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This study proposed the measuring models for the energy efficiency and carbon efficiency of the tourism industry in destination by the detailed bottom-up analysis method, the theory of life cycle assessment, and material flow. The Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area (WSHIA) in China was chosen as the research area; the energy efficiency and carbon efficiency of tourism industry in the WSHIA were measured and analyzed from 1979 to 2015. The research results showed that energy efficiency and carbon efficiency of tourism sectors and the whole tourism industry were improved with the evolution of the stage of tourism life cycle. There was a big discrepancy in energy efficiency and carbon efficiency among different sectors of tourism industry. Tourism activity had the highest of direct and total energy efficiencies and carbon efficiencies. Compared with the industries, the tourism industry in the WSHIA belonged to the low energy consumption and green low-carbon industry. The energy and environmental policies and the different strategies on the improvement of energy efficiency and carbon efficiency of tourism industry should be formulated and implemented by the government sector of tourism management and the tourism enterprises for green and low-carbon development of tourism destination.

With the rising pressure due to energy consumption and costs of environmental protection and recovery, industrial transfer from the eastern to central and western areas has surged in China. However, extremely fragile ecological conditions and severe water shortage are significant hurdles for industry development in Western China. Whether the vulnerable environment can bear the pollution caused by the transferred industry from Eastern China becomes a significant issue. This study firstly estimates energy and environmental costs in different areas of China, and assesses the necessity to upgrade the industrial structure of Qinghai Province. Then the emissions of waste water, waste gas, and smoke caused by transferred industries are calculated by Input-Output Model. On the basis of the effect analysis of waste emission on environment, pollution risks of Qinghai province are assessed. The results illustrate that the costs of environmental protection and recovery in China have a gradient distribution, of which the energy efficiency is lower while environmental costs are higher in Western China. Industrial structure adjustment has different impacts on the pollution of different sectors. Although the development of machinery and equipment, hotels and catering services, and real estate, leasing, and business services has increased the emission of pollutants, it is offset by the decreasing emissions caused by other industries such as construction and metal products. Therefore, although economic development will increase environmental pollution, industrial adjustments can effectively decrease waste water and waste gas emissions to reduce the pollution risk. It should be noted that there are still tremendous challenges for industrial transfer in Qinghai Province to coordinate the environment and industry development.

Food safety and its related influencing factors in China are the hot research topics currently, and cultivated land conversion is one of the significant factors influencing food safety in China. Taking the North China Plain as the study area, this paper examines the changes of cultivated land area using satellite images, estimates land productivity from 1985 to 2005 using the model of Estimation System for Land Productivity (ESLP), and analyzes the impact of cultivated land conversion on the land production. Compared with the grain yield data from statistical yearbooks, the results indicate that ESLP model is an effective tool for estimating land productivity. Land productivity in the North China Plain showed a slight decreasing trend from 1985 to 2005, spatially, increased from the north to the south gradu- ally, and the net changes varied in different areas. Cultivated land area recorded a marginal decrease of 8.0 × 10 5 ha, mainly converted to other land uses. Cultivated land conversion had more significant negative impacts on land produc- tion than land productivity did. Land production decreased by about 6.48 × 10 6 t caused by cultivated land conversion between 1985 and 2005, accounting for 91.9% of the total land production reduction. Although the land productivity increased in Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, it can not offset the overall adverse effects caused by cultivated land con- version. Therefore, there are significant meanings to control the cultivated land conversion and improve the land pro- ductivity for ensuring the land production in the North China Plain.

There is plenty of forests in Northeast China which contributes a lot to the conservation of water and land resources, produces timber products, and provides habitats for a huge number of wild animals and plants. With changes of socio-economic factors as well as the geophysical conditions, there are dramatic changes on the spatial patterns of forest area. In this sense, it is of great significance to shed light on the dynamics of forest area changes to find the underlining reasons for shaping the changing patterns of forest area in Northeast China. To explore the dynamics of forest area change in Northeast China, an econometric model is developed which is composed of three equations identifying forestry production, conversion from open forest to closed forest and conversion from other land uses to closed forest so as to explore the impacts on the forest area changes from demographic, social, economic, location and geophysical factors. On this basis, we employ the Dynamics of Land System (DLS) model to simulate land-use conversions between forest area and non-forest cover and the land-use conversions within the sub-classes of forest area for the period 2000-2020 under business as usual scenario, environmental protection scenario and economic growth scenario. The simulation results show that forest area will expand continuously and there exist various kinds of changing patterns for the sub-classes of forest area, for example, closed forest will expand continuously and open forest and shrub will decrease a little bit, while area of other forest will keep intact. The research results provide meaningful decision-making information for conserving and exploiting the forest resources and making out the planning for forestry production in the Northeast China region.

Based on field survey and statistical analysis, the immediate impacts of the Wenchuan Earthquake happened on May 12, 2008, are evaluated from two aspects, i.e., the influence on the prices and yields of grain and pork products in the local region and that on China. Wenchuan Earthquake, undoubtedly, has some negative effects on the local agricultural yields in Sichuan Province. It has caused immediate impacts on the grain and livestock breeding industry in the earthquake worst-hit counties. For example, due to the earthquake, the grain yields in Sichuan Province will decreased more than 0.4% and the pork productions decrease 5% at least. Thus, prices of grain and pork products are likely to rise in local mountainous areas over a short term. Our studying results that the disaster rate, the hazard rate and the complete loss rate of grain productions are 18%, 10% and 6% respectively in the earthquake worst-hit counties, while the disaster rate in the eastern plain areas even reach to 30%-49%. Even so, the results of model analysis for sample survey indicates that Wenchuan Earthquake has caused only marginal impacts on agricultural production, does not heavily hurt the stability of the prices and yields of grain and pork products at the national level. In other words,Wenchuan Earthquake had not affected the overall situation of national agricultural production. It is estimated that the reduction rate of national grain yield is as low as 0.006%, and the price changes of grain and pork products are no more than 0.5% and 2.2% respectively.