Mapping the dynamic degree of aeolian desertification in the Shiyang River Basin from 1975 to 2010

The Shiyang River Basin is an area of China that is severly affected by aeolian desertification.Thus,we established an aeolian desertified land classification system for visual interpretation,which classified the Aeolian Desertified Land(ADL)into Slight(SL),Moderate(M),Severe(S)and Extremely Severe(ES)according to the severity.Imagery of Landsat series(acquired in 1975,1990,2000 and 2010)were employed to monitor the status,trend and spatial pattern of aeolian desertification,especially to map the overall spatial pattern of ADL dynamics by proposing a new Dynamic Index(DI)in the Shiyang River Basin from 1975 to 2010.The results show a generally decreasing trend from 1975 to 2010.However,the ES ADL kept increasing throughout the whole study period.Moreover,the area of ADLs with different severity increased with increasing severity,this S and ES ADLs dominated characteristics of aeolian desertification was contrary to those sandy lands in eastern China where was dominated by SL and M ADLs.Among the three sub-periods of 1975−1990,1990−2000 and 2000−2010,the first two were the restoration stage,while the last one was the expansion stage of aeolian desertification.Moreover,all these new ADLs occurred in Minqin County during 2000−2010,indicating a detrimental increase of aeolian desertification in Minqin,and the concentration of ADLs toward the lower reaches of the Shiyang River Basin.The DI works well to identify areas with desertification changes no matter the sub-periods.Moreover,DI results disclosed a stable status of aeolian desertification,and the DI decreased with increasing ADL severity.These results indicate that it will be difficult to control the expansion of aeolian desertification in Minqin County over an extended period of time.Thus,we suggest effective and long-lasting aeolian desertification control programs in the Shiyang River Basin,especially in Minqin,and SL and MADLs should have priority in facilitating a quick reversal of aeolian desertification.

Dynamic analysis of new type elastic screen surface with multi degree of freedom and experimental validation

A feasible method was proposed to improve the vibration intensity of screen surface via application of a new type elastic screen surface with multi degree of freedom(NTESSMDF). In the NTESSMDF, the primary robs were coupled to the main screen structure with ends embedded into the elastomers, and the secondary robs were attached to adjacent two primary robs with elastic bands. The dynamic model of vibrating screen with NTESSMDF was established based on Lagrange's equation and the equivalent stiffnesses of the elastomer and elastic band were calculated. According to numerical simulation using the 4th order Runge-Kutta method, the vibration intensity of screen surface can be enhanced substantially with an averaged acceleration amplitude increasing ratio of 72.36%. The primary robs and secondary robs vibrate inversely in steady state, which would result in the friability of materials and avoid stoppage. The experimental results validate the dynamic characteristics with acceleration amplitude rising by62.93% on average, which demonstrates the feasibility of NTESSMDF.

Analysis on the Change of Vegetation Cover and Its Prediction Method——A Case Study in Eastern Jilin

[Objective] This study aimed to investigate the dynamic changes of vegetation cover and its prediction method. [Method] The NDVl was used as data source to perform the spatial overlay analysis on the vegetation coverage changes of the study area in different time period under the GIS platform, with the aim to reveal the spatial distribution rules of the vegetation cover in Eastern Jilin Province during the recent 10 years. The Markov Model and Grey System G （1, 1） theory model were used to predict the vegetation cover change trend in Eastern Jilin Province. [Result] The vegetation cover increased a little, but staying stable in general. The regions with great changes were mainly around the lake and river. The prediction results of Markov Model and Grey System G （1, 1） theory model were consistent with the observed measurement. [Conclusion] This study provided referential basis for the effective protection of the vegetation coverage in mountainous forest, and important reference value for the scientific decision-making on the forest construction planning in Jilin Province as well as in China and sustainable development of social economy.

Impacts of Transportation Arteries on Land Use Patterns in Urbanrural Fringe: A Comparative Gradient Analysis of Qixia District, Nanjing City, China

Integrated transportation and land use studies are of major interest to planners because they consider the interaction between transportation development and land use change. Quantifying the impact of transport infrastructure on land use change is necessary for evaluating the role of transportation development in the process of land use and land cover change in the urban-rural fringe. Taking Qixia District of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, China as a typical urban-rural fringe area, this paper analyzes the patterns and charac- teristics of land use change along three major transportation arteries using land use data from 2000 and 2008. We examine the spatial differentiation and gradient of land use pattern around railway, expressway, and highway corridors to investigate whether land use change in the urban-rural fringe is related to distance from transportation arteries and to clarify the varying impacts of different forms of transport infrastructure on land use patterns. We find that construction land generally tends to be located close to major transportation arteries, and that railways have the most obvious influence on land use change in the urban-rural fringe, while the impact of expressways was not significant. We conclude that there exists a causal relationship between the presence of transportation arteries and land use change in the urban-rural fringe, but this relationship varies across different types of linear transnort infrastrncnlre.

Land use and landscape pattern change: a linkage to the construction of the Qinghai-Xizang Highway

Based on digital land use data from 1995 to 2000 and road data, the land use and landscape changes of Golmud, Qumaleb and Zhidoi are studied on a macro-scale. Land use and landscape changes in highway buffer zones and city expansion are special subjects. A new formula is used to define the exact degree of dynamic land use. To adequately define land use and landscape pattern changes, the buffer zones, illustrating the changes at different distances from the road, are recognized with ArcGIS 8.1 software. Prominent changes took place in land use and landscape patterns from 1995 to 2000, and the area of built-up land increased by 323.8%. The comprehensive degree of dynamic land use is 2.25, and the degree of dynamic land use of built-up land is the highest, followed by cultivated land. Woodland has the lowest value. The used degree index of land resources declined by 38.8 from 1995 to 2000. Landscape changed dramatically which influenced ecological processes immensely. Different from the corridor effect of other traffic routes, the corridor effect of this section of road is not obvious and its “point” radiation effect can be easily seen. The expanding range of Golmud City is confined to a 3 km buffer, while for Wudaoliang, it is 1 km. No land use change happened in the Nanshankou buffer.

Dynamic Changes of the Bush Encroachment in Low Altitude Area of Ethiopia

Bush encroachment is widely distributed in arid and semi-arid regions, and it has a serious impact on livestock production, especially in Africa where livestock is a primary source for the livelihoods of many people. In this study, methods of supervised classification and decision tree classification, and indexes of a land use change significance index（Ci） and a single land use dynamic degree, were applied to remote sensing imagery of Ethiopia for 1986–2016. The results show the dynamic characteristics of grassland bush encroachment in low altitude areas（pastures 1500 m above sea level） of Ethiopia in the 30 year period studied. The results revealed several interesting features of this phenomenon.（1） The area of bush encroachment showed an increasing trend, with a maximum of 3.74×10^3 km^2 in 2003, which represented 68.97% of the total area, and declined slightly from 2003~2016.（2） Among classification types, the area of severe shrub grassland was the largest, accounting for 28.36–49.10% of the total area, while the area of moderate bush encroachment accounted for 9.77–16.68%, and slight bush encroachment accounted for 5.52–7.57%.（3） The expansion rate of shrubby grassland was 0.74% for the 30 year period, while the average annual expansion rate was 2.16% for the 8 years from 1995–2003.（4） Forest land and grassland were the two main land use types of shrub grassland transformation in low altitude areas and bush encroachment changed large amounts of forest land into grassland due to shrub grassland management. The results of this study provide basic data for revealing the impacts of development processes on subsequent bush encroachment and can inform better management for the sustainable development of grasslands in low altitude systems.

Effect of Branching Architecture on Glass Transition Behavior of Hyperbranched Copolystyrenes:the Experiment and Simulation Studies

By controlling the feed ratio of CMS/styrene and the polymerization time, a series of hyperbranched copolystyrenes（HBCPS） were synthesized with comparable weight-averaged molecular weights（Mw） but different degree of branching（DB） through atom transfer radical self-condensing vinyl copolymerization（ATR-SCVCP） with Cu Br/2,2？-bipyridyl as the catalyst. The resulting HBCPS samples were used to investigate the effect of branching architecture on their glass transition behavior. With the DB increased, the glass transition temperatures（Tg） of HBCPS samples measured by DMA and DSC both decreased. Their spin-lattice relaxation times（1H T1r） of protons displayed the same downtrend with increasing DB. Besides, a correlation between the Tgs and the DB was well established by all-atom molecular dynamics（MD） simulations. The values of MD-determined Tgs are little higher than the corresponding experimental ones. However, the dependence of Tgs on DB is in good agreement with the experimental results, i.e., Tg decreases both in experiments and simulations with increasing DB.