Abstract  Based on the analysis of its basic characteristics, this article investigated the disparities of Chinese service industry among the three regions (the eastern China, the western China and the middle China) and inter-provincial disparities of that in the three regions by Theil coefficient and cluster analysis. Then, major factors influencing its spatial disparity were explored by correlation analysis and regression analysis. The conclusions could be drawn as follows. 1) The development of Chinese service industry experienced three phases since the 1980s: rapid growth period, slow growth period, and recovery period. From the proportion of value-added and employment, its development was obviously on the low level. From the composition of industrial structure, traditional service sectors were dominant, but modern service sectors were lagged. Moreover, its spatial disparity was distinct. 2) The level of Chinese service industry was divided into five basic regional ranks: well-developed, developed, relatively-developed, underdeveloped and undeveloped regions. As a whole, the overall structure of spatial disparity was steady in 1990–2005. But there was notable gradient disparity in the interior structure of service industry among different provinces. Furthermore, the overall disparity expanded rapidly in 1990–2005. The inter-provincial disparity of service industry in the three regions, especially in the eastern China, was bigger than the disparity among the three regions. And 3) the level of economic development, the level of urban development, the scale of market capacity, the level of transportation and telecommunication, and the abundance of human resources were major factors influencing the development of Chinese service industry.

Abstract  Based on the observed data in monitored drainage areas and GIS spatial analysis tools, watershed basic database of Shitoukoumen Reservoir Basin was built. The multivariate analysis and redundancy analysis (RDA) were used to analyze the spatial and temporal variations of water quality, identify the key environmental factors and their patterns influencing the spatial variation of water quality, and determine the main types and forms of the non-point source (NPS) pollutant export controlled by the key environmental factors. The results show that different patterns of environmental factors lead to great changes in water quality at spatial and seasonal scales. All selected environmental factors explain 64.5% and 68.2% of the spatial variation of water quality over dry season and rainy season, respectively, which shows clear seasonal difference. Over dry season, residential land is the most important environmental factor, which possesses 35.4% of the spatial variation, and drainage area is the second key environmental factor, which possesses 17.0% of spatial variation in the total variance. Over rainy season, slope length and drainage area are the key environmental factors, which possess 29.3% of the spatial variation together. Residential land influences nitrogen export by changing NH₄ ⁺-N and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) discharge over dry season, and drainage area controls phosphorus export by regulating dissolved phosphorus (DP) drainage over dry season and phosphorus associated particulate (PAP) loss over rainy season, respectively. Although slope length is an important environmental factor, it does not influence NPS pollutant export. It is interesting that soil organic matter, as a minor environmental factor, highly determines phosphorus and nitrogen export by enhancing the DP, PAP and PON loss.

Abstract  Taking Guangzhou as a case, this paper adopted a questionnaire survey to gather first-hand data and analyzed the characteristics and influencing factors of private car travel in Chinese cities. As the research indicated, trip purposes of private car travel are mainly commute and business affairs with a more flexible trip in the urban core area. And trip intensities are concentrated in a certain extent, with trip frequency being lower in the urban core area than the peripheral area. In addition, the trip time has two significant peaks occurring in the morning and afternoon, and one trough in the midday. And trip spatial distribution is mainly within commute with both residence and employment in urban area and inward commute with residence in suburban area while employment in urban area. Both kinds of commutes direct to the urban area. The study also shows that the characteristics of private car travel are principally influenced by two aspects: travelers’ attributes and urban characteristics. The main travelers’ social and economic attributes influenced it include the gender, education attainment, age, driving experience and per capita monthly household income. The urban characteristics influenced it mainly cover the land use pattern, public traffic facilities and spatial attributes of residential environment.

Abstract  There are about 19 Neolithic Age sites and 120 Shang-Zhou dynasties sites in the western lakeshore of Chaohu Lake, Anhui Province, China. Based on sites data, topographic data, drainage maps, administrative maps and SPOT5 remote sensing data, spatial analysis methods were introduced into the archaeology of Chaohu Lake Basin with Geographic Information System (GIS). The spatial analysis methods include: 1) Point Density Analysis with density model to acquire the shift of the sites; 2) Distance Analysis to reveal the spatial structure of the sites; 3) 3D Analysis based on Digital Elevation Model to get micro-geomorphologic features of the sites; and 4) Buffer Analysis to discover the relationship between the sites and rivers. The results indicate that the archaeological sites spread from the western lakeshore of Chaohu Lake gradually to the northwest, later to the south, and then symmetrically spread. Controlled by productive forces and other factors, ancient people preferred to reside in those places near water, or in plain and fertile land, which resulted in linear and decentralized distribution of the sites, and presented such disciplines as river valley directivity, terrace directivity and soil directivity. This paper indicates that the distribution of archaeological sites was influenced earlier by natural elements and later by human elements in the study period. The research is important for the integration of GIS and archaeology.

Abstract  Human-induced land use/cover change (LUCC) forms an important component of global environmental change. Therefore, it is important to study land use/cover and its change at local, regional and global scales. In this paper we conducted the study of land use change in Northeast China, one of the most important agricultural zones of the nation. From 1986 to 2000, according to the study results obtained from Landsat images, widespread changes in land use/cover took place in the study area. Grassland, marsh, water body and woodland decreased by 9864, 3973, 1367 and 10,052km², respectively. By comparison, paddy field, dry farmland, and built-up land expanded by 7339, 17193 and 700km², respectively. Those changes bore an interactive relationship with the environment, especially climate change. On the one hand, climate warming created a potential environment for grassland and marsh to be changed to farmland as more crops could thrive in the warmer climate, and for dry farmland to paddy field. On the other hand, the changed surface cover modified the local climate. Those changes, in turn, have adversely influenced the local environment by accelerating land degradation. In terms of socio-economic driving forces, population augment, regional economic development, and national and provincial policies were confirmed as main driving factors for land use change.

Abstract  This paper explores the potential to improve the impervious surface estimation accuracy using a multi-stage approach on the basis of vegetation-impervious surface-soil (V-I-S) model. In the first stage of Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) process, pixel purity index, a quantitative index for defining endmember quality, and a 3-dimensional endmember selection method were applied to refining endmembers. In the second stage, instead of obtaining impervious surface fraction by adding high and low albedo fractions directly, a linear regression model was built between impervious surface and high/low albedo using a random sampling method. The urban impervious surface distribution in the urban central area of Shanghai was predicted by the linear regression model. Estimation accuracy of spectral mixture analysis and impervious surface fraction were assessed using root mean square (RMS) and color aerial photography respectively. In comparison with three different research methods, this improved estimation method has a higher overall accuracy than traditional Linear Spectral Mixture Analysis (LSMA) method and the normalized SMA model both in root mean square error (RMSE) and standard error (SE). However, the model has a tendency to overestimate the impervious surface distribution.

Abstract  The existing models of population distribution often focus on the region with a single city or even multiple centers, and lack the detailed explorations of the common and special type of urbanization areas with two centers. Taking Beijing-Tianjin region of China, which is a distinct dual-nuclei metropolitan area in the world, as an example and choosing Landsat-5 TM image in 2005, population, etc. as the data, this paper devotes to comprehending and illustrating a model of Cassini growth of population between the two metropolitan cities through the research of spatial population distribution pattern, aided with RS and GIS techniques. Main technical processes include Kriging interpolation of the population data and character simulation of the Cassini ovals. According to the calculation of a/b, a key characteristic index of Cassini growth model, the spatial structures of population distribution were given. When a/b<1, it is a curve with two separated loops with a population density more than 3000 persons/km². When a/b=1, it is a lemniscate curve with a population density about 3000 persons/km². When 1<a/b√2, it is a dog-bone shaped concave curve with a population density between 500–3000 persons/km². When a/b=√2, it is an oblate curve with a population density about 500 persons/km². When a/b>√2, there is an oval-shaped convex curve with a population density less than 500 persons/km². The results show that owing to the combined action and influence of the regional dual-nuclei, the population distribution of Beijing-Tianjin region is in accord with Cassini model significantly. There-fore, there is Cassini growth of population between the two metropolitan cities in Beijing-Tianjin region. In addition, the process of Cassini growth has extraordinarily instructive significance for judging the development stages of the dual-nuclei metropolitan areas.

Abstract  A 350-cm-long sediment core sequence from Dahu Swamp situated in the eastern Nanling Mountains was selected for high-resolution paleoclimatic reconstruction since the Late Glacial period. The multi-proxy records of this paper reveal several evidently dry and cold events that may coincide with the Oldest Dryas, the Older Dryas, the Younger Dryas in the late deglacial period. Two relatively wetter and warmer phases occurred in ca. 15,000–14,400 cal yr B.P. and 13,500–12,800 cal yr B.P. respectively may correspond to the Bølling and Allerød warming events. The Younger Dryas event (ca. 12,800–11,500 cal yr B.P.) revealed by multi-proxies was characterized by relatively colder and drier climate. A warmer and wetter climate, occurred in ca. 10,000–6000 cal yr B.P., was consistent with the Holocene Optimum, which coincided with the maximum Northern Hemisphere insolation. The “8.2kyr cool event” and even the “8.8kyr cool event” were indicated as well from our sediment core. A dry mid-Holocene period (ca. 6000–3000 cal yr B.P.) indicated by multi-proxies does not follow the traditional concept of the wet mid-Holocene conditions observed in other regions in China.

Abstract  A research trial with four land management practices, i.e., traditional tillage-fallow (TTF), traditional tillage-wheat (TTW), conservation tillage-fallow (CTF) and conservation tillage-wheat (CTW), was sampled in the 15th year after its establishment to assess the effects of different management practices on labile organic carbon fractions (LOCFs), such as easily oxidizable organic carbon (EOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), particulate organic carbon (POC) and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) in a typical paddy soil, Chongqing, Southwest China. The results indicated that LOCFs were significantly influenced by the combination of no-tillage, ridge culture and crop rotation. And, different combination patterns showed different effectiveness on soil LOCFs. The effects of no-tillage, ridge culture and wheat cultivation on EOC, DOC, POC and MBC mainly happened at 0–10cm. At this depth, soil under CTW had higher EOC, DOC, POC and MBC contents, compared to TTF, TTW and CTF, respectively. Moreover, the contents of LOCFs for different practices generally decreased when the soil depth increased. Our findings suggest that the paddy soil in Southwest China could be managed to concentrate greater quantities of EOC, DOC, POC and MBC.

Abstract  Land use change in rural China since the 1980s, induced by institution reforms, urbanization, industrialization and population increase, has received more attention. However, case studies on how institution reforms affect farmers’ livelihood strategies and drive land use change are scarce. By means of cropland plots investigations and interviews with farmers, this study examines livelihood strategy change and land use change in Danzam Village of Jinchuan County in the upper Dadu River watershed, eastern Tibetan Plateau, China. The results show that, during the collective system period, as surplus labor forces could not be transferred to the secondary and tertiary industries, they had to choose agricultural involution as their livelihood strategy, then the farmers had to produce more grains by land reclamation, increasing multiple cropping index, improving input of labor, fertilizer, pesticide and adopting advanced agricultural techniques. During the household responsibility system period, as labors being transferred to the secondary and tertiary industries, farmers chose livelihood diversification strategy. Therefore, labor input to grain planting was greatly reduced, which drove the transformation of grain to horticulture, vegetable or wasteland and decrease of multiple cropping index. This study provides a new insight into understanding linkages among institution reforms, livelihood strategy of smallholders and land use change in rural China.