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Human activities and natural resource changes have exerted considerable impact on the ecosystem service value (ESV) of Zhengzhou City. In this study, the standard equivalent factor, which was revised according to the basic land-use data of 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020, was adopted combined with the patch-generation land-use change simulation (PLUS) model to simulate the land-use data of Zhengzhou in three scenarios (nature development, cultivated land protection and ecological protection) in the year 2030. In this way, the spatio-temporal evolution of ecosystem service value was analyzed and forecast. Results of the modeling simuation showed that main land-use pattern of Zhengzhou was cultivated land and construction land in 1990-2020, and the dynamic degree of construction land-use area reached the apex (9.85%) from 2000 to 2010; During the period between 1990 and 2020, the area of low ESV in Zhengzhou was distributed in a "lamellar " form, accounting for 65.19% in 2020, and during the time the increased area being up to 1 339.58 km², the areas of median and slightly high ESV were distributed in the form of "secondary nuclear and tertiary", and the area of high ESV accounted for 3.59%; ESV of Zhengzhou decrease by 1.391 9 billion yuan during this period, the gain of ESV mainly came from the conversion of cultivated land to water bodies, while the loss od ESV was caused by the conversion of forest land to construction land, forest land to farmland and waterbodies to construction land. With respect to the above three scenarios, in the ecological protection scenario the variation amplitude of land use area was the smallest; ESV decreased in the natural development and cultivated land protection scenarios; and ESV increased by 123 million yuan in ecological protection scenario, with the "cold point" concentration being more obvious. It is expected that the results of this study would provide positive guidance for the territorial planning and ecological protection of Zhengzhou. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the influence range of early cities is significant for understanding the mechanisms behind ancient settlement systems and human-environment interactions. Due to a lack of effective research methods, the evolution processes and impact mechanisms of the influence ranges of prehistoric cities are still ambiguous. In this study, we chose the Songshan Mountain region for research, which witnessed the origin and development of Chinese civilization. Using GIS spatial analyses such as the 'average nearest neighbor' and 'Thiessen polygon', we explored the spatial-temporal distributions and influence ranges of Neolithic-Bronze Age cities in the region. The roles of human culture and the natural environment in the process were also investigated. The results indicated that the spatial distributions of early cities were random during the Yangshao (7000–5000 BP) and Longshan (5000–4000 BP) cultures. During the Erlitou culture (3800–3500 BP) and Shang Dynasty (3600–3046 BP), the spatial distributions changed into dispersed models. During the Zhou Dynasty (3046–2256 BP), the spatial distribution model was random again. Correspondingly, the influence range of early cities during the Erlitou culture is the largest, followed by those of the Longshan culture, Yangshao culture, Shang Dynasty, and Zhou Dynasty. This is different from the conventional view that the ancient city's influence range continuously expands as time advances. Both the natural environment and human culture are believed to impact this evolutional process. Specifically, the Holocene climate variation and the consequent cyclic river downcutting and silting affect the city site selection and thus the spatial-temporal distribution and influence range of early cities. The enfeoffment system occurring during the Erlitou culture should also have played a vital role in this evolution. In general, the natural environment is more important for the spatial distribution and influence range of early cities during Yangshao, Longshan, and Erlitou cultures, while human culture represented by the enfeoffment system plays a dominant role during Shang and Zhou Dynasties when the natural environment is relatively stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature in the field of archaeological predictive models has grown in the last years, looking for new factors the most effective methods to introduce. However, where predictive models are used for archaeological heritage management, they could benefit from using a more speedy and consequently useful methods including some well-consolidated factors studied in the literature. In this paper, an operative archaeological predictive model is developed, validated and discussed, in order to test its effectiveness. It is applied to Yangshao period (5000–3000 BC) in the Songshan area, where Chinese civilization emerged and developed, and uses 563 known settlement sites. The satisfactory results herein achieved clearly suggest that the model herein proposed can be reliably used to predict the geographical location of unknown settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]