Based on remote sensing images in 1980, 1988 and 1994, the Shenzhen citi’s land use was conducted through methods of maximum like and probabilistie relaxation. Which revealed the city’s spatial process during 15 years. The conclusions may be distingnished as follows: (1) The results of the detection are reasonable and it is feasibility to calculate the transfer matrix of landuse to show spatial pattern of landuse distribution as unit of image pixel. (2) The main characteristics of the city’s landuse change are the obvious reduction of the existing farm and orchard lands and subsequent rapid increase of urban landuse along the coast and several major roads which are controlled by the opening policies of establishing the special economic zone in this city. (3) The characteristics of the city’s landuse changes are mainly demonstrated as follows: The urban landuse increases rapidly at the expense of occupying great amounts of farmland, showing the patterns of belt distribution along the main transportation lines and of spreading outside the Special Economic Zone. In the primary landuse such as farmland and woodland, etc, the tendency from the lower benefit landuse pattern transforming to the higher benefit one has taken place due to the influence of urbanization. Furthermore, the city’s landuse changes also demonstrate the characteristics of bare land enlargement and farmland split up, which is one of important factors recently led to serious soil erosion and no point source pollution in the city. (4) Under the policy of the special economic region produced by the central goverment of China, the external driving forces of landuse changes in Shenzhen City are the rapid growth of population, foreign investment and development of the tertiary industry which was based upon the real estate. The counter force of landuse changes in Shenzhen City are the transportation issue, topography, landuse patterns, the most importent factor is the transportation.

From the respect of the meaning and the researching contents of land use and cover change, the methods for land use change were analyzed. Further, the methods of establishing land use dynamic change model were mainly introduced. These models include land resources quantity change model, land resources environmental quality change model, land use degree change model, land use change regional diversity model, land use spatial change model and land requirement forecasting model.

Based on a series of1∶1000000maps of natural resources of China,6categories of ecological assets were divided,which included forest,grassland,farmland,wetland,water body and desert.By means of GIS,the1∶4000000Ecological Assets Map of Tibetan Plateau was compiled and the relative data were calculated.According to partial global ecosystem services value evaluation results obtained by Costanza et al.(1997)along with responses of ecological questionnaire s from specialists of China,this paper established the ecosystem services value unit area of Chinese terrestrial ecosystems.We used the ecological assets value table as a basis and also adjusted price value by biomass and then,the ecological assets value of the Tibetan Plateau was estimated.The results indicated that ecosystem services value of Tibetan Plateau is some 9363.9×10⁸ yuan annually,accounting for17.68%of annual ecosystem services value of China and0.61%of the world.The value of soil formation and disposition provided by ecosys-tem s is the highest,which occupies19.3%of the total ecosystem services value and then,the value of waste treatment takes up16.8%,water conservation value,16.5%and biodiversity,16%.The forest and the grassland ecosystem s offered the main ecosystem services value,being31.3%and48.3%of the total value provided by different ecosystem types,respectively.

Land use changes may influence a variety of natural phenomena and ecological processes, including soil conditions, water runoff, soil erosion and biodiversity. Irrational land use is one of the main reasons for the soil erosion and nutrient lose in the loess hilly area. The Yangjuangou catchment in the Loess Plateau of China, with typical loess hill and gully topography, was selected as the study area. The study focus on the affects of land use changes on soil erosion, the distribution of soil nutrient and soil moisture from catchment, and land use type at three spatial scales. Aerial photography interpretation and field survey mapping were used to produce land use maps in 1984 and 1996. GIS was used for data storage, analysis and display from a comparison of land use areal changes in 1984 and 1996. It was determined that the area of forest and grassland increased 42% and 5% respectively and slope farmland decreased 43%. Land use changes result in a decrease of soil erosion by 24%. Three types of typical land use structure during 15 years in the loess hill slope were selected in order to study the effect of land use structure on the distribution of soil nutrients and soil moisture. From the bottom to top of hills, the patterns of land use types are: grassland slope farmland forest, slope farmland grassland forest and slope farmland forest grassland. By measuring the contents of the total N, total P, available N, available P, organic matter of soil and soil moisture in 0 cm～70 cm depth, the results show that the land use structure type of slope farmland grassland forest has high contents of soil nutrients and low antecedent soil moisture. This indicates that this land use structure has a better capacity for retaining soil nutrient and a high efficiency for soil conservation. The analysis of soil nutrient and soil moisture in different land use types showed that the content of soil nutrient are: forest>grassland>slope farmland, while the content of soil water are: forest

Land use is one complex system, which is affected by many factors, including both socio economic elements and natural resources and environment This paper firstly established a framework for macro analysis on the driving forces of land use change in China, in which economic welfare, environmental welfare, the need for food security and the advancement of science and technology are the main forces contributing to the land use changes Then the paper analyzed the basic contradictions in the land use change in recent years on the basis of current situation of land use and economic development in China In the third section, according to the analytical framework established firstly and the basic contradictions in the land use change, and on the basis of the land use data and other related socio economic documents in recent years, this paper analyzed and computed the indexes of the driving forces of the land use change and represented their spatial distribution in China By the distribution of these driving forces, the whole China can be seen as three distinct sub areas: Tibet southwest sub area, central northwest sub area and east sub area, each of which takes on different features in respect of the driving forces of land use changes As indicated in this paper, the economic welfare is the fundamental impetus to the land use changes, and the environmental welfare and the need for food security are also important factors in China The future land use change is ultimately decided by the performance of these factors and their interactions

The quantitative measurement of sustainable development has become one of the frontiers of sustainable development research since the sustainable development concept was put forward The ecological footprint indicator, put forward and developed by W E Rees and M Wackernagel since the early 1990s, is to measure the human impact on the earth and judge whether the human load stays within global carrying capacity The ecological footprint of any defined population (from a single individual to that of a whole city or country) is the total area of ecologically productive land and sea occupied to produce all the resources and services consumed and to assimilate all the wastes generated by that population With an area of about 6 88?10 6 km 2 which accounts for 71 67% of the total land area of China and 3 57?10 8 people accounting for 28 3% of the total population of China, the 12 provinces of West China have relatively low population density, and are abundant in natural resources but backward in economic development It is important to study the usage status of natural resources and sustainability of the 12 provinces of West China Based on the introduction to the concept and calculation method of ecological footprint indicator, the authors calculate and analyze the ecological footprints of the 12 provinces of West China in 1999 according to the data of the statistical yearbooks of these provinces According to this calculation, Yunnan Province and the Tibet Autonomous Region were the two provinces with ecological surplus, the other 10 provinces were all with ecological deficit The ecological surplus of Yunnan and Tibet were 0 145 hm 2 and 5 431 hm 2 per capita, respectively The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province were the two provinces that have the largest ecological deficit, 1 261 hm 2 and 0 876 hm 2 per capita, respectively The ecological footprint and ecological deficit per capita of the 12 provinces of West China in 1999 were 1 172 hm 2 and 0 469 hm 2, respectively The total ecological footprint deficit of the 12 provinces of West China in 1999 is 1 625?10 6 km 2,which is equivalent to the area of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region The ecological footprint deficit shows that the human load has already stayed beyond the regional bio capacity, and the regional natural ecosystem is under great pressure of human activities We also point out the sustainability of the 12 provinces of West China according to the results of ecological footprints, and analyze the use efficiency of natural resources by calculating the ecological footprint needs of gross domestic product (GDP).

In this paper, the author first clarifies that the theory of pole-axis spatial system is based on the well known central place theory, however, the two theories are different in terms of theoretical components and application objectives. The author analyzes the formation and dynamics of pole-axis spatial system mainly through the perspective of spatial agglomeration and diffusion effect, and compares pole-axis spatial system theory with growth pole theory and networked development model. Then the author elaborates on the rationality and effectiveness of the theory of pole-axis spatial system to China′s territorial development and regional development in the past decades.

Based on the land use maps of Beijing in 1982, 1992 and 1997, its spatial and temporal process of urban land use growth was analyzed through spatial clustering and historical morphological approaches. The growth intensity index （GII）, was employed instead of growth speed to describe the spatial differentiation of urban land use growth. Assisted by spatial analysis techniques of GIS, the average GIIs per year （AGIIPY） of 155 communes or towns during 1982～1992 and 1992～1997 were calculated and then classified through the Natural Breaks method, and the spatial differentiation maps of urban land use growth in Beijing during 1982～1992 and 1992～1997 were made. This paper found: （1） Industrial land is the most important element of urban land use growth in Beijing, and its contribution rate is on the increase, which is different from the general Western urban growth model driven by residential expansion. Since 1982, the industrial land had been keeping expanded at the average rate of 24～25 km² per year. It is extraordinary high especially during the 1992～1997 period, while that of residential land and urban land use dropped by 59% and 24%, to 3 4 km² per year and 29 8 km² per year respectively. Thus, the contribution rate of industrial land to urban land use growth increased from 64 91% in 1982～1992 to 80 67% in 1992～1997. （2） The spatial pattern of urban land use growth in Beijing was in distinct concentric sprawl. With the growth centers’ gradual shift from the inner to outside, the new added urban land use were increased in distinct concentric zones and continually encroached upon the green spaces among the central mass and those “dispersed constellations”. The total area of green spaces for isolating built up areas in General Plan of Beijing, was 314 km² in 1958, reduced to 260 km² in 1983 and 160 km² in 1993. The concentric sprawl pattern seriously destroyed the spatial structure of “dispersed constellations” designed by the General Plan of Beijing, and also badly worsened the regional ecological environment. （3） The growth axes of urban land use in the southern and eastern part of Beijing had stepped into their decline period. The southern and eastern part of Beijing is located in the North China Plain and have advantages in urban development space, economic and transport communication, etc., so that they are determined as the main urban development areas and direction by the latest General Plan （1991～2010）. But this paper found, the two major growth axes of urban land use along the Beijing Tian Jin and Beijing Shen Zhen highways in the southern and eastern part of Beijing, had stepped into their decline period during 1992～1997. Their AGIIPY decreased from 1 63 and 1 58 during 1982～1992 to 0 86 and 0 67 respectively, and the spatial growth pattern have also switched from vigorous axial expansion to fill in among axes.

Valuation of global ecosystem services by R Costanza(1997)has attracted attention of the Chinese ecological researchers over the years. And many Chinese scientists have been using the methods to valuate the ecosystem services for forest, grassland and farmland ecosystems. However, it has been turned out that there are several shortcomings in direct adaptation of the methods, for instance, some ecosystem services have been insufficiently valuated or even ignored via using Costanza’s method. To fill this gap, we have, on the basis of Costanza’s method, developed a new method or 'unit value’ based method for assessment of ecosystem services. Expert interviews with structured questionnaire were contacted in 2002 and 2007 respectively, and altogether 700 Chinese ecologists were involved in the interviews for testing the method. It has been found that the values of ecosystem services from expert knowledge based unit value method and biomass based method are comparative. Therefore, expert knowledge based assessment of ecosystem services could be used as a method for assessing ecosystem services with known land use areas, and a good result could be generated within a short period of time. However, for scientifically sound and concrete results, the spatial disparity of ecosystem services should be taken into account.

Forest ecosystem plays a special role in maintaining the structure,function and ecologi-cal process of natural ecosystems.At present,a series of ecological problems are becoming more and more serious because of forest damage in some regions.The accurate valuation of forest ecosystem services is very important to the reserve and rational development of forest resources in China.Forest ecosystem services are divided into four groups:provisioning services,regulating services,cultural services,and supporting services in this paper.On the basis of the service mechanism analyses,an index system for the assessment of forest ecosystem services has been established,which consists of 13 service indexes such as timber and other products,weather regulation,C fixation,water storage,erosion control,air quality purifying,nutrients cycle,windbreaks,cultural diversity,recreation and ecotourism,O2 release,and provisioning of habitat.Then,10 services of China forest have been assessed and evaluated by taking the year of 2000 as the base year.Including timber and other products provision,C fixation,water storage,erosion control,air quality purifying,nutrients cycle,recreation and ecotourism,O2 release,and provisioning of habitat.As a result,the economic values of these services are 2 325.14×108,1 626.76×108,2 134.7×108,136.46×108,41.85×108,372.37×108,194.31×108,6732.48×108,and 495.94×108 yuan,respectively.The total value is estimated as 14 060.05×108 yuan with indirect values being 11 540.60×108 yuan,4.6 times that of the direct values.The results show that forest ecosystems provide huge indirect values to human being besides the direct value of goods,and that the indirect values are egually important as the direct values.The focuses of forest ecosystem services and their valuation in the future should be the service mechanism and the coupling and the application of different scales data.

The research on land use and land cover change is a core for studies on the global changes. Also the research of spatial-temporal features of land use/land cover change is significantly important for better understanding land use/land cover change and environmental management for sustainable development. In order to study the spatial-temporal changes of land use and land cover, the technologies of remote sensing and geographical information system were used to analyze the spatial dynamical features and temporal dynamical features of land use in China. The mathematical methodology for study on land use change was explored and developed. This research focuses on the dynamical analysis of spatial-temporal features of land use and land cover change of China in recent five years, such as land use types, land use degree, plantation status, city expansion, and so on. The results are: the cultivated land, water area, built-up or non-arable land area are increasing and forestland and grassland keep decreasing in the five years. The change of land cover types is not obvious in the corresponding period. The area-change of cultivated land has taken place mostly in the middle and eastern China. However, the area-change of forestland and grassland and unused land has mainly taken place in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Inner-Mongolia Autonomous Region and Heilongjiang Province in China.

This paper analyzes the coupling mechanism between urbanization and eco environment: the intimidation on eco environment from urbanization is caused by contamination from population, enterprises and transportation; Meanwhile, the restriction against urbanization from eco environment results from changing the flow direction of population and capital. On the basis of the above, the authors deduce the coupling function and theshape curve between urbanization and eco environment in two ways: algebra and geometry, and then opens out the relationship law: regional eco environment decays at first, and thenameliorates after the curve inflexion. This paper also discusses the coupling process of urbanization and eco environment, andclassifies it into four stages, whichare low level coordination stage, resisting stage, ameliorating stage and harmonious stage. Finally, the authors demonstrate the coupling relationship between urbanization and eco environment in Zhejiang province, and points out that industrialization is still the main momentum of urbanization in Zhejiang.In spite of the emergence of partial inflexion in the coupling curve between waste water and urbanization in Zhejiang, becausethere is no complete conversion in industrial structure, once policies concerning environmental protection change, the coupling curve between eco environment and urbanization will fluctuate. That is to say, Zhejiang is still at the resisting stage.

This paper focuses on the description of phenomena and analysis of mecha nism of land use/cover change in Beijing based on three typical stages:1970s,1980s and 1990s.There are some main spatial patterns about expansion of the urban built up area in Beijing:(a)urban spread;(b)extending along growth axle;and (c)urbanization in urban fringe.In recent years,Beijings land cover changes very fast because urban land has become a kind of productive factor and the market system is used gradually.Three main phenomena are found,i.e.,decline of downtown area,urban renewal of inner city and peasant enclaves of urban fringe.Moreover,suburbanization is becoming a new urban spatial growth process.

Though analyze the potential impacts of global climate change on China’s agriculture, the meaningful reference for China’s agriculture in the future can be shown. First, according to the historical meteorological data from 310 climatological stations during 1958¹997, the baseline climate in China is analyzed. Then, three general circulation models, i.e., HadCM2, CGCM1 and ECHAM4 are chosen and meanwhile six climate change scenarios constructed. Three models above are used to simulate China’s climate changes under different scenarios for three periods 2020s, 2050s and 2080s. Under three model runs, air temperature is expected to increase in all regions of China. For example, under HadCM2 GX scenario, annual mean air temperature will increase 1.5℃, 2.5℃ and 3.8℃ in 2020s, 2050s, 2080s respectively. In addition, the increasing magnitude of air temperature in high latitude area is larger than that in low latitude area, and in inland area larger than that in coastal area. Finally, based on three GCMs results, an explicit geographic model, i.e., the AEZ model developed and improved at IIASA, is applied to assess the impacts of climate change on China’s agricultural land productivity. The impact assessment mainly focuses on the changes of multi cropping index, land productivity, arable land area and total potential cereal production. The findings show: （1） The average magnitude of increase in multi cropping index is larger in the southwest, central and north of China than that in the northwest and south of China. （2） Due to climate change, the increasing temperature and rainfall in the northeast, northwest and plateau of China has a positive influence on their arable land area and total potential cereal production. Conversely, the increasing temperature and decreasing rainfall in the southeast, central and southwest of China has a negative influence on their arable land area and potential cereal production. For whole China, arable land area is projected to increase in a new climate condition. The changing scope of arable land area varies from 2 5% to 16 2% under irrigated and rain fed condition, and from 2 3% to 18 0% under rain fed condition. （3） Climate change affects land productively in northeastern China positively. However, it has a negative influence on land productively in southwestern China and Tibet. On the average, climate change affects land productivity in China negatively. The decreasing scope changes from 1.5% to 7.0% under irrigated and rain fed condition, and from 1.1% to 12.6% under rain fed condition.

From the essential meaning of urbanization, this paper establishes a comprehensive evaluation index system, including four aspects changing: population, economy, society and land. Based on the method of entropy, the measure and evolution of China's urbanization are analyzed since 1981. The results show that China's comprehensive urbanization level continues improving. Economic growth and geographical landscape are the main features of rapid evolution of urbanization, followed by the population urbanization, and the medical care level of social urbanization is the least advanced. The evolution of all the four subsystems has unique characteristics. The analysis of multiple regression model shows that the driving factors have been diversified. The market force is the most powerful driving force of China's urbanization, followed by intrinsic force, administration force, exterior force. From different stages of urbanization, the effects of market force, exterior force and the administration force on urbanization are increasing, while intrinsic force is decreasing. China's urbanization is the main endogenous process, hence more policies should be formulated to strengthen the market economy reform and coordinate urban and rural development.

Supported by the key knowledge innovation projects,i.e., a preliminary study on the theories and techniques of the remotely sensed temporal-spatial information and digital Earth; and a study on the integration of national resources and environment and data sharing, the authors have set up a spatial-temporal information platform by the integration of the corresponding scientific and research achievements during the periods of the 8th- and 9th-Five Year Plan, which comprehensively reflected the features of land-use change, designed a series of technical frameworks on the spatial-temporal database construction based on remote sensing techniques, e.g., the construction of remotely sensed database and land-use spatial database of the mid-1980s, the mid-1990s and the end of the 1990s, which laid a foundation for the dynamic monitoring of land-use change and the corresponding studies. In this paper,the authors have analyzed comprehensively the features of land-use change in the 1990s, revealed the spatial-temporal change of land use supported by remote sensing and GIS technologies as well as analyzed the geophysical and socio-economic driving factors.The findings are as follows: the arable land has been increased in total amount, the balance of decrease in the south and increase in the north was resulted from the reclamations of grassland and forest land. On the whole, the forest land area had a process of decrease, and the decreased area was mainly distributed in the traditional forest areas. Areas with plentiful precipitation and heat in the south, however, had distinct effects of reforestation. The rural-urban construction land had a situation of persistent expansion, and the general expansion speed has been slowed down during the last five years of the 1990s with the exception of the Western China where the expansion speed has been accelerated. The land use change in China in the 1990s had distinct temporal and spatial differences due to two main reasons, which were policy control and economic driving. Hereby, conclusions and proposals brought forward by the authors were as follows: the spatial diversity rules of the modern land use change in China must be fully considered in the future land use planning. At the same time, the pertinence of physical geographical zones must be considered during the planning of eco-environment construction. And, based on the increasingly maturity of the infrastructure, the traditional thoughts on planning and management of resources must be shifted so as to fully realize the optimized allocation of land resources at regional scale.

This study is the first one among current studies investigating the near distance and suburban tourism in China, which resulted in the conceptual framework of Recreational Belt Around Metropolis, abbreviated thereafter as ReBAM.Taking Shanghai city, the largest metropolis of China, as a case, the study analyzes the location mechanism, formation process, land use patterns, accessibility, tourist behavior and spatial structure of ReBAM.The study reveals that travel cost to tourists and land price to investors determine simultaneously the location of ReBAM, where tourism planners find their favorite sites for city tourism development.Specifically, this study used Shanghai as a case to described the formation of ReBAM and examined the factors that affect such formation.These factors include demand on weekend recreation, investment preferences of developer, and regional development policy of local government.Three types of recreational land use were identified according to the entrance fee structures.These include 1) low-price section:public recreational facilities sanctioned by government, 2) medium-price section:joint ventures between government and private sector, and 3) high-price section:recreational facilities developed and operated by private sector.The results showed that the ReBAM exhibited three unique and elementary spatial features.They are 1) weak linkage network, 2) distance decay of travel behavior, and 3) activity density diffusion.The significance of the study’s findings goes beyond the proposal of ReBAM.It presents practical implications for tourism planning and development.Based on the principles of ReBAM, the author proposed a three ring-shaped spatial structure for tourism development in Beijing, the capital city of China:central, urban fringe and rural outskirts.

Currently, intensive land use has not only become one of the important contents of circular economy and economical society, but also is a key work in country land resource management departments. Based on the critical review on the development of international intensive land use researches, the developing trend of intensive land use has been carried out in this paper． It is found that studies on following four aspects should be strengthed. (1) On research view, the coupling relationship between the regional industry structure and land use structure should be studied further. (2) On research content, because related research is at preliminary stage, the study of standard system can not meet the demands of economical society. It is urgent to carry out the study of the investigation standard, evaluation standard and auditing standard of intensive land use. (3) At research scales, multilayer and different region intensive land use researches, including medium, small cities and agriculture, should be identified and discussed. (4) On research methodology, the application of GIS technology, systemic dynamic model and Artificial Neural Work should be developed in order to change traditional qualitative analysis and simple quantitative analysis. The results and conclusions in this paper will provide scientific basis for accelerating the study of intensive land use in China.

环境与经济的协调发展是实现可持续发展的重要途径.文中通过对协调、发展及协调发展这3个概念的定义和论述,分别推导出协调度和协调发展度的计算模型,并用协调度和协调发展度的大小等作为评判标准,将环境与经济协调发展状况划分为从简洁到详细不同的 3个层次,共30种基本类型.最后还以珠江三角洲城市群为评价对象,给出了上述计算方法和分类体系的应用实例,同时证明其可靠性.

The Yangtze River Delta is one of the regions with most densely population,fastest economic growth and most intensive land use,the contradiction of land shortage sharpened by high speed economic development has become the problem not to be ignored which restricts regional sustainable development This paper has revealed the characteristics of high intensity land exploitation and the basic process and driving forces of change in arable land area according to the data of long series statistics of arable land area during the past 50 years and detailed investigation of land use during the recent five years The research results show that there is a trend of obvious fluctuant decrease in arable land area during the past 50 years.The changes of arable land area undergo the process from increase to steep decrease to gently decrease to rapid decrease,in which,there are three height periods of decrease in arable land,they are 1958 to 1963,round about 1985 and round about 1993 respectively The mechanism of decrease in arable land are mainly the driving forces of policy,economic development and population growth

Because humans consume the products and services of nature, every one of us has an impact on the earth. Does the human load stay within global carrying capacity? The ecological footprint concept has been designed to answer this question and estimate man’s impact on nature. The ecological footprint of any defined population (from a single individual to a whole city or country) is the total area of ecologically productive land and water occupied exclusively to produce all the resources consumed and to assimilate all the wastes generated by population. The ecological footprint method presents a simple framework for national natural capital accounting. The concept of ecological footprint and its calculation method is introduced in this paper. The paper also analyses the advantages and disadvantages of the ecological footprint model, and addresses the types of ecologically productive lands. The article calculates and analyses the ecological footprint of Gansu province in 1998. The ecological footprint ledger is composed of three main section. The first ledger is basic biotic resources consumption including its byproducts, the second is energy consumption, the third is trade balance. Trade balance through more detailed trade flow analyses can mitigate the influence of import and export product on consumption variations. Based on the ecological footprint concept and analysis framework, human consumption can be compared with regional level natural capital production using existing data. In the case of Gansu province, the ecological deficit of Gansu is 0 564 2 hm² per capita. Simplification of calculation methodology to certain extent results in over optimistic estimates. Finally, the ecological footprint model’s advantages and disadvantages are identified. Ecological footprint index is an excellent aggregate index that connects many issues of sustainability, development and equity. The model can reveal the extent to which local carrying capacity has been exceeded and allows a cumulative approach to impact analysis. The use of ecological productive area as a numeraire, rather than money or energy, makes the footprints easy to be understood, and also permits provocative calculations. The limitations of the model is that it doesn’t include several important issues, which are even directly related to land use: land areas lost to biological productivity loss of land because of contamination, erosion and urban “hardening” and dissertation (especially in north western China). Methodologically, the assessments could be more complete by including the ecological spaces used for freshwater use, a particular important issue in arid area of north western China.

This paper concludes the main characteristics of international wetland science research. It shows that the wetland science has a long history, slow progress of development in the past and rapid progress in modern time. It has become a key subject and research field in the science research in the world. Its content and field of the research have been enlarged. It has been strengthened in both synthesis and split research. The uneven development of international wetland science exists in the world, and developed countries occupy advanced places in the wetland science research of the world; but the gap of research level between developed and developing countries is gradually reduced. It makes a detail introduction to the hot point, forward position field, progress, prospect and development trend of international wetland research in the 21st century. The main hot points and forward position fields of wetland research in the world are as follows; conservation and management of wetland, formation, development and succession of wetland, paleoenvironment reconstruction, ecological process and dynamics of wetland, greenhouse gases, greenhouse effect and global change, biodiversity, health and assessment of wetland and constructed wetland, restoration and reconstruction of degradation wetland, wise utilization of wetland, peatland and peat, wetland ecological engineering and application of new techniques and instrument.

It is of great significance to estimate ecosystem services value By using method proposed by Constaza et al (1997) and others,this paper calculated the unit area value of rangeland ecosystem services in terms of its biomass in China The results showed that the total value of annual rangeland ecosystem services in China was about US＄149.79 billion,among which,the percentage of gas regulation took up 2 66%,that of disturbance regulation accounted for 16 07%,water regulation and water supply 14 44%,erosion control and sediment retention 9 08%,soil formation 0 31%,waste treatment 42 03%,pollination 7 83%,biological control 7 2%,refugia 1 08%,food production and raw material 22 26%,and recreation and culture 5 78% Owing to the integrated effects of biological communities distribution and ecosystem function of unit area,the contribution ratio of ecosystem services of various rangeland types different greatly The contribution ratio of marsh type made up 52 34%,the total contribution ratio of temperate steppe type,tropical herbosa type,tropical shrub herbosa type,lowland meadow type and alpine meadow type varied in the range from 5 03% to 7 74%,that of others types below 5%

The most fundamental obstacle to progress in the understanding and prediction of human impacts on environmental changes lies in the lack of a comprehensive and integrative theory of human land relationships. The recent growth of research into land use and land cover change has revealed the inadequacy of current theories. On the other hand, specific land use issues have been effectively addressed by different disciplines, such as economic geography, regional and urban economics, and law. This paper reviews the land use theories and system models that indirectly or exclusively touch the dynamics of land use in time and space. A comprehensive framework for the explanation of land use changes is proposed. The author argues that a multi disciplinary approach into land use change studies, as an alternative to a new integrative theory of human land relationships, help the establishment of a holistic understanding of the process. Analyses of land user’s economic behavior and land manager’s institutional behavior constitute the major components of the framework. Thunen and Alonso’s bid rent curve approach provides a foundation for the former analysis, while Platt’s interaction loop among land use system, environment system and institution system provides theoretical base for the latter. With the bid rent curve approach, understanding of land use change lies in an analysis of conditions for change of transference margins in the micro perspective and an analysis of conditions for change of the slope of bid rent curve in the macro perspective. All these changes will break the spatial equilibrium of land use and then constitute the driving forces of land use change. With Platt’s interaction loop approach, attention should be paid to strength of the signals from both the nature side and the society side. The author claims that changes on land use policies in China after the ’who will feed China’ debate in the mid 1990s, the large flooding on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the strong dust storms in North China in early 2000, reflect the impact of strong signals. The paper also discusses the intrinsic properties of land that make unique of the dynamic mechanism of land use. Of these properties, multiple suitability, constraint in area and quality, and immovability are imperative to land use changes. Trend in land use specialization and the implicative shrinking of land’s natural functions is a cue for the understanding of land use changes, and that of the overall human environment relationships as well.

Cultivated land, different from other resources, is fundamental to the sustainable development of Chinese agriculture, society and economy. Market mechanism inevitably drives cultivated land into industrial and urban uses. Rapid industrialization and urbanization lead the scarce cultivated land resources to more crises. So market is a failure to allocate this kind of resource which can be regarded as common property in a certain sense. Government intervention is necessary for optimization allocation of cultivated land. Current policy of macro-administration for cultivated land conservation is oriented to total quantitative control. Every province is demanded that the total number of cultivated land remains not decreased. This policy is difficult for practicing because it does not consider various situations in different regions. For example, in eastern provinces where rapid industrialization and urbanization is proceeding and reserved arable land is scarce, the total number of cultivated land will inevitably decrease unless at the cost of lowering the economic growth. Therefore, it is necessary to innovate the policy of cultivated land resources conservation and utilization. The authors put forward the concept of minimum area per capita of cultivated land (MAPCCL) as a new insight into the optimization of land resource allocation for policy making. MAPCCL can be defined as the minimum number of cultivated land that can meet the needs of food consumption under certain food self-sufficient rate and land productivity. PICL provides a threshold of cultivated land conservation. If K<1, some cultivated land may be conversed into urban and industrial uses and planting structure may be adjusted for more cash crops. If K>1, cultivated land should not be conversed into other uses or land quality and productivity should be enhanced by means of increasing input and technological innovation.

Contemporary China’s urbanization has evolved along two lines: the growth of cities following urban economic development and population concentration, and rural urbanization based on the growth of towns in rural areas. The latter,conceptualized as “urbanization form below” has been propelled by the rise of rural enterprises, resulting in rapid rural employment transformation and the growth of towns. Rural urbanization since the reforms has developed rapidly. In 1995, the share of the designated towns’ nonagricultural population accounted for 9 5% of the nation’s total population, an increase of 5 3 percentage points over that of 1978. This nonagricultural population was 12 5% of the total rural population which was 7 5 percentage points higher than 1978. It constituted 42 5% of the total nonagricultural population of all cities and towns for the nation, rapidly catching up with the share of urbanization contributed by cities. Urbanization from below has been driven by the activities of rural governments and peasants. Three stages of development can be recognized. After the initial period of growth during 1978～1983, it experienced rapid take off during 1984～1988. It entered a period of expansion since 1990. However, the level of rural urbanization has lagged far behind the level of rural nonagriculturalization as well as the nation’s urbanization level in general. As rural enterprises will remain the mainstay of the China’s rural economy for a long period of time, they will continue to cause rural labor transformation and rural urbanization. But with increasing economic liberalization in urban economy and industries moving out the cities, the fact meaning of “urbanization from below” will have to be broadened to include all domestic and overseas forces affecting town growth that are non state in nature.

Major function oriented zoning (MFOZ hereafter) is the guideline for optimizing the spatial pattern of regional development in China, which entails both theoretical and methodological innovation in the academic field of economic geography. This study analyzes the basic features of territorial function and puts forward a spatially equilibrium model for regional development. It argues that there exists a trend of regional convergence in almost any indicator measuring the average level of regional development status. Based on this finding, the study illustrates that the formation of functional zone should be conducive to the reduction of regional inequality and that free flow of resources across region is the prerequisite to spatial equilibrium. It also investigates the impact of territorial functional evolution on spatial processes of equilibrium and suggests that the benefit to be derived from zoning proposal is contingent upon the method of regional division and correct understanding of temporal change of territorial function. After that, this study goes to examine the scientific foundation of several issues concerning the reconciliation of contradictory functions of development and protection, the selection of indicators and the spatial and temporal features of MFOZ. It is then followed by an interrogation of the rationality of achieving dual goals of efficiency and equality simultaneously through three-dimensional flow and spatial equilibrium. The paper ends with a discussion of the position, implementation and coordination of MFOZ from the perspective of institutional arrangements of spatial governance including law, planning and government policy.

Study on change of weather and climate extremes has become an important aspect in modern climate change research. Based on the daily surface air temperature data from 200 stations and daily precipitation data from 739 stations during the second half of the 20th century, schemes for analyzing climate extremes were designed mainly according to percentiles of a non-parametric distribution and the gross errors in the daily data were removed based on a newly designed quality control procedure. The spatial and temporal characteristics of change of climate extremes over northern China were studied. The main conclusions are summarized as follows: 1) The number of days with maximum temperatures over 35^oC decreased slightly. The decreasing trends are obvious in the North China Plain and the Hexi Corridor. However, since the 1990s, the extreme hot days increased greatly. Meanwhile, the frost days decreased significantly in northern China, especially in the eastern part of northern China and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Increase trends were found for the 95th percentiles of daily maximum temperatures except in the southern part of North China, while obvious decrease trends were found for the 5th percentiles of daily minimum temperatures. 2) The extreme intense precipitation events obviously increased in much of northwestern China but decreased in the eastern part of northeastern China and most parts of North China. The number of heavy rain days increased in eastern Inner Mongolia and eastern Northeast China, but obviously decreased in the Northeast China Plain and North China.

In the paper,three kinds of fractal dimensions were summed up to characterize spatial structure of urban systems which were respectively named as aggregation dimension, grid dimension, and spatial correlation dimension.Correspondingly, the methods of the determinning of the fractal dimensions were advanced, including gyration radius method,Sandbox method,and density-density correlation function method.

Being the core and frontier issue in the global environmental change and sustainable development disciplines, studies on land use/cover change (LUCC) has gained increasingly attention. China, restricted by its large population and less land, is one of the developing countries facing serious ecological and environmental problems in the world. Many problems of sustainable development confronting China have inherent and inevitable associations with LUCC. Therefore, systematic LUCC researches, aiming at the implementation of sustainable development strategies in China, have great significance in both academic and practical respects. Their relations between the problems of sustainable development and LUCC, and the research objects, contents, investigative methods and key issues of LUCC based on sustainable development in China are briefly discussed in this paper. The interrelationship between LUCC and sustainable development in China is very complex. Generally speaking,the linkage can be shown as the balance between land water resources demand and supply. Thus, the orientation and content of LUCC and sustainable development researches should be developed along with the critical issues for sustainable development driving force of human being scenarios of LUCC optimized decision making for sustainable development. Meanwhile, different situations under different temporal and spatial dimensions should be incorporated into the researches. The key issues to be studied are how to reveal the land supply and demand relationships under the multiple driving forces, as well as its changing extents and influences. Upon them, the framework of scientific decision making and comprehensive management for LUCC in China, which is confined by the sustainable development relationship between food and resources supply, ecological protection and economic growth, is proposed.