The Dynamic Centre of the New Global Economic Landscape

Competition used to be a steady,slow-moving phenomenon,dominated by the giant companies of the Western world.Two-thirds of the companies listed on the Fortune Global 500 in the 1960s were still there 15 years later.New competitors were easy to spot because they were well known,

Landscape Structure Changes in Liangshui Nature Reserve, Northeast China

This paper systematically studied the landscape dynamic changes in Liangshui Natural Reserve (LNR) in Heilongjiang Province, northeast China during three periods (1950s, 1970s and 1990s), by applying landscape space model------Markov model. The results indicated that the landscape structure in LNR changed and the types of landscape patches increased. The phenomena of increasing and reducing of landscape types happened at the same time and the matrix— natural Pinus koraiensis decreased year by year. The law of transformation of landscape types matches well with the results concluded from statistical data, survey data, and the developing process inherent succession of the forest. By analyzing landscape dynamic changes, some scientific management measures were put forward in this paper.

Impacts of Expansion of Spartina alterniflora on Yancheng Tidal Flat Wetland in Jiangsu Province of China

Based on 4 phases of Thematic Mapper(TM) images of the Core Area of Yancheng National Nature Reserve in Jiangsu Province of China in 1996,2002,2006 and 2010,this paper analyzed the temporal and spatial changes in Spartina alterniflora landscape and the corresponding impacts on coastal wetlands in combination with Remote Sensing(RS) and Geographical Information System(GIS) technologies. The methods of field survey,transfer matrix,landscape diversity indicators and mass center were applied. The results indicated that:(1) S. alterniflora expansion brought about obvious changes in wetland landscape composition and structure,which seriously influenced the evolution process of wetland landscapes.(2) The transition rates of S. alterniflora marsh area were different dramatically in four periods.(3) The expansion of S. alterniflora promoted the siltation in tidal mudflat. It led to increase of the elevation and outward expansion of land. Understanding the temporal and spatial pattern of S. alterniflora is favorable for preservation,utilization and management of wetlands with S. alterniflora and the other coastal wetland landscapes.

Assessment of multifunctional landscapes dynamics in the mountainous basin of the Mo River （Togo, West Africa）

In this study, historical landscape dynamics were investigated to（i） map the land use/cover types for the years 1972, 1987, 2000 and 2014;（ii） determine the types and processes of landscape dynamics; and（iii） assess the landscape fragmentation and habitat loss over time. Supervised classification of multi-temporal Landsat images was used through a pixel-based approach. Post–classification methods included systematic and random change detection, trajectories analysis and landscape fragmentation assessment. The overall accuracies（and Kappa statistics） were of 68.86%（0.63）, 91.32%（0.79）, 90.66%（0.88） and 91.88%（0.89） for 1972, 1987, 2000 and 2014, respectively. The spatio-temporal analyses indicated that forests, woodlands and savannahs dominated the landscapes during the four dates, though constant areal decreases were observed. The most important dynamic process was the decline of woodlands with an average annual net loss rate of –2%. Meanwhile, the most important land transformation occurred during the transition 2000–2014, due to anthropogenic pressures. Though the most important loss of vegetation greenness occurred in the unprotected areas, the overall analyses of change indicated a declining trend of land cover quality and an increasing landscape fragmentation. Sustainable conservation strategies should be promoted while focusing restoration attention on degraded lands and fragmented ecosystems in order to support rural livelihood and biodiversity conservation.