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Virtual humans have become a hot research topic in recent years due to the development of AI technology and computer graphics. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive review of the interaction design of 3D virtual humans. We first categorize the interac- tion design of virtual humans into speech, eye, facial expressions, and posture interactions. Then we describe the combination of different modalities of virtual humans in the multimodal interaction design section. We also summarize the applications of intelli- gent virtual humans in the fields of education, healthcare, and work assistance. The final part of the paper discusses the remaining challenges and opportunities in virtual human interaction design, along with future directions in this field. This paper hopes to help researchers quickly understand the characteristics of various modal interactions in the process of designing intelligent virtual humans and provide design guidance and suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to providing food, farming systems provide ecosystem services such as flood control, water quality control, carbon storage, and waste treatment, as well as cultural services such as scenic beauty, education, recreation, and tourism. However, the value of these services may conceal large costs that have been ignored by scholars. In this study, our goals were to perform a more complete cost–benefit analysis of farmland than has been done in previous research, thereby providing an improved estimate of the net benefits of that land use, and to explore the variation in the net benefits among regions. We used a novel method of quantifying costs and benefits that accounts for more of the associated costs than in previous research, and used China as an example. The annual net benefits of farmland totaled 11.8×1012 RMB (Renminbi: 1 RMB = US$0.15) in 2017, which amounts to 35.3% of the total national net benefit. However, due to the adverse effects of pesticide pollution and biodiversity reduction, agriculture has a potentially negative impact on sustainable development. The annual cost of farmland in China was 5.0×1012 RMB, which decreased the total benefit by 29.8%, and the annual cost of ecological protection was 1.1×1012 RMB. These results demonstrate the importance of a complete assessment of the costs and benefits of farmland to support more sustainable and economically efficient land‐use planning. This will both improve the benefits and support sustainable development of farmland, while also improving the enthusiasm of farmers for their occupation. Core Ideas: The net ecosystem services value can reveal the real benefits of an ecosystem.Evaluation of ecosystem service values provides important support for management of ecosystem.The net value is more practical than the payment for ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Urbanization and socioeconomic development require huge investments. However, the history of developed countries suggests that an inefficient tax and financial system cannot meet this demand for investment. Historically, this has forced some countries to expand outward to secure the necessary resources, and this has caused great harm through colonialism and warfare. Therefore, finding a peaceful road to achieve urbanization and socioeconomic development is a crucial issue facing human society, particularly in developing nations. To provide insights, we examined China's land transfer model, which has made huge amounts of money available to support the infrastructure construction that accompanies urbanization and socioeconomic development. However, this approach also creates a serious risk of a financial and debt crisis that can jeopardize social stability and undermine future development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The net ecosystem services value can reveal the real benefits of an ecosystem. • The net value is more practical than the payment for ecosystem services. • The net ecosystem services value provides decision-making for ecological conservation and environmental protection. Abstract To understand the difference between the value and the net value of ecosystem services (VES and NES , respectively), we used government statistics and data from published papers about the values and costs of grassland services to calculate their VES and NES in China. We found that when the associated costs (investment in ecological conservation and restoration, reduction of the risk of natural disasters, water consumption, and land rent) are subtracted from this total, the NES of China's grassland ecosystem services equaled −0.12 × 103 RMB ha−1 yr−1. Except for northeastern China and Inner Mongolia, which have abundant natural resources and lower population and livestock pressure, China's other seven regions had a negative grassland NES. The pressure on grassland by livestock has increased steeply (by 1066.1%), from 29.2 × 106 sheep units in 1977 to 340.5 × 106 sheep units in 2014. This strongly suggests that China's grasslands are being heavily overexploited. In contrast with China's well-funded afforestation programs, the low investments in grassland restoration and management have combined to produce severe degradation of grasslands. China's government should re-examine the benefits of livestock culture by accounting for the costs of this land use and of various restoration methods, and should take measures to preserve and restore the country's fragile grasslands. Our results provide a warning for managers of other ecosystems around the world where calculations of grassland VES may be ignoring significant costs of ecological restoration and preservation, leading to overuse and degradation of the ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem degradation is caused by interactions among multiple factors, including climate change and human activity. Therefore, we must understand the key factors that underlie ecological degradation and determine their impacts on ecosystem change before we can undertake ecological restoration. To test this hypothesis, we proposed a measure that we call “targeted measures to control ecological restoration”. This approach calculates the contribution of every key factor and control measure to ecosystem change during ecological restoration; by identifying the key factors, it helps managers to design an effective restoration strategy based on those factors. To test this approach, we performed a case study from 2000 to 2016 in four towns of Changting County, Fujian Province, China. Although the vegetation cover decreased by 3.1% from 1984 to 1999, vegetation cover and vegetation species richness increased by 94.8 and 616.7%, respectively, in the test areas where new measures were implemented from 2000 to 2016. These rates were 4.5 and 148.2 times those in the control area, respectively. Our new approach focuses on repairing degraded ecosystems rather than creating new ones. The case study suggests that understanding ecosystem dynamics can help us deal more effectively with the simultaneous effects of climate change and human activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flooding causes huge economic losses, yet the flood water is an important resource, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. Because rivers flood annually, most flooding research has focused on river management. Researchers have largely ignored the resource potential of flash floods, as they are less predictable. Here, we describe an innovative project in which disaster management planners in a dryland community in northwestern China treated flash floods as a resource rather than as a threat, and helped the community to benefit from this resource. The project produced ecological benefits (combating desertification), social benefits (flood control), and economic benefits (harvesting water for future use) that improved the community’s adaptive capacity and facilitated sustainable development. This example should inspire risk managers to seek ways to transform natural disasters into resources, thereby improving hazard management and promoting community survival and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental Kuznets curve theory predicts that rapid economic development will initially and unavoidably create environmental problems until these problems are solved at higher development levels. However, because different economies face different impacts from economic growth, some may find ways to shorten the environmental Kuznets curve. To understand the characteristics of a “Kuznets curve” based on Chinese environmental attitudes and the factors that influence these attitudes, we interviewed 3000 randomly selected Chinese adults in 2014 using stratified random sampling in six areas (four provinces and two provincial-scale municipalities) that had been affected by the national Grain for Green program. Our goal was to determine their opinions on China’s environmental policy. Based on their responses, we calculated that the minimum value of the environmental Kuznets curve (the income at which priorities change from income to environmental protection) occurred at a per capita income of between 20 200 and 27,000 RMB (an increase of 61.6% compared with results from a similar survey in 2004). We found significant impacts of income, education level, age, gender, employment, and region on Chinese environmental choices. To achieve sustainable socioeconomic development, China’s government must account for how these factors affect public responses to its policy initiatives. China’s government must also find ways to increase personal income faster to speed China’s progress along the environmental Kuznets curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of ecosystem service values is a hot area of research in ecological conservation and economics. However, the costs of these outputs are largely unknown. In this paper, we estimated the opportunity cost of water allocated to afforestation projects through mathematical modeling based on statistical data for all of China to provide support for restoration planning based on a fuller consideration of the true costs. To guide future ecological conservation and environmental policy development, we illustrate a neglected concept (ecosystem service costs) and use this concept to compare the ecological services provided by ecological restoration based on afforestation with those of restoration based on the conservation of natural vegetation using data obtained since 1949 in China. The results showed that afforestation and natural vegetation create annual costs related to use of the available water resources equal to 4800 and 3700 RMB ha −1 , respectively, representing a water opportunity cost of 1100 RMB ha −1 for afforestation. This illustrates the rule that “there is no free lunch” for any service, including ecosystem services. Therefore, to support the development of more effective and sustainable environmental restoration policy, it will be necessary to evaluate the associated opportunity costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid economic and population growth, water scarcities and conflicts over the available water are becoming worse, while climate change makes the potential risk to society unpredictable. To deal with growing water scarcity and improve the quality of water, China's government launched a large-scale afforestation program in the Tibetan Plateau—the birthplace of Asia's primary rivers, which lies upstream of 40% of the world's population, at a high altitude and with fragile ecosystems. However, this program could aggravate the conflict for water between humans and nature, because tree plantations consume 1.7 × 10 9 m 3 more water annually than the equivalent area of the region's natural vegetation. The shrinkage of glaciers caused by climate warming will exacerbate the water resource scarcity caused by these plantations and may soon become a primary source of conflict between regions that depend on river discharge from the plateau. To mitigate these problems, China's government should change its policy to conserve natural vegetation instead of planting more trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A country's natural and cultural heritage is created in a unique environment, and for this heritage to survive, it must be preserved in a similar environment. In China, 60 years of afforestation to combat desertification near the Mogao Grottoes and the Crescent Moon Spring have shown that attempts to protect the regional environment have not protected these heritage sites, and may actually have endangered them. Conserving the environment's original state may be the most effective solution for heritage conservation where sites have survived under a specific set of physical and environmental conditions for hundreds or thousands of years and may not be able to survive a new environment. Man-made changes should only be attempted with great care to avoid damaging the conditions that have preserved the natural or cultural heritage in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] China's unbalanced development strategy seems likely to lead to unsustainable socioeconomic development. [•] Urban development strategy should focus on small and medium cities. [•] Governments must share the benefits of China's economic growth more equally among regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• China's approach provides a model that can be emulated by other countries to promote the development. • China's recent economic approach has been based on a new concept of shared property. • Shared property means that workers share ownership of an enterprise while returned when they no longer work for the enterprise. Just as new branches grow from old trees, human civilization develops by building on previous institutions. Currently, there is much debate over what institutions will emerge from and possibly replace capitalism. In this paper, We describe a new ownership model that we call shared property. In contrast with the private ownership that characterizes capitalism and the public ownership that characterizes socialism, the new shared property concept means that those who participate in driving an enterprise's success are comparable to co-owners of that enterprise, and benefit from its success. However, when these employees leave the company, their share of the ownership is returned to the enterprise and awarded to a future employee. Because the new property rights system can maximize employee enthusiasm, it provides a new engine that will drive future socioeconomic growth and lead to a significant institutional change that combines the advantages of capitalism and socialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Land degradation and poverty are problems that must be tackled together for environmental conservation to succeed. However, it is rarely possible to move a population from degraded land to another area where the people can be more easily sustained. To find a new strategy that achieves both conservation and economic gains without the need to relocate a population, we examined/investigated a sustainable combination of ecological and economic development suitable for the restoration of areas of China with collapsing gullies, where the frequent steep slopes make restoration difficult. The results showed that the degraded land may contain significant benefits that were previously unappreciated, thereby transforming a problem into an opportunity. Our results suggest that the new approach can both improve the livelihoods of local citizens and promote environmental conservation, leading to successful ecological restoration. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Cliff ecosystems are important for biodiversity protection because these sites often support surprisingly ancient and diverse communities, including rare plants and lichens, trees, birds, and small mammals. To protect Chinese cliff ecosystems, an ancient cliff road construction technique is now being used. To understand the environmental benefits of this approach, we monitored eight cliff road sites in the warm Shennongjia region of China''s Hubei Province from June 2006 to July 2009 during road construction. Compared with the traditional filling in of roadside slopes or bridge construction formerly used for highway construction in this area, the cliff highway technique, which combines cantilevered slab roads along the edge of the cliff with bridge support structures where additional support is required, reduces environmental damage and represents a good option for the conservation of fragile cliff ecosystems, while greatly reducing the construction cost. In such areas, the basic objectives of road construction must include biodiversity protection and careful control of the construction process and subsequent cleanup of the site, which cannot be ignored as a result of concentrating on the goal of using the roads to promote regional economic and tourism development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To restore China''s degraded environment, the government launched an environmental restoration project named the “Grain for Green” Project (GGP) in 1999. From 1999 to 2010, the government will spend US$ 40 billion to convert 147 million ha of farmland into forest and grassland and 173 million ha of wasteland (including abandoned farmland) into forest in 25 provinces. A primary focus is to replace farming and livestock grazing in fragile areas with reforestation and planting of forage crops. Given the project''s tremendous size and number of participants, the attitudes of the affected farmers will strongly influence the GGP''s success. To learn their attitudes, we surveyed 2000 farmers in 2005 to quantify their opinions of the GGP and how it has affected their livelihoods, and we discuss the concerns raised by these attitudes. Farmers appreciated the grain and financial compensation offered by the GGP, but few considered planting of trees (8.9%) or forage species (2.2%) to be a priority. Although only 19.1% felt that their livelihoods had been adversely affected by the GGP and 63.8% supported the project, a large proportion (37.2%) planned to return to cultivating forested areas and grassland once the project''s subsidies end in 2018. Therefore, much of the restored vegetation risks being converted into farmland and rangeland again, compromising the sustainability of the environmental achievements. To succeed, strategies such as the GGP must compensate farmers fairly for their costs, create new agricultural products and techniques for use on more suitable land, and create job and training programs that account for the needs and desires of farmers and give them alternatives to returning to old land-use practices. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Soil chemical and physical characteristics can significantly affect the growth and distribution of all types of vegetation, particularly in arid environments. Because of soil erosion, most of the topsoil has disappeared from China''s arid Loess Plateau, exposing parent material or soils with low nutrient content in many locations. However, little research has been done on the impact of these soil conditions on afforestation efforts. Conventional afforestation in the area is only thought to be possible on loess soils because the local foresters consider the two other main soil types (red clay and bedrock-derived soils) too barren to support trees. In an attempt to determine whether these soils could also support afforestation, we planted trees on all three soil types in a hilly area of the Loess Plateau near Yan’an City. The results indicate that large-scale afforestation in loess soils could potentially increase the severity of soil water shortages, degrade the natural environment, and increase the risks of desertification and of serious economic losses because of over-consumption of soil moisture. However, survival rates on red clay and bedrock-derived soils were generally comparable to those on loess for individual species, and were superior to those on loess in mixed-species plantations, with less of an adverse impact on soil water. Both red clay and bedrock-derived soils could thus potentially sustain afforestation in low-lying areas with adequate soil moisture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Reconfiguration of hillside fields into terraces is regarded as one of the key techniques for water and soil conservation in mountainous regions. On slopes exceeding 75°, traditional techniques of terracing are difficult to apply as terrace risers (i.e. backslopes), if not reinforced, are so abrupt that they collapse under gravity alone, thus damaging the terrace. To improve reconfiguring of hillside fields into terraces, holistic techniques of soft-riser bench terrace engineering, including revegetation with trees and planting of grasses on terrace riser slopes, were tested between 1997 and 2001 in Xiabiabgou watershed, Yan’an, Shaanxi Province, China. A “working with nature” engineering approach was employed, terrace riser slopes of 45°, similar to the pre-existing slope of 35°, were employed to reduce gravity erosion radically. Based on concepts of biodiversity and principles of landscape ecology, terrace benches, bunds and risers were planted with trees, shrubs, forage grasses, and crops, serving to generate a diverse array of plants, a semi-forested area and to stabilize terrace bunds and risers. Soft-riser bench terrace design made it possible to reduce hazards arising from gravity erosion significantly, and reduce the costs of individual terrace riser construction and maintenance to 73.93% and 49.68%, respectively, of costs under traditional techniques. Such a construction allowed an enrichment and concentration of nutrients in the soil of the terrace bunds and risers, providing an ideal environment for a range of plants to grow and develop. The terrace riser can be planted with a drought-resistant plants ranging from forage grasses to trees. This terrace riser vegetation will turn the exposed terrace bunds and risers existing under traditional techniques into plant-covered belts, great green ribbons decorating the farmland, and contributing to the enhancement of the landscape''s biology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We have proposed a framework for calculating the net benefits changes before and after implementing of conservation programs, which considered the value, output and cost of programs. Information about the costs and benefits of the land use changes that occur during the implementation of ecological conservation programs is still scarce. To obtain more information on these consequences, it's necessary to compare the costs and benefits before and after project implementation. We have proposed a modification of the framework for calculating this change in the net benefits of ecological engineering, using implementation of China's primary conservation programs to demonstrate the framework. We found that the annual net benefits created by the Three North Shelter Forest System Project, Natural Forest Conservation Program, and Grain for Green Program in 2017 were 461.7 × 109, 2930.5 × 109, and 530.1 × 109 RMB, respectively; these are equivalent to net benefits per unit area of 6.5 × 103, 17.6 × 103, and 18.2 × 103 RMB·ha−1·yr−1. These values represent rates of return equal to 29.3, 328.9, and 77.0%, respectively, compared with the costs of these investments. Due to the large differences in socioeconomic conditions and resource endowments among China's diverse regions, it is necessary to account for these regional differences in the design of ecological restoration strategies to ensure that the programs are tailored to local conditions and produce the maximum net benefit. This approach can help governments find an optimal combination of land use and ecological conservation to improve the economic impacts of their restoration programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Cost-benefit can reveal the real benefits of an ecosystem. • The net benefit provides stronger support for decision-making for ecological conservation. • The net benefit is more practical than the payment for ecosystem services. Land degradation, soil erosion by water, and desertification caused by deforestation are serious problems around the world. To counteract the effects of these problems, China's government implemented the world's largest and most comprehensive ecological restoration program: the Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP). However, it's not yet known how well the program has succeeded because no one has performed a comprehensive cost–benefit analysis. To provide the missing information, we developed an improved cost–benefit analysis approach that accounts for as many benefits and costs (including opportunity costs) as possible given the current availability of data. Our analysis revealed a net benefit of 6.029×1012 RMB per year for the NFCP. The net benefit (after subtracting the costs) was highest for protection of natural vegetation to allow recovery, but was lowest for afforestation by planting. We found significant differences between regions of China, suggesting that governments of these regions should adjust the balance among their ecological restoration measures to account for unique local conditions and maximize the net benefit. In addition, governments should increase subsidies to the residents of program areas to compensate them for the costs imposed on them by the NFCP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Real estate has contributed huge sums of money to support China's urbanization. • Four cities used different real estate market models to accelerate urbanization. • Real estate fees supported urban infrastructure construction. Urbanization is an important engine of modernization and economic growth, and appears to be an inevitable trend in human socioeconomic development around the world. However, China's unusually rapid urbanization rate has attracted increasing attention. Our research suggests that understanding the country's real estate market is the key to understanding the country's rapid urbanization. The booming real estate market represents a major source of funding for urban infrastructure construction, and has accelerated the migration of rural residents to cities. We describe how four typical Chinese cities supported urbanization by promoting the development of different aspects of a real estate market to illustrate real estate's role in Chinese urbanization, thereby providing examples and cautions for urbanization both in China and in other parts of the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Fruit trees are an important forest resource because they simultaneously produce huge ecological and economic benefits. • The net ecosystem services value can reveal the real benefits of an ecosystem. • The net value provides stronger support for decision-making for ecological conservation. Fruit trees are an important forest resource because they simultaneously produce huge ecological and economic benefits. However, many estimates of these benefits have neglected the costs of providing these services, leading to ineffective planting of these trees and, consequently, reduced economic and ecological benefits. To understand the difference between the total and net benefits of ecosystem services, we used government statistics and data from published papers to calculate the total benefits, costs, and net benefits (= total benefits – costs) of land use of fruit trees in China. The fruit trees had a high value of ecosystem services (VES), at 643.2×109 RMB·yr−1, and a high value of products (VP), at 1399.4×109 RMB·yr−1 in 2014, and the total benefits (VES plus VP) of land use of fruit trees totaled 2042.6×109 RMB·yr−1. After accounting for the costs of establishing, maintaining, and protecting the fruit trees, as well as the opportunity costs of not using the land for other purposes, the net benefits provided by the fruit trees were 955.7×109 RMB·yr−1 (53.2% less than the total benefits). Due to regional differences in the geographic and economic environments, the benefits and costs of the fruit trees differed among China's regions, leading to large differences in the net benefits from the fruit trees. Because fruit tree cultivation is essential to farmer livelihoods, the government must plan the establishment and management of the fruit trees based on the results of cost–benefit analysis to achieve the win-win goal of combining ecological restoration with poverty alleviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]