SPATIAL GRADIENT ANALYSIS OF URBAN GREEN SPACES COMBINED WITH LANDSCAPE METRICS IN JINAN CITY OF CHINA

Urban green spaces have been arisen growing concern responded to the social and environmental costs of urban sprawl. A wide range of planning and policies has been and/or will be designed to protect urban green spaces and optimize their spatial pattern. A better design or planning of urban green space can make a major contribution to quality of environment and urban life, and furthermore can decide whether we can have a sustainable development in the urban area. Information about the status quo of urban green spaces can help planners design more effectively. However, how to quantify and capture such information will be the essential question we face. In this paper, to quantify the urban green space, a new method comprising gradient analysis, landscape metrics and GIS was developed through a case of Jinan City. The results demonstrate: 1) the gradient analysis is a valid and reliable instrument to quantify the urban green space spatial pattern precisely; 2) using moving window, explicit landscape metrics were spatially realized. Compared with quantifying metrics in the entire landscape, it would be better to link pattern with process and establish an important basis for analyzing the ecological and socioeconomic functions of green spaces.

STUDY ON SPATIAL AUTOCORRELATION OF URBAN LAND PRICE DISTRIBUTION IN CHANGZHOU CITY OF JIANGSU PROVINCE

This paper uses a spatial statistics method based on the calculation of spatial autocorrelation as a possible approach for modeling and quantifying the distribution of urban land price in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province. GIS and spatial statistics provide a useful way for describing the distribution of urban land price both spatially and temporally, and have proved to be useful for understanding land price distribution pattern better. In this paper, we apply the statistical analysis method to 8379 urban land price samples collected from Changzhou Land Market, and it is turned out that the proposed approach can effectively identify the spatial clusters and local point patterns in dataset and forms a general method for conceptualizing the land price structure. The results show that land price structure in Changzhou City is very complex and that even where there is a high spatial autocorrelation, the land price is still relatively heterogeneous. Furthermore, lands for different uses have different degrees of spatial autocorrelation. Spatial autocorrelation of commercial lands is more intense than that of residential and industrial lands in regional central district. This means that treating land price as integration of homogeneous units can limit analysis of pattern, over-simplifying the structure of land price, but the methods, just as the autocorrelation approaches, are useful tools for quantifying the variables of land price.

Urban Spatial Restructuring in Transitional Economy——Changing Land Use Pattern in Shanghai

For almost three decades, China has been undergoing significant transition from a planned economy to a market economy. Fast-paced economic growth and urbanization, interacting with market-oriented reforms in land re- sources allocation, have caused profound spatial restructuring of Chinese cities. This paper examines urban expansion and land use reconfiguration in Shanghai’s central city from 1979 to 2002, with a special focus on the effect of the adoption of the land-leasing system in 1988. The empirical research, which employs GIS-based spatial analysis tech- niques to explore land use data for multiple years, indicates fundamental changes in the spatial characteristics of urban development in Shanghai after this important land policy reform.

SPATIAL DIFFERENTIATION OF LAND TRANSFER——Case Study of Shanghai, Nanjing and Taizhou in Changjiang River Delta

The policy of land transfer has greatly influenced the macro economy of China with the commencement of another innovation of land use system. Therefore, it is urgent to put forward some rational and feasible suggestions for local government to manage the market of land transfer. Moreover, it is important in the field of study on agricultural land use change to analyze the spatial differentiation and structural specification of land transfer, which are caused by rural households’ behavior. This paper selected 11 factors covering four aspects of rural households’ family structure, family location, family income structure and the natural quality of land resources, all of which influence the behavior differentiation of rural households, to establish the index model indicating spatial differentiation of land transfer. Results show that the spatial differentiation of land transfer can be divided into four degrees and three categories through analyzing rural households’ questionnaires from Shanghai, Nanjing and Taizhou in the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Delta. Since up to 80% of rural households belong to middle degrees, it can be concluded that the rural land market develops evenly in the study areas. And it is also indicated that the natural quality of land resources and the maximum income of rural land are most important factors influencing the spatial differentiation of land transaction. Considering different factors, the countermeasures can be carried out to enhance the spatial differentiation of land transfer so as to promote economic development and social security of rural China. All in all, both micro- factors and macro-factors influencing rural households’ behavior of rural land transfer should be taken into account in order to make spatial differentiation and structural specification of rural land transfer notable.

Image of Landscapes in Ancient Water Towns——Case Study on Zhouzhuang and Tongli of Jiangsu Province

Researchers in several disciplines and fields agree that the image establishing has both perceptual and affec-tive evaluations.The paper comparatively analyzes the image of landscapes in ancient water towns held by 1619 tourists after the investigations of Zhouzhuang and Tongli of Jiangsu Province.Based on the elements of the image of urban landscapes,the perceptual/cognitive image of tourist landscapes in water towns is developed including path,node,landmark,important courtyard,district and edge.Particularly the important courtyard plays the great role on the per-ceptive image of tourists,however,the perceptual/cognitive images of the district and the edge are obviously weak.Meanwhile,the finding showed that the affective images of tourist landscapes in Zhouzhuang differ with those of Tongli by the method of paired comparison.The main reason is that the affective images are influenced by the impressive scenery spots.Furthermore,the commercialization of streets and pollution of rivers are easy to be functioned negatively.

Improved AHP method and its application in lake environmental comprehensive quality evaluation—a case study of Xuanwu Lake, Nanjing, China

The relative importance of each pollution factor in analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method comes from pooling expert opinions in general. Because expert opinions are based on information and judgment criteria, determining their weight may lead to uncertainty.. Therefore, an improved AHP method had been developed. The process of the improved AHP method involved four key procedures. The weights of pollution factors were completely related to the objective monitoring data through the standardization of these procedures. The environmental comprehensive quality of water and sediment of Xuanwu Lake, Nanjing, China had been evaluated. The environmental quality comprehensive indices (EQCI) of the water in 1991-1995 and 1996-2000 were 3.32 and 1.85, respectively, indicating that the water quality improved. The EQCI of the sediment in 1995 and 2000 indicates that the sediment contamination decreased from 1995 to 2000. Such results agreed with the fact that the lake had been under comprehensive control. However, with the classical AHP method, the EQCI of the sediment in the northwestern part of the lake may have indicated that sediment contamination increased from 1995 to 2000. The discrepancy may have resulted from the judgment difference of the experts. The improved AHP method can avoid arbitrariness of subjective judgment and can reflect the real influential factors of environment pollution in different periods or regions.

Carbon uptake and change in net primary productivity of oasis-desert ecosystem in arid western China with remote sensing technique

Arid and semi-arid ecosystems exhibit a spatially complex biogeophysical structure. According to arid western special climate-vegetation characters, the fractional cover of photosynthetic vegetation （PV）, non-photosynthetic vegetation （NPV）, bare soil and water are unmixed, using the remote sensing spectral mixture analysis. We try the method to unmix the canopy funation structure of arid land cover in order to avoid the differentiation of regional vegetation system and the disturbance of environmental background. We developed a modified production efficiency model NPP-PEM appropriate for the arid area at regional scale based on the concept of radiation use efficiency. This model refer to the GLO-PEM and CASA model was driven with remotely sensed observations, and calculates not just the conversion efficiency of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation but also the carbon fluxes that determine net primary productivity （NPP）. We apply and validate the model in the Kaxger and Yarkant river basins in arid western China. The NPP of the study area in 1992 and 1998 was estimated based on the NPP-PEM model. The results show that the improved PEM model, considering the photosynthetical activation of heterogeneous functional vegetation, is in good agreement with field measurements and the existing literature. An accurate agreement （R2= 0.85, P〈0.001） between the estimates and the ground-based measurement was obtained. The spatial distribution of mountain-oasis-desert ecosystem shows an obvious heterogeneous carbon uptake. The results are applicable to arid ecosystem studies ranging from characterizing carbon cycle, carbon flux over arid areas to monitoring change in mountain-oasis-desert productivity, stress and management.

Spatio-temporal Characteristics of Residential Land Growth in Hefei of Anhui Province, China

We used the maps of urban land-use in 1978, 1991, 1994, 2000 and 2004, and softwares such as ArcGIS, Fragstats to analyze the spatio-temporal process of urban residential space quantitatively. Some methods, such as di- rection analysis and landscape pattern analysis, were employed. The results show that: 1) the residential land grew very rapidly in Hefei from 1978 to 2004, and the increased land was distributed mainly in the central city zone surrounded by a moat; however, after 1994, it was distributed mainly outside the 1th Ring Road; 2) the expansion speeds were very different in different directions: there exists a fastest expansion of residential land in the directions of NE-NNE, SW and SSE, and a slowest one in the directions of E and SEE; 3) the residential land growth went through four stages: slow circular expansion in 1978-1991, 'axes + fan wings' expansion in 1991-1994, more rapid circular expansion in 1994-2000 and 'fan-wings' expansion in 2000-2004; 4) the expansion intensity was also different in all directions in the period of 1978 to 1994, and the most was in SW and then NW; and 5) there were more and more residential land area, and the spatial agglomeration was improved increasingly.

Danxia landform genesis of the Qiyun Mountain, Anhui Province

The Danxia landform of Qiyun Mountain is mainly developed on the red granule conglomerates named Xiaoyan Group （K2x^1） of middle Cretaceous series, which is controlled mainly by three faulted zones, namely, Jingdezhen-Qimen faulted zone, Jiangwan-Jiekou compressional faulted zone and Kaihua-Chun＇an folding faulted zone. During the Cretaceous period, this area firstly experienced massif subsidence to become a continental faulted basin, then having thick Cretaceous red sediments accumulated on it. In the supervened neotectonism, this area experienced an uplifting process, which made the thick Cretaceous sediments into a mountain with an altitude of 500-600 m. After undergoing the processes of vertical joint development, weathering, denudation and transportation, as well as evidently differential weathering and denudation influenced by lithology and structure between sandstone and conglomerate, the grand Danxia landscape consisting of peak forests, steep cliffs, caves, mesas, castellated peaks, natural bridges and so on formed. The three nick points located respectively at 585 m, 400 m and 150 m generally reflect the three dominated uplifting processes during the neotectonism.

New recognitions to genesis and exploitation of the Xuxi River in Jiangsu Province

Along the north bank of the Xuxi River, the sand-intercalated-muddy gravel layer from -3.7 - -5.8 m in the borehole 7508 at the East Dam and the middle, coarse and fine sand layer with a thickness of 4.5 m at the lower part of the borehole 8179 between the East Dam and the West Dam indicate that a large natural river was here before the Kingdom of Wu excavated the Xuxi Canal. The existence of Neolithic sites such as Xuecheng, Chaoduntou and Xiajiadang along the Xuxi River and the silt layer with dozens of meters archived under the earth＇s surface within a range of 1 km along both banks are the even more important evidences for the existence of the ancient Zhongjiang River. The floodgate of the East Dam nowadays makes against the communication between the Shuiyangjiang River and the Taihu Lake. The authors suggest the canal between Wuhu and Taihu Lake should be excavated as soon as possible, namely, the navigation channel from Wuhu through Guchenghu Lake, Xuxi River, East Dam, Liyang, Yixing to Taihu Lake should be further widen and the deposits composed of slope wash on the watershed between Shuiyangjiang River and Taihu Lake should be dredged away. Then, the channel journey can be shortened, the boats in ship transportation on the Yangtze River can be shunted to ensure the security of shipping, the resources of sand and gravel in the old river channel can be exploited and the dike of the Yangtze River can be reinforced. So, the problems of irrigation, flood diversion, pollution abatement and drainage of flooded fields in the lower Yangtze River will be resolved. Then, the above methods can impel the sustainable development of the Xuxi River and Taihu Lake area.

Discovery and features of vertical zonations of tidal salt-marsh foraminifera in Jianchuan, North Jiangsu Province, China

Through densified surface sampling of foraminifera and accurate elevation measurement a-long three transect lines in open-coast tidal salt-marsh of Jianchuan, particular salt-marsh foraminifera assemblages were found. The salt-marsh foraminifera assemblages are distributed in well-defined vertical zonations with respect to elevation and closely parallel marsh floral zonations. At the top of the vertical zonation all foraminifera disappear abruptly which are accurately located at the highest high water datum. This distribution pattern can be used to relocate former sea levels accurately (to an accuracy of within ±5 cm). A modern regional criterion of foraminifera for relocating the former sea levels in high resolution in our country is provided, and deficiencies of studying the vertical zonation only in sheltered coast salt-marsh abroad are filled up.

CORRESPONDENCE ANALYSIS ON IMAGES OF JIANGXI PROVINCE AS A TOURIST DESTINATION

This paper delineates the images of Jiangxi Province as tourist destination perceived by about 2000 sample visitors at Lushan Mountain and other 3 famous resorts (Jinggangshan Mountains, Longhushan Mountain, and Sanqingshan Mountain), with a result that the most common image is the famous scenic mountain image with partial attribute of image of religious culture destination. In order to reveal the similarities and dissimilarities of images among the four destinations, a correspondence analysis on 16 image attributes was employed. The results indicate that the tourists’ images on Longhushan Mountain, Sanqingshan Mountain and Lushan Mountain are very similar: having a lot of good tourist sites, famous mountain scenery, being close to nature and having good guide service, and others, but religious culture and good shopping facilities having not made deep impression on tourist, while Jinggangshan Mountains is famous for its red culture. The correspondence analysis visualizes the strengths and weaknesses of the destinations, which is useful for market positioning among the competitive places. Finally, some marketing suggestions for the four destinations were provided.

Weathering Characteristics of Sloping Fields in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

For the purpose of understanding the weathering characteristics of surface layers in purple mudstone sloping fields of the Three Gorges Reservoir area of China, oxide content of major elements, composition of clay minerals, magnetic susceptibility, and difference in weathering characteristics of surface layers under different slope gradients were determined. The results showed that the oxide content of Si, Al, and Fe ranged from 60% to 75% and the weathering coefficient with depth showed no trend along the slope gradient. Also, for gentle (10° and 15°) and intermediate (25° and 40°) slopes the clay relative diffraction peak for kaolinite at the surface between 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm declined with an increase in slope gradient, while the relative diffraction peak for kaolinite in weathered layers on steep slopes (50° and 60°) disappeared altogether. Magnetic susceptibility decreased with increasing depth and, for a given depth layer, decreased with an increase in slope gradient. Analysis of the oxide content, weathering coefficients, clay minerals, and magnetic susceptibility showed that in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, the pedogenesis of the weathering layer in purple mudstone sloping fields was weak with weaker soil formation going from gentle slope to steep slope.

Impact of Holocene environmental change on temporal-spatial distribution of Neolithic sites in Huaihe River Basin, Anhui Province

The Huaihe River basin of Anhui is not only a transitional zone of physical geography, but also a convergent area of many cultures in China. It is one of the sensitive ecotones to global changes and the birthplace of Chinese civilization. Using the field archaeological data and the sporo-pollens and the age data of the drilling cores, we analysed Neolithic cultural development and environmental evolution in the Huaihe River basin of Anhui. According to the combination of some research results in archaeology with environmental evolution research, this paper discusses the relationship between culture and environment in the Huaihe River basin of Anhui. The Neolithic cultural development was strongly impacted by the environmental change. The primitive culture （Shishanzi） was developed in the beginning of the Holocene Megathermal Period with distinct regional feature of the culture. From 6.5 kaBP to 5.5 kaBP, the climate changed warmer and wetter. The frequent occurrence of flood and waterlog due to such a climate regime and high sea level caused the earth＇s surface environment deteriorated in the Huaihe River basin of Anhui and the interruption of the Neolithic cultural development, hence a lack of archaeological sites. From 5.5 kaBP to 4.0 kaBP, the climate changed from wet to dry, the natural environment was propitious to human survival. Dawenkou Culture and Longshan Culture flourished in this period. The Neolithic cultural development, the number of the sites and their distribution characteristics of the sites in the study area differed apparently from those in Central China and Shandong Province.

Rangeland Grasshoppers in Relation to Soils in the Qinghai Lake Region, China

The relationship between rangeland grasshopper density and soil type as well as topsoil moisture content was analyzed with in situ soil data collected in the Qinghai Lake region of China. Grasshoppers were confined mainly to the areas with light chestnut soil or chestnut soil, and very few were found in areas with subalpine meadow soil. Grasshoppers were almost absent from other types of soil, such as aeolian soil. In addition, analysis of 14 soil samples collected in the study area revealed that a soil moisture content between 18 and 32 g kg-1 coincided spatially with a higher density of grasshoppers, with the grasshopper density averaging 15 head m-2. In areas with a soil moisture content above 42 g kg-1 or below 10 g kg-1, grasshopper density dropped to less than 5 head m-2. These indicated that for the study area, soils with very high or very low moisture contents were not conducive to the survival of grasshoppers.

Comprehensive Assessment of Regional Circular Economy Development Based on Efficiency of Resource & Environment: A Case Study of Jiangsu Province

In the first, the paper gave a retrospective analysis on the comprehensive assessment of circular economic development. According to the requirement of improving resource & environment efficiency, the paper designed an analytical framework for a comprehensive assessment of regional circular economic growth, which consists of the goal, object and technical line of the comprehensive assessment of regional circular economic development. Given that, the paper discussed the criterion for choosing the assessment index, the approaches of index's weighing determination, the means of data standardization, and the reference system of assessment index value and so on. According to the framework of regional circular economic development evaluation, die paper made a comprehensive evaluation of Jiangsu Province's circular economic development. The result shows that from temporal change, Jiangsu Province's circular economic development had different stages; from the spatial comparison, there is variance among different regions, which could be divided into different types according to the spatial variance and the relation between the development of circular economy and the aggregative index number. There was a remarkable correlation between circular economic development level and GDP or the 2nd industry GDP.Finally, the paper gives some suggestions on how to promote the development of circular economy in Jiangsu Province.

The application of geographic information technology to coastal geomorphology

With the development of modern oceanic observation technologies, coastal survey data have been experiencing a substantial growth. The integration management of the data from different disciplines, different sources and different formats has become a major research field in coastal geomorphology by using Geographic Information System （GIS）. This paper puts forward a new methodology framework of GIS techniques in coastal ocean geomorphology, including data acquisition, process, analysis, and representation. It focuses on some major GIS techniques to study the land-ocean interaction mechanism, such as spatial analysis, submarine topography model and three-dimension （3D） visualization, and apply its result to coastal urban planning, harbor site selection and geomorphology environment about coral reef and islands on the continental shelf. The case studies cover the whole coastal ocean to serve the social community, economical development and diplomatic rights for decision-making all round in the coastal zone. The research shows clearly that the application of coastal multi-source geospatial platform has changed the traditional coastal geomorphology science dramatically from its research scope, fields and methods, however, as made clear in this paper, extracting accurate information from remote sensing data and GIS databases for coastal geomorphological applications is a nontrivial challenge that requires the combined knowledge and skills of information scientists and geomorphologists.

URBAN PLANNING:A TOOL FOR URBAN POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN SUDAN

In the past few dacades, urbanization and urban growth have been increasing rapidly in many of the developing countries. It is expected that over 50% of the world population will live in cities in 2005. The growing trend indicates that as many as one fifth of all households still remain with housing tenure problems, which they try to solve through very expensive rentals, insecurity, socially and environmentally-hazardous squatting or unhealthy overcrowding, sometimes ending up with none at all. And hence, proper planning is necessary in urban development policies to improve human settlement managements in a sustainable way. This article has tried to handle urban poverty in the Sudan to a reasonable level of detail. It dealt with selected areas with regard to promotion of sustainable human settlement. The study managed to identity some recent progress in Sudanese human settlements, that is, however, still accompanied by numerous serious instances of decline in the urban environment, especially that of the greater Khartoum.Such instances of environmental deterioration are profiled and analyzed by the study with respect to all human settlement aspects of management, land-use, infrastructure, energy and transport. The paper's conclusion emphasized that improving all these aspects is of high priority.

Spatial Strategy for Quality Labor in Rural Development——A Case Study of Jiangsu Province, China

This study examines the issue of high-quality labor in rural enterprises of China. It develops a spatial strategy which consists of two dimensions: geographical space and administrative space. Different combinations of these two dimensions form a variety of approaches such as local internalization, local externalization, regional/national inter- nalization, and regional/national externalization. In the local internalization approach, rural enterprises hire such high-quality labor and ask them to work on site, while in the local externalization approach, rural enterprises seek help from employees working in other local enterprises. In the regional/national internalization approach, rural enterprises set up research and development centers in big cities to take advantages of the high-quality labor pool there. Finally in the regional/national externalization approach, rural enterprises hire people from big cities on temporary contracts. Three approaches, hiring retired technical workers, shuttling between the rural site and country seats, and setting up R&D centers in big cities are demonstrated through cases in Zhangjiagang, a leading county-level city in the southern Jiangsu Province. It is argued that rural enterprises need to broaden their perspectives of administrative space and geographical space and think creatively to deal with the shortage of quality labor in rural settings.

Spatial and temporal changes of summer monsoon on the Loess Plateau of Central China during the last 130 ka inferred from Rb/Sr ratios

The Rb/Sr ratios for samples from six loess-paleosol sections on the Chinese Loess Plateau during the last glacial-interglacial cycle, and for samples from 18 modern surface soils, have been analyzed. The six sections are along north-south and west-east transects respectively. The results show that the spatial distribution of Rb/Sr is characterized by a remarkable increase from north to south while Rb/Sr ratio changes little from west to east, whose latitude indicates shift of summer monsoon intensity. A regression equation between Rb/Sr ratios and mean annual pre-cipitation (MAP) has been constructed through statistical analysis for the modern surface soils. Paleorainfall during the last 130 ka is estimated for the six sections based on the regression equa-tion. It is evident that precipitation increased remarkably during marine isotope stages 3 and 5, exhibiting the high and similar gradients of variation with latitude. This demonstrates that the envi-ronmental effect is more prominent in the south of the Loess Plateau than in the north during the dominance of summer monsoon.