An overview of the resources and environment conditions and major geological problems in the Yangtze River economic zone, China

Focusing on the Yangtze River economic zone,the previous geological researches are systematically summarized,resources and environment conditions and major geological problems which are needing to be concerned in land planning and construction are studied.The results show that the resource conditions of cultivated land,shale gas,geotherm,lithium and so on are superior in the Yangtze River economic zone,and the resources and environment conditions are conducive to develop the modern agriculture,clean energy industry and strategic emerging industries.3×1013 m^2 farmlands without heavy metal pollution are concentrated;there are three national level shale gas exploration and development bases with explored reserves of 5.441×1011 m^3;geothermal availability is 2.4×109 t of standard coal each year,equivalent to 19% of the amount of coal in 2014;Asia's largest energy lithium metal ore deposit is found.In some parts of Yangtze River economic zone,there are some major geological problems such as active faults,karst collapse,ground subsidence,landslide-collapse-debris flow,affecting the river-crossing channels,high-speed railway,urban agglomeration and green ecological corridor planning and construction.Those problems should be concerned,and the relevant suggestions and countermeasures are put forward.Meanwhile,the ideas to further support the development of the Yangtze River economic zone are put forward.

Comparative research on integrated development of large river basins:a case study of the Yangtze and the Rhone

Since 2001, the French and Chinese researchers have done a cooperative research on the comparison of integrated development of large fiver basins. The Yangtze River was chosen as a crux of this research and linked with other older river experiments like the Rhone, the Nile and the Mississippi. This research includes not only the environmental issues but also economic and social issues. One special issue journal has been published in French for our research results. Other two collective and comparative books in French and Chinese will be finished at the end of this year. In the future, the comparison should be widened to Italy （the Po）, Egypt （the Nile development planning） and the United States （the Mississippi Basin） and we would like to enlarge our research group and want to link up different teams and research projects, in order to get a global understanding of large fiver regions phenomenon.

Possible effect of climate changes on the coastal zone of the Yangtze River Delta

A coastal historical evolution of the Yangtze River Delta was discussed in this paper on the basis of the historical data of the coastal zone and an estimation was made for the future change of the coast The emphasis was put on the future climate change that will have influence on the sea wall, coastal navigation and freshwater resources in the Delta It was also pointed out that the global warming and precipitation increase in the Yangtze River Valley may exert more impact on the zone In addition, some measures describing how to adapt to the climate change and reduce its impact were put forward

Urban Development and Water Management in the Yangtze River Delta

Throughout the history of the world, the development of the cities are related to the large water systems and the ocean. Where the river is abundant, the trade and regional centres could be formed. However, along with the prosperity of the water-cities, massive urban construction and environmental issues are enormous challenges in human process. A “scientific” urban planning, “Sponge City”, “Resilient City”, regional and urban culture and characteristics get more and more attention. The theme of “water and city” is clearly of great historical value and practical significance for the new resilient urban and water management strategies. The paper will summarize characteristics of geographical, historical, socio-cultural and political realms in metropolitan deltas and the historical governance as well as the recent developments in the Yangtze River Delta. It will introduce urban development and water management in four water cities: the canal and the city-Yangzhou, the river and the city-Nanjing, the lake and the city-Suzhou and the sea and the city-Shanghai. And then it will analyze the inner motivation of the interaction between water and cities in Yangtze River Delta. Furthermore, learning from successful historical experiences, the paper will provide suggestions for future sustainable urban development.

Study of the Urban Coordinated Development Capability Index in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

Coordinated development is a major concern in the construction strategy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB).However,there were few studies which have quantitatively measured the level of coordinated development in the YREB.This paper aimed to propose an comprehensive index system of coordinated development based on the theories of growth pole and complex ecosystem and new guidelines of development from the central government.The index system was composed by 18 indicators within 4 domains including economic development,technology & innovation,communication & transportation,and ecological protection.The scores of coordinated development capability of the 110 prefecture-level cities in the YREB were calculated and examined using natural break point analysis,spatial autocorrelation analysis and rank-size analysis.It was shown that Shanghai,Nanjing and Wuhan were leading the coordinated development in the YREB.Generally,the scores of coordinated development capability were higher in the eastern region of the YREB,in which the cities performed well in the domains of economic development,technology & innovation and communication & transportation yet showed poor performance in ecological protection.Most cities in the middle reaches of Yangtze river ranked in the middle in the YREB in all the domains,except the provincial capitals.The western region of the YREB got the lowest score in the coordinated development capability besides the largest cities such as Chongqing,Chengdu,Kunming and Guiyang.The correlation coefficients between ecological protection and other domains were very low,suggesting that few cities have achieved a win-win situation between environment protection and socio-economic development.We suggested 3 ways to promote coordinated development in the YREB:establish multi-level institutional designs;enhance the innovation in green industries;and strengthen the joint prevention and control of ecological risks.

Building the Three Gorges Project for the Chinese Nation—An Interview with General Manager Lu Youmei, China Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corporation

The Yangtze River has nurtured the fertile land on both its banks and hundreds of millions of Chinese people. but its raging waters have also wreaked havoc on the people living in its reaches. Since the founding of New China, large-scale surveys, planning, scientific research and feasibility studies have been carried out in an effort to harness the

UNITED INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL CITY: A NEW SPATIAL ORGANIZATION MODEL IN TUMEN RIVER ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT ZONE

This paper puts forward a new conceptual idea on constructing an international central city in the Tumen River Economy Development Zone (TREDZ) on the basis of analysis of the superiorities and problems in developing city, and from the view point of present social, economic and natural conditions in this area and the background of Northeast Asia. The united international central city is the best distribution model not only in its polycentric spatial structure but also in organizing form. Its feasibility and practicability are thoroughly proved from various aspects including urban planning principles, comparison of port cities, special characteristics of cooperation in TREDZ, and natural, social, cultural factors etc.

Land-Use Changes and Human Driving in and Near the Yangtze River Delta from 1995–2015

We analyzed the characteristics and trends of land-use change in and near the coastal zone of the Yangtze River Delta(YRD) during five periods(1995, 2000 2005, 2010, and 2015) using remotely sensed Landsat imagery. Using automatic supervised classification combined with visual interpretation, we obtained land-use information for five study areas(Nantong, Shanghai, Jiaxing, Ningbo, and Zhoushan). Significant land-use changes have occurred in this area between 1995 and 2015, characterized in particular by large reductions in cultivated land and rapid increases in urbanized land. In addition, land reclamation was very active in this period as an effective supplement to the increased demand for land development: since 1995, 1622 km^2 of land was reclaimed from near-coastal regions in the study area. This increase in urbanization was jointly driven by population, economic, transportation, and policy factors. Urban areas expanded from the center outward in concentric rings, with infrastructure guiding the radial expansion of development along transportation corridors, thus forming a network of connections. Due to the influence of national land regulation policies, the expansion rate of development in the YRD gradually diminished after 2010. This indicates that the area's resource and environmental carrying capacity has reached a saturation stage in which urbanization has transitioned from broad and incremental expansion to the intensive use of land resources.

Malaria Transmission Potential in the Three Gorges Reservoir of the Yangtze River, China

Objective To define and evaluate the malaria transmission potential in the Yangtze River, following construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir. Methods Six villages, namely, Kaixian, Fengjie, Wanzhou, Fuling, Yubei, and Zigui were selected for investigating the malaria transmission potential in the reservoir. Transmission potential was estimated by mathematical modeling and evaluation of the local malaria situation. Factors that influenced the transmission potential were analyzed using Poisson regression analysis in combination with Grey Systematic Theory （based on evaluation by the Delphi method）. Results Indirect fluorescent antibody data and the incidence of malaria in the local population were consistent with the malaria transmission potential calculated for the area. Multivariate Poisson regression analysis showed a statistically significant association between the riparian zone and the man‐biting rate. Conclusion The risk of a malaria epidemic can be forecasted using the malaria transmission potential parameters investigated here which was closely correlated with the riparian zone.

Green development of industries in Yangtze River Economic Belt

Green development is the keynote of Yangtze River Economic Belt. It must insist on ecology preferential and green development which is not only respectation of natural laws but also the economic laws and social laws. The article uses SWOT analytic method to analyze the internal and external surroundings of the green development of Yangtze River Economic Belt on the basis of getting a clear understanding of its present developing status. Based on this the article puts forward the strategy pattern and path selection of green development of Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Research on the Financial Maturity of the Yangtze River Economic Belt

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is a key development project in China,and financial development is the core driving force for economic growth in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.At present,the financial development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is not balanced,and there is an urgent need to quantify the differences in financial development.Drawing on the research of"maturity model"at home and abroad,from the two new perspectives of subjective and objective,the financial development difference is introduced into the maturity model as an organic whole,forming financial maturity and its indicator system,then taking the Yangtze River Economic Belt as the research object,the principal component analysis method is used to calculate the maturity.The results show that the financial development of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has obvious gradient differences both subjectively and objectively.The financial acceptance of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the total financial structure and structure are significantly higher than the middle and upper reaches,while financial efficiency is lower than the middle and upper reaches due to factors such as financial costs.Therefore,the financial development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt needs to improve the systematicness of finance,coordinate the growth of financial volume and structural adjustment,and improve the overall financial operation efficiency.

The Influence of the Urban-Rural Income Disparity on the Industrial Structure—Taking the Yangtze River Delta Region as an Example

In this paper, the effect of the mediation effect is mainly used to test and analyze the regression model, and most scholars have studied the impact of the modernization of the industrial structure on the income gap. However, this paper is from another perspective, based on the social background of high-quality development, the main study is the impact mechanism of urban and rural income gap on the industrial structure, taking the Yangtze River Delta as the main research object, and specifically selecting 22 central cities in the Yangtze River Delta region, which is also one of the highlights of this study. The regression model is constructed by using the intermediary effect, and the four intermediary variables of fiscal expenditure (M1), fixed asset investment (M2), number of patent applications (M3), and total import and export (M4) are selected, which represent the role of the government, fixed asset investment, scientific and technological level and opening-up level, and study and analyze the inherent influence mechanism between each variable. Before doing specific research, I consulted the papers and literature of many other outstanding scholars, among which Cheng Yuhong and Cheng Chi’s “The Influence Mechanism of industrial structure of urban and rural income gap” [1] has great reference value for this paper. According to the research results, under the background of high-quality development in the Yangtze River Delta region, the expansion of the income gap between urban and rural areas will inhibit the upgrading of the industrial structure, so it is necessary to focus on building a new type of urbanization, accelerating the construction of an urban innovation system, optimizing the rural employment structure to narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas, and providing impetus for the continuous upgrading of the industrial structure.

PORT DEVELOPMENT IN YANGTZE RIVER DELTA

The Yangtze river delta has the largest port group in China.On the coast are sea ports,Yangkou Shanghai Beilun,aligned on a north-south axis which,together with ports along the Lower Yangtze river,form a T-shaped port association.This is unique in the country.For rational port localization and development,it is suggested that Shanghai should retain its undisputed position as an international and domestic hub port of China.Beilun and Yangkou,with their deep-water berths,should be transshipment ports of imported bulky goods (ore,crude oiletc.) and inter-continental international containers for Shanghai and the Yangtze valley above Nanjing,while ports on the lower Yangtze river will

Distribution and Controlling Factors of Dissolved Gaseous Mercury and Reactive Mercury in Seawater Near Yangtze River Estuary

Complex hydrocultural conditions in the estuary affect the migration and transformation of mercury.Using two voyages in July and October 2018,Dissolved Gaseous Mercury(DGM)and Reactive Mercury(RHg)were determined to explore the source,transformation and influence of DGM content in the adjacent waters of Yangtze River Estuary in summer and autumn.The results showed the contents of DGM and RHg in summer were higher than those in autumn,and both of them were higher than those in open sea.In summer and autumn,the Yangtze River brought a higher concentration of DGM,and different flow direction and runoff resulted in differences in the high value region of the surface.The emergence of low-oxygen zones in summer was conducive to the production of DGM.In autumn,windy weather allowed seawater disturbances to promote the release of mercury from the underlying sediments,especially in shallow sea in northwest.RHg showed a higher concentration in the offshore than in the open sea in summer,but there was no such trend in autumn,reflecting the influence of less runoff input.DGM is the main product of RHg reduction,and there was a significant positive correlation between DGM and RHg in summer(r=0.356,P<0.05),while the correlation between DGM and RHg was not significant in autumn due to the influence of light intensity,wind speed and nutrients.The exchange flux of mercury in the adjacent waters of the Yangtze River Estuary was higher than that in the open sea.There was no significant difference of the release flux of mercury in summer and autumn.This article highlighted that the input of mercury from the Yangtze River runoff promotes the release of mercury in seawater,and the hypoxic zone caused by eutrophication is conducive to the production of DGM.

A holistic approach to creating a new yangtze river basin protection legislation

The protection of the Yangtze River Basin is a top priority in China,and the National People's Congress(NPC)Standing Committee has started to draft a new protection legislation specifically for the Yangtze River Basin.The Basin forms the epicenter of environmental,social,and economic life.Any efforts to protect the Basin must accommodate several competing interests from a multiplicity of interested parties and stakeholders such as local governments,villages,and business enterprises.Current relevant institutions and organizations are unable to sufficiently ensure environmental protection and green development in the Basin.The NPC Standing Committee must thus adopt a more holistic approach when creating new protection legislations aimed at the Yangtze River Basin.

The Driving Forces and Synergistic Effect between Regional Economic Growth,Resources and the Environment in the Yangtze River Economic Zone

From the viewpoints of population,resources,environment and economic-social development,we establish the models of accounting for resource and environmental costs and coordinated（or relative coordinated） development degrees between economic growth and resources and the environment using the evaluation method of ecosystem service value.Synergistic effects between regional economic growth and resources and the environment in the Yangtze River Economic Zone was analyzed and driving forces were analyzed by regression of partial least squares.We found that from 1983 to 2012,resource and environmental costs in the Yangtze River Economic Zone（including seven provinces and two municipalities） increased from 4736.55 trillion CNY to 15 359.45 trillion CNY and corresponding weights dropped from 31.1% to 19.7% compared to the national level.The degree of coordinated development rose from 0.295 to 1.506,higher than the national average.In the years 1983,1993 and 2003,the main factor that drove the coordinated development of regional economic growth,resources and the environment was low level resource and environmental costs.With continuous increases in primary and tertiary industrial added values after 2012,the advantage of the Yangtze River Economic Zone has weakened.In the future,provinces should improve the rules and regulations on planning and implementing main functional areas,promote adjustment of industrial structure,restore ecology,improve resource utilization efficiency and reduce environmental loss costs to enhance quality of economic development and promote the coordinated development of regional economic growth and resources and the environment.

Multiple pollutants from crop and livestock production in the Yangtze River: status and challenges

The rapid increase in the proportion of cash crops and livestock production in the Yangtze River Basin has led to commensurate increases in fertilizer and pesticide inputs. Excessive application of chemical fertilizer, organophosphorus pesticides and inappropriate disposal of agricultural waste induced water pollution and potentially threaten Agriculture Green Development(AGD). To ensure food security and the food supply capacity of the Yangtze River Basin, it is important to balance green and development, while ensuring the quality of water bodies. Multiple pollutants affect the transfer, adsorption, photolysis and degradation of each other throughout the soil-plant-water system. This paper considers the impact of multi-pollutants on the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles especially for crops, which are related to achieving food security and AGD. It presents prospective on theory, modeling and multi-pollutant control in the Yangtze River Basin for AGD that are of potential value for other developing regions.

Regional eco-efficiency evaluation and spatial pattern analysis of the Yangtze River Economic Zone

The environmental ecology of the Yangtze River Economic Zone(YREZ)faces ecological function decline,deterioration and degradation under intense human activities,long-term development and utilization and its economy has developed rapidly over recent decades.Eco-efficiency is considered as a measure of coordinated development of economy,resources,environment and ecology,and is currently considered a very important issue.In this paper,based on the slack-based measure and data envelope analysis model,we take 129 prefecture-level cities of the YREZ as the study unit and measure the eco-efficiency of the YREZ in 2000,2005,2010 and 2015,which considers undesired output.The evaluation of the status quo of the regional eco-efficiency development was carried out at provincial,prefectural and city scales.The spatial autocorrelation test model and standard deviation ellipse were used to analyze the spatially distributed characteristics and the evolutionary regularity of eco-efficiency.Our study suggested that the eco-efficiency value varied significantly at different spatiotemporal scales and the overall distribution presented an"N-shaped"pattern,the value is the largest downstream and the smallest upstream.Regional eco-efficiency presented certain volatility in growth and a clear spatial positive agglomeration trend from 2000 to 2015.The spatial distribution of each agglomeration area was also significantly different,forming some high-high agglomeration areas at the center of the shaft with Shanghai and surrounding cities,and some low-low agglomeration areas at the center with middle reaches and upstream cities.The low-high over-aggregation and high-low polarization clusters were fewer.At the same time,with the change of the research period,the degree of positive agglomeration became increasingly pronounced and the eco-efficiency gap of the neighborhoodunit reduced.The regional eco-efficiency value of the YREZ presented a spatial distribution pattern in the northeast-southwest axis and the evolutionary pattern of the regional eco-efficiency similarly showed a northeast-southwest orientation.

Distribution characteristics and policy implications of territorial development suitability of the Yangtze River Basin

Territorial development suitability （TDS） distribution and policy implications in the Yangtze River Basin are investigated through the use of statistical and spatial data, using the Delphi method, the analytic hierarchy process method and the comprehensive evaluation model. The distribution pattern and characteristics of TDS in the Yangtze River Basin are studied, providing a scientific basis and a decision-making reference for sustainable development of the whole basin, and promoting reasonable implementation of the Yangtze River economic belt development strategy. The results show that the overall level of development constraint is relatively high, and that high-value regions （grades V-VIII） are mainly distributed in the upper and middle reaches of the basin. The suitable development regions account for 22.95% of the total basin area, mainly including the Yangtze River Delta region, the provincial capitals, the urban agglomerations and most prefecture-level cities. The variation of TDS is significant among the upper, middle and lower reaches of the basin, and the high-value areas account for 8.24%, 35.70% and 82.97% of the total areas of the upper, middle and lower reaches, respectively. Three policy suggestions are proposed： （1） strict control of the basin development intensity, setting up an efficient and well-organized spatial development pattern, （2） implementation of different regional policies according to different functional orientations, and （3） strengthening of communication and cooperation between different regions, thus promoting integrated basin protection and development.