2015 Vol. 25, No. 6

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Articles
Impacts of Total Energy Consumption Control and Energy Quota Allocation on China's Regional Economy Based on A 30-region Computable General Equilibrium Analysis
LI Na, SHI Minjun, SHANG Zhiyuan, YUAN Yongna
2015, 25(6): 657-671. doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0739-0
Abstract:
This paper examined the impacts of the total energy consumption control policy and energy quota allocation plans on China's regional economy. This research analyzed the influences of different energy quota allocation plans with various weights of equity and efficiency, using a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for 30 province-level administrative regions. The results show that the efficiency-first allocation plan costs the least but widens regional income gap, whereas the outcomes of equity-first allocation plan and intensity target-based allocation plan are similar and are both opposite to the efficiency-first allocation plan' outcome. The plan featuring a balance between efficiency and equity is more feasible, which can bring regional economic losses evenly and prevent massive interregional migration of energy-related industries. Furthermore, the effects of possible induced energy technology improvements in different energy quota allocation plans were studied. Induced energy technology improvements can add more feasibility to all allocation plans under the total energy consumption control policy. In the long term, if the policy of the total energy consumption control continues and more market-based tools are implemented to allocate energy quotas, the positive consequences of induced energy technology improvements will become much more obvious.
A Theoretical Framework and Methodology for Urban Activity Spatial Structure in E-society: Empirical Evidence for Nanjing City, China
WANG Bo, ZHEN Feng, WEI Zongcai, GUO Shu, CHEN Tingting
2015, 25(6): 672-683. doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0751-4
Abstract:
The existing researches on the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) are mainly focused on human activity, whilst with few efforts on urban space. In the e-society, the widespread adoption of ICT devices not only affects almost every aspect of people's daily life and thereby reshapes the spatial development of regions and cities, but also generates a large amount of real-time activity data with location information. These georeferenced data, however, have relatively recently attracted attention from geographers. Adapted from Lynch's framework based on people's perceptions, this paper proposes a framework of urban spatial structure based on people's actual activity, including five elements, namely activity path, activity node, central activity zone (CAZ), activity district, and activity edge. In the empirical study, by using one week's check-in tweets (from February 25 to March 3 in 2013) collected in Nanjing City, the five elements are recognized and analyzed. Through the comparison between our results and urban spatial structure based on population (and land use), we argue that ICT uses: 1) lead to polarize, rather than to smooth, the urban structural hierarchy, due to the dual role of distance; 2) enable a partial decoupling of activity and activity space node, which challenges our conventional understanding of the role of home and the utility of travel; 3) blur the boundaries of activity districts and hence may play a positive role in enriching districts' functions, which should not be overlooked in the current urban transformation in China.
Urban Water Resource Utilization Efficiency in China
SHI Tiange, ZHANG Xiaolei, DU Hongru, SHI Hui
2015, 25(6): 684-697. doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0773-y
Abstract:
The efficient use of water resources directly affects environmental, social, and economic development; therefore, it has a significant impact on urban populations. A slacks-based measure for data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) has been widely used in energy efficiency and environmental efficiency analyses in recent years. Based on this model, data from 316 cities were examined and a category method was employed involving three different sorting techniques to empirically evaluate the efficiency of urban water resource utilization in China between 2000 and 2012. The overall efficiency (OE) of urban water resource utilization in China was initially low, but has improved over the past decade. The scale efficiency (SE) was higher than the pure technological efficiency (PTE); PTE is a major determining factor of OE, and has had an increasingly significant effect. The efficiency of water resource utilization varied according to the region, urban scale, and economic function. The OE score for the eastern China was higher than for the rest of the region, and the OE score for the western China was higher than for the central China. The OE score for urban water resource utilization has improved with urban expansion, except in the case of small cities. The SE showed an inverted ‘U-shaped’ trend with increasing urban expansion. The OE of urban water utilization in comprehensive functional cities was greater than in economic specialization cities, and was greater in heavy industry specialization cities than in other specialization cities. This study contributes to the field of urban water resource management by examining variations in efficiency with urban scale.
Industrial Spatial Agglomeration Using Distance-based Approach in Beijing, China
LI Jiaming, ZHANG Wenzhong, YU Jianhui, CHEN Hongxia
2015, 25(6): 698-712. doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0770-1
Abstract:
To study the difference of industrial location among different industries, this article is to test the spatial agglomeration across industries and firm sizes at the city level. Our research bases on a unique plant-level data set of Beijing and employs a distance-based approach, which considers space as continuous. Unlike previous studies, we set two sets of references for service and manufacturing industries respectively to adapt to the investigation in the intra-urban area. Comparing among eight types of industries and different firm sizes, we find that: 1) producer service, high-tech industries and labor-intensive manufacturing industries are more likely to cluster, whereas personal service and capital-intensive industries tend to be randomly dispersed in Beijing; 2) the spillover of the co-location of firms is more important to knowledge-intensive industries and has more significant impact on their allocation than business-oriented services in the intra-urban area; 3) the spatial agglomeration of service industries are driven by larger establishments, whereas manufacturing industries are mixed.
Modeling Hydrothermal Transfer Processes in Permafrost Regions of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China
HU Guojie, ZHAO Lin, LI Ren, WU Tonghua, WU Xiaodong, PANG Qiangqiang, XIAO Yao, QIAO Yongping, SHI Jianzong
2015, 25(6): 713-727. doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0733-6
Abstract:
Hydrothermal processes are key components in permafrost dynamics; these processes are integral to global warming. In this study the coupled heat and mass transfer model for (CoupModel) the soil-plant-atmosphere-system is applied in high-altitude permafrost regions and to model hydrothermal transfer processes in freeze-thaw cycles. Measured meteorological forcing and soil and vegetation properties are used in the CoupModel for the period from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2012 at the Tanggula observation site in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. A 24-h time step is used in the model simulation. The results show that the simulated soil temperature and water content, as well as the frozen depth compare well with the measured data. The coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.97 for the mean soil temperature and 0.73 for the mean soil water content, respectively. The simulated soil heat flux at a depth of 0-20 cm is also consistent with the monitored data. An analysis is performed on the simulated hydrothermal transfer processes from the deep soil layer to the upper one during the freezing and thawing period. At the beginning of the freezing period, the water in the deep soil layer moves upward to the freezing front and releases heat during the freezing process. When the soil layer is completely frozen, there are no vertical water exchanges between the soil layers, and the heat exchange process is controlled by the vertical soil temperature gradient. During the thawing period, the downward heat process becomes more active due to increased incoming shortwave radiation at the ground surface. The melt water is quickly dissolved in the soil, and the soil water movement only changes in the shallow soil layer. Subsequently, the model was used to provide an evaluation of the potential response of the active layer to different scenarios of initial water content and climate warming at the Tanggula site. The results reveal that the soil water content and the organic layer provide protection against active layer deepening in summer, so climate warming will cause the permafrost active layer to become deeper and permafrost degradation.
Hydrologic Modeling Impacts of Post-mining Land Use Changes on Streamflow of Peace River, Florida
ZHANG Jing, Mark ROSS
2015, 25(6): 728-738. doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0745-2
Abstract:
Whether mining activity results in reduced flow of surface water in the Peace River Watershed of Florida has been the subject of much debate. With increased dependence of downstream users on surface water flow of the Peace River as a source of drinking water for four coastal counties in Southwest Florida and problems of water security, the debate has been intensified. It is possible to assess relationships of mining with streamflow in the upper reaches of the Peace River Basin using hydrologic modeling and identify mined sub-basins. In this work, land-use change impacts were simulated by the Hydrological Simulation Program—Fortran (HSPF) model based on geographical information system (GIS) tools, to compare pre-and post-mining streamflows at a study site of the Peace River in west-central Florida. The purpose of this study was to determine if land-use changes caused by mining have negatively impacted streamflow in the Peace River. Changes of land use were identified before and after mining activities. A coupled volume-water depth-discharge (V-h-Q) model based on stage/storage and stage/discharge was applied using HSPF for the pre-mining and post-mining models, respectively. Daily simulated post-mining hydrographs from HSPF were plotted with the calibrated pre-mining results and streamflow hydrographs from the 18 gauging stations, to compare timing of peaks, low flows and flow trends. Analyses of percent exceedances of flow frequency curves of the streams indicated that most streams had similar distributions for mined (reclaimed) and pre-mining periods. In the streamflow change analysis, streamflows actually increased in mining-affected basins at nearly half the stations. Streamflows at other stations diminished. Overall from this comprehensive study, there were declines in streamflow at most gauging stations on the mainstem of the Peace River and its tributaries. The results of this study suggest that regional planning is urgently needed to propose reclamation schemes that enhance regional hydrology.
Effects of Water-table Depth and Soil Moisture on Plant Biomass, Diversity, and Distribution at a Seasonally Flooded Wetland of Poyang Lake, China
XU Xiuli, ZHANG Qi, TAN Zhiqiang, LI Yunliang, WANG Xiaolong
2015, 25(6): 739-756. doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0774-x
Abstract:
Hydrological regime has been widely recognized as one of the major forces determining vegetation distribution in seasonally flooded wetland. Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, has been encountering dramatic changes in hydrological conditions in last decade, which greatly influenced the wetland vegetations. To explore the relationships between hydrology and vegetation distribution, water-table depth, soil moisture, species composition, diversity and biomass were measured at a seasonally flooded wetland section at Wucheng National Nature Reserve. Three plant communities, Artemisia capillaris, Phragmites australis and Carex cinerascens communities, were examined which are zonally distributed from upland to lakeshore with decreasing elevation. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), spearmen correlation and logistic regression were adopted to analyze the relationships between vegetation characteristics and hydrological variables of water-table depth and soil moisture. Results show that significant hydrological gradient exist along the wetland transect. Water-table demonstrates a seasonal variation and is consistently deepest in A. capillaris community (ranging from -0.5 m above ground to +10.3 m below ground), intermediate in P. australis community (-2.6 m to +7.8 m) and shallowest in C. cinerascens community (-4.5 m to +6.1 m). Soil moisture is lowest and most variable in A. capillaris community, highest and least variable in P. australis community, and intermediate and moderate variable in C. cinerascens community. The CCA ordination indicated that variables of water-table depth and soil moisture are strongly related to community distribution, which explained 81.7% of the vegetation variations. Species diversity indices are significantly positively correlated with soil moisture and negatively correlated with moisture variability, while above-and belowground biomass are positively correlated with moisture. Above-and belowground biomass present Gaussian models along the gradient of average water-table depth in growing season, while species diversity indices show bimodal patterns. The optimal average water-table depths for above-and belowground biomass are 0.8 m and 0.5 m, respectively, and are 2.2 m and 2.4 m for species richness and Shannon-Wiener indices, respectively. Outcomes of this work improved the understandings of the relationship between hydrology and vegetation.
Effect of Root Architecture on Structural Stability and Erodibility of Topsoils during Concentrated Flow in Hilly Loess Plateau
LI Qiang, LIU Guobin, ZHANG Zheng, TUO Dengfeng, XU Mingxiang
2015, 25(6): 757-764. doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0723-0
Abstract:
Traditional vegetation techniques for the control of concentrated flow erosion are widely recognized, whereas only a few studies have experimentally investigated the impacts of belowground roots on the erodibility of topsoils in semi-arid areas. To quantify the effects of root architectures on soil erodibility and its relevant structural properties, simulated flow experiments were conducted at six-week intervals from 18 July to 20 October in 2012 in the hilly Loess Plateau. Five treatments were: 1) bare (control), 2) purple alfalfa (Medicago sativa), representing tap roots (T), 3) switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), representing fibrous roots (F), 4) purple alfalfa and switchgrass, representing both tap and fibrous roots (T + F), and 5) natural recovery (N). For each treatment, soil structural properties and root characteristics were measured at an interval of six weeks. Soil anti-scouribility was calculated. Results showed that grass planting slightly reduced soil bulk density, but increased soil aggregate content by 19.1%, 10.6%, 28.5%, and 41.2% in the treatments T, F, T + F, and N, respectively. Soil shear strength (cohesion and angle of internal friction (φ)) significantly increased after the grass was planted. As roots grew, soil cohesion increased by 115.2%-135.5%, while soil disintegration rate decreased by 39.0%-58.1% in the 21th week compared with the recorded value in the 9th week. Meanwhile, root density and root surface area density increased by 64.0%-104.7% and 75.9%-157.1%, respectively. No significant differences in soil anti-scouribility were observed between the treatments of T and F or of T + F and N, but the treatments of T + F and N performed more effectively than T or F treatment alone in retarding concentrated flow. Soil aggregation and root surface-area density explained the observed soil anti-scouribility during concentrated flow well for the different treatments. This result proved that the restoration of natural vegetation might be the most appropriate strategy in soil reinforcement in the hilly Loess Plateau.
Simulating Evolution of a Loess Gully Head with Cellular Automata
LIU Xiaojing, TANG Guo'an, YANG Jianyi, SHEN Zhou, PAN Ting
2015, 25(6): 765-774. doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0716-z
Abstract:
This paper presents a new method for simulating the evolution of a gully head in a loess catchment with cellular automata (CA) based on the Fisher discriminant. The experimental site is an indoor loess catchment that was constructed in a fixed-intensity rainfall erosion test facility. Nine high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) data sets were gathered by close range photogrammetry during different phases of the experiment. To simulate the evolution of the catchment gully head, we assumed the following. First, the 5th and 6th DEM data sets were used as a data source for acquiring the location of the catchment gully head and for obtaining spatial variables with GIS spatial analysis tools. Second, the Fisher discriminant was used to calculate the weight of the spatial variables to determine the transition probabilities. Third, CA model was structured to simulate the evolution of the gully head by iterative looping. The status of the cell in the CA models was dynamically updated at the end of each loop to obtain realistic results. Finally, the nearest neighbor, G-function, K-function, Moran's I and fractal indexes were used to evaluate the model results. Overall, the CA model can be used to simulate the evolution of a loess gully head. The experiment demonstrated the advantages of the CA model which can simulate the dynamic evolution of gully head evolution in a catchment.
A GIS-based Spatial Analysis of Housing Price and Road Density in Proximity to Urban Lakes in Wuhan City, China
ZHANG Zuo, TAN Shukui, TANG Wenwu
2015, 25(6): 775-790. doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0788-4
Abstract:
As one of the essential urban open spaces, lakes usually contribute immensely to the quality of residents' daily lives. Different from hedonic approach employed in existing researches on urban open spaces in China, this paper integrates housing price surface with road density to analyze the spatial characteristics in proximity to urban lakes in Wuhan City, China. With the expansion of Wuhan City, urban lakes became polluted, they shrunk or even disappeared, leading to unfavorable conditions for sustainable development of the city. To better understand the spatial relationship between the city and lakes, we classify the urban lakes in Wuhan central area into 'lakes in the urban center' and 'lakes in urban fringe'. Based on housing price surface we explore the spatial characteristics in proximity to different lakes and differences between the lakes. We also use Geographic Information System (GIS) tool to calculate road density as a supplementary indicator to reflect the accessibility in proximity to urban lakes. The results indicate that relative independence exists between different towns, and the spatial characteristics are different depending on scales and locations. In most of cases, the road density is lower where closer to the lakeshore while the housing price exhibits an opposite pattern. We conclude that city governments and urban planners should give more considerations to these spatial differences, somewhere should be better planned and protected as an important waterfront and somewhere the control of unreasonable real estate development nearby should be strengthened.