Understanding the impact of mountain landscapes on water balance in the upper Heihe River watershed in northwestern China

Estimating the impact of mountain landscape on hydrology or water balance is essential for the sus- tainable development strategies of water resources. Specifically, understanding how the change of each landscape influences hydrological components will greatly improve the predictability of hydrological responses to mountain landscape changes and thus can help the government make sounder decisions. In the paper, we used the VIC （Variable Infiltration Capacity） model to conduct hydrological modeling in the upper Heihe River watershed, along with a frozen-soil module and a glacier melting module to improve the simulation. The improved model performed satisfactorily. We concluded that there are differences in the runoff generation of mountain landscape both in space and time. About 50% of the total runoff at the catchment outlet were generated in mid-mountain zone （2,900-4,000 m asl）, and water was mainly consumed in low mountain region （1,700-2,900 m asl） because of the higher requirements of trees and grasses. The runoff coefficient was 0.37 in the upper Heihe River watershed. Barren landscape produced the largest runoff yields （52.46% of the total runoff） in the upper Heihe River watershed, fol- lowed by grassland （34.15%）, shrub （9.02%）, glacier （3.57%）, and forest （0.49%）. In order to simulate the impact of landscape change on hydrological components, three landscape change scenarios were designed in the study. Scenario 1, 2 and 3 were to convert all shady slope landscapes at 2,000-3,300 m, 2,000-3,700 m, and 2,000-4,000 m asl respectively to forest lands, with forest coverage rate increased to 12.4%, 28.5% and 42.0%, respectively. The runoff at the catchment outlet correspondingly declined by 3.5%, 13.1% and 24.2% under the three scenarios. The forest landscape is very important in water conservation as it reduced the flood peak and increased the base flow. The mountains as ＂water towers＂ play important roles in water resources generation and the impact of mountain landscapes on hydrology is significant.

Reconstruction and Regeneration of Mountain Landscapes: A Case Study of Science Popularization and Education Hall of Jiangxi Wuyi Mountain Nature Reserve

Mountain landscape is a significant landscape type among all natural landscape resources, design of constructions in mountain landscapes should take multiple factors into consideration. Taking Science Popularization and Education Hall of Jiangxi Wuyi Mountain Nature Reserve for example, this paper explored the architectural design in mountain landscapes from the perspectives of spatial form, facade design, color materials and design experience, in order to achieve the integration of landscape constructions and natural environment.

Cause and consequence of landscape fragmentation and changing disturbance by socio-economic development in mountain landscape system of South Korea

Through the statistics and the analysis of landscape map, changes of lands use regime and landscape structure during 20 years were investigated in the agriculture forestry complexed mountain landscape system of Yangdong Myon, Yangpyung Gun in the central Korea. Landscape changes of this region was inter related to the recent socio economic development of rural life. Utilization of biomass and other traditional forest management were drastically abandoned in recent 10 years. Landscape analysis of maps showed that the area of secondary vegetation that had been sustained by human nature disturbance was decreased by using of plantation during this time. Those decreased areas were replaced to plantation for wood production and other purpose. Past area of woody species dominated in plantation also substituted to other species. Traditional human activity on secondary vegetation was disappeared. Consequently, the advanced management regimes such as new plantation and cultivation extending areas were increased in abandoned land.

Exploration of Sponge System Design in Wetland Parks Based on Rainwater and Flood Control: A Case Study of Southern Anhui Province

Based on the background that wetland resources in China are under threat and urgently need to be protected,a series of rainwater and flood problems caused by urban construction is analyzed comprehensively,and the design and planning methods of wetland parks in response to rainwater and flood disasters caused by floods and heavy rainfall are explored.Southern Anhui with complex and variable terrain and frequent rainfall and flood disasters is selected as the research area,with Xuanzhou District of Xuancheng City as the main research object.The relationship between municipal drainage of urban park and water conservancy drainage is investigated from different sample selection,design samples,and design flow rates.Based on literature review and model building methods,an urban storm flood model suitable for typical wetland parks in southern Anhui is constructed after processing the survey data using Arc GIS,SWMM(storm water management model).On this basis,a methodology and principles for designing a sponge system of wetland park based on rainwater and flood control are proposed,including technical measures such as rainwater collection,retention,and purification.This paper provides certain research results in design schemes,effect evaluations,ecological and social benefits,and useful suggestions and solutions for urban stormwater management and resilience development.