On the Design Pattern for Improving Urban Living Environment with Regional Natural Resources—By Studying Cases of British Architect Richard Rogers

Through discussing effective utilization of regional natural resources under the background of globalization,combining with Richard Rogers' typical architectural and urban design works,this study analyzes his design concepts of using regional natural resources from the perspectives of overall balance between architecture and natural environment,architectural function and detail control,application of proper technologies and new materials,then proposes a modern design pattern to create a better urban living environment by integrating regional natural resources and modern architectural technology.

Natural environment suitability for human settlements in China based on GIS

With the degeneration of environment and acceleration of urbanization,human environment has attracted great attention worldwide.This paper sets up the Human Settlements Environment Index(HEI) model and evaluates the natural environment suitability for Human Settlements in China based on GIS technology.The results show that the HEI of China decreases from southeast to northwest in general,HEI is significantly correlated with population density at grid size and the correlation coefficient(r) between them reaches 0.93,which indicates that natural environment suitability for Human Settlements has a significant influence on population distribution.Most people in China mainly concentrate in areas with high natural environment suitability.The total suitable area is 430.47×104 km2,which accounts for nearly 45% of the total land area in China,while the proportion of people living in the area reaches 96.56%.With a population density of 18 people per square kilometer,the critical area is the transitional region for people to live in China.The critical area covers 225.11×104 km2 with a population of 41.12 million.The non-suitable area covers 304.42×104 km2 with a population of only 2.49 million.

Automatic image segmentation method for cotton leaves with disease under natural environment

In order to improve the image segmentation performance of cotton leaves in natural environment, an automatic segmentation model of diseased leaf with active gradient and local information is proposed. Firstly, a segmented monotone decreasing edge composite function is proposed to accelerate the evolution of the level set curve in the gradient smooth region. Secondly, canny edge detection operator gradient is introduced into the model as the global information. In the process of the evolution of the level set function, the guidance information of the energy function is used to guide the curve evolution according to the local information of the image, and the smooth contour curve is obtained. And the main direction of the evolution of the level set curve is controlled according to the global gradient information, which effectively overcomes the local minima in the process of the evolution of the level set function. Finally, the Heaviside function is introduced into the energy function to smooth the contours of the motion and to increase the penalty function Φ(x) to calibrate the deviation of the level set function so that the level set is smooth and closed. The results showed that the model of cotton leaf edge profile curve could be obtained in the model of cotton leaf covered by bare soil, straw mulching and plastic film mulching, and the ideal edge of the ROI could be realized when the light was not uniform. In the complex background, the model can segment the leaves of the cotton with uneven illumination, shadow and weed background, and it is better to realize the ideal extraction of the edge of the blade. Compared with the Geodesic Active Contour(GAC) algorithm, Chan-Vese(C-V) algorithm and Local Binary Fitting(LBF) algorithm, it is found that the model has the advantages of segmentation accuracy and running time when processing seven kinds of cotton disease leaves images, including uneven lighting, leaf disease spot blur, adhesive diseased leaf, shadow, complex background, unclear diseased leaf edges, and staggered condition. This model can not only conduct image segmentation of cotton leaves under natural conditions, but also provide technical support for the accurate identification and diagnosis of cotton diseases.

Investigation and Analysis of Natural Environment in Hainan International Tourism Island

Investigation and analysis of natural tourism environment is the foundation and premise of tourism planning,development and management.Through investigating,classifying and evaluating natural tourism resources in Hainan according to the Classification,Investigation and Evaluation of Tourism Resources(GB/T18972-2003),it was found that there are 4 principal categories,6 sub-categories and 61 basic types of natural tourism resources,accounting for 100%,94.1% and 85.9% of the national total respectively.There are 335 natural tourism resource units in Hainan,47 of them are superfine ones accounting for 14.0% of the total,225 excellent ones accounting for 67.2% of the total,48 common ones accounting for 14.3% of the total,62 of them without acquiring any grade,that is,18.5% of the total.Most of these resources are located in the mountainous areas in the central island,eastern coastal areas and Sanya City.Meanwhile,through collecting and sorting out the environmental quality bulletins and statistics of Hainan in recent 5 years,quality changes of its natural tourism environment have been analyzed,and it was found that the quality of water,air and sound on the whole in this island is fine,but a few study cities(towns) are suffering from serious noise pollution.Thus,besides enjoying its generally excellent ecological environment,Hainan Island is still faced with serious challenges.

Evaluation of Natural Ecological Environment in Guangzhou City Based on Remote Sensing Technology and Comprehensive Index Method

Based on the ETM remote sensing images of Guangzhou City in 2014, the spatial distribution results o f three environmental factors including vegetation coverage(NDVI), soil index(vegetation index of bare soil) and sl ope were obtained. By using comprehensive index method, the normalized environmental factors were weighted and superimposed, and the fi nal evaluation results of ecological environment in Guangzhou City were obtained. The results showed that overall situation of natural ecological environment in Guangzhou was not optimistic, that is, the area of land with bad, moderate, good and superior environment accounted for 59.70%, 35.79%, 4.50% and around 0.01% of total area of land in Guangzhou City respectively. Ecological environment was generally poor in the central urban districts in the south of Guangzhou City, while it was relatively better in the north and northeast. Attaching importance to the constr uction of greenbelts and greenways is an effective way to improve regional environmental quality and natural ecological e nvironment level.

Sustainable Development and the Basic Value of Natural Environment

Contrast with artificial environment, the multi-level self-organizational system of nature has great gain. Sustain-able material environment should respect nature: non-rubbish and super-cycle quality of natural ecosystem offers the material source of human development, fractal structure of nature offers new field of space and information source to this high-density and information-based society, dissipative structure of nature links the new system of energy with whole ecosystem organi-cally, and life-chain regulation is the base of sustainable life environment. Nature guarantees the physical healthy environ-ment by its all-dimension healthy factor, constructs the mental healthy environment by its quality of co-ordinate and chaos, so that guarantees the whole emergence of sustainable develop-ment on the 'super-science' level. In the view of sustainable development, construction, green economy and human health are basic fields. With the concept of ecosystem regulation, we can relate these fields organically and fulfill the task of human health, welfare and sustainable development. Ecosystem regulation is the base of sustainable development's new para-digm.

Route evaluation indexes of Changsha-Jishou freeway for protecting cultural heritages and natural environment

The highway construction inevitably may cause certain influence to the cultural heritage and the natural environment along the route, particularly in design stage; if the route selection is unreasonable, it will certainly impact the natural resource seriously along the route. On the contrary, good design can reasonably develop, use, protect and promote the value of cultural heritage and natural environment. Changsha to Jishou （Chang-Ji） freeway is one section of Changsha to Chongqing freeway, which is one of the eight big west channels as planned in China; two cities of Changde and Huaihua and one autonomous region of Xianxi in western Hunan province, along which the cultural heritage and the natural resource are rich, and the natural landscape is exquisite. This paper investigates and analyzes the natural resources along the route of Chang-Ji freeway, puts forward some protection design evaluation indexes for mountain area freeway by the thought of context sensitive design. At last, the paper introduces the effect of applying the indexes to select route of Chang-Ji freeway.

ON THE RELATION BETWEEN THE EVOLUTION OF NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN FACTORS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN SETTLEMENT——Take the Lanzhou Valley Basin as An Examples

Lanzhou Valley Basin is composed of two smaller diamond-shaped basins striking from NW to SE and including 6 river terraces. The lower terraces remaining even and smooth are main sites for city buildings. The main function of Lanzhou urban settlement is a ferry and transport centre. Lanzhou used to be an im-portant crossing site and post on the 'silk road',and then became a transport and trade centre in Northwest China. In the middle part of the 17th century, Lanzhou became the capital of Gansu,a new province. The development process of Lanzhou urban settlement indicates that urban settlement is a system consisting of natural environment and human society based on the former.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT DURING THE LIFE SPAN OF NANJING HOMO ERECTUS

From the comparison of the corresponding strata to the skull of the relic Homo erectus which was found in the Calabash cave of Nanjing Tangshan and dated in 350,000 aBP with other cave strata, the region of Tangshan is a kind of periglacial environment before middle Pleistocene epoch. During the life span of Nanjing Homo erecturs , it had transformed to warm and humid sub-tropical climate from periglacial climate. The natural environment is similar to present except the individual high mountains.

Thermal comfort in naturally ventilated indoor environment in hot and humid climate zone in P. R. China

To identify human thermal comfort in naturally ventilated buildings,the research based on both subjective and objective data was carried out in Chongqing,P. R. China. The characteristics of subjects' clothing regulation function,changes of actual mean thermal comfort vote (AMV) varying with time and acceptable operative temperature in natural conditions were analyzed. In addition,the indicator actual mean vote-actual percentage dissatisfied (AMV-APD) was used to study the actual dissatisfaction with thermal environment. The results indicate that regulative ability by changing clothing under natural ventilated conditions is very significant but limited simultaneously,about 1.7 ℃ per 0.1 clo. Under naturally ventilated conditions,people may have an acceptable operative temperature of 16-28 ℃. Based on the AMV-APD,the actual minimum percentage dissatisfied can reach 4% at AMV of -0.36.

The background features of natural environment and the harnessing pattern for the spread of saline land in the Songnen Plain

The Songnen Plain lying in the central part of the Northeast China Plain covers an area of about 170 000 km2. There are vast patches of saline land, which are still in the process of enlargement. The spread of saline land has already caused the worsening of ecoenvironment and hindered agricultural development in the region. The paper analyses background factors of natural environment that caused the spread of saline land according to the information of Landsat TM images. The result shows that among the three kinds of lakes the fault lake is the background factor of natural environment that causes the spread of saline land under arid conditions. Its lakebeach meadows could not recover from the excessive utilization in farming and stockraising. The proposed countermeasures to prevent and control the spread of saline land serve as biological steps or water conservancy facilities to protect the lakebeach meadows of the fault lakes from being artificial excessively utilized.

Magnetic Susceptibility and Natural Gamma Radioactivity as Indirect Indicators of Impurities in Limestones of the Sabinas Basin: Possible Relationships with the Sedimentation Environment

This study presents an analysis of magnetic susceptibility and natural gamma radioactivity as indirect indicators of impurities in Cretaceous limestones of the Sabinas basin, as well as of the possible relation of these physical properties with the changes in the sedimentation environment. Both of these physical properties indicate changes in the degree of impurities and the mineralogical composition of this rock, principally in its organic matter and detritus content. Considering that the sedimentation environment determines the impurities in these rocks, possible environmental conditions at different levels of the Cretaceous were suggested using the magnetic susceptibility, total gamma radiation and potassium values, as well as the uranium and thorium concentration in the limestones. The analyses suggest variations in the depth of water table of the basin, which are mainly related to transgressions and marine regressions.

Wind-Thermal Environmental Characteristic of Multi-Variable Passive Enhanced Natural Ventilation System for High and Large Space Building

Natural ventilation effects in high and large space buildings of tropical areas greatlya ffect the air conditioning energy consumption.Aiming at nearly zero energy building design,thisp aper mainly contributes to provide theoretical basis and reference for thermal comfortable air conditioning system design of high and large space buildings.Taking a theatre in Hainan as study object,a newly composite enhanced natural ventilation system is proposed by integrating theu nderground tunnel-based earth to air heat exchange system and the solar chimney.Ventilationq uantity,air velocity and air temperature field,human vertical temperature gradient differenceu nder24simulation working conditions are considered and analyzed by using ANSYS Fluent.Fort he underground tunnel,results show that Group Two with double underground tunnels and side airs upply location shows its advantages in cooling effects and air supply uniformity.Then for the solar chimney,results show that the solar radiation intensity contributes to larger difference int ransmission power and leads to different cooling effects.On the whole,the system under workingc ondition No.7with120m long,side air supply,double underground tunnel and20m high,1mw ide,0.6°absorber plate angle solar chimney shows its priority in better comprehensive performance.

Intrinsic Value of the Natural Environment： An Ethical Roadmap to Protect the Environment

The environment in the sense of all the ecosystems on Earth, has been polluted, harmed, and put at risk of degradation to some extent. Nevertheless, the mainstream ethical philosophies have found it difficult to assign an intrinsic value to the environment itself, and most environmental ethics is based on an ＂enlightened＂ anthropocentrism which values environmental protection for the sake of other humans including the future generations. Philosophically speaking, the concept of moral obligations towards generations, who have not been born yet, can be challenged. This vicious circle is a fundamental issue for ＂environmental ethics.＂ The current paper is an attempt to help correct this broken cycle of arguments using three lines of argument： （1） The harmful impact of human activity on the environment does not benefit all humans; the question is not over the selfishness and short-sightedness of humankind regarding the environment as much as it is regarding ＂environmental＂ justice among humans. The pursuit of self-interest and wealth by some humans, but not all, should not lead philosophers to ignore the insufficiencies of our economic and capitalist systems in the delineation of morally correct human-environment interaction. The right to a livable environment is a universal human right and morality has to support it. （2） The moral obligation of humankind toward the environment is similar to any situation where a party, such as a child, does not have the ability to protect itself or defend its rights; this is the principle of ＂due care.＂ Humans have the knowledge to understand the complexity of ecosystem interrelationships and the harm which industrial activity has caused. Therefore they have a moral obligation to exercise due care to prevent it from being harmed irreversibly. （3） The third argument is concerned with human morality and the spirituality of the environment. It can be argued that the natural instinct of the love of the environment, biophilia, is not a cause but a symptom of the grand spiritual value in the environment, even though this spiritual value may not be confined to humans, but be accrued to all life forms that have and/or show a genuine interest in the environment.

Special Issue on "Response of Polar Organisms and Natural Environment to Global Changes"

High altitude and high latitude regions on Earth are experiencing rapid changes in climate, with impacts on polar organisms and the environment. The persistent cold and sometimes inhospitable conditions create unique ecosystems and habitats for polar organisms.

Inviting Contributions to a Special Issue on "Response of Polar Organisms and Natural Environment to Global Changes"

Dear Colleagues, We would like to invite you to submit manuscripts to a special issue of the journal Advances in Polar Science （APS） on ＂Response of Polar Organisms and Natural Environment to Global Changes＂.

The dynamic analysis of natural environment change of nuclear test field in Lop Nur region of China

Using earth satellite observation means, remote sensing information distilled technique and regional research production, we have roundly analyzed and made an integrated evaluation about the Lop Nur nuclear test field in western China. This product reveals the rarely-known nuke explosion effect and response events of geology conditions. It also offers us legible and practical first-hand materials about human extreme effects, important engineering environment and intimidating influence process. By excavating and appraising the materials gradually on the natural environment factors changing in the test field through macroscopic elimination and typical filtration, it can supply basic scientific data for security of national nuclear usage, appraising the nuclear environment synthetically and developing nuclear strategy expediently.

NATURAL RESOURCES AND ECO-ENVIRONMENT MAPPING IN HENAN,CHINA

The history is briefly looked back of natural resources and eec-environmental mapping in Henan Province. The main achievements are alsosummed up in following aspects: geographical mapping, soil mapping, land resource mapping, hydrothermal resource mapping, biological resource mapping, ecological mapping, design and compilation of natural resource and environment atlas, and study on cartographic theory and method. The basic characterristics are discussed, they include 1) extensive cartographic field and varied-type map; 2) resource and environment mapping being closely connected with resource investigation and environment research; 3) traditional cartographic method being dominant; 4) cooperation of cartographic researchers. Finally, the future tasks are proposed as follows: compiling a series of large-scale maps and renewing obsolete maps; dynamically monitoring and mapping of natural resource and environment system; mapping of eec-environment; and establishing information system of resource and environment.

Integration of Natural Environment with Other Fictional Elements in Wuthering Heights

As one of the literary forms,fiction is unified as a whole by its elements.The role natural environment plays can not beneglected,because it makes much sense in the completion of the novel and the formation of the depth.This thesis studies the integration of natural environment with the three fictional elements,plot,character,and theme,in WutheringHeights.In terms of plot,natural environment may develop the plot and suggest the turning.Besides,natural environment in the plot serves as stage for the plot,creating a sense of tableau.In presenting the characters,natural environment echoes the behavior and personality of the characters,especially when the main characters have a big change in temper and emotion.As to theme,the niceness of love and quiet and nice nature,the horror of hatred,the destroying thunder and lightning,all interact with each other.

Natural radioactive environment of urban soils in Shihezi, China

Radionuclides, such as 238U, 232Th and 40K, can be found in urban soil. To evaluate the natural radioactivity in the environment, soil samples were collected form Shihezi city and radioisotope concentrations were determined by X-ray fluorescence. The dose rate of urban soil (mGy per year, mGy/a) was calculated. The results indicate that the U, Th and K concentrations of the urban soils were, respectively, 1.2-3.2 mg/kg, 6.4-12.3 mg/kg and 2.05%-2.24%, with the mean values of 2.47 mg/kg, 10.47 mg/kg and 2.16 %. Dose rates of urban soils were 10.04-19.55 mGy/a with the mean value of 16.31 mGy/a. This dose rate is the perfect and maximum value of natural radiation in soil and different with the air absorbed dose rate from terrestrial γ-rays. The mean value of air absorbed dose rate was about 57.42 nGy/h. The annual effective dose rate in air was about 0.07 mSv/a and the average value of Raeq in urban soil was 120.37 Bq/kg. The relative contribution of α particle to the dose rate is higher than that derived from β- and γ-rays in the urban soils.