Evolution characteristics of hydrological connectivity pattern of marsh wetland in Naoli River Basin

As an important indicator of the structural and functional stability of wetland landscapes,hydrological connectivity plays an important role in maintaining the stability of wetland ecosystems.Large-scale human activities have led to significant changes in the hydrological connectivity pattern of wetlands in Naoli River Basin since 1950 s.Combined with the availability of wetland habitat and the spreading capacity of aquatic birds,hydrological connectivity indices of marsh wetlands were calculated in the studied area,and the temporal and spatial changes were analyzed from 1950 s to 2015.The results indicate that:(1)the hydrological connectivity index of the marsh wetlands shows a growth trend with increasing distance threshold.All patches of marsh wetlands linked together when the distance threshold reached 35--40 km;(2)the optimal distance of hydrological connectivity is about 10 km for marsh wetlands of whole Naoli River Basin;(3)the total hydrological connectivity of marsh wetlands decreased in the Naoli River Basin from 1950 s to 2015.Although the hydrological connectivity index increased after 2005,the fragmentation of the landscape has not been improved.The analysis of the wetland hydrological connectivity can provide a scientific basis for the ecological restoration and protection of the wetland in the Naoli River Basin.

A Modified Gravity p-Median Model for Optimizing Facility Locations

The gravity p-median model is an important improvement to the widely-used p-median model. However, there is still a debate on its validity in empirical applications. Previous studies even doubt the significance of the gravity p-median model. Using a case study of tertiary hospitals in Shenzhen, China, this study re-examines the difference between the gravity p-median model with the p-median model, by decomposing the difference between the two models into gravity rule and variant attraction. This study also proposes a modified gravity p-median model by incorporating a distance threshold. The empirical results support the validity of the gravity p-median model, and also reveal that only when the attractions of candidate facility locations are variable will the gravity p-median model lead to different results with the p-median model. The difference between the modified gravity p-median model and the gravity p-median model is also examined. Moreover, the impacts of the distance-decay parameter and distance threshold on solutions are investigated. Results indicate that a larger distance-decay parameter tends to result in a more dispersed distribution of optimal facilities and a smaller average travel time, and a smaller distance threshold can better promote the spatial equity of facilities. The proposed method can also be applied in studies of other types of facilities or in other areas.