自然资源时空信息的自然系统基础

自然资源是自然地理环境中对人类有用的部分,其中,自然地理环境的变化必然会引起自然资源开发和利用方式的改变,而这一过程又会进一步影响自然地理环境的可持续性。自然资源时空信息是时空信息技术在自然资源领域的应用,是自然资源自身信息,以及涉及自然资源开发、利用、保护、管理在内的经济社会行政信息在时间和空间维度上的客观表达,广泛应用于国土空间规划、国土空间生态修复、自然资源资产核算与生态补偿、耕地保护等方面。本文针对自然资源时空信息的自然系统基础这一问题,系统讨论了自然资源的主要工作及其信息需求,提出了以“数据层、自然资源调查、自然资源三维立体时空数据库”为主要内容的自然资源调查监测体系的构建,深入探讨了未来的工作重点和发展思路。

Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Food Security

In view of the fact that climate-related disasters are already taking a heavy toll, causing massive damage to crops and infrastructure and forcing some people to flee their homes, however, the potential impacts of climate change are likely to trigger adaptive responses that influence environmental and socio-economic drivers of food system performance in positive as well as negative ways. This paper was conducted through the collection of some research materials with the projected balance of these various climate impacts on food system performance and food security outcomes at the local and global levels. More so that, food security is likely to be affected by climate change in several ways： food security depends not only on the direct impact of climate change on food production but also on its indirect impact on human nutrition and health, economic growth, trade flows and food aid policy. The paper further examined the effectiveness of managing new risks and uncertainty, improving the quality of information and its use, monitoring weather and improving scientific understanding of climate change, promoting insurance schemes, maintaining biodiversity and access to fund as some of the crucial measures for adaptation. The large amount of resources that would be necessary to avoid the worst case scenario suggests the necessity of continued support from the international community to improve food security at the local and global levels as a whole.

China's different spatial patterns of population growth based on the “Hu Line”

The "Hu Line" has been regarded as one of the greatest geographical discoveries in China because it reveals the significant spatial relationship between human activity and natural environment. The spatial evolution of population on both sides of the "Hu Line" has had important implications for both urbanization and regional development and has attracted widespread attention during the dramatic economic and social changes since the implementation of reform and opening-up policy in China in 1978. Using Geographical Information System(GIS) techniques, this paper studied the stability of the "Hu Line" and the spatial patterns of population growth on each side by constructing a spatial database of China's census data from 1982 to 2010. The findings are as follows:(1) In the last 30 years, the "Hu Line" has remained relatively stable, but a new tendency of population change has begun to emerge. The population ratio either side, namely, the southeast half(SEH) and the northwest half(NWH), of the "Hu Line" remains at roughly 94:6(SHE : NWH). Noteworthy, the proportion of population in the SEH of the "Hu Line" has been decreasing slightly, while that in the NWH has been increasing slightly, as the latter has benefited from its higher rate of natural population growth.(2) The spatial patterns of population growth on both sides of the "Hu Line" were quite different. The degree of population concentration in the SEH increased faster than the NWH. Regions with a negative population growth rate have rapidly expanded; these were mainly located in the south of the "Qinling Mountains-Huaihe River belt" and northeastern China. Meanwhile, regions with a fast population growth rate were mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing-Tianjin metropolitan area. Thus, the spatial pattern of population growth in the SEH presented a concentration pattern that could be called "Matthew effect pattern".(3) The spatial pattern of population growth in the NWH could be regarded as the "Relative Balance pattern." In the NWH, the population growth rate was positive and the degree of population concentration was very low. There were many minority populations located in the NWH that usually lived in a dispersed pattern but had a higher rate of natural population growth due to the preferential population policy. There were also some regions with a negative rate of population growth in the NWH, which were mainly located close to the "Hu Line" and the Ancient Silk Road.(4) In the future, the spatial patterns of population growth on both sides of the "Hu Line" may continue to evolve. For the SEH, the capacity to attract more people to small and medium-sized cities and towns should be enhanced. For the NWH, the emphasis should be placed on promoting urbanization and enhancing population agglomeration in its major cities.