Automatic extraction and structuration of soil–environment relationship information from soil survey reports

In addition to soil samples, conventional soil maps, and experienced soil surveyors, text about soils(e.g., soil survey reports) is an important potential data source for extracting soil–environment relationships. Considering that the words describing soil–environment relationships are often mixed with unrelated words, the first step is to extract the needed words and organize them in a structured way. This paper applies natural language processing(NLP) techniques to automatically extract and structure information from soil survey reports regarding soil–environment relationships. The method includes two steps:(1) construction of a knowledge frame and(2) information extraction using either a rule-based method or a statistic-based method for different types of information. For uniformly written text information, the rule-based approach was used to extract information. These types of variables include slope, elevation, accumulated temperature, annual mean temperature, annual precipitation, and frost-free period. For information contained in text written in diverse styles, the statistic-based method was adopted. These types of variables include landform and parent material. The soil species of China soil survey reports were selected as the experimental dataset. Precision(P), recall(R), and F1-measure(F1) were used to evaluate the performances of the method. For the rule-based method, the P values were 1, the R values were above 92%, and the F1 values were above 96% for all the involved variables. For the method based on the conditional random fields(CRFs), the P, R and F1 values for the parent material were, respectively, 84.15, 83.13, and 83.64%; the values for landform were 88.33, 76.81, and 82.17%, respectively. To explore the impact of text types on the performance of the CRFs-based method, CRFs models were trained and validated separately by the descriptive texts of soil types and typical profiles. For parent material, the maximum F1 value for the descriptive text of soil types was 90.7%, while the maximum F1 value for the descriptive text of soil profiles was only 75%. For landform, the maximum F1 value for the descriptive text of soil types was 85.33%, which was similar to that of the descriptive text of soil profiles(i.e., 85.71%). These results suggest that NLP techniques are effective for the extraction and structuration of soil–environment relationship information from a text data source.

Strength of the North African monsoon in the Last Interglacial and under future warming

与人为强迫引起的全球变暖相比,末次间冰期是轨道强迫引起的过去80万年来最暖的一个间冰期,但鲜有人研究末次间冰期中北非季风的响应.因此,本文基于CMIP6多模式模拟结果对比研究了末次间冰期和SSP5-8.5情景下北非季风的响应,发现末次间冰期下北非季风平均降水及其降水变率均远大于SSP5-8.5情景下的结果.轨道强迫导致的北大西洋暖于南大西洋增加了北非季风环流和平均降水,同时,南北大西洋海温梯度变化通过增强热带北大西洋的海气相互作用增大了海温梯度和撒哈拉低压的变率,从而增强了北非季风降水变率.

Automatic recognition of loess landforms using Random Forest method

The automatic recognition of landforms is regarded as one of the most important procedures to classify landforms and deepen the understanding on the morphology of the earth. However, landform types are rather complex and gradual changes often occur in these landforms, thus increasing the difficulty in automatically recognizing and classifying landforms. In this study, small-scale watersheds, which are regarded as natural geomorphological elements, were extracted and selected as basic analysis and recognition units based on the data of SRTM DEM. In addition, datasets integrated with terrain derivatives(e.g., average slope gradient, and elevation range) and texture derivatives(e.g., slope gradient contrast and elevation variance) were constructed to quantify the topographical characteristics of watersheds. Finally, Random Forest(RF) method was employed to automatically select features and classify landforms based on their topographical characteristics. The proposed method was applied and validated in seven case areas in the Northern Shaanxi Loess Plateau for its complex andgradual changed landforms. Experimental results show that the highest recognition accuracy based on the selected derivations is 92.06%. During the recognition procedure, the contributions of terrain derivations were higher than that of texture derivations within selected derivative datasets. Loess terrace and loess mid-mountain obtained the highest accuracy among the seven typical loess landforms. However, the recognition precision of loess hill, loess hill–ridge, and loess sloping ridge is relatively low. The experiment also shows that watershed-based strategy could achieve better results than object-based strategy, and the method of RF could effectively extract and recognize the feature of landforms.

Volcanoes and Climate:Sizing up the Impact of the Recent Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcanic Eruption from a Historical Perspective

An undersea volcano at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai(HTHH)near the South Pacific island nation of Tonga,erupted violently on 15 January 2022.Potential climate impact of the HTHH volcanic eruption is of great concern to the public;here,we intend to size up the impact of the HTHH eruption from a historical perspective.The influence of historical volcanic eruptions on the global climate are firstly reviewed,which are thought to have contributed to decreased surface temperature,increased stratospheric temperature,suppressed global water cycle,weakened monsoon circulation and El Niño-like sea surface temperature.Our understanding of the impacts of past volcanic eruptions on global-scale climate provides potential implication to evaluate the impact of the HTHH eruption.Based on historical simulations,we estimate that the current HTHH eruption with an intensity of 0.4 Tg SO_(2)injection will decrease the global mean surface temperature by only 0.004℃in the first year after eruption,which is within the amplitude of internal variability at the interannual time scale and thus not strong enough to have significant impacts on the global climate.

A terrain openness index for the extraction of karst Fenglin and Fengcong landform units from DEMs

The Fenglin and Fengcong landform units are considered to be an important representation for defining the degree of development of Karst landforms. However, these terrain features have been proven difficult to delineate and extract automatically because of their complex morphology. In this paper, a new method for identifying the Fenglin and Fengcong landform units is proposed. This method consists of two steps:(1) terrain openness calculation and(2) toe line extraction. The proposed method is applied and validated in the Karst case area of Guilin by using ASTER GDEM with one arc-second resolution. The openness of both the positive and negative terrain and a threshold were used to extract toe lines for segmenting depressions and pinnacles in Fenglin and Fengcong landforms. A comparison between the extracted Fenglin and Fengcong landform units and their real units from high resolution images wascarried out to evaluate the capability of the proposed method. Results show the proposed method can effectively extract the Fenglin and Fengcong landform units, and has an overall accuracy of 93.28%. The proposed method is simple and easy to implement and is expected to play an important role in the automatic extraction of similar landform units in the Karst area.

Stability analysis unit and spatial distribution pattern of the terrain texture in the northern Shaanxi Loess Plateau

Terrain texture analysis is an important method of digital terrain analysis in quantitative geomorphological research and in the exploration of the spatial heterogeneity and autocorrelation of terrain features. However, a major issue often neglected in previous studies is the calculation unit of the terrain texture, that is, the stability analysis unit. As the test size increases, the derived terrain textures become increasingly similar so that their differences can be ignored. The test size of terrain texture is defined as the stability analysis unit. This study randomly selected 48 areas within the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi in China as the study sites and used the gray level co-occurrence matrix to calculate the terrain texture. The stability analysis unit of the terrain texture was then extracted, and its spatial distribution pattern in the Loess Plateau was studiedusing spatial interpolation method. Four terrain texture metrics, i.e., homogeneity, energy, correlation, and contrast, were extracted on the basis of the stability analysis unit, and the spatial variation patterns of these parameters were studied. Results showed that the spatial distribution pattern and the terrain texture metrics reflected a trend of high–low–high from north to south, which correlated with the spatial distribution of the landforms at the Loess Plateau. In addition, the terrain texture measures was significantly correlated with the terrain factors of gully density and slope, and this relationship showed that terrain texture measures based on the stability analysis unit could reflect the basic characteristics of terrain morphology. The stability analysis unit provided a reasonable analytical scale for terrain texture analysis and could be used as a measure of the regional topography to accurately describe basic terrain characteristics.

An Object-based Approach for Two-level Gully Feature Mapping Using High-resolution DEM and Imagery： A Case Study on Hilly Loess Plateau Region, China

Gully feature mapping is an indispensable prerequisite for the motioning and control of gully erosion which is a widespread natural hazard. The increasing availability of high-resolution Digital Elevation Model(DEM) and remote sensing imagery, combined with developed object-based methods enables automatic gully feature mapping. But still few studies have specifically focused on gully feature mapping on different scales. In this study, an object-based approach to two-level gully feature mapping, including gully-affected areas and bank gullies, was developed and tested on 1-m DEM and Worldview-3 imagery of a catchment in the Chinese Loess Plateau. The methodology includes a sequence of data preparation, image segmentation, metric calculation, and random forest based classification. The results of the two-level mapping were based on a random forest model after investigating the effects of feature selection and class-imbalance problem. Results show that the segmentation strategy adopted in this paper which considers the topographic information and optimal parameter combination can improve the segmentation results. The distribution of the gully-affected area is closely related to topographic information, however, the spectral features are more dominant for bank gully mapping. The highest overall accuracy of the gully-affected area mapping was 93.06% with four topographic features. The highest overall accuracy of bank gully mapping is 78.5% when all features are adopted. The proposed approach is a creditable option for hierarchical mapping of gully feature information, which is suitable for the application in hily Loess Plateau region.

Effects of long-term fertilization on soil gross N transformation rates and their implications

Application of fertilizer has been found to significantly affect soil N cycling. However, a comprehensive understanding of the effects of long-term fertilization on soil gross N transformation rates is still lacking. We compiled data of observations from 10 long-term fertilization experiments and conducted a meta-analysis of the effects of long-term fertilization on soil gross N transformation rates. The results showed that if chemical fertilizers of N, P and K were applied in balance, soil p H decreased very slightly. There was a significantly positive effect of long-term fertilization, either chemical or organic fertilizers or their combinations, on gross N mineralization rate compared to the control treatment（the mean effect size ranged from 1.21 to 1.25 at 95% confidence intervals（CI） with a mean of 1.23）, mainly due to the increasing soil total N content. The long-term application of organic fertilizer alone and combining organic and chemical fertilizer could increase the mineralization-immobilization turnover, thus enhance available N for plant while reduce N losses potential compared to the control treatment. However, long-term chemical fertilizer application did not significantly affect the gross NH4＋ immobilization rate, but accelerated gross nitrification rate（1.19; 95% CI： 1.08 to 1.31）. Thus, long-term chemical fertilizer alone would probably induce higher N losses potential through NO3– leaching and runoff than organic fertilizer application compared to the control treatment. Therefore, in the view of the effects of long-term fertilization on gross N transformation rates, it also supports that organic fertilizer alone or combination of organic and chemical fertilizer could not only improve crop yield, but also increase soil fertility and reduce the N losses potential.

Atmospheric nitrogen deposition in Yangtze River Delta:insights gained from the nitrogen content and isotopic composition of the moss Haplocladium microphyllum

Simple and inexpensive estimation of the rates and sources of atmospheric nitrogen(N)deposition is critical for its effective mitigation in a region with different land-use types.In this study,the N content and N isotopic composition(δ15N)of moss(Haplocladium microphyllum)tissues and precipitation at six sites with three land-use types(urban,suburban,and rural)were measured in the Yangtze River Delta.A significant linear relationship between moss N content and wet N deposition,and a consistent decrease trend for moss N content and wet N deposition from urban to suburban to rural areas were observed.More negativeδ15N of suburban and rural mosses indicated N mainly released from agriculture and effluent,while the less negativeδ15N of urban mosses were mainly influenced by fossil fuel combustion and traffic emissions.Although the negative mossδ15N indicates that reduced N dominates wet N deposition,there was no significant correlation between mossδ15N and the ratio of ammonium to nitrate(NH4+/NO3−).These results reveal that the moss N content andδ15N can be used as a complementary tool for estimating the rates and sources of wet N deposition in a region with different land-use types.

Landform Planation Index Extracted from DEMs： A Case Study in Ordos Platform of China

Planation surface, a surface that is almost flat, is a kind of low-relief landforms. Planation surface is the consequence of the denudation and planation processes under a tectonic stable condition. The quantitative expression of the characteristics of planation surface plays a key role in reconstructing and describing the evolutionary process of landforms. In this study, Landform Planation Index(LPI), a new terrain derivative, was proposed to quantify the characteristics of planation surface. The LPIs were calculated based on the summit surfaces formed according to the clustering results of peaks. Ten typical areas in the Ordos Platform located in the central part of the Loess Plateau of China are chosen as the test areas for investigating their planation characteristics with the LPI. The experimental results indicate that the LPI can be effectively used to quantify the characteristics of planation surfaces. In addition, the LPI can be further used to depict the patterns of spatial differentiation in the Ordos Platform. Although the present Ordos Platform area is full of the high-density gullies, its planation characteristics is found to be well preserved. Furthermore, the characteristics of the planation surfaces can also reflect the original morphology of the Ordos Platform before the loess dusts deposition process evolved in this area. The statistical results of the LPI show that there is a gradually increasing tendency along with the increasing of slope gradient of summit surface. It indicates that the characteristics of planation surfaces vary among test areas with different landforms. These findings help to deepen the understanding of planation characteristics of the loess landform and its underlying paleotopography. Results of this study can be also served as an important theoretical reference value for revealing the evolutionary process of loess landform.

Evidence of Glacial Erratic Rollover Revealed by ^(10)Be and ^(26)Al Concentration Variations

Cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating is one of the most intensively applied dating methods with which to study glacial geomorphology.Glacial erratics have been the major dating objective in many studies.Some research has proposed that glacial erratics may undergo rollover and re-transportation during the late exposure stage,which can affect the dating results.However,there is no direct evidence to confirm this possibility.In this study,we collected seven samples from a vertical section inside a glacial erratic in the paleo-Daocheng ice cap in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau,measuring their contents of the cosmogenic nuclides ^(10)Be and ^(26)Al.The results show that from the top to the bottom,the concentrations of 10Be were(1.21±0.05)×10^(6),(1.00±0.02)×10^(6),(0.88±0.03)×10^(6),(0.77±0.02)×10^(6),(0.75±0.03)×10^(6),(0.95±0.03)×10^(6) and(1.46±0.04)×10^(6) atoms/g.The ^(10)Be concentrations decreased from(1.21±0.05)×10^(6) atoms/g to(0.75±0.03)×10^(6) atoms/g and then increased to(1.46±0.04)×10^(6) atoms/g,which is not consistent with the theoretical prediction of a gradual decrease.This phenomenon indicates that the glacial erratic may have rolled over at least once.The lower surface of the erratic could have been on top at some time in the past.Therefore,its exposure age was greater than the exposure age that was expected,based on its current orientation.This study provides numerical evidence for an erratic rollover event.

Key Technologies for an Urban Overland Flow Simulation System to Support What-If Analysis

Urban flooding poses serious threats to human life. In China, many cities have recently experienced flooding during every rainy season. Several years ago, policies, scientific methods, and engineering measures were applied to address this systematic problem. However, flooding disasters remain frequent in urban areas in China. Therefore, this article discusses the human-earth relationship from a philosophical perspective to analyse the causes of urban water problems. This article mainly illustrates the value of the what-if analysis concept and how to use this concept to address urban flooding issues and improve the management of urban overland flow. However, the existing simulation models and software do not effectively support what-if analyses. In particular, most existing urban hydrological simulation models and software do not sufficiently consider the heterogeneity of geographical objects on urban surfaces and lack interactions to support what-if analyses. These limitations hinder effective implementation of what-if analysis. This article introduces three key technologies that allow an urban overland flow simulation system to effectively support what-if analyses: 1) urban spatial automatic discretization and topo-adjacency, which reflect the heterogeneity of an urban area;2) hydrological models for the simulation of the hydrologicalprocesses of the main geographical objects in the urban area;and 3) key strategies for a visual analytic platform to support what-if analyses in well-perceived way. The experiment was conducted using a community in Chongqing as a case study. The results demonstrate that the designed key technologies and functions of the proposed system can support what-if analysis and that what-if analysis is an important and useful concept for urban water management.

Impacts of major volcanic eruptions over the past two millennia on both global and Chinese climates:A review

Major volcanic eruptions(MVEs)have attracted increasing attention from the scientific community.Previous studies have explored the climatic impact of MVEs over the past two millennia.However,proxy-based reconstructions and climate model simulations indicate divergent responses of global and China’s regional climates to MVEs.Here,we used multiple data from observations,reconstructions,simulations,and assimilations to summarize the historical facts of MVEs,the characteristics and mechanisms of their climatic impact,and directions for future research.We reviewed volcanic datasets and determined intensive MVE periods;these periods corresponded to the years 530–700,1200‒1460,and 1600‒1840 CE.After tropical MVEs,a substantial cooling effect is observed throughout the globe and China on the interannual-interdecadal time scales but an inconsistent cooling magnitude is detected between reconstructions and simulations.In the first summer after tropical MVEs,a decrease in global and monsoonal precipitation is observed.In reconstructions and simulations,an increased precipitation is seen for the Yangtze River Basin,while large uncertainties in precipitation changes are present for other regions of China.Decadal drought can be induced by frequent eruptions and volcanism superimposed on low solar irradiation and internal variability.MVEs affect climate directly through the radiative effect and indirectly by modulating internal variability,such as the El Niño‒Southern Oscillation(ENSO)and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation(AMO).However,changes in the phase,amplitude,and periodicity of ENSO and AMO after MVEs and the associated mechanisms remain controversial,which could account for model-reconstruction disagreements.Moreover,other internal variability,uncertainties in reconstruction methods and aerosol‒climate models,and climate background may also induce model-reconstruction disagreements.Knowledge gaps and directions for future research are also discussed.

Geographic scenario:a possible foundation for further development of virtual geographic environments

It has been two decades since virtual geographic environments(VGEs)were initially proposed.While relevant theories and technologies are evolving,data organization models have always been the foundation of VGE development,and they require further exploration.Based on the comprehensive consideration of the characteristics of VGEs,geographic scene is proposed to organize geographic information and data.We empirically find that geographic scene provides a suitable organization schema to support geo-visualization,geo-simulation,and geo-collaboration.To systematically investigate the concept and method of geographic scene,Geographic Scenario is proposed as the theory on developing geographic scene,and corresponding key issues of the Geographic Scenario are illustrated in this article.Prospects of the proposed method are discussed with the hope of informing future studies of VGEs.

Paleotopographic controls on modern gully evolution in the loess landforms of China

The inhomogeneous and non-flat paleotopography in a depositional landform area profoundly controls the process of modem gully evolution and shapes the structure of a gully network. However, this controlling effect of paleotopography on modem gully evolution is mostly ignored because of the difficulties in paleotopography reconstruction. In this study, loess area in China is selected as case area for its typical depositional landform area and inhomogeneous and non-flat paleotopography during the Quaternary. The paleotopography underlying loess is considered while evaluating its controlling effects on the gully evolutionary process. On the basis of the geophysical prospecting, detailed geological information, and high-resolution digital elevation model, we reconstruct the pre-Quaternary paleotopographic surface in the case area. Comparative analysis is conducted to reveal the modern gully evolution in relation to the paleotopography. Results show that the concave area of the paleotopography acts as the basement of the high-order modern gully evolution in the hilly-gully area, although this concave area can be covered and buried by the loess depositional process during the Quaternary. A significant controlling effect of paleotopography on high-order modern gully evolution can be observed in a depositional landform with a hilly-gully underlying topography, whereas a relatively weak controlling effect exists in a flat underlying topograpnlcal area oecause of the strong horizontal shift effect of gully formation process. Several low-order modern gullies also exist and limit the controlling effect of paleotopography. These results reveal a controlled high-order modern gully evolutionary process and a rather dynamic low-order modem gully evolutionary process in the hilly-gully area. These results also help us understand the variations in different modern gully evolution in relation to paleotopography and the different management schemes for soil conservation and ecological restoration during the gully evolutionary process.

A container-based approach for sharing environmental models as web services

As researchers globally work towards a fully digital representation of the earth and its processes-i.e.a true Digital Earth-the need grows for software and systems to link disparate computer simulation models of various parts of the earth in a reliable and highly functional way.Web services have been demonstrated as an effective way to share and reuse models as they enable communication and interoperation among applications via the Internet.However,even using well-designed software tools,it remains a daunting process to publish heterogeneous environmental models as web services and provide long-term maintenance in response to changing computational environments.We present an approach that enables environmental models to be published as long-term functional web services on the same platform regardless of execution mode,programming language,and computational environment conflicts.The approach adopts the OpenGMS Wrapper System(OGMS-WS)for service publishing and Docker containers for model isolation.A streamflow prediction service is developed using this approach and is applied to analyze historical streamflow trends in Bangladesh.We demonstrate that this approach can lower the barrier to deploying heterogeneous environmental models as long-term functional web services,contributing to the development of a Digital Earth.

Performance analysis of global HYCOM flow field using Argo profiles

Flow field data generated by ocean models are important for simulating ocean currents and circulation patterns,which are essential components in digital Earth construction.To evaluate the accuracy of model-simulatedflow felds,Array for Real-timeGeostrophic Oceanography(Argo)float observations can be considered benchmarks.In this study,a novel method for comparing Argo profiles with 3-dimensional trajectories obtained by simulating Argo floats in Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model(HYCOM)-provided flow fields was proposed.Surface and subsurface trajectories were calculated,and their spatial matching characteristics were analyzed.The results demonstrated that(1)the HYCOM surface and subsurface flow felds generally conform to the basic characteristics and trends of ocean currents;(2)the HYCOM sea surface current field error pattern exhibits a symmetrical distribution centered on the equator in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and increases with increasing latitude;and(3)the HYCOM subsurface flow field exhibits regional differences,with the largest differences in the Gulf Stream,North Atlantic Warm Current,and Westerly Wind Drift region.Through analysis of the disparities between HYCOM and Argo data,the effectiveness of using model simulation data can be enhanced,and the accuracy and dependability of ocean models can be improved.

Influence and mechanism of solar radiation intensity on the interdecadal variability of strong Meiyu events during historical periods

Most recent studies on Meiyu over the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River(MLRYR)have focused on its interannual variability or the mechanism of certain abnormal events.The influence and physical mechanism of solar radiation intensity on the interdecadal frequency of strong Meiyu events over the MLRYR during historical periods were investigated using reconstructed precipitation data,reconstructed solar radiation data,and model simulation data.First,according to the solar radiation intensity,the Ming and Qing Dynasties(1470-1850)were divided into three periods of strong solar radiation and three periods of weak solar radiation.It was found that during the periods of strong solar radiation,the frequency of strong Meiyu events was significantly higher than that during the periods of weak solar radiation in the reconstructed precipitation data and model simulations.Mechanism analyses show that during the periods of strong solar radiation,the Western Pacific Subtropical High(WPSH)is stronger,and the blocking highs over the middle-high-latitudes are also stronger,which is conducive to the continuous convergence of the southward cold air and the northward warm and humid air flow at the MLRYR.Therefore,a circulation spatial pattern conducive to the occurrence of strong Meiyu events is then induced.The probability distributions of precipitation also show that,during periods of strong solar radiation,changes in circulation patterns cause the probability distribution of precipitation to shift significantly to the right,increasing the probability of strong Meiyu events occurring on the right side of the probability distribution.

Slope spectrum critical area and its spatial variation in the Loess Plateau of China

Slope spectrum has been proved to be a significant methodology in revealing geomorphological features in the study of Chinese loess terrain. The determination of critical areas in deriving slope spectra is an indispensable task. Along with the increase in the size of the study area, the derived spectra are becoming more and more alike, such that their dif- ferences can be ignored in favor of a standard. Subsequently, the test size is defined as the Slope Spectrum Critical Area （SSCA）. SSCA is not only the foundation of the slope spectrum calculation but also, to some extent, a reflection of geomorphological development of loess relief. High resolution DEMs are important in extracting the slope spectrum. A set of 48 DEMs with different landform areas of the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi province was selected for the experiment. The spatial distribution of SSCA is investigated with a geo-statistical analysis method, resulting in values ranging from 6.18 km^2 to 35.1 km^2. Primary experimental results show that the spatial distribution of SSCA is correlated with the spatial distribution of the soil erosion intensity, to a certain extent reflecting the terrain complexity. The critical area of the slope spectrum presents a spatial variation trend of weak-strong-weak from north to south. Four terrain parameters, gully density, slope skewness, terrain driving force （Td） and slope of slope （SOS）, were chosen as indicators. There exists a good exponential function relationship between SSCA and gully density, terrain driving force （Td） and SOS and a loga- rithmic function relationship between SSCA and slope skewness. Slope skewness increases, and gully density, terrain driving force and SOS decrease with increasing SSCA. SSCA can be utilized as a discriminating factor to identify loess landforms, in that spatial distributions of SSCA and the evolution of loess landforms are correlative. Following the evolution of a loess landform from tableland to gully-hilly region, this also proves that SSCA can represent the development degree of local landforms. The critical stable regions of the Loess Plateau represent the degree of development of loess landforms. Its chief significance is that the per- ception of stable areas can be used to determine the minimal geographical unit.

Information geography: A new fulcrum of geographic ternary world

The development trend of ternary space requires the construction of the information space for information mapping,transmission and transformation of geographic elements and social-human elements. Relevant researches of information geography from the perspective of Geographic Information Science and human geography are reviewed in this paper, then the concept interpretation of information geography from the perspective of ternary space is proposed. It is presented in this paper that information geography can be constructed with a framework using seven geographic elements as the basic expressing dimensions and seven social-human elements as the basic aggregating core. Information geography analyzes spatio-temporal distribution, structural characteristics, evolution process and interactions of various elements in the information space. And it eventually realizes the actual description, multi-scenario simulation, multi-objective decision-making and multi-channel control of the physical world and the social-human world.