Review and prospect about China natural regionalization for highway

In the 1950s, research on natural regionalization for highway was set out in China. This paper reviews its history and introduces the relative research in other countries. Based on the comparative analysis of the different research angles among different countries, suggestions about the future work are offered. The relations between physiographical indexes and the indexes directly related with highway engineering are suggested to be studied and the basic data for highway be tested and collected all over the country. These works will be of help to the guidance of regionalization for highway engineering. And the impact of highway on the geographical environment should also be considered in highway natural regionalization.

Changes to the Natural Regional Boundaries in China During 1961-2007

Daily temperature data from 599 stations across China for the years 1961 to 2007 were used to analyze the changes in the natural regional boundaries. The results show that the accumulated temperature ≥10℃ and its duration changed dramatically from the end of 1990s to the early 21 st century. The amplitude of natural regional boundaries was greater in the 21st century than it was in the 20th century. In the eastern region of China, the climatic zones were migrating generally northward, with the northern edge of the subtropical zone and the eastern section of the warm temperate zone showing an obvious northward shift of up to 1-3° of latitude. The climatic zones moved south in the Qinghal-Tibet Plateau, western Inner Mongolia, and some areas of western Xinjiang, and slightly to the north in other parts of the western region.

Bioclimatic Urbanism and Regional Design in Portugal： The Atlantic and the Mediterranean Contexts

The subject of the present work is the study of the relationship between the city shape and its geographical and climatic context. This is a very important feature of the Portuguese city. The Iberian Peninsula comprised by Spain and Portugal belongs to very different environments： the Atlantic and Mediterranean sea. This position is responsible for a series of highly contrasted regions. The external forces presented in each region, influence the shape, location and orientation, not only of individual buildings but of whole villages in such a way that we can identify pattems of construction in different natural regions. There is in fact, a remarkable correspondence between climate and urban type which is useful to identify for planning the different regions. The legacy of industrial city, as in other parts of the world, has changed this close connection between geography and architecture, with consequences not only in environment but especially for the identity of urban spaces. Bioclimatic urbanism is not just a question of sustainability or survival. It is also a question of local identity and variety. There is in fact a relationship between cultural process and environment responsive which we can learn from the structures of the past -- the pre-industrial city. We believe that the reinterpretation of the traditional city pattems forms a language which can be used as a design process for recovering urban landscape.

Natural conditions and cropping regionalization of rice area in China

The formation of rice distribution is based on certain natural ecological conditions and social economic environments. In China, rice cropping is distributed in a vast area extending across 5 tempera ture belts, the northernmost of rice growing area in the world being in China. Distribution of rice cropping is characterized by a gradual decrease from south to north, from large and concentrated regions in Southeast to small and separated areas in Northwest. Natural conditions in rice regions differ in China with a varied topography, high in the west and low in the east. Rice fields in the west are mostly distributed on flatlands on plains, valleys among mountains, tablelands in river valleys, yellow-soil plains and basins in low valleys, alluvial plains, plains in river valleys, while those in the east are mainly distributed on alluvial plains, hilly areas among low mountains, coastal plains, along rivers and lakes and in basins among mountains.

Measuring Social Vulnerability to Natural Hazards in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region,China

Social vulnerability in this study represents the differences between the capacity to cope with natural hazards and disaster losses suffered within and between places.The assessment of social vulnerability has been recognized as a critical step in understanding natural hazard risks and enhancing effective response capabilities.This article presents an initial study of the social vulnerability of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei(B-T-H) Region in China.The goal is to replicate and test the applicability of the United States Social Vulnerability Index(So VI) method in a Chinese cultural context.Thirty-nine variables adapted from the So VI were collected in relation to two aspects:socioeconomic vulnerability and built environment vulnerability.Using factor analysis,seven factors were extracted from the variable set:the structure of social development,the level of economic and government financial strength,social justice and poverty,family structure,the intensity of space development,the status of residential housing and transportation,and building structure.Factor scores were summed to get the final So VI scores and the most and least vulnerable units were identified and mapped.The highest social vulnerability is concentrated in the northwest of the study area.The least socially vulnerable areas are mainly distributed in the Beijing,Tianjin and Shijiazhuang core urban peripheral and central city areas of the prefecture-level cities.The results show that this method is a useful tool for revealing places that have a high level of vulnerability,in other words,areas which are more likely to face significant challenges in coping with a large-scale event.These findings could provide a scientific basis for policy making and the implementation of disaster prevention and mitigation in China.

Gas Sources for Natural Gas Hydrates in the Permafrost Region of the Qilian Mountains

Objective As a new type of gas hydrates,the natural gas hydrates in the perfost region of the Qilian Mountains are characterized by their shallow burial depth,welldeveloped coal seam,high content of heavy hydrocarbons and multiple sets of mature and over-mature source rocks.Gas sources of these gas hydrates in the study area include coal-type gas and oil-type gas.

AN ANALYSIS ON THE INFLUENCE OF GLOBAL CLIMATIC CHANGE UPON NATURAL ZONES AND AGRICULTURAL POTENTIALPRODUCTIVITY IN CHINA

According to climatic, hydrological, soil and vegetation data from671 stations in China, 12 temperate zones contains 45 natural regions areidentified. In this paper, methods like migration of crop distribution , potentialproductivity, and dynamic modelling are used to research changs of naturalzones and natural regions of eco-envirotunent.

Eden in the Xinjiang Mountains

Nature's greatest splendors are often secreted in the remotest of spots. This is certainly true of Kanas Lake, deep in the Altay Mountains of northern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. This area of sublime, and as yet unsullied, natural beauty is home to 2,000 people of the Tuwa ethnic minority. The ancestry of these herder-hunters is unclear. Certain anthropologists believe that they are descended from Genghis Khan's "Mongol hordes" that swept through on their 13th century rampage of Central Asia and Europe. Others argue that they are the posterity of Siberian migrants, and cousins to the Tuvan people of Russia.

INTERVAL PARAMETER PERTURBATION METHOD FOR EVALUATING THE BOUNDS ON NATURAL FREQUENCIES OF STRUCTURES WITH INTERVAL PARAMETERS

For structural parameters with uncertainties, interval mathematicscan , in the case where the probabilistic distribution density ofuncertain variables is unavailable, deal with the influ- ence ofuncertainties in structural parameters on the response of structures.In order to evaluate the re- gion containing natural frequencies ofstructures with interval parameters, the interval parameter per-turbation method is presented in this paper. The advantage of thepresent method is its computational efficiency in evaluating theregion containing natural frequencies. A numerical example is used toil- lustrate the efficiency of the method proposed.

Climate warming and its impact on natural regional boundaries in China in the 1980s

The global climate warming accelerated in the 1980s has become a focus in the world. Based on the month by month and year by year temperature data from 160 representative stations throughout the country during 1951-1999, this paper analyses annual and four seasons’ temperature variations of China since the 1980s. It was found out that the non-equalibrium response with relative great regional and seasonal differences is represented in the country’s climate warming. In regional changes a trend of “warm in the north and cold in the south” occurs whereas in seasonal changes, the characters of “warm in winter and cool in summer” present. Significant verification of the temperature variations conducted in terms of mathematical statistics reveals that a confidence level of over 95% has been basically reached in areas north of the Yangtze River. Meanwhile, according to data of diurnal mean temperature steadily passing through accumulated temperature ≥10°C from 335 stations since 1951 or since the founding of the stations in the early 1950s to 1999, comparative analysis of the data of the last 19 years with that of the first 30 years was conducted and the accumulated temperature ≥10°C and the variation range of the persistent number of days ≥10°C were obtained. It was concluded that a general northward shift of central subtropics, north subtropics, warm temperate zone, mesothermal zone and frigid temperate zone of eastern China was observed. The northward shift of north subtropics and warm temperate zone was obvious but changes of south subtropics and marginal tropics were insignificant. In western China, in addition to southwestern Yunnan, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and western Inner Mongolia where the temperature zones of each either shifted northward or trended to move upward, not much changes were found in other areas or they shifted southward slightly and declined.