Carrying Capacity and Coupling Coordination of Water and Land Resources Systems in Arid and Semi-arid Areas: A Case Study of Yulin City, China

Quantitatively assessing the carrying capacity of water and land resources systems in arid and semi-arid areas is crucial for achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.In this work,taking Yulin City in China as a case study and employing the Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation(CRITIC)method,a modified model of coupling degree was developed to evaluate the car-rying capacity of water and land resources systems endowment and utilization,as well as their coupling coordination degree from 2013 to 2020.Our findings indicate that the water and land resources of Yulin are diminishing due to declines in agriculture,higher industrial water use,and wetland shrinkage.However,reallocating domestic water for ecological sustainability and reducing sloping farmland can mitigate this trend of decline.Temporally,as the coupling coordination between water and land resources system endowment in Yulin continuously improved,the coupling coordination between water and land resources system utilization first decreased and then in-creased with 2016 as the turning point.Spatially,the carrying capacity of water and land resources systems,the coupling coordination degree between water and land resources system endowment,and the coupling coordination degree between water and land resources system utilization in Yulin exhibited the same pattern of being higher in the six northern counties than in the six southern counties.Improving the water resources endowment is vital for the highly efficient use of water and land resources.

Agricultural Vulnerability to Drought in China's Agro-pastoral Ecotone:A Case Study of Yulin City,Shaanxi Province

Agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China is the prominent area for agricultural production,but it is also the most typical ecological fragile area with frequent drought disasters.Taking Yulin City at Shaanxi Province in China as the case area,the paper aims to investigate the spatio-temporal changes of agricultural vulnerability to drought in China’s agro-pastoral ecotone in the period 2000 to2020.The results show that:1)the agricultural vulnerability to drought in Yulin City has shifted from high vulnerability in the period2000–2010 to low vulnerability in the period 2011–2020.2)There exist obvious spatio-temporal differences of the agricultural vulnerability to drought in Yulin City during the research period.3)Four sensitive events and 14 resilient events were identified in the research and the crops of Yulin had become more resilient to drought.Finally,the paper put forward with policy implications to make adaptive strategies of agriculture to climate change in China’s agro-pastoral ecotone in the future,e.g.,carrying out agricultural zoning based on agricultural production conditions,intensifying the construction of disaster prevention and relief system,and integrating with modern agricultural technology to develop new type agriculture.

SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF SOIL ORGANIC CARBON IN RESERVED DESERTIFICATION AREA——A Case Study in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, China

Soil organic carbon (SOC) was considered to be a key index in evaluation of soil degradation and soil C sequestration. To discuss the spatial-temporal dynamics of SOC in arable layer in reversed desertification area, a case study was conducted in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, China. Data of SOC were based on general soil survey in 1982 and repeated soil sampling in 2003. Soil organic carbon content (SOCC) was determined by K2Cr3O7-FeSO4 titration method, and soil organic carbon density (SOCD) was calculated by arithmetic average and area weighted average method, respectively. On average, SOCC and SOCD of the arable layer in the study area from 1982 to 2003 had increased 0.51g/kg and 0.16kg/m2, respectively. Considering main soil types, the widest distributed Arid-Sandic Entisols had lowest values and increments of SOCC and SOCD during the study period; while the second widest Los-Orthic Entisols had higher values and increments of SOCC and SOCD, compared to the mean values of the whole region. The results indicated that reversed desertification process was due to the modification of land use and management practices, such as natural vegetation recovery, planting grass, turning arable land to grassland, and soil and water conservation etc., which can improve SOCC and SOCD and thus enhance soil C sequestration.

The causes of land landscape changes in semi-arid area of Northwest China: a case study of Yulin city

Rapid land landscape change has taken place in many arid and semi-arid regions such as the vulnerable ecological area over the last decade. In this paper, we quantified land landscape change of Yulin in this area between 1985 and 2000 using remote sensing and GIS. It was found that fallow landscape decreased by 125,148 hm^2 while grassland and woodland increased by 107,975 hm^2 and 17,157 hm^2, respectively. The major factors responsible for these changes are identified as the change in the government policy on preserving the environment, continued growth in mining, and urbanization. The efforts in restoring the deteriorated ecosystem have reaped certain benefits in reducing the spatial extent of sandy land through replacement by non-irrigated farmland, woodland and grassland. On the other hand, continued expansion of mining industry and urbanization has exerted adverse impacts on the land landscape. At present regional economic development conflicts directly with the protection of the natural environment. Such a conflict has caused the destruction to the land resources and fragmentation of the landscape accompanied by land desertification, the case is even serious in some localities.

Strategies for Construction of Sustainable Development Experimental Zone in Fumian District,Yulin City

From strengthening the construction of an innovation system,adhering to the green development model of the industry,advancing the rural revitalization strategy,strengthening the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage,accelerating the development of social undertakings,and expanding the space for regional cooperation,this paper discusses the strategies for the construction of sustainable development experimental zone in Fumian District,Yulin City.It is intended to build Fumian District into a vibrant,economically prosperous,urban and rural integrated,characteristic cultural,safe and harmonious,inclusive and open district.

Opportunities,Challenges and Safeguard Measures for Sustainable Development of Fumian District,Yulin City

This paper first analyzes the main opportunities for sustainable development of Fumian District,Yulin City,and then discusses the challenges faced by Fumian District in its sustainable development.Finally,it proposes safeguard measures for sustainable development of Fumian District:(i)strengthening leadership and implementing responsibilities;(ii)enhancing cooperation and gathering forces;(iii)reinforcing supervision and ensuring implementation;(iv)increasing input and integrating resources;(v)strengthening publicity and creating an atmosphere.

The vulnerability evolution and simulation of social-ecological systems in a semi-arid area: A case study of Yulin City, China

Taking the semi-arid area of Yulin City as an example, this study improves the vulnerability assessment methods and techniques at the county scale using the VSD(Vulnerability Scoping Diagram) assessment framework, integrates the VSD framework and the SERV(Spatially Explicit Resilience-Vulnerability) model, and decomposes the system vulnerability into three dimensions, i.e., exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Firstly, with the full understanding of the background and exposure risk source of the research area, the vulnerability indexes were screened by the SERV model, and the index system was constructed to assess the characteristics of the local eco-environment. Secondly, with the aid of RS and GIS, this study measured the spatial differentiation and evolution of the social-ecological systems in Yulin City during 2000–2015 and explored intrinsic reasons for the spatial-temporal evolution of vulnerability. The results are as follows:(1) The spatial pattern of Yulin City's SESs vulnerability is "high in northwest and southeast and low along the Great Wall". Although the degree of system vulnerability decreased significantly during the study period and the system development trend improved, there is a sharp spatial difference between the system vulnerability and exposure risk.(2) The evolution of system vulnerability is influenced by the risk factors of exposure, and the regional vulnerability and the spatial heterogeneity of exposure risk are affected by the social sensitivity, economic adaptive capacity and other factors. Finally, according to the uncertainty of decision makers, the future scenarios of regional vulnerability are simulated under different decision risks by taking advantage of the OWA multi-criteria algorithm, and the vulnerability of the regional system under different development directions was predicted based on the decision makers' rational risk interval.

Yulin,Green City on the Tropic of Cancer

PART of the luxuriantly exotic area along the tropic of cancer, Yulin City, in the southeastern part of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is blessed with an evergreen climate and abundant resources.

Environmental Characteristics of Groundwater:an Application of PCA to Water Chemistry Analysis in Yulin

For our investigation into the water quality in Yulin city, we collected 76 typical water samples to be tested for particle quality. By applying a Romani type classification method the groundwater of Yulin city was classified into nine categories by type, i.e., Ca-HCO3, Na-HCO3, Na-HCO3-SO4-Cl, Na-HCO3-SO4, Na-Cl, Na-Cl-HCO3, Na-Ca- HCO3, Ca-Cl-HCO3 and Ca-HCO3-SO4-Cl. A principal component analysis was carried out in order to analyze the groundwater environment. From this analysis we considered that the information collected could be represented by 21 indices from which we extracted seven principal components, which, respectively, accounted for 37.4%, 13.0%, 8.1%, 7.2%, 6.3%, 5.9% and 4.6% of the total variation. The results show that the groundwater environment of this region is largely determined by characteristic components of the natural groundwater background. One part of the water was polluted by leaching/eluviation of solid waste generated from coal mining. Another part of the ground water was contaminated by acid mine water from the coal layer and from improper irrigation. In addition, geological and hydrogeological conditions also cause changes in the water environment.