Soil and Water Resources and Land Sustainable Productivity in the Catchment Area with Intensive Management in Hilly Red Soil Regions,China

Taking an example of Majiayu Catchment Area (14.15 ha) in Taoyuan County of HunanProvince, the soil and water resources dynamics, fertility evolution characteristics andland productivity changing situation were studied. Fixed observation results from 1993to 2002 showed that pools covering about 15% of total area could store up 10% of surfacerunoff, keep 78.1% of eroded soil and 65.4% of lost nutrients. The yearly ratio ofinterception and evapotranspiration in land, storage in pools and drainage was 7:2:1,which ensured the resources and nutrients equilibrium and a benign recycle in thecatchment area system, and benefited the aquatic culture and helped to resist seasonaldrought. Moreover, the results showed that soil erosion modulus decreased significantly,equal to or lower than soil loss tolerance (≤500 tkm-2) in reddish yellow soil regions.Soil organic matter, total and available N content in sloping land, dryland and paddyfield increased steadily (>10%); water storage enhanced by more than 20% in sloping landand dryland in drought season; crop production increased by more than 20%; and productionof trees, fruits, tea and fish as well as land productivity increased yearly.

Analysis of Climate Variability and Its Influence on the Hydrological Response of the Catchment Area of Kadey (East Cameroon)

Register in the framework of the International Program of Research on Water Resources Management and Protection of Ecosystems, the Congo basin in which lies the catchment area of the Kadey (2647 km2) was selected to better assess the impact climate variability on the water surface in the perspective of supply drinking water both in the rainy season and in periods of low water. Based on new data from rainfall and flow rates obtained in the last fifteen years (1998-2013), the major trends in time series and the scope of the “drought” were identified. The historical rainfall in the basin is characterized by two major ruptures rainfall in 1969 and 1999. These have generated an order deficit of 14% respectively and an excess of nearly 19%. These phenomena also affected the recurrence of cumulative rainfall throughout the Kadey basin. Here, the hydrological response to excess rainfall is over 100%. However, it appears that over the period 1970-2012, the number of years that has undergone a “severe drought” is to play down.

我国产前诊断机构空间可及性与公平性

目的评价我国产前诊断机构的空间可及性与公平性,以期为优化此类机构的空间规划布局提供参考。方法用两步移动搜索法和空间基尼系数对我国产前诊断机构的空间可及性和公平性进行评价。结果我国中东部地区和各省(自治区、直辖市)中心城市产前诊断服务的空间可及性与公平性均优于西部地区和偏远地区。结论建议适当增加西部地区和偏远地区的产前诊断机构与卫生技术人员数量,以优化我国产前诊断机构的规划布局。

Suitability Evaluation of Rural Settlements Based on Accessibility of Production and Living： A Case Study of Tingzu Town in Hubei Prov- ince of China

Rural settlements are the main carriers of agriculture, rural areas and farmers; thus, optimizing the production and living space of rural settlements is highly significant to rural development. Taking the effective allocation of resources as the starting point, a suitability evaluation system of rural settlements, based on accessibility of production and living, was proposed in this study to provide scientific basis for the optimization of production and living space. The accessibility of production and living was measured by an im- proved two-step floating catchment area method, which considered proximity and availability based on the inclination of rural residents. The suitability evaluation system consisted of traditional suitability evaluation and newly proposed limiting factor identification based on the loss score proportion of suitability. Tingzu Town of Hubei Province, China, was chosen as the case study area. Based on the re- suits of the suitability evaluation system, corresponding suggestions on rural land consolidation, industry division, as well as the layout of health care and education facilities were proposed to optimize the production and living space of rural settlements in Tingzu Town. It is found that the suitability evaluation based on accessibility of production and living is more scientific and accurate than the traditional ones which significantly overestimate production and living convenience. Moreover, the limiting factor identification can help us put forward suggestions according to local conditions and bring about the highly targeted optimization of production and living space of rural settlements.

Household model of rainwater harvesting system in Mexican urban zones

This paper describes a household model of the rainwater harvesting system in residential development of Tlaquepaque Jalisco Mexico. Harvested rainwater is estimated for designing a rainwater catchment system which reflects the maximum water supply to a household.Based on the estimation of the harvested rainwater the total water demand is calculated in order to explore the possible uses of rainwater. Major components in the rainwater catchment system are as follows catchment area downspout roof drain pipe and first flush tank cistern infiltration well pumping station and filtering system and ultraviolet UV water treatment.The rainwater harvesting system is designed to operate as the part of the central water supply system.This paper exposes the process of design and construction and its cost.In this way it aims to establish a technical and conceptual reference which enables the citizens to design their rainwater systems and their construction. This model will produce an important experience that can help to improve the systems in a Mexican context.It can be also useful for the international community.

Walking Access Distance of Metro Passengers and Relationship with Demographic Characteristics: A Case Study of Nanjing Metro

In the metropolises of China, the metro plays an increasingly important role in commuting because of its efficiency, affordability, and cleanliness. This paper attempts to explore the relationship between walking access distance to metro stations and the demographic characteristics of passengers, such as age, monthly income, travel frequency, gender, and travel purpose, as well as the influence of the urban context. Nanjing Metro Line 2 is selected as the case study. By using different methods such as a questionnaire survey, spatial decay function, analysis of covariance(ANOVA), network analysis of routes, and K-means cluster analysis, it is suggested that demographic characteristics have a significant impact on the pedestrian walking distance, with the exception of gender. Furthermore, the paper finds a spatial decay effect in walking access distance, the decay rate of which, however, varies across stations. Terminal stations have a larger pedestrian catchment area than in regular and exchange stations. Moreover, the passengers of Nanjing Metro Line 2 can be classified into six groups according to their demographic characteristics, among which education and occupation are vital indicators in determining their willingness to walk to the stations. Middle-class passengers have a higher dependence on the metro and tend to walk longer than other groups do. This study provides an important reference for planners and transport sectors to optimize land-use and transport infrastructures.

Evaluation of forest disturbance in south-west Zabaikalia (East Siberia)

The forest estate in south-west Zabaikalia, a territory included in the Lake Baikal catchment area, has been investigated. For this purpose we have used both data of our own studies and monitoring data of environmental protection bodies. It shows that in our study area, fires, fellings, entomo-parasites and air pollution are the major negative factors affecting the state of the forest. In the period from 2003 to 2008 fires were registered in the area of over 500 thousand ha, pest foci in the forests covering an area of over 330 thousand ha, where almost 5 million m3wood was cut in an area of about 43 thousand ha. The total area of forests in our study affected by air pollution amounts to about 700 thousand ha. According to the results, forest pollution in the territory is concentrated in the vicinity of large-scale industrial complexes, for distances up to about 40 km. The total area of forests weakened by air pollution amounts to about 2 million ha.

Evaluation and Promotion of the Service Capacity of Urban Public Open Spaces Based on Improving Accessibility:A Case Study of Shenyang City,China

The service capacity of urban public open spaces is an important indicator of the justness and soundness of the allocation of public space resources,such as parks and green spaces,in the process of urban development.Improving the service capacity of urban public open spaces is conductive to healthy,sustainable urban development.In this study,taking Shengyang City,China as a case study,a Gaussian-based two-step floating catchment area method(2 SFCA)is used to calculate an accessibility index and identify residential areas with a poor accessibility to urban public open spaces.Then,a particle swarm algorithm(PSA)is used to optimize the locations of new open space developments.Finally,the optimization results are verified using the analytic network process(ANP).The results show that the service capacity of public open spaces in the center of Shenyang City(covering six districts)is relatively low and exhibits an uneven spatial distribution.In the service scope of the existing urban public open spaces,the accessibility for 48.6%of the residential estates is moderately poor or poor.The layout is optimized when the number of optimization points is set to 8.These points are mainly located in old town areas such as the Tiexi,Huanggu,and Dadong districts.The optimization increases the green space area accessible by motor vehicles(60 min),bicycles(60 min),and walking(30 min)by 4.67%,5.38%,and 8.03%of the study area,respectively.Finally,green space planning recommendations are offered from two perspectives:spatial layout and transport system optimization.

Public Perception on the Success of Reforestation in a Degraded Land

Reforestation is an activity that involves planting or man-made trees regeneration and other plants in the state forest areas and in other areas based on land-use plan designated as forest. The purpose of this study was to determine the public perception of the difficulty of successful reforestation activities in the Lake Toba catchment area. The data were taken from primary and secondary data. Primary data were information collected by reforestation activities in the villages, secondary data were collected in the study site general conditions existing at the village government agencies, of which sampling method was done by purposive sampling, i.e., sampling deliberately chosen. The results showed a lack of socialization in the extension of government reforestation activities, uncontrolled forest fires, lack of maintenance of seed that has been planted, and the type of plant is less suitable.

Why Spatial Planning Often Fails to Control the Spreading Locations of Large Scale Commercial Facilities？

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the mechanism of planning failure on land use control in case of sprawl developments of large scale commercial facilities, which is often seen in many countries. The author demonstrates actual three cases in Japan： a huge commercial development established in the middle of rice field between the two local cities, two huge commercial accumulations established at the opposite fringes of urban area, and many large commercial developments established one by one within the small municipalities surrounding a central city. And by examining the statistical sales amount, the author describes that these huge suburban commercial developments apparently deprived the sales of the downtown. Through analyzing these cases, the author empirically stated that for the motorized local cites, the optimum location of commercial accumulation is no longer the central area of the city but about 15 min away from the center with the smooth accessible arterial road. At last, the author mentions that the ＂planning failure＂ could be occurred if the territory of planning authority and the scale of the development are inconsistent, such as the authority of small municipal government and the large scale commercial facility which impacts beyond the municipal boundary.

Calibration and Validation of the GR2M Hydrologic Model in the Kouilou-Niari Basin in Southwestern Congo-Brazzaville

The hydrologic simulation of a catchment area, described as the transformation of rainfall into runoff, generally uses hydrologic model. This work opts for the global conceptual hydrologic model GR2M, a monthly time step model, to study the Kouilou-Niari basin, the second most important ones of the Republic of Congo. This includes two parameters to model the hydrologic behavior of a catchment area. The choice of the conceptual model GR2M is justified by the reduced number of parameters and the monthly time scale. The objective of this study is to determine the characteristic parameters of the GR2M model, by a calibrating and a validating procedure. The use of these parameters enables to follow the evolution of the water resources from the climatic variables. It has been first carried out a characterization of some physical, geological and climatic factors governing the flow, by dealing with the main climatic variables which constitute the inputs of the hydrologic model. Then, a hydrologic rainfall-runoff modeling allows to calibrate and validate the model at monthly time scale. Taking into account the number of parameters involved in hydrologic processes and the complexity of the cathment area, this model gives acceptable results throughout the Kouilou-Niari basin. The values of the Nash-Sutcliffe criterion and those of the correlation coefficient obtained are greater than 80% in validation, which explains the performance and robustness of the GR2M model on this basin.

The scaling method of specific catchment area from DEMs

Specific Catchment Area （SCA） is defined as the upstream catchment area of a unit contour. As one of the key terrain parameters, it is widely used in the modeling of hydrology, soil erosion and ecological environment. However, SCA value changes significantly at different DEM resolutions, which inevitably affect terrain analysis results. SCA can be described as the ratio of Catchment Area （CA） and DEM grid length. In this paper, the scale effect of CA is firstly investigated. With Jiuyuangou Gully, a watershed about 70 km2 in northern Shaanxi Province of China, as the test area, it is found that the impacts of DEM scale on CA are different in spatial distribution. CA value in upslope location becomes bigger with the decrease of the DEM resolution. When the location is close to downstream areas the impact of DEM scale on CA is gradually weakening. The scale effect of CA can be concluded as a mathematic trend of exponential decline. Then, a downscaling model of SCA is put forward by introducing the scale factor and the location factor. The scaling model can realize the conversion of SCA value from a coarse DEM resolution to a finer one at pixel level. Experiment results show that the downscaled SCA was well revised, and consistent with SCA at the target resolution with respect to the statistical indexes, histogram and spatial distribution. With the advantages of no empirical parameters, the scaling model could be considered as a simple and objective model for SCA scaling in a rugged drainage area.

Measuring COVID-19 vaccination coverage: an enhanced age-adjusted two-step foating catchment area model

Background:There are only limited studies on access to COVID-19 vaccines and identifying the most appropriate health centres for performing vaccination in metropolitan areas.This study aimed to measure potential spatial access to COVID-19 vaccination centres in Mashhad,the second-most populous city in Iran.Methods:The 2021 age structure of the urban census tracts was integrated into the enhanced two-step foating catchment area model to improve accuracy.The model was developed based on three diferent access scenarios:only public hospitals,only public healthcare centres and both(either hospitals or healthcare centres)as potential vaccination facilities.The weighted decision-matrix and analytic hierarchy process,based on four criteria(i.e.service area,accessibility index,capacity of vaccination centres and distance to main roads),were used to choose potential vaccination centres looking for the highest suitability for residents.Global Moran’s index(GMI)was used to measure the spatial autocorrelation of the accessibility index in diferent scenarios and the proposed model.Results:There were 26 public hospitals and 271 public healthcare centres in the study area.Although the exclusive use of public healthcare centres for vaccination can provide the highest accessibility in the eastern and north-eastern parts of the study area,our fndings indicate that including both public hospitals and public healthcare centres provide high accessibility to vaccination in central urban part.Therefore,a combination of public hospitals and public healthcare centres is recommended for efcient vaccination coverage.The value of GMI for the proposed model(accessibility to selected vaccination centres)was calculated as 0.53(Z=162.42,P<0.01).Both GMI and Z-score values decreased in the proposed model,suggesting an enhancement in accessibility to COVID-19 vaccination services.Conclusions:The periphery and poor areas of the city had the least access to COVID-19 vaccination centres.Measuring spatial access to COVID-19 vaccination centres can provide valuable insights for urban public health decisionmakers.Our model,coupled with geographical information systems,provides more efcient vaccination coverage by identifying the most suitable healthcare centres,which is of special importance when only few centres are available.