Towards Establishing Effective Protective Boundaries for the Lunan Stone Forest Using an Online Spatial Decision Support System

 The Lunan Stone Forest is the Worldʼs premier pinnacle karst landscape, and was established as a national park in 1982. The existing boundaries are essentially arbitrary, based on notional scenic value, and take into consideration neither the physical landscape nor the existing pattern of urban development. Moreover, the location of the boundaries is not clear to the local community, rendering them largely ineffective. Developing an online Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) potentially provides a way to establish protective boundaries that are meaningful from the perspective of karst science, yet also readily identifiable by the local community within the context of the existing urban fabric. The 7km2 “core area” of the Stone Forest Park is used to illustrate the use of the SDSS.   Lunanski kaniti gozd je najlepši primer »kamnitega gozda« (shilin) na svetu in je bil 1982 razglašen za narodni park. Sedanje meje parka so bile dogovorjene na osnovi zaznavne pokrajinske vrednote in ne upoštevajo niti fizičnih lastnosti pokrajine niti obstoječega vzorca razvoja mesta. Še več, lokalnim skupnostim meje niso jasne in so zato še manj učinkovite. Z razvojem Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) na spletu je dano orodje, s pomočjo katerega bi bilo mogoče določiti meje varovanega območja, ki bi bile zadovoljujoče z vidika krasoslovja in sprejete s strani lokalnih skupnosti v skladu s sedanjim urbanim razvojem. Na 7 km2 osrednjega dela Kamnitega gozda je prikazana možnost uporabe SDSS.

Ekonomski rast i emisija ugljika u Kini: Kuznetsova krivulja prostorne ekonometrije

Economic development has largely contributed to the increment of CO2 emission. This study uses spatial econometric models to investigate the relationship between economic growth and carbon emission in China with data of 30 provinces of China during the period of 2000 to 2012. Results show that the relationship between carbon emission and economic growth in China during the recent decade has the development tendency toward an inverse U-shaped curve, approximately confirming the carbon emission’s Kuznets curve hypothesis in China. There exists a significant spatial correlation between carbon emission and economic growth,implying that carbon emission in a province may be influenced by economic growth in adjacent provinces. When economic growth reaches 279.91 million Yuan/km2 GDP (at a comparable price in 2000), the contradiction between economic growth and carbon emission begins to be gradually alleviated. These findings provide new insights and valuable information for reducing carbon emissions in China.Gospodarski razvoj uvelike je pridonio povećanju emisije CO2. Ova studija koristi prostorne ekonometrijske modele za istraživanje odnosa između gospodarskog rasta i emisije ugljika u Kini s podacima iz 30 pokrajina Kine u razdoblju od 2000. do 2012. godine. Rezultati pokazuju da tijekom posljednjeg desetljeća odnos emisije ugljika i gospodarskog rasta u Kini ima tendenciju razvoja prema inverznoj krivulji U-oblika, približno potvrđujući hipotezu Kuznetsove krivulje emisije ugljika u Kini. Postoji značajna prostorna povezanost između emisije ugljika i ekonomskog rasta, što implicira da na emisiju ugljika u pokrajini može utjecati gospodarski rast u susjednim pokrajinama. Nakon što je ekonomski rast dosegnuo omjer od 279,91 milijuna Yuan/km2 BDP-a (usporediva cijena u 2000. godini), kontradikcija između gospodarskog rasta i emisije ugljika počinje se postupno ublažavati. Ovi rezultati pružaju nove uvide i vrijedne informacije kako reducirati emisije ugljika u Kini

Updating Categorical Soil Maps Using Limited Survey Data by Bayesian Markov Chain Cosimulation

Updating categorical soil maps is necessary for providing current, higher-quality soil data to agricultural and environmental management but may not require a costly thorough field survey because latest legacy maps may only need limited corrections. This study suggests a Markov chain random field (MCRF) sequential cosimulation (Co-MCSS) method for updating categorical soil maps using limited survey data provided that qualified legacy maps are available. A case study using synthetic data demonstrates that Co-MCSS can appreciably improve simulation accuracy of soil types with both contributions from a legacy map and limited sample data. The method indicates the following characteristics: (1) if a soil type indicates no change in an update survey or it has been reclassified into another type that similarly evinces no change, it will be simply reproduced in the updated map; (2) if a soil type has changes in some places, it will be simulated with uncertainty quantified by occurrence probability maps; (3) if a soil type has no change in an area but evinces changes in other distant areas, it still can be captured in the area with unobvious uncertainty. We concluded that Co-MCSS might be a practical method for updating categorical soil maps with limited survey data

Effects of microtopographic patterns on plant growth and soil improvement in coastal wetlands of the Yellow River Delta

IntroductionTo clarify the effects of microtopography on plant growth and soil water, salt and nutrient characteristics of saline soils in mudflats within muddy coastal zones and explore suitable microtopographic modifications.MethodsSix microtopographic modification patterns, namely, S-shaped, stripe-shaped, pin-shaped, stepshaped, dense stripe-shaped and crescent-shaped patterns, were established in the coastal mudflats of the Yellow River Delta. The soil water, salt, ion, total carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus contents and their ecological stoichiometric characteristics were measured and analyzed after theimplementation of different microtopographic modification patterns, with bare mudflats as the control.ResultsThe results showed that microtopographic modification significantly changed the soil water and salt contents and the soil total carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus contents. Compared with the bare ground, microtopographic transformation significantly promoted the growth of the pioneer plant Suaeda salsa, significantly increased the soil water and nutrient contents, and significantly decreased the soil salinity. The soil salinity was mainly reduced by Na+ and Cl- ions. The soil salinity and nutrient contents gradually decreased with increasing soil depth, indicating the occurrence of surface aggregation. Compared to that of the bare ground, the soil C/N was significantly lower and the N/P was significantly higher in the microtopographic treatments, and the overall performance suggested soil N limitation. The ions contained in the saline soil were dominated by Na+ and Cl-, followed by Mg2+ and SO42-, with lower contents of K+, Ca2+ and HCO3-. Among the six microtopography modification patterns, the crescent-shaped pattern best promoted vegetation restoration. This pattern was the most effective in reducing soil salinity, with a 98.53% reduction in soil salinity compared with that of bare ground, followed by the pin-shaped pattern. Compared with that in the bare ground samples, the nutrient content in the samples from the step-shaped modification increased by 23.27%; finally, the S-shaped, step-shaped and dense stripe-shaped patterns performed poorly in terms of plant restoration and soil improvement.DiscussionIt is suggested that a crescent-shaped pattern should be considered first when carrying out microtopographic transformation on the beaches of the Yellow River Delta, followed by stripe-shaped and pin-shaped patterns. The dense strip-shaped should not be adopted

Phytoremediation Potential of Three Species of Macrophytes for Nitrate in Contaminated Water

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