Application of Participatory Development Theory in Wetland Ecotourism Initiatives——A Case Study of Baiyangdian in Anxin of Hebei Province

As one of the few ecological wetlands in North China,Baiyangdian bears multiple important ecological functions,including ①adjusting the ecological balance of North China;②safeguarding the downstream areas,especially Tianjin City,the Beijing-Shanghai Railway and Huabei Oil Field;③serving as the reservoir for the North-to-South Water Diversion Project and the emergent use of water for Beijing;④conserving biodiversity.Wetland ecotourism is a scientific and wise use pattern for wetland resources,through which,a source of financing is provided for wetland conservation,economic alternatives are generated for local people to reduce overexploitation on wetland resources and the public awareness of environmental protection is enhanced.Since wetland ecotourism can benefit the co-existence between human and nature and promote social equity between people,it enjoys broad promise for popularization and implementation.The proactive cooperation and sound interaction between main stakeholders,and the wide participation of the community residents,will guarantee the sustainable development of wetland ecotourism.Based on the analysis of current status of participation and interactive relationships of the main stakeholders in Baiyangdian tourism,this article made an attempt to apply the theory of participatory development to the ecotourism initiatives of Baiyangdian wetland,discussed and brought forward the countermeasures to improve community participation in wetland ecotourism under the guidance of this theory.

Multi-scales Analysis of Driving Forces on Land Use/Cover Change in China:Taking Farmland Returning to Forest or Grassland as a Case

Increasing populations are causing an increase in food demands, and the area of cultivated land expands every year. Inappropriate land transition from ecology to production results in the constant decline of the ecological security level and influences the regional sustainable development. Adjusting unreasonable land use mode and reconstructing natural land cover are important ways to maintain and improve the ecological environment. Also reclaiming farmland as areas for forests and grasslands (FRFG) is another way. Successful implementation of FRFG in China is the result of comprehensive effect of the multi-scales driving forces. This paper analyses the driving forces of FRFG in China on a national (country) –regional (province) – local (county) – household (farmer) level scale, and the results are: driving forces at the national scale include ecological and food security and the western development of China; at the regional scale, ecological and economic benefits become the main factors to influence the dimension of FRFG under the same policy. The driving forces can be divided into 6 types: industrial structure adjustment, water source protection, flood prevention, the Three-Gorge Project protection, reduction of the amount of sediment flowing into the Yellow River and wind erosion desertification prevention. The driving forces at the local scale can be divided into 12 types with developing leading industries, increasing farmers’ income and improving agricultural production conditions as the main types; at the household scale, the nationalpolicy meeting farmers’ demands and the optimization of individual interests are all driving forces.

On Touristic Ecological Footprint of Macao

Despite its tiny territory, Macao boasts a large volume of tourist activities, which serves as the pillar of its economy. En- vironment and natural resources are the cornerstone of tourism, but are also subject to the negative impact of tourism. Based on the theory and methodology of ecological footprint analysis, this paper calculated the touristic ecological footprint and deficit of Macao in 2009, in an effort to bring to light the current status of excessive consumption of resources by tourism. As the findings show, the non-h＇ansferable touristic ecological footprint and touristic ecologi- cal deficit of Macao in 2009 are respectively 18 300.891 gha and 12 737.584 gha, and the former is 3.29 times as large as the tour- istic ecological carrying capacity. Touristic ecological footprint of Macao is highly efficient in economic sense but currently tourism is developing in an unsustainable manner, so appropriate initiatives are in need to strike a balance between tourism development and resource conservation and to promote the sustainability of tourism industry of Macao.

A method to estimate crop effects at higher frequencies by modeling and microwave radiometric data

To use the 0th-order τ-ω model to retrieve soil moisture from radiometric data at frequencies higher than the C band, the characteristics of the effective single scattering albedo ω and the opacity rof vegetation must be studied. In this paper, the co and r values of corn for the C, X, and Ku bands were retrieved by matching the simulations of a high-order matrix-doubling model to the τ-ω model. First, the brightness temperature of the matrix-doubling was validated by a truck-mounted radiometer in a field experiment, where the vegetation emission contributions were validated with aluminum foil to mask the soil emission. Then an emissivity database of corn fields for different growing seasons was established for a variety of soil conditions. With the transmissivity of corn determined from the database, the effective single scattering albedos of corn for different heights at the C, X, and Ku bands and at a 55° viewing angle were derived. To verify the accuracy of the derived co and τ values, we used SMEX02/PSR aircraft data and the Qp model to retrieve the soil moisture; the RMSE between the retrieval and the measurements was 4.76% at the C band and 5.36% at the X band.