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Resources and environment carrying capacity is central to not only regional sustainable development but also major function- oriented zoning. This paper presents an evaluation index system for resources and environment carrying capacity based on four aspects of carrying capacity (i.e., water resources, land resources, the environment, and ecosystems) by using a square deviation decision- making method, and on the basis of above effort evaluates the resources and environment carrying capacity across 31 provincial regions in China (not including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan regions of China). In addition, this paper evaluates the current state of socio-economic development, and analyzes the spatial distribution of resources and environment pressure. The results showed that distinct spatial differences in resources and environment carrying capacity and pressure across provincial regions. Resources and environment pressure is affected by both comprehensive resources and environment carrying capacity and socio-economic development. Regions subjected to lower degrees of resources and environment pressure will be restricted by resources and environmental problems through future courses of development owing to excessively low carrying capacities. By contrast, regions with higher comprehensive resources and environment carrying capacity will be subjected to excessively high levels of resources and environment pressure because of rapid socio-economic development. Both of resources and environment carrying capacity and pressure must therefore be considered in the allocation of country-binding targets to provincial regions.

The key to studying urban sustainable development depends on quantifying stores, efficiencies of urban metabolisms and capturing urban metabolisms’ mechanisms. This paper builds up the metabolic emergy account and quantifies some important concepts of emergy stores. Emphasis is placed on the urban metabolic model based on the slack based model (SBM) method to measure urban metabolic efficiencies. Urban metabolic mechanisms are discussed by using the regression method. By integrating these models, this paper analyzes the urban metabolic development in Beijing from 2001 to 2010. We conclude that the metabolic emergy stores of Beijing increased significantly from 2001 to 2010, with the emergy imported accounting for most of the increase. The metabolic efficiencies in Beijing have improved since the 2008 Olympic Games. The population, economic growth, industrial structures, and environmental governance positively affect the overall urban metabolism, while the land expansion, urbanization and environmentally technical levels hinder the improving of urban metabolic efficiencies. The SBM metabolic method and the regression model based on the emergy analysis provide insights into the urban metabolic efficiencies and the mechanism. They can promote to integrate such concepts into their sustainability analyses and policy decisions.

Industrial wastewater discharge in China is increasing with the countrys economic development and it is worthy of concern. The discharge is primarily relevant to the direct discharge coefficient of each sector of the economy, its direct input coefficient and the final demand in input-output models. In this study, we calculated the sensitivity of the reduction in the Chinese industrial wastewater discharge using the direct input coefficients based on the theory of error-transmission in an input-output framework. Using input-output models, we calculated the direct and total industrial wastewater discharge coefficients. Analysis of 2007 input-output data of 30 sectors of the Chinese economy and of 30 provincial regions of China indicates that by lowering their direct input coefficients, the manufactur- ers of textiles, paper and paper products, chemical products, smelting and metal pressing, telecommunication equipment, computers and other electronic equipment will significantly reduce their amounts of industrial wastewater discharge. By lowering intra-provincial di- rect input coefficients to industrial sectors themselves of Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang, there will be a significant reduction in indus- trial wastewater discharge for the country as a whole. Investment in production technology and improvement in organizational effi- ciency in these sectors and in these provinces can help lessen the direct input coefficients, thereby effectively achieving a reduction in industrial wastewater discharge in China via industrial restructuring.

In this paper, a methodology for Leaf Area Index (LAI) estimating was proposed by assimilating remote sensed data into crop model based on temporal and spatial knowledge. Firstly, sensitive parameters of crop model were calibrated by Shuffled Complex Evolution method developed at the University of Arizona (SCE-UA) optimization method based on phenological information, which is called temporal knowledge. The calibrated crop model will be used as the forecast operator. Then, the Taylor’s mean value theorem was applied to extracting spatial information from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) multi-scale data, which was used to calibrate the LAI inversion results by A two-layer Canopy Reflectance Model (ACRM) model. The calibrated LAI result was used as the observation operator. Finally, an Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) was used to assimilate MODIS data into crop model. The results showed that the method could significantly improve the estimation accuracy of LAI and the simulated curves of LAI more conform to the crop growth situation closely comparing with MODIS LAI products. The root mean square error (RMSE) of LAI calculated by assimilation is 0.9185 which is reduced by 58.7% compared with that by simulation (0.3795), and before and after assimilation the mean error is reduced by 92.6% which is from 0.3563 to 0.0265. All these experiments indicated that the methodology proposed in this paper is reasonable and accurate for estimating crop LAI.

The Road to Rio+20 is the journey of countries in the world pursuing the sustainable development. As the first country to release the national Agenda 21, China’s experience and lessons are of great significance for both China itself and other countries. The paper reviews the progress made and problems remained in pursuing the sustainable development in China with regard to policy formulation, institutional arrangements, planning and management. In the past five years, the mandatory targets-driven approach, which focused on energy efficiency and key pollutants reduction, played a very important role and made China comprehensive outcomes for sustainability. In order to achieve the targets, China adopted an integrated policy package including legal, administrative, economic and technology instruments. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011–2015), China will continue and strengthen the approach above and mainstream the transformation of economic development pattern through realizing the idea of green and low-carbon development. By summarizing policy trends in the world, the paper points out two directions, i.e., integration approach and taking prioritized and concrete actions for a sustainable future beyond 2012. The paper also presents policy approaches and recommendations for sustainable development in the next 10 years in China.

Urban metabolism is a complex system of materials, energy, population and environment, which usually can be measured by the Emergy Synthesis (ES) and the Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) approach. In this paper, by employing the two approaches of ES and SBM, as well as metabolic evolution index, urban metabolic stocks, efficiencies and elasticity of 31 Chinese cities are evaluated in a systematic way. The results imply that over the last decade (2000–2010), most of the cities, such as Chongqing, Nanjing, Shijiazhuang, Hangzhou, were experiencing drastic urban metabolic efficiency decline accompanied with a moderate decrease of industrial outputs. By contrast, metropolises and specialized cities have improved their urban metabolic performances, with higher output-input ratio and fewer undesirable outputs. However, their exported emergy experienced a substantial increase as well. It is concluded that local urban management might develop policies to diversify urban renewable supplies and address the undesirable output problems. The urban emergy of renewable resources should be specified as a prime focus for future research. In addition, mechanisms of different urban metabolic models will also be necessary for researchers.

Land cover is recognized as one of the fundamental terrestrial datasets required in land system change and other ecosystem related researches across the globe. The regional differentiation and spatial-temporal variation of land cover has significant impact on regional natural environment and socio-economic sustainable development. Under this context, we reconstructed the history land cover data in Siberia to provide a comparable datasets to the land cover datasets in China and abroad. In this paper, the European Space Agency (ESA) Global Land Cover Map (GlobCover), Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM), Multispectral Scanner (MSS) images, Google Earth images and other additional data were used to produce the land cover datasets in 1975 and 2010 in Siberia. Data evaluation show that the total user′s accuracy of land cover data in 2010 was 86.96%, which was higher than ESA GlobCover data in Siberia. The analysis on the land cover changes found that there were no big land cover changes in Siberia from 1975 to 2010 with only a few conversions between different natural forest types. The mainly changes are the conversion from deciduous needleleaf forest to deciduous broadleaf forest, deciduous needleleaf forest to mixed forest, savannas to deciduous needleleaf forest etc., indicating that the dominant driving factor of land cover changes in Siberia was natural element rather than human activities at some extent, which was very different from China. However, our purpose was not just to produce the land cover datasets at two time period or explore the driving factors of land cover changes in Siberia, we also paid attention on the significance and application of the datasets in various fields such as global climate change, geopolitics, cross-border cooperation and so on.

Northeast China has experienced frequent droughts over the past fifteen years. However, the effects of droughts on net primary productivity (NPP) in Northeast China remain unclear. In this paper, the droughts that occurred in Northeast China between 1999 and 2013 were identified using the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). The NPP standardized anomaly index (NPP-SAI) was used to evaluate NPP anomalies. The years of 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2007 were further investigated in order to explore the influence of droughts on NPP at different time scales (3, 6, and 12 months). Based on the NPP-SAI of normal areas, we found droughts overall decreased NPP by 112.06 Tg C between 1999 and 2013. Lower temperatures at the beginning of the growing season could cause declines in NPP by shortening the length of the growing season. Mild drought or short-term drought with higher temperatures might increase NPP, and weak intensity droughts intensified the lag effects of droughts on NPP.

Ecosystem services valuation seeks to increase the social relevance of ecosystem characteristics, the underlying biological mechanisms that support services, by making the contribution of ecosystems to human well-being explicit. Economic valuation can help management by clarifying the full range of benefits and costs of proposed management actions. In the past two decades, economic valuation of wetland ecosystem services has become one of the most significant scientific priorities for wetland protection. In this paper, we provide an overview of ecosystem services, and summarize the main interdisciplinary approaches to measure and value wetland ecosystem services. We identified four main methodological gaps preventing progress on wetland valuation of ecosystem services in China, which are: 1) confusion on terminology like intermediate and final ecosystem services, 2) lack of ecological production functions to link ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services, 3) static valuation making it difficult to evaluate the trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services, and 4) lack of clear guidance on relating ecological compensation programs to conservation targets. Overcoming these gaps is important to inform wetland compensation mechanisms and conservation policies. We propose future research on wetland ecosystem services in China should be focused on: 1) defining final ecosystem services based on beneficiary preferences and underlying biophysical mechanisms, 2) establishing wetland monitoring programs at specific sites to collect data on final ecosystem service indicators and ecosystem characteristic metrics to create ecological production functions for economic valuation and rescaling techniques, and 3) incorporating wetland ecosystem service values into decision-making processes to inform wetland management.

Distribution of monsoon forests is important for the research of carbon and water cycles in the tropical regions. In this paper, a simple approach is proposed to map monsoon forests using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. Owing to the high contrast of greenness between wet season and dry season, the monsoon forest can be easily discriminated from other forests by combining the maximum and minimum annual NDVI. The MODIS-based monsoon forest maps (MODMF) from 2000 to 2009 are derived and evaluated using the ground-truth dataset. The MODMF achieves an average producer accuracy of 80.0% and the Kappa statistic of 0.719. The variability of MODMF among different years is compared with that calculated from MODIS land cover products (MCD12Q1). The results show that the coefficient of variation of total monsoon forest area in MODMF is 7.3%, which is far lower than that in MCD12Q1 with 24.3%. Moreover, the pixels in MODMF which can be identified for 7 to 9 times between 2001 and 2009 account for 53.1%, while only 7.9% of MCD12Q1 pixels have this frequency. Additionally, the monsoon forest areas estimated in MODMF, Global Land Cover 2000 (GLC2000), MCD12Q1 and University of Maryland (UMD) products are compared with the statistical dataset at national level, which reveals that MODMF has the highest R 2 of 0.95 and the lowest RMSE of 14 014 km2. This algorithm is simple but reliable for mapping the monsoon forests without complex classification techniques.

Cities separated in space are connected together by spatial interaction (SI) between them. But the studies focusing on the SI are relatively few in China mainly because of the scarcity of data. This paper deals with the SI in terms of rail passenger flows, which is an important aspect of the network structure of urban agglomeration. By using a data set consisting of rail O-D (origin-destination) passenger flows among nearly 200 cities, inter-city rail distance O-D matrixes, and some other indices, it is found that the attenuating tendency of rail passenger is obvious. And by the analysis on dominant flows and spatial structure of flows, we find that passenger flows have a trend of polarizing to hubs while the linkages between hubs upgrade. However, the gravity model reveals an overall picture of convergence process over time which is not in our expectation of integration process in the framework of globalization and economic integration. Some driven factors for the re-organization process of the structure of urban agglomeration, such as technique advance, globalization, etc. are discussed further based on the results we obtained.

A new form of producing and sharing knowledge has emerged as an international (United States of America, Asia, and Europe) research collaboration, known as the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network. Although Africa boasts rich biodiversity, including endemic species, it lacks the long-term initiatives to underpin sustainable biodiversity managements. At present, climate change may exacerbate hunger and poverty concerns in addition to resulting in ecosystem degradation, land use change, and other threats in Africa. Therefore, ecosystem monitoring was suggested to understanding the effects of climate change and setting strategies to mitigate these changes. This paper aimed to investigate ecosystem monitoring ground sites and address their coverage gaps in Africa to provide a foundation for optimizing the African Ecosystem Research Network (AERN) ground sites. The geographic coordinates and characteristics of ground sites-based ecosystem monitoring were collected from various networks aligned with the LTER implementation in Africa. Additionally, climatic data and biodiversity distribution maps were retrieved from various sources. These data were used to assess the size of existing ground sites and the gaps in description, ecosystems and biomes. The results reveal that there were 1089 sites established by various networks. Among these sites, 30.5%, 27.5%, and 28.8% had no information of area, year of establishment, current status, respectively. However, 68.0% of them had an area equal to or greater than 1 km2. Sites were created progressively over the course of the years, with 68.9% being created from 2000 to 2005. To date, only 41.5% of the sites were operational. The sites were scattered across Africa, but they were concentrated in Eastern and Southern Africa. The unbalanced distribution pattern of the sites left Central and Northern Africa hardly covered, and many unique ecosystems in Central Africa were not included. To sustain these sites, the AERN should be based on operational sites, seeking secure funding by establishing multiple partnerships.

Harmonious regional development poses difficult problems, especially in so far as the harmonious regional development of ecological resources is concerned. China has explored several eco-compensation models, and in each province eco-compensation has different characteristics. These methods have had significant impacts. The aim of this paper is first to examine the meaning of eco-compensation and to present a framework for analyzing it. Next the development of eco-compensation in China is examined. Finally, four typical models of eco-compensation are compared: the government financial transfer payment compensation model; the ecological resource exploiters' payment compensation model; the ecological destruction compensation model; and the ecological resource tax collection compensation model. Each model has its own unique feature and potential to contribute to harmonious regional development.

The Loess Plateau is one typical area of serious soil erosion in the world. China has implemented ‘Grain for Green’ (GFG) project to restore the eco-environment of the Loess Plateau since 1999. With the GFG project subsidy approaching the end, it is concerned that farmers of fewer subsidies may reclaim land again. Thus, ‘Gully Land Consolidation Project’ (GLCP) was initiated in 2010. The core of the GLCP was to create more land suitable for farming in gullies so as to reduce land reclamation on the slopes which are ecological vulnerable areas. This paper aims to assess the effect of the GLCP on soil erosion problems by studying Wangjiagou project region located in the central part of Anzi valley in the middle of the Loess Plateau, mainly using the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) based on GIS. The findings show that the GLCP can help to reduce soil shipment by 9.87% and it creates more terraces and river-nearby land suitable for farming which account for 27.41% of the whole study area. Thus, it is feasible to implement the GLCP in places below gradient 15°, though the GLCP also intensifies soil erosion in certain places such as field ridge, village land, floodplain, natural grassland, and shrub land. In short, the GLCP develops new generation dam land and balances the short-term and long-term interests to ease the conflicts between economic development and environmental protection. Furthermore, the GLCP and the GFG could also be combined preferably. On the one hand, the GFG improves the ecological environment, which could offer certain safety to the GLCP, on the other hand, the GLCP creates more farmland favorable for farming in gullies instead of land reclamation on the slopes, which could indirectly protect the GFG project.

This paper examines city growth patterns and the corresponding city size distribution evolution over long periods of time using a simple New Economic Geography (NEG) model and urban population data from Canada. The main findings are twofold. First, there is a transition from sequential to parallel growth of cities over long periods of time: city growth shows a sequential mode in the stage of rapid urbanization, i.e., the cities with the best development conditions will take the lead in growth, after which the cities with higher ranks will become the fastest-growing cities; in the late stage of urbanization, city growth converges according to Gibrat′s law, and exhibits a parallel growth pattern. Second, city size distribution is found to have persistent structural characteristics: the city system is self-organized into multiple discrete size groups; city growth shows club convergence characteristics, and the cities with similar development conditions eventually converge to a similar size. The results will not only enhance our understanding of urbanization process, but will also provide a timely and clear policy reference for promoting the healthy urbanization of developing countries.

Coral bleaching, caused by elevated sea surface temperature (SST), is occurring more frequently and seriously worldwide. Due to the lack of field observations, we understand little about the large-scale variability of thermal stress in the South China Sea (SCS) and its effect on China's coral reefs. This paper used 4-km high resolution gap-filled SST (FilledSST) data and thermal stress data related to coral bleaching derived from Coral Reef Temperature Anomaly Database (CoRTAD) to quantify the spatial and temporal characteristics of chronic thermal stress and acute thermal stress to China's coral reefs in SCS from 1982 to 2009. We analyzed the trend of SST in summer and the thermal stress frequency, intensity and duration during this period. The results indicate that, as a chronic thermal stress, summer mean SST in SCS shows an average upward trend of 0.2 A degrees C/decade and the spatial pattern is heterogeneous. Waters of Xisha Islands and Dongsha Islands of the northern SCS are warming faster through time compared to Zhongsha Islands and Nansha Islands sea areas of the southern SCS. High frequency bleaching related thermal stress events for these reefs are seen in the area to the northwest of Luzon Island. Severe anomaly thermal stress events are more likely to occur during the subsequent year of the El Nio year for these coral reefs. Besides, the duration of thermal stress varies considerably by anomaly year and by region.

Spatial distribution of soil salinity can be estimated based on its environmental factors because soil salinity is strongly affected and indicated by environmental factors. Different with other properties such as soil texture, soil salinity varies with short-term time. Thus, how to choose powerful environmental predictors is especially important for soil salinity. This paper presents a similarity-based prediction approach to map soil salinity and detects powerful environmental predictors for the Huanghe (Yellow) River Delta area in China. The similarity-based approach predicts the soil salinities of unsampled locations based on the environmental similarity between unsampled and sampled locations. A dataset of 92 points with salt data at depth of 30–40 cm was divided into two subsets for prediction and validation. Topographical parameters, soil textures, distances to irrigation channels and to the coastline, land surface temperature from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVIs) and land surface reflectance data from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery were generated. The similarity-based prediction approach was applied on several combinations of different environmental factors. Based on three evaluation indices including the correlation coefficient (CC) between observed and predicted values, the mean absolute error and the root mean squared error we found that elevation, distance to irrigation channels, soil texture, night land surface temperature, NDVI, and land surface reflectance Band 5 are the optimal combination for mapping soil salinity at the 30–40 cm depth in the study area (with a CC value of 0.69 and a root mean squared error value of 0.38). Our results indicated that the similarity-based prediction approach could be a vital alternative to other methods for mapping soil salinity, especially for area with limited observation data and could be used to monitor soil salinity distributions in the future.

Formulation of different ecological zone plans according to the corresponding protection targets and the necessity of proper conservation policy is one of the measures to achieve the goal of ecological conservation in China. In order to clarify the interrelation among key ecological zone plans, this paper carried out the research on spatial relation of priority areas of biodiversity conservation and three key ecological areas (key ecological function areas, key regions of ecological service function, national nature reserves) and the research on ecological conditions, based on multi-scale ecological spatial theme information, which incorporates elements like ecological quality and type, and by the aid of spatial information analysis and GIS modeling. The results showed a contrastively fine spatial consistency with 68.8% of priority areas of biodiversity conservation overlapping with three key ecological areas. Although the environment in priority areas of biodiversity conservation were in good conditions, protection pressure is also increasing, powerful supervision and protection should not be ignored. The environmental conditions in the overlapping areas, as a whole, were superior to those in the non-overlapping areas. Since two areas have different characteristics, targeted protection measures should be formulated based on this difference, which will be very important for biodiversity conservation in priority areas of biodiversity conservation.

The Badain Jaran Desert, located in the Alxa Plateau, Northwest China, features mega-dunes and a unique dune-lake alternation landscape. This paper presented the aeolian sediment structures of three representative dunes in the Badain Jaran Desert using ground-penetrating radar (GPR). We processed and analyzed the GPR data and investigated the feasibility of using integrated GPR and sedimentological data to reconstruct dunes structure, sedimentary environment and geomorphological evolution. The results show that the internal structures of star dune and transverse dune represent various stages of mega-dune evolution: the main deposition processes of mega-dune are similar to those of transverse dunes but have a more complicated mechanism of sand transport and deposition because of the superimposition of dunes; the upper section of the mega-dune has a structure similar to that of star dune, with vertical aggradations on top. Diffraction hyperbolae in the GPR profile indicates that the presence of ancient dunes characterized by calcareous cementation layers is involved in the maintenance of mega-dunes, and water levels, shown by continuous, sub-horizontal GPR reflections, are supposed to be closely related to mega-dunes and the interdune lakes. Outcrop of wet sand and horizontal stratifications on the GPR image indicate moisture potentials with different levels inside mega-dunes. The multiplex geomorphology in the Badain Jaran Desert is the result of global climatic undulation, the unique geographical location, the geological structural features, etc.

Ecosystem service is an emerging concept that grows to be a hot research area in ecology. Spatially explicit ecosystem service values are important for ecosystem service management. However, it is difficult to quantify ecosystem services. Remote sensing provides images covering Earth surface, which by nature are spatially explicit. Thus, remote sensing can be useful for quantitative assessment of ecosystem services. This paper reviews spatially explicit ecosystem service studies conducted in ecology and remote sensing in order to find out how remote sensing can be used for ecosystem service assessment. Several important areas considered include land cover, biodiversity, and carbon, water and soil related ecosystem services. We found that remote sensing can be used for ecosystem service assessment in three different ways: direct monitoring, indirect monitoring, and combined use with ecosystem models. Some plant and water related ecosystem services can be directly monitored by remote sensing. Most commonly, remote sensing can provide surrogate information on plant and soil characteristics in an ecosystem. For ecosystem process related ecosystem services, remote sensing can help measure spatially explicit parameters. We conclude that acquiring good in-situ measurements and selecting appropriate remote sensor data in terms of resolution are critical for accurate assessment of ecosystem services.

This paper examines the organisational hierarchies and decision making processes of two Chinese multinational enterprises operating in Vietnam—China Luoyang Floating Glass Corp. (CLFG) and China TCL Holdings Co. Ltd. (TCL). For this study, research data were obtained from in-depth interviews of more than 20 government officials in P. R. China and Vietnam, and managers and staff of those two enterprises. Results indicate that the organisational structures of the two enterprises are still vertical but complex, although moderate changes made to them post the nationwide economic reform of China. Consequently, decision making process follows a “top-down” model, sometimes, with insufficient grassroots information. Findings are discussed in the light of political, social and cultural milieu, and implications are drawn for the management of Chinese multinational enterprises operating in overseas markets. Both CLFG and China TCL are structured on task specialisations. However, departmentalisation in TCL’s overseas division in head office is not only based on products, but also on geographical regions of markets. The organisational structure of TCL in Vietnam is less complex than the international division, but it is more centralised. Decision making at TCL combines more traditional Chinese business philosophy with modern western organisational characteristics. TCL has a strong western influence in its management style. However, some traditional characteristics such as “hero” leadership influence and political influence are involved with decision making at TCL. Amongst others, the transitional economy, social culture, poor management system and political sensitivity have been major elements influencing decision making. In the case of CLFG, some decisions have been made before proper information has been gathered and analysed.

Similarity relation is one of the spatial relations in the community of geographic information science and cartography. It is widely used in the retrieval of spatial databases, the recognition of spatial objects from images, and the description of spatial features on maps. However, little achievements have been made for it by far. In this paper, spatial similarity relation was put forward with the introduction of automated map generalization in the construction of multi-scale map databases; then the definition of spatial similarity relations was presented based on set theory, the concept of spatial similarity degree was given, and the characteristics of spatial similarity were discussed in detail, including reflexivity, symmetry, non-transitivity, self-similarity in multi-scale spaces, and scale-dependence. Finally a classification system for spatial similarity relations in multi-scale map spaces was addressed. This research may be useful to automated map generalization, spatial similarity retrieval and spatial reasoning.

Understanding the relationship between landscape patterns and ecological processes has been a central yet challenging research theme in landscape ecology. Over the past decades, many landscape metrics have been proposed but few directly incorporated ecological processes. In this paper, we developed a landscape index, namely, location-weighted landscape index (LWLI) to highlight the role of landscape type in ecological processes, such as nutrient losses and soil erosion. Within the framework of the Lorenz curve theory, we develop this index by integrating landscape pattern and point-based measurements at a watershed scale. The index can be used to characterize the contribution of landscape pattern to ecological processes (e.g. nutrient losses) with respect to a specific monitoring point in a watershed. Through a case study on nutrient losses in an agricultural area in northeastern China, we found that nutrient losses tended to be higher for a watershed with a higher LWLI value, and vice versa. It implied that LWLI can be used to evaluate the potential risk of nutrient losses or soil erosion by comparing their values across watersheds. In addition, this index can be extended to characterize ecological processes, such as the effect of landscape pattern on wildlife inhabitation and urban heat island effect. Finally, we discuss several problems that should be paid attention to when applying this index to a heterogeneous landscape site.

Coastal wetlands are characterized by complex patterns both in their geomorphic and ecological features. Besides field observations, it is necessary to analyze the land cover of wetlands through the color infrared (CIR) aerial photography or remote sensing image. In this paper, we designed an evolving neural network classifier using variable string genetic algorithm (VGA) for the land cover classification of CIR aerial image. With the VGA, the classifier that we designed is able to evolve automatically the appropriate number of hidden nodes for modeling the neural network topology optimally and to find a near-optimal set of connection weights globally. Then, with backpropagation algorithm (BP), it can find the best connection weights. The VGA-BP classifier, which is derived from hybrid algorithms mentioned above, is demonstrated on CIR images classification effectively. Compared with standard classifiers, such as Bayes maximum-likelihood classifier, VGA classifier and BP-MLP (multi-layer perception) classifier, it has shown that the VGA-BP classifier can have better performance on highly resolution land cover classification.

Based on Tupu theory, this paper studied the dynamic changes, conversion modes, expansion intensity and landscape attributes of the saline-alkali lands in Changling County, Zhenlai County and Da’an City of the western Jilin Province in 1980–2000 with the help of GIS. The results show that the saline-alkali land rather sharply increased in Da’an during 1995–2000; the main conversion processes in the three counties were from grassland to saline-alkali land and from saline-alkali land to grassland; and the typical shapes, spatial expansion speed and mode, and landscape attributes of the saline-alkali land were different in the three counties, which were closely related to local topography, predominant wind orientation, water resources distribution, etc. The corresponding spatial expansion mode was marginality in Changling, random in Zhenlai and more kernels in Da’an, respectively. Landscape attributes also responded to the spatial-temporal dynamic changes of the saline-alkali land and the landscape indices of Da’an fluctuated greatly. The frame of this research may provide fundamental reference for landscape analysis and give some suggestions for regional sustainable development.

Traditionally, the mid-Holocene in most parts of China was thought to be warmer with higher precipitation, resulting from a strong Asian summer monsoon. However, some recent researches have proposed a mid-Holocene drought interval of millennial-scale in East Asian monsoon margin areas. Thus whether mid-Holocene was dry or humid remains an open issue. Here, Zhuyeze palaeolake, the terminal lake of the Shiyang River Drainage lying in Asian monsoon marginal areas, was selected for reconstructing the details of climate variations during the Holocene, especially mid-Holocene, on the basis of a sedimentological analysis. Qingtu Lake (QTL) section of 6.92m depth was taken from Zhuyeze palaeolake. Multi-proxy analysis of QTL section, including grain size, carbonate, TOC, C/N and δ13C of organic matter, was used to document regional climatic changes during 9–3 cal ka B.P. The record shows a major environmental change at 9.0–7.8 cal ka B.P., attributed to a climate trend towards warmth and humidity. This event was followed by a typical regional drought event which occurred during 7.8–7.5 cal ka B.P. And a warm and humid climate prevailed from 7.5 to 5.0 cal ka B.P., attributed to the warm/humid Holocene Optimum in this region. After that, the climate gradually became drier. Moreover, comparison of the climate record from this paper with the summer insolation at 30°N indicates that the climate pattern reflecting the Asian monsoon changes was caused by insolation change.