnerability and regional economic level, that is, the more economically developed regions has lower regional vulnerability.

The research of sediment discharge, erosion amount and sediment delivery ratio is known as frontier topics in the field of soil erosion and sediment yield in a drainage basin, with the hope that the research results of slope or runoff plot could be transformed into much larger areas according to the theory of scale transformation. Based on the measured sediment discharge, calculated erosion amounts and sediment delivery ratio in the Ganjiang River Basin, this paper discusss the relationships of the three variables at a basin scale, and analyzs the possibilities of scale transformation of the three variables. Both the scatter diagrams and correlation equations of the three variables and drainage areas reflected the fact that the three variables are not correlative with the drainage area and against the conclusion that the three variables have inverse relations with the drainage area presented by some scholars. It also describs the connotation of basin area and its relationship with the influencing factors of sediment discharge, erosion amount and sediment delivery ratio. The result reveals that there is no scaling effect between the influencing factors of the three variables and basin areas. Therefore, there is little possibility for scale transformation in sediment discharge, erosion amount and sediment delivery ratio in the Ganjiang River Basin. Further research work should be done to find out if this conclusion could be reliable and have a universal meaning.

Soil erosion and its eco-environmental effects are important issues among environmental topics. Quantitative estimation or measurement of soil loss is one of the main fields in soil erosion researches. As a short-time consuming and relatively simple method, ¹³⁷Cs tracing technique was widely applied in quantitative estimation of soil loss caused by natural driving forces or human activities. Measurement of reference value is fundamental in estimating soil loss rate by the ¹³⁷Cs tracing method. Impacted by multi factors that intrinsically are of spatial heterogeneity, ¹³⁷Cs background fallout varied across landscapes. It was enucleated here how weather, topography, soil properties and land use/cover impacted spatial distribution of ¹³⁷Cs and strengthened its spatial variation. Meanwhile, existence of soil sample sites for ¹³⁷Cs references deposition value measurement and veracity of sample site selection were discussed. Based on the above analysis, a framework subdividing target area into humongous measurement units and employing hierarchical multi-reference system and topographical rectification were suggested as solutions for handling spatial heterogeneity of ¹³⁷Cs reference value. Further studies are needed to quantify the effect of each factor on spatial variation of ¹³⁷Cs reference fallout and to eventually establish principles and methods for subdividing measurement unit.

In this paper, the author holds that the sub-tropical medium and low mountainous areas, at an altitude of 3000-1500m above the sea level along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River were mainly covered with arbors mixed with meadow landscape 500 years ago, rather than meadow and shrub-grass-based landscape today. Since man mostly live on flat grounds, platforms and hilly regions at an altitude below 1500 m, human activities have little impact on the mountainous areas over 1500 m. In short, along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, wetland and grass-slope zone in the low hills with 1500-3000 m above the sea level, which was described statically by modern geologists, was actually mixed coniferous and deciduous forests dominated by abies and picea 500 years ago. The main reasons for the change are land cultivation, commercial logging and timber gathering for the imperial palaces in recent 500 years. The ecological environment thus cannot be completely restored, either by artificial or natural reconstruction. Timber gathering for the imperial palaces and commercial logging had a great impact on the forest of medium and low mountains along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Phoebe and China Fir chopping greatly affected the canopy density of the forest in particular, but it exerted no introgression to the forest resources. Land cultivation, especially the stable farming activities which had dug a large amount of roots, made it impossible for the recovery of the forest resources. So far we have not found out the causes of the vegetation alteration, of which how much was caused by the climate change, so further study is needed.

A total of 21 surface dust samples were collected in High-tech Development Zone, Center City, Economic and Technological Development Zone in Wuhu urban area. Concentrations of Zn, Cd, Pb, Co, Ni, Mn, Cr, V and Cu on different particle sizes were analyzed by ICP-OES in this paper. Research into the exposure and health risk assessment of heavy metals on the fine size dust was carried out by using USEPA health risk assessment model. Results showed that: the range of the change for the nine heavy metals in surface dust in Wuhu urban area was quite large and there exit different degrees of pollution, in which the average concentration of Cd was over 30 times of the soil background value. As far as the concentration was concerned, Economic and Technological Development Zone witnessed the highest concentrations of Zn, Cd, Pb, Co, Ni and Cu, High-tech Development Zone found the highest concentration of Mn, and Central City saw the highest concentrations of Cr and V. Particle size distribution had a significant influence on pollutant concentrations. Some 160-200 and >200 mesh sizes were at the main pollution level. Heavy metals were mainly enriched in the >200 mesh particle size and the enrichment ratio was about 50% in the order of Cd>Cu>Zn>Cr>Ni>Pb>Co>V>Mn. Human exposure risk assessment showed that hand-mouth intake was the main way for childrens' heavy metals exposure to fine particle size of surface dust, followed by skin absorption, and the exposure to heavy metals through air inhalation was the smallest. The order of non-cancerous hazard indexes of metals was Pb>Cr>Mn>V>Cu>Cd>Co>Ni>Zn. There were no significant risks, but the superposition of all the heavy metals on childrens' degree of non-cancer risk was up to 0.753, so we should pay more attention to cumulative pollution and potential risks. The non-cancerous risk indexes of the nine heavy metals from the three ways was 1.266 in Economic and Technological Development Zone, showing a potential non-cancerous risk to the health of the children. Cancer risks of Cr, Cd, Co and Ni were lower than their threshold values, indicating a lower risk of cancer and without health hazards.

The Minjiang River estuary is a typical tidal estuary in the southeast of China, and the Shanyutan wetland (between 119°34'12″-119°40'40″E and 26°00'36″-26°03'42″N) is the largest estuarine wetland in the Minjiang River estuary area. The climate is relatively warm and wet, with a mean annual temperature of 19.6 ℃ and a mean annual precipitation of 1350 mm. The samples were collected in 18 soil profiles with a depth of 60 cm under three dominated macrophytes (Phragmites australis, Cyperus malacceusis var.bervifolius and Scirpus triqueter) in two different inundated districts far from and near a tide ditch in the middle of the Shanyutan wetland. These soil samples were divided into layers of 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40, 40-50 and 50-60 cm in depth. The soil properties and DOC, TN, TP, NH⁺₄-N and NO^-₃-N contents and storages were measured. The concentrations of DOC in a depth of 0-10 cm ranged from 13.68 to 93.73 mg kg^-1, TN from 0.24 to 1.91 g kg^-1, and TP, 0.21-1.34 g kg^-1. The DOC, TN and TP concentrations of the soils under P. australis and C. malacceusis were similar, which was higher than DOC and TN concentration under Scirpus triqueter in the area far from and near the tide ditch. The TN and TP contents and storages near the tide ditch were significantly higher than that far from the tide ditch for S.triqueter wetland, however, for the P. australis and C. malacceusis wetlands, the TN and TP contents in the area far from and near the tide ditch were similar. Besides, the DOC, TN and TP contents in soils were significantly correlated with the soil grain size, bulk density and moisture. The soil salinity values had a positive correlation with NH⁺₄-N content, and a negative correlation with NO⁺₃-N. The DOC, TN and TP contents in the Shanyutan tidal wetland were much similar with those in the Yangtze River and Pearl River estuaries, and some coastal regions across the world.

To carry out spatial layouts of suburban livestock farms better, the research analyzed the influencing factors for suitability evaluation of livestock farm spatial layout from the view of environmental factors, economic factors, public health and epidemic prevention factors, land use status factors, laws, regulations and policies factors. The selection and weight determination of evaluation factors of spatial layout of suburban livestock farm, supported by geographical information technology, was determined by delphi method and analytic hierarchy process and potential pollution of livestock manure in farmland soil environment was evaluated. On this basis, this paper, taking Daxing District in Beijing as an example, constructed evaluation of adaptability index system in planning of spatial arrangement for livestock farm, and realized evaluation of adaptability in planning of spatial arrangement for livestock farm in landmass for unit. The result showed that most parts of the region were forbidden and unsuitable area for farm, and 34% of total area, after environmental pollution effect caused by livestock farm was considered, in accordance to the development demand of urban modern agriculture in Beijing, was suitable for developing the livestock farm.

Calculating and assessing available land (reserved construction land potential) is a key foundation of Major Function Oriented Regionalization. Under the background of land resources scarcity and the policy of cultivated land conservation, precisely evaluating land resources, especially reserved construction land of different regions seems to be one of important issues on how to put forward Major Function Oriented Regionalization. The article puts emphasis on definition, function, factor parameters, and arithmetic and technique course of available land for Major Function Oriented Regionalization. With the help of GIS spatial analysis techniques, using Digital Elevation Map (DEM), TM remote sensing land use map of 2000, administrative map at county level and land use investigation data of 2005, the article calculated and assessed quantity and spatial differentiation of available land of China in 2005. The results show that: available land area for construction in China amounts to 28.54×10⁴ km², which accounts for 3.01% of the total land area. Available land area per capita is 0.34 mu/person, and the main characteristics of spatial differentiation show that: the high value areas are concentrated in Northeast China, northern part of North China, Northwest China and the middle reaches of the Yellow River, while the low value areas are aggregated on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and densely populated areas of Central and Eastern China. Available land is a comprehensive index for assessing land capacity of population agglomeration, industrialization and urbanization in different regions. However, as a lot of factors are related to the index, one single index (available land area or available land area per capita) cannot precisely reflect all the contents of the index of available land. In the process of practical application, a few issues should be concerned. Firstly, available land index items consist of three factors: quantity, quality and scale of massing of reserved construction land. Available land area and available land area per capita are two key indices based on the single factor method. Secondly, supplementary indices should be set up, such as abundance of available land per capita, abundance of available land, and etc. Finally, according to the definition of the index, available land should be derived from residual available land, potential available land and adjusting available land. The location of the study area, work targets, scale of the study area and data accessibility should also be focused in the practical process of calculating and assessing available land.

In recent years, the research on the hydrological response to Land Use/Land Cover Change (LUCC) has been an international frontier and a key problem. In Dali River Basin, LUCC, including soil and water conservation, have strong impacts on water cycle and water balance. Therefore, it is essential to study hydrological response to LUCC in this river basin. First, based on the land use data in 1990, 1995 and 2000, the spatial and temporal characteristics of LUCC were analyzed. And then, using the Time Series Analysis Method of characteristic parameters and the rainfall-runoff model, hydrological response to LUCC in Dali River Basin were studied. The results showed that farmland and grassland were the primary land use types in Dali River Basin. For recent 10 years, the area of farmland and grassland decreased and the area of forest and constructed land increased gradually. The mean annual and monthly runoff showed a distinct decreasing trend. LUCC and soil and water conservation distinctly decreased the mean annual runoff and the runoff during flood season, and increased the runoff during non-flood season. Furthermore, compared with precipitation variation, human activities were dominant factors for these hydrological responses, and for this reason, the decreased runoff reached 2616.6×10⁴ m³ during 1990-2000, which accounted for 62.19% of the total amount of the decreased runoff.

Scale issues are the focus of land change science. Systematical summary of the progress of the scale issues in land change studying at home and abroad for recent ten years shows that: the scale issues in land change study mainly focused on data processing, pattern and process representing, the influence of driving forces, application of models, environmental effects, land policy and sustainable management. Scale issues arise primarily from the heterogeneity of geographical phenomena, hierarchy of geographical systems, non-linear characteristics of the response and feedback, influence of the disturbance, limitations of subjective awareness and so on. The scale issues have puzzled the development of land change science, Land Use and Land Cover change (LUCC), Global Land Project (GLP), Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) and other major international projects, which all have taken the scale issues as a prior concern in its research agenda. It is urgent that multi-case synthesis, multi-level data processing, understanding of the relationships between global and local scales and the application of landscape ecology research paradigm should deal with scaling. The general approach of scale study is scale selection - scale analysis - scale integration; when performing the scale selection, we should consider the questions which would be solved and the data which can be collected, then choose the appropriate scale; when performing the scale analysis, it is required that analysis should be carried out on larger and smaller scales at the same time, to find a significant change in dynamics, to prevent the omission or exaggeration of information. Scaling is the bond to recognize the relationship between global and local scales, which can be divided into scaling-up and scaling-down, when performing the scaling, the method is the key problem, whose objective is to find the "connectivity" between scales. Models can help to deeply understand the land use system dynamics, thus developing the nested model is the key problem in scaling study nowadays, for example, to nest the CLUE-S with ABM/LC and so on.

Urban population size is an important object of study in the field of urban system. The population size and its hierarchy of a certain city in the urban system may be affected by other cities around it and the distance between them, while the influencing factors are ignored in some traditional theories of urban development such as base/non-base economic theory. Using the city population (Shi Ren Kou) in the fifth census as the index of city population size and the railway transportation distance as the index of distance among cities, this paper verified that the city population size can be explained efficiently by the distance among cities in the urban system in China, North China and South China. It also explored the quantitive relationship between the population size of a certain city i (Pi ) and other factors including the population size of the nearest city n(Pn) and the distance between i and n(D_in), the population size of the primary city s (Ps) and the distance between i and s (D_is), the population size of the regional central city c(Pc) and the distance between i and c (Dic). The result indicates that, 1) in the whole urban system in China, Pi can be explained by Pn,D_in and D_ic , while Pn and D_in have a positive influence on Pi and Dic has a negative influence, and Pn is the most important influencing factor, followed by D_in and D_ic; 2) in the urban system of North China, Pn, D_in and D_ic have positive influences and D_in is the most important influencing factor, followed by Pn and D_ic; 3) in the urban system in South China, the factors and their influences are the same as those in the urban system in China, 4) the quantitative relationship between D_in and ordinal number R of city n in the urban system is the same as that between city population size and its ordinal number.

Hedonic pricing model is a tool frequently used in the analysis of housing market in western developed countries. It has a high degree of pertinence and real-time, and is a scientific method to measure externality. In the transforming context of house commercialization, it is feasible to do research on the housing market from the angle of housing demand, and with the launch of property tax in China, proper measure in the monetary value of externality from the public service is of great meaning to setting a scientific fiscal plan for the government. This article establishes the Hedonic model for Guangzhou housing market by using data in three independent time series in 2005, 2006 and 2007, and explores the impact of floor ratio, area, distance from CBD, distance from the shopping center, rail accessibility, water view, park accessibility, primary school, secondary school, prestigious primary school, prestigious secondary school and campus on the housing price. The article reveals the changing tendency and degree of the housing preference of Guangzhou residents over time and the reason of the change. It also effectively measures the capitalization degree of the infrastructure investment of Guangzhou municipal government on housing market. The result shows that Guangzhou residents have increasing preference to central location, good transportation accessibility, large-scale resident districts and water view. For Guangzhou municipal government, the long-term public investment in subway construction, landscape reconstruction and education quality enhancement has been reflected by the housing market as the increasing housing preference to these variables. The article also conducts a relatively accurate measurement of the degree of this investment effect by the Hedonic model. Finally, the article views the application prospect of Hedonic pricing model in China in the context of local government-oriented urban development.

There are more than 90 university towns in China which are widely distributed in 27 provinces or cities, including the projects that have been completed and that are being built. In the process of rapid development of university towns, the design and construction are more focused on the material form than on the actual demand of people. Almost all the research for the establishment of university towns are based on the concepts of sharing and interaction, although scholars in economics, education, geography and planning science try to study them from different angles. Therefore, this paper explores how the spatial elements influence the temporal and spatial characteristics of the students' living and learning behaviors by the case of Hangzhou Xiasha higher education eastern park, so as to provide the case data and thoughts for the improvement of planning and development of university towns for the needs of college students. This paper analyzes the temporal and spatial characteristics of students' behavior in the Hangzhou Xiasha higher education eastern park based on the data collected from interviews and questionnaire surveys, and compares them with the behaviors of students whose colleges are situated in urban areas. The survey shows that differences exist between the freshmen and the senior students in patterns of spatial behavior and spatial selection, so do differences between the students located in urban and suburban areas. This paper analyzes the behaviors in angles of both behavior patterns and behavior space, explores the reasons for these differences, and come to a conclusion that the students' behavior is affected by spatial layout in four aspects: (1) functional division; (2) campus location and transportation; (3) tree-shaped space structure; (4) public space and facility layout. Finally, three suggestions are put forward: (1) improve management system in the eastern park as to enhance efficiency on facilities sharing; (2) strengthen the interaction between universities and community; (3) introduce people-oriented concept in the planning and construction of university town to meet the reasonable spatial needs of teachers and students.

This paper presented the concept of the strength of urbanization response to the industrial structure evolution, and regarded the coefficient of urbanization response to the industrial structure evolution as the variable index in measuring the strength of urbanization response to the industrial structure evolution. Through using standard deviation(δ), variation coefficient (V), relative development rate (Nich), deviation (Di) and ratio (Gi), the authors analyzed the inter-provincial differences of the strength of urbanization response to the industrial structure evolution in China. Furthermore, this paper discussed the influencing factors for the inter-provincial differences of the strength of urbanization response. The results indicated that: the strength of urbanization response to the industrial structure evolution in China increased continuously from 1953 to 2006, and it was characterized by stage change. There existed significant tempo-spatial differences of the strength of urbanization response to the industrial structure evolution of various provinces of China from static and dynamic situation. The 31 provinces of China can be identified into five types: strong response type, relatively strong response type, middle response type, relatively weak response type and weak response type. Urban development intensity had significant positive correlations with the strength of urbanization response to the industrial structure evolution.

Differences and the convergence in the regional economy are the current hot spots in academic research. However, the research involves relatively few fields associated to the industrial economy. According to this, this paper divides Jiangsu province into three regions, and with this regional setting and the method of quantitative analysis, the paper selects some relevant indicators about the industrial economy in Jiangsu Province at county level from 1980 to 2007. Then the paper uses the Theil index and β convergence test to analyze the difference and the convergence of industrial economy in Jiangsu province in different periods and different areas. Finally, the main reasons leading to the convergence are discussed based on the above calculation results. The main conclusions are drawn as follows. Firstly, there is convergence both in the three areas and among areas. But with the elapse of time, the speed of convergence shows a downward trend. Then the dimension of industrial difference among areas fluctuates up and down, however it also keeps increasing in the fluctuations with the time on a whole. And the industrial economy difference among areas dominates the whole province. Secondly, the dimension of industrial difference in areas reaches the maximum in southern Jiangsu and the minimum in northern Jiangsu. From the results, at the same time, we can find the speed of industrial economy convergence in Jiangsu is getting slower and slower when the economy develops. We can also see that developed areas have faster speed of convergence, while less developed regions have slower speed of convergence. Besides, differences and convergence of industrial economy are mainly due to the changing conditions of industrial structure, newly increased fixed assets, talents and technology, transportation volume, etc. Although the industrial economy differences has become lower and lower and there is convergence among areas, the industrial economy differences will not be eliminated in a long period of time.

Differences of agricultural development in a typical region along the national highway 204 in Jiangsu Province were studied based on the indexes of agricultural production and its growth rate, the proportion of agriculture in GDP, agricultural industry structure and comparative advantage of agriculture. Below were the results. First, the disparity in overall agricultural development between the counties in the region was becoming larger over the past three decades. The growth rates of agricultural production displayed a pattern of "north-higher and south-lower". Second, the proportions of agricultural product to gross domestic product of all the counties in the region were descending over the past three decades with the largest descending extent in the three southern counties. The disparity in agricultural proportion between the counties in the region was becoming larger over the past three decades. Third, agricultural industry structure also showed remarkable changes in all the counties, thereinto, plant industry proportion was descending and fishery proportion was ascending. The disparity in planting industry proportion and in fishery proportion between the counties in the region was becoming larger over the past three decades. Fourth, the pattern of "north-higher and south-lower" in comparative advantage degree of agriculture in the region was intensified over the past three decades with the lowest degree in the three southern counties and the highest degree in the northern counties. The results revealed processes of regional disparity and differentiation in the region since the implementation of the reform and opening up policy. The agricultural production function was shrinking gradually during the processes in the southern area due to rapid industrialization and urbanization. In reverse, agricultural production function became more important than ever in the northern area as a traditional farming area.

In recent years, visiting ancient villages, ancient towns or world cultural heritages has been popular. However, with tourism development in the humanistic destinations, problems have emerged. The over concentration of travel routes has been criticized for a long time,as it leads to a series of consequences, including the spatial concentration of tourist activities, confined business opportunities, limited resident participation and unbalanced community development. Although local residents as an integrated community are crucial in forming an attractive humanistic and cultural landscape in these destinations,it is possible for only a small proportion of them living along the travel routes or owning farmland to be fully integrated in tourism development. The permeation of tourism into the community breaks down the balanced status and perplexes the power relation, where there might be disparity and conflict. Moreover, concentration of tourist activities places tremendous pressure on heritage, infrastructure and tourism management, while it also deteriorates the satisfaction of both the tourists and residents. However, although dispersion of tourist activity has been advocated by the tourism experts, few measures have been taken. This paper analyzes the formation and solidification of travel routes in ancient village destinations in the cases of Xidi and Hongcun world heritage sites. It points out that it is not optimistic in tourism management, community participation and development as well as in heritage protection, which are not economically, socially, culturally or environmentally sustainable. The solidification process of the travel routes follows a path dependence pattern often discussed in neo-institutional economics. There are six feedback loops motivating the process, including the mass tourist market structure, Chinese consumptive culture, ancient architecture protection, power relation, institution settings and economic factor. System dynamics is utilized to model the feedback system. Currently, the travel routes in Xidi and Hongcun are locked in an unsatisfactory status, where drastic change will be under tremendous opportunity cost.

Tourism destination choosing intention is a key field of tourism behavior research and tourism marketing. Although previous studies confirm that tourist value has a significant impact on tourism destination choosing intention, there has been little research on the dating of the formation mechanism of tourism destination choosing intention. This paper builds a conceptual model to incorporate tourist value, tourism destination image, service quality and abstraction of substitute tourism destination. In order to test this model, the scale of every variable is developed, which was confirmed by DELPHI and primary questionnaire. The model is empirically tested by analyzing the survey data using SEM. The result shows that tourist value, service quality and the image of tourism destination have significant influence on tourist behavior intention, and the service quality and image of tourism destination have significant influence on value of tourists. And abstraction of substitute tourism destination has no significant influence on choosing intention of tourism destination due to the promotion of traffic condition, casualness of tourism purpose and suburbanization and long-distance of tourism way, which is significantly different from the result of previous studies.

Carrying capacity is an important parameter to measure region sustainable development. This article briefly discriminated the relevant concepts of resource and environment carrying capacity, region carrying capacity and ecological carrying capacity, and also reviewed the process of carrying capacity research development at home and abroad. Moreover, the paper discussed the shortcomings and problems and finally suggested several key issues of the research in future. It found that the studies of mountain area resource and environment carrying capacity were very insufficient, and the shortages in the correlative studies mainly displayed as: the theoretical system of carrying capacity had not been constructed completely; the lack of effective methods impeded the development of theory; most of researches focused on the static analysis but rarely engaged in dynamic forecast; the studies on mountain area resource and environment carrying capacity applied mechanically the research pattern of the plain area, which did not correspond to the mountain area's reality. Aiming at the above disadvantages, the author pointed out that perfecting the theory system frame of resource and environment carrying capacity, exploring the quantitative research methods of resource and environment carrying capacity in depth, and paying great attention to the mountain area resource and environment carrying capacity's characteristic of a nation, the influence of minority nationalities culture on resource and environment carrying capacity and the mountain area resource and environment carrying capacity's characteristic of spatial differentiation were five important issues for further study.

Geomorphological maps are one of the most fundamental maps of the natural environment. They have been used widely in scientific research, resource exploration and extraction, education, and military affairs. An editorial committee was founded in 2001 to collect materials for a set of new 1:1,000,000 geomorphological maps of China. A digital geomorphological database was created in ArcGIS with visual interpretation from Landsat TM/ETM imageries, SRTM-DEM, and published geomorphological maps. The maps were compiled from this database with MAPGIS and published by Science Press in 2009. The characteristics of the main map are as follows. Firstly, Landsat TM/ETM imagery, published geomorphological maps or sketches, geographical base maps, geological maps, and other thematic maps were collected, uniformly geometrically rectified, clipped into uniform sheets, and stored in the foundation database. Secondly, a uniform geomorphological classification was built by combining morphology and genesis types, which comprises seven hierarchical layers: basic morphology, genesis, sub-genesis, morphology, sub-morphology, slope and aspect, material composition and lithology. These layers were stored in the database during visual image interpretation. Thirdly, according to the three-leveled representation of surface relief and bathymetry in China, color and symbol bases were built in MAPGIS, and visualization standards and procedures were developed. In particular, computer cartography of the desert regions was improved greatly compared with hand-drawing. Finally, a uniform 1:1,000,000 geomorphological map was produced and compiled in MAPGIS. The 1:1.000,000 geomorphological map of China will fill the blanks in basic scale thematic maps, which could lead to significant progress in geomorphology and cartography. It is expected that the geomorphological database will be used widely in many fields.

It is an important strategy to build Sichuan into the ecological shelter of the upper Yangtze River. As the forest and grass fire prevention is one of the important parts of the construction of ecological shelter and ecological security indemnity in Sichuan Province, the evaluation of the forest and grass fire risk is of great significance to the forest and grass fire prevention. Therefore, the forest and grass fire risk grade was evaluated by using remote sensing, GIS and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Sichuan Province. The study shows: the fifth fire risk grade accounts for 0.8%, the fourth accounts for 20.2%, and the third grade, 47.2% in Sichuan Province. The highest fire risk is mainly distributed in Ganzi, Liangshan, Aba, Panzhihua and Ya'an, accounting for 49.2%, 24.7%, 15.7%, 3.5% and 3.4% respectively of the total area in the risk zone. The high fire risk is mainly distributed in the prefectures of Ganzi, Liangshan and Aba, which account for 72.1% of the total area in the risk region. We suggest that Ganzi, Liangshan, Aba, Panzhihua and Ya'an should be regarded as the key areas of the forest and grass fire prevention and should be given priority in getting labors, funds and goods for forest and grass fire prevention.

Heavy metals pollution of soils is a major environmental problem. Heavy metals in urban soils could cause deleterious effects on human health by contacts with skin and intakes unconsciously. Soil and dust samples in squares and school campus in Beijing were collected for assessing the concentrations and health risks of heavy metals. The results showed that the concentrations of heavy metals in the soils and dusts presented a lognormal distribution. The concentrations of Cu, Pb and Zn in soils, As, Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd in dusts were all higher than the background concentrations of soils in Beijing, and 67% (27%), 13% (63%), 83% (100%), 73% (100%), 83% (100%) and 53% (100%) of the soils (dusts) samples exceeded the background values of soils in Beijing for As, Ni, Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd, respectively. Relatively speaking, Zn was accumulated in soils, while Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn were accumulated in dusts. The concentrations of Cu, Pb and Zn in dusts were significantly higher than in soils. The concentrations of Ni, Pb and Zn in dusts in school campus were significantly higher than in squares. There are no significant health risks of heavy metals from dusts in school campus.

Since China joined in the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1985, 37 Chinese cultural relics and scenic spots have been listed in the world heritages, 7 of which are the natural sites. Every country, the United Nations and other international organizations have attached greater importance to the heritage protection and utilization, which has been a hot cultural issue nowadays. In 1992, Wulingyuan was added into the world heritage list. Due to overexploitation and lack of protection, the water environment has been severely affected and its quality has been degraded gradually since then. Based on the current researches, this paper further explores the level of water pollution and discusses the changing pattern of water environment. Because the water environment is a complex and changeable system, it is difficult to evaluate the water quality by the conventional quantitative method. This paper selects BOD₅, COD, TN, TP, As, MnO^-₄ as evaluation factors, which have greater influence on the environment. Four main spots along the major water systems Jinbianxi and Suoxi are monitored. With fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, we adopt the standard value of pollutants to calculate the weights, and select the weights according to different pollution levels to further research the degree of water pollution and to explore its changing pattern. The evaluation results show that the water quality of Shuiraosimen, Wujiayukou, and Zicaotan is level II, and the water quality of Laomowan is level III. The evaluation results are basically in agreement with the real monitoring data. On this basis, we put forward countermeasures to improve water environmental quality, which can provide scientific evidence for enhancing water environment quality of Wulingyuan world natural heritage site.

The nature reserves are often faced with the contradiction between resource protection and tourist activity. It is important to study the relationship between tourist activity and vegetation environment in nature reserves. Vegetation landscapes are not only important tourism resources, but also levers of harmonizing their ecological balance. This paper analyzes the relationship between tourist activity and vegetation environment in Dinghu Mountain, and evaluates the management level in the tourism region. Six indexes are used, including the sensitive level (SL), community landscape importance value (LIV), information index of species diversity (H'), negative species proportion (NSP), proportion of plants accompanied with mankind (PPM), and tourism impact index (TII). The result shows that there are some correlations and regularity between the TII and the evaluation indexes of vegetation environment, among the evaluation indexes of the vegetation environment quality, and among the factors of tourist impact index. The larger the SL is, the larger the H', PPM and TII are, and the smaller the LIV and NSP are. However, the larger the TII is, the smaller the LIV and NSP are, and the larger the SL, H' and PPM are. The TII is positively correlated to each factor, including rubbish impact index, damaging branches impact index, woods regeneration impact index, and meadow situation index. The regularity is that the larger the TII is, the smaller the dead sticks and humus thickness, meadow coverage, sapling number are, and the larger the damaging branches number and rubbish number are. These facts indicate the regularity of tourist activity has an impact on vegetation objectively, and this accords with the fact of tourism practice in Dinghu Mountain. Based on evaluation class of TII, the management level of tourism region in Dinghu Mountain is good and middle level on the whole nature reserve, but there are some dangers in some regions which need to raise the tourism management level further. Finally, the paper puts forward some management tactics in the tourism region.

The important source of soil and water losses is sloping fields in rocky area of northern China. In order to reduce soil and water losses in sloping fields and improve sustainability on fragile slopes, the applied range of different soil and water conservation measures in sloping fields was researched. The results showed the larger the gradient of sloping fields is, the less the soil and water conservation benefits of farming measures are, and the optimized benefits could be achieved on slopes of 0°~6°.Terrace measures had a larger applying range, and their water conservation benefits were higher and steadier. However, the cost, difficulties, and land loss rate would be increasing observably with the increase of slope. At the same time, the level terrace with higher standard is not suitable for larger area extension in a poor mountainous area. Hedgerows measures could be used on slopes less than 25°, and the investment was less, which was fit in a poor mountainous area. Therefore, based on characteristics of sloping fields and the optimal range of different soil and water conservation measures in rocky area of northern China, the sloping lands were partitioned for 4 slope ranges to collocate different soil and water conservation measures, that is, farming measures were the main pattern for sloping fields with gradients from 0° to 5° , terrace measures were the main pattern for sloping fields with gradients from 5° to 15°, hedgerows measures was the main pattern for sloping fields with gradients from 15° to 25°.For sloping fields with gradients over 25°,the converting cultivated land into forests or grassland program must be put in practice.

Global change is an important scientific issue that concerns the survival and development of all human beings. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, over 90% of the possibilities of global warming are attributed to greenhouse gases produced by human use of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide produced by energy consumption has great pushing effects on global climate change. The studies concerning energy consumption and the emission of carbon dioxide have become the academic focus in current energy environment studies, and they are necessary for the security of economic development and diplomatic negotiations of China. In order to promote the sustainable development of economy, energy and environment of China, the paper analyzes the domestic energy consumption and the present status and various emission scenarios of carbon dioxide emissions in China. Firstly, according to the consumption of primary energy in China, the paper summarizes the carbon dioxide emission factors and methods that are adapt to the situation of China. Secondly, it analyzes the primary energy-related carbon dioxide emissions during the period 1995-2006 from different fossil fuels and in different regions. The primary energy-related carbon dioxide emissions present a trend 'first decrease and later increase' from 1995 to 2006. The inflexion of the changes was 2000, the carbon dioxide emissions since 2001 are bigger than those before 2000. The total carbon dioxide emissions increased from 786.78 million tons carbon to 1 469.19 million tons carbon, and the per capita emissions increased from 0.62 tons carbon to 1.12 tons carbon from 1995 to 2006, with an annual rate of 5.84%. The structural difference in the primary energy-related carbon dioxide emissions was relatively great, among which coal accounts for 79%~85%, oil, 14%~19%, and natural gas is 1.23%~1.96%. The seven regions and most of provinces (municipalities or autonomous regions) have a similar trend in the total China's carbon dioxide emissions. The average carbon dioxide emissions for North China and Northeast China are the highest among the seven regions of China. The annual amount of carbon dioxide emissions and the growing rates of Liaoning, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan are much greater than those of the other provinces (municipalities or autonomous regions).

The climate in Guangxi is complex due to the environment in geographical location and terrains as well as the alternation of summer and winter monsoons. It resulted in frequent weather disasters such as cold damage. And the cold damage, especially the weather of cold dew wind, has been one of the main constraint factors for high yield rice in Guangxi. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out disaster division research into cold damage of the late rice in Guangxi by GIS. And this research is of practical significance to making science countermeasure of disaster prevention and mitigation, in promoting high and stable yield of foodstuff and in maintaining social harmony and stability. According to the relationship among late rice growth, the degree of injury and the intensity of cold damage, the grading indices of cold damage for late rice were analyzed and decided. Using the climatic data from 1961 to 2006 and geographical information data of 90 weather stations in Guangxi, space calculating models for the zoning index of cold damage are built by the regression method of mathematical statistics, supported by GIS technology and simulation analysis method of small grids models of climate resources, and the use of the basic Guangxi geographic data on a scale of 1:250000, calculation of small gridding and correction of error are operated for those zoning indexes. The actual distribution for the zoning index of cold damage is worked out on a small grid of l km×l km, which gives different values under different geographical conditions. Using the function of spatial analyses and multi-overlapping method of GIS, and according to the grading indices of cold damage, grid data of the zoning index are calculated in the climate zone by the method of scoring to sort out the kinds. Then the spatial distribution of cold damage for late rice in Guangxi was analyzed, which gave out the divisional result of cold damage: zero, light, moderate and serious degree, and the results of assessment for different cold damage regions were summarized. The map of climatic division of cold damage for late rice in Guangxi can be drawn by GIS, and it provides a scientific basis for optimal distribution of late rice planting in Guangxi, and for making use of advantage and avoiding disadvantage.

The reconstruction of long series climate with annual resolution is an objective proposed by the IGBP-PAGES. Historical records on drought/flood are an important data source for reconstructing historical climate series. There are abundant and sequential drought/flood records in the Chinese historic documents. This research employed 6 regional drought/flood series within Hubei Province, which were derived from Collection of Historical Records on Climate in Hubei Province during Past 500 Years and covered a period from 1470 to 2000. By classification analysis of the 6 regional drought/flood series, they were classified into 3 categories which individually represented eastern, northern and southwestern regions of Hubei Province. After testing validity of the reconstructed series, we analyzed regional dry/wet variability, cycles and abrupt changes. The results showed that on multiple decades scale 1570~1770 and 1890~1950 were wet episodes and 1470~1520 and 1790~1830 were dry episodes in eastern region; 1470~1530, 1710~1750 and 1850~1910 were three wet episodes and 1470~1530 and 1770~1830 were two dry episodes in northern region; 1550~1610, 1650~1710, 1830~1890 and 1930~1990 were four wet episodes and there were no obvious dry episodes in southwestern region. The spectrum analysis and wavelet analysis illustrated that the dry/wet variations of each region were featured by several significant cycles spanning from 3~4 years to 250 years. Moreover, the three regions were commonly controlled by 50~70 years cycle. Running T-test illustrated that on centurial scale 2, 4 and 5 abrupt changes occurred individually in southwestern, northern and eastern regions while on 30-year scale 5, 4 and 7 abrupt changes occurred individually in southwestern, northern and eastern regions. The abrupt changes simultaneously occurring in three or any two regions had the same trends; the abrupt changes from dry to wet in 1822 occurred in all of the three regions.

Recently most relative quantitative modeling studies on retail location, based on GIS technology, did not consider factors simultaneously including traffic network, traffic grade, store attraction and competition. Considering shortages mentioned above, this paper attempts to integrate these factors and make quantitative analysis of large scale shops based on accessibility method, Gasa laws and GIS technique. This study, taking the large scale supermarkets in Shanghai central city as an example, applies the concentric buffer method, sector analysis and nearest neighborhood analysis to explore the supermarket spatial features. Trip cost method is used to investigate quantitatively supermarket accessibility, then delimitating market area is simulated based on trip cost analysis and Gasa rules. The result indicates that the whole accessibility of large scale supermarkets in Shanghai central city is good, and the west is better than the east. Trade areas around the outer ring are greater. There is obvious polarization among Gasa shops' trade areas and size. The characteristics mentioned above show that areas with intense competition among supermarkets coexist with areas lack of supermarkets, and there are grade differences between supermarkets' market size and functions.This study can provide references for urban planners in the aspect of retail network arrangement. Managers can quickly understand the shop trade areas and provide consult for choosing shops location. Some tips for selection of retail locations can also be provided. Although our research suggests that we provide more effective methods toward trade area definition, several problems should be solved in future. Further studies should be done on demand, and purchase ability and residential trip habits from consumers shall be taken into consideration.