2015 Vol. 25, No. 5
Display Method:
2015, 25(5): 523-536.
doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0776-8
Abstract:
In recent years, because of increasing human activities, ecosystems have been substantially disturbed and their service functions have been greatly compromised. Based on the effect of land use changes on the major ecosystem services, we estimated the ecosystem comprehensive anthropogenic disturbance index (ECADI) and analyzed the spatio-temporal characteristics of changes in the ECADI in China from 1990 to 2010. The average ECADI of the major ecosystem function zones in China in 2010 is approximately 0.382. The ECADI of Northeast China and North China is slightly higher than that of Northwest China and Southwest China. Most zones have slight changes in the ECADI. The average increases of ECADI in the major ecosystem function zones in China from 1990 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2010 are 0.0024 and 0.0002, respectively. The increase is mainly due to reclamation and urbanization, whereas the decrease is due to the implementation of ecosystem protection policies. During the last 20 years, the ECADI of water resources conservation zones increased first, and then stopped. The ECADI of soil conservation zones increased first, and then declined. The ECADI of sandstorm prevention zones, biodiversity conservation zones and flooding mitigation zones increased continuously. Our results may provide proposals to the government regarding land use planning and ecosystem protection plans in the major ecosystem zones. The major ecosystem function zones in the western part of China have been protected effectively. However, the major ecosystem function zones in the eastern part of China require more protection in the future.
In recent years, because of increasing human activities, ecosystems have been substantially disturbed and their service functions have been greatly compromised. Based on the effect of land use changes on the major ecosystem services, we estimated the ecosystem comprehensive anthropogenic disturbance index (ECADI) and analyzed the spatio-temporal characteristics of changes in the ECADI in China from 1990 to 2010. The average ECADI of the major ecosystem function zones in China in 2010 is approximately 0.382. The ECADI of Northeast China and North China is slightly higher than that of Northwest China and Southwest China. Most zones have slight changes in the ECADI. The average increases of ECADI in the major ecosystem function zones in China from 1990 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2010 are 0.0024 and 0.0002, respectively. The increase is mainly due to reclamation and urbanization, whereas the decrease is due to the implementation of ecosystem protection policies. During the last 20 years, the ECADI of water resources conservation zones increased first, and then stopped. The ECADI of soil conservation zones increased first, and then declined. The ECADI of sandstorm prevention zones, biodiversity conservation zones and flooding mitigation zones increased continuously. Our results may provide proposals to the government regarding land use planning and ecosystem protection plans in the major ecosystem zones. The major ecosystem function zones in the western part of China have been protected effectively. However, the major ecosystem function zones in the eastern part of China require more protection in the future.
2015, 25(5): 537-548.
doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0777-7
Abstract:
As an important product of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), MOD17A2 provides dramatic improvements in our ability to accurately and continuously monitor global terrestrial primary production, which is also significant in effort to advance scientific research and eco-environmental management. Over the past decades, forests have moderated climate change by sequestrating about one-quarter of the carbon emitted by human activities through fossil fuels burning and land use/land cover change. Thus, the carbon uptake by forests reduces the rate at which carbon accumulates in the atmosphere. However, the sensitivity of near real-time MODIS gross primary productivity (GPP) product is directly constrained by uncertainties in the modeling process, especially in complicated forest ecosystems. Although there have been plenty of studies to verify MODIS GPP with ground-based measurements using the eddy covariance (EC) technique, few have comprehensively validated the performance of MODIS estimates (Collection 5) across diverse forest types. Therefore, the present study examined the degree of correspondence between MODIS-derived GPP and EC-measured GPP at seasonal and interannual time scales for the main forest ecosystems, including evergreen broadleaf forest (EBF), evergreen needleleaf forest (ENF), deciduous broadleaf forest (DBF), and mixed forest (MF) relying on 16 flux towers with a total of 68 site-year datasets. Overall, site-specific evaluation of multi-year mean annual GPP estimates indicates that the current MOD17A2 product works highly effectively for MF and DBF, moderately effectively for ENF, and ineffectively for EBF. Except for tropical forest, MODIS estimates could capture the broad trends of GPP at 8-day time scale for all other sites surveyed. On the annual time scale, the best performance was observed in MF, followed by ENF, DBF, and EBF. Trend analyses also revealed the poor performance of MODIS GPP product in EBF and DBF. Thus, improvements in the sensitivity of MOD17A2 to forest productivity require continued efforts.
As an important product of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), MOD17A2 provides dramatic improvements in our ability to accurately and continuously monitor global terrestrial primary production, which is also significant in effort to advance scientific research and eco-environmental management. Over the past decades, forests have moderated climate change by sequestrating about one-quarter of the carbon emitted by human activities through fossil fuels burning and land use/land cover change. Thus, the carbon uptake by forests reduces the rate at which carbon accumulates in the atmosphere. However, the sensitivity of near real-time MODIS gross primary productivity (GPP) product is directly constrained by uncertainties in the modeling process, especially in complicated forest ecosystems. Although there have been plenty of studies to verify MODIS GPP with ground-based measurements using the eddy covariance (EC) technique, few have comprehensively validated the performance of MODIS estimates (Collection 5) across diverse forest types. Therefore, the present study examined the degree of correspondence between MODIS-derived GPP and EC-measured GPP at seasonal and interannual time scales for the main forest ecosystems, including evergreen broadleaf forest (EBF), evergreen needleleaf forest (ENF), deciduous broadleaf forest (DBF), and mixed forest (MF) relying on 16 flux towers with a total of 68 site-year datasets. Overall, site-specific evaluation of multi-year mean annual GPP estimates indicates that the current MOD17A2 product works highly effectively for MF and DBF, moderately effectively for ENF, and ineffectively for EBF. Except for tropical forest, MODIS estimates could capture the broad trends of GPP at 8-day time scale for all other sites surveyed. On the annual time scale, the best performance was observed in MF, followed by ENF, DBF, and EBF. Trend analyses also revealed the poor performance of MODIS GPP product in EBF and DBF. Thus, improvements in the sensitivity of MOD17A2 to forest productivity require continued efforts.
2015, 25(5): 549-560.
doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0756-z
Abstract:
Characterization of the vertical distribution of soil organic carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) may improve our ability to accurately estimate soil C, N, and P storage. Based on a database of 21 354 records in 74 long-term monitoring plots from 2004 to 2013 in the Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN), we built fitting functions to quantify the vertical distribution of soil C, N, and P (up to 100 cm depth) in the typical Chinese terrestrial ecosystems. The decrease of soil C, N, and P content with depth can be well fitted with various mathematical functions. The fitting functions differed greatly between artificial (agriculture) and natural (desert, forest, and grassland) ecosystems, and also differed with respect to soil C, N, and P content. In both the artificial and natural ecosystems, the best fitting functions were exponential functions for C, quadratic functions for N, and quadratic functions for P. Furthermore, the stoichiometric ratios of soil C, N, and P were ranked in descending order: grassland > forest > agriculture > desert, and were also associated with climate. This study is the first to build the fitting functions for the profile distribution of soil C, N, and P in China at a national scale. Our findings provide a scientific basis to accurately assess the storage of C, N, and P in soils at a large scale, especially for the integrative analysis of historical data.
Characterization of the vertical distribution of soil organic carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) may improve our ability to accurately estimate soil C, N, and P storage. Based on a database of 21 354 records in 74 long-term monitoring plots from 2004 to 2013 in the Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN), we built fitting functions to quantify the vertical distribution of soil C, N, and P (up to 100 cm depth) in the typical Chinese terrestrial ecosystems. The decrease of soil C, N, and P content with depth can be well fitted with various mathematical functions. The fitting functions differed greatly between artificial (agriculture) and natural (desert, forest, and grassland) ecosystems, and also differed with respect to soil C, N, and P content. In both the artificial and natural ecosystems, the best fitting functions were exponential functions for C, quadratic functions for N, and quadratic functions for P. Furthermore, the stoichiometric ratios of soil C, N, and P were ranked in descending order: grassland > forest > agriculture > desert, and were also associated with climate. This study is the first to build the fitting functions for the profile distribution of soil C, N, and P in China at a national scale. Our findings provide a scientific basis to accurately assess the storage of C, N, and P in soils at a large scale, especially for the integrative analysis of historical data.
2015, 25(5): 561-568.
doi: 10.1007/s11769-014-0696-z
Abstract:
Soil biogenic NO emission is one of the most important sources of atmospheric nitrogen oxides (NOx) worldwide. However, the estimation of soil source, especially in arid areas presents large uncertainties because of the substantial lack of measurements. In this study, we selected the Ruoqiang oases on the southeastern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, China as the study area and applied Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) NO2 retrievals (DOMINO v2.0, 2005-2011) to investigate the spatial distribution and seasonal variations in tropospheric NO2 vertical column density (VCD). High NO2 VCDs were observed over the oases (farmlands and natural vegetation), with the highest value obtained during summer, and lowest during winter. Pulses were observed during spring. We conducted in-situ measurements in June 2011 in Milan oasis and employed ground-based multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) instruments to validate satellite NO2 retrievals. The findings are as follows: 1) in the study area soil biogenic NO emission is the dominant source of tropospheric NO2; 2) oases (farmlands) are hotspots of tropospheric NO2, and a higher increase in tropospheric NO2 is found in oases from winter to summer; and 3) enhancement of soil biogenic NO emission due to soil managements is predictable. Given the rapid agricultural development in the southern Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, researches on soil biogenic NO emission and increase in tropospheric NOx should be given more importance.
Soil biogenic NO emission is one of the most important sources of atmospheric nitrogen oxides (NOx) worldwide. However, the estimation of soil source, especially in arid areas presents large uncertainties because of the substantial lack of measurements. In this study, we selected the Ruoqiang oases on the southeastern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, China as the study area and applied Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) NO2 retrievals (DOMINO v2.0, 2005-2011) to investigate the spatial distribution and seasonal variations in tropospheric NO2 vertical column density (VCD). High NO2 VCDs were observed over the oases (farmlands and natural vegetation), with the highest value obtained during summer, and lowest during winter. Pulses were observed during spring. We conducted in-situ measurements in June 2011 in Milan oasis and employed ground-based multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) instruments to validate satellite NO2 retrievals. The findings are as follows: 1) in the study area soil biogenic NO emission is the dominant source of tropospheric NO2; 2) oases (farmlands) are hotspots of tropospheric NO2, and a higher increase in tropospheric NO2 is found in oases from winter to summer; and 3) enhancement of soil biogenic NO emission due to soil managements is predictable. Given the rapid agricultural development in the southern Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, researches on soil biogenic NO emission and increase in tropospheric NOx should be given more importance.
2015, 25(5): 569-581.
doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0734-5
Abstract:
Human activities and climate changes are deemed to be two primary driving factors influencing the changes of hydrological processes, and quantitatively separating their influences on runoff changes will be of great significance to regional water resources planning and management. In this study, the impact of climate changes and human activities was initially qualitatively distinguished through a coupled water and energy budgets analysis, and then this effect was further separated by means of a quantitative estimation based on hydrological sensitivity analysis. The results show that: 1) precipitation, wind speed, potential evapotranspiration and runoff have a significantly decreasing trend, while temperature has a remarkably increasing tendency in the Weihe River Basin, China; 2) the major driving factor on runoff decrease in the 1970s and 1990s in the basin is climate changes compared with that in the baseline 1960s, while that in the 1980s and 2000s is human activities. Compared with the results based on Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model, the contributions calculated in this study have certain reliability. The results are of great significance to local water resources planning and management.
Human activities and climate changes are deemed to be two primary driving factors influencing the changes of hydrological processes, and quantitatively separating their influences on runoff changes will be of great significance to regional water resources planning and management. In this study, the impact of climate changes and human activities was initially qualitatively distinguished through a coupled water and energy budgets analysis, and then this effect was further separated by means of a quantitative estimation based on hydrological sensitivity analysis. The results show that: 1) precipitation, wind speed, potential evapotranspiration and runoff have a significantly decreasing trend, while temperature has a remarkably increasing tendency in the Weihe River Basin, China; 2) the major driving factor on runoff decrease in the 1970s and 1990s in the basin is climate changes compared with that in the baseline 1960s, while that in the 1980s and 2000s is human activities. Compared with the results based on Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model, the contributions calculated in this study have certain reliability. The results are of great significance to local water resources planning and management.
2015, 25(5): 582-590.
doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0778-6
Abstract:
Understanding the underlying processes of how communities are structured remains a central question in community ecology. However, the mechanisms of the soil animal community are still unclear, especially for communities on a small scale. To evaluate the relative roles of biotic interactions and environmental and spatial processes in a soil collembolan community, a field experiment was carried out on a small scale (50 m) in the farmland ecosystem of the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China. In August and October, 2011, we took 100 samples each month in a 50 m × 50 m plot using a spatially delimited sampling design. Variation partitioning was used to quantify the relative contributions of the spatial and environmental variables. A null model was selected to test for the non-randomness pattern of species co-occurrence and body size in assemblages of collembolans and to test whether the pattern observed was the result of environmental or biotic processes that structured the community on a small scale. The results showed that large variance was accounted for by spatial variables (18.99% in August and 21.83% in October, both were significant). There were relatively lower effects of environmental variation (3.56% in August and 1.45% in October, neither was significant), while the soil water content, soil pH and soybean height explained a significant portion of the variance that was observed in the spatial pattern of the collembolan community. Furthermore, the null model revealed more co-occurrence than expected by chance, suggesting that collembolan communities had a non-random co-occurrence pattern in both August and October. Additionally, environmental niche overlap and the body size ratio of co-occurrence showed that interspecific competition was not influential in collembolan community structuring. Considering all of the results together, the contributions of spatial and environmental processes were stronger than biotic interactions in the small-scale structuring of a soil collembolan community.
Understanding the underlying processes of how communities are structured remains a central question in community ecology. However, the mechanisms of the soil animal community are still unclear, especially for communities on a small scale. To evaluate the relative roles of biotic interactions and environmental and spatial processes in a soil collembolan community, a field experiment was carried out on a small scale (50 m) in the farmland ecosystem of the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China. In August and October, 2011, we took 100 samples each month in a 50 m × 50 m plot using a spatially delimited sampling design. Variation partitioning was used to quantify the relative contributions of the spatial and environmental variables. A null model was selected to test for the non-randomness pattern of species co-occurrence and body size in assemblages of collembolans and to test whether the pattern observed was the result of environmental or biotic processes that structured the community on a small scale. The results showed that large variance was accounted for by spatial variables (18.99% in August and 21.83% in October, both were significant). There were relatively lower effects of environmental variation (3.56% in August and 1.45% in October, neither was significant), while the soil water content, soil pH and soybean height explained a significant portion of the variance that was observed in the spatial pattern of the collembolan community. Furthermore, the null model revealed more co-occurrence than expected by chance, suggesting that collembolan communities had a non-random co-occurrence pattern in both August and October. Additionally, environmental niche overlap and the body size ratio of co-occurrence showed that interspecific competition was not influential in collembolan community structuring. Considering all of the results together, the contributions of spatial and environmental processes were stronger than biotic interactions in the small-scale structuring of a soil collembolan community.
2015, 25(5): 591-601.
doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0779-5
Abstract:
The Songnen Plain has a typical soda-saline soil, which often shrinks and cracks under natural conditions during water evaporation. This study aims to analyze the relationships between the crack characteristics and the soil properties of soda-saline soils quantitatively, and attempts to establish prediction models for the main soil properties of soda-saline soils based on the results. In order to achieve these objectives, a desiccation cracking test was conducted using 17 soil specimens with different salinity levels under controlled laboratory conditions. Correlation analysis was then performed between the crack characteristics and the soil properties. The results indicate that the crack characteristics can well represent the surface appearances of cracked soils, they also can well distinguish the salinity levels of soda-saline soils while the clay contents and mineralogical compositions of soils are stable. Among the crack characteristics, crack length has the best relationships with the salinity levels of soda-saline soils. Specifically, the crack length has high correlation (R2 > 0.87) with the electrical conductivity (EC), Na+, CO32- and the salinity, it also has reasonable relationship (R2 > 0.68) with HCO3-, this indicates crack length can be well used for the prediction of these properties of soda-saline soils.
The Songnen Plain has a typical soda-saline soil, which often shrinks and cracks under natural conditions during water evaporation. This study aims to analyze the relationships between the crack characteristics and the soil properties of soda-saline soils quantitatively, and attempts to establish prediction models for the main soil properties of soda-saline soils based on the results. In order to achieve these objectives, a desiccation cracking test was conducted using 17 soil specimens with different salinity levels under controlled laboratory conditions. Correlation analysis was then performed between the crack characteristics and the soil properties. The results indicate that the crack characteristics can well represent the surface appearances of cracked soils, they also can well distinguish the salinity levels of soda-saline soils while the clay contents and mineralogical compositions of soils are stable. Among the crack characteristics, crack length has the best relationships with the salinity levels of soda-saline soils. Specifically, the crack length has high correlation (R2 > 0.87) with the electrical conductivity (EC), Na+, CO32- and the salinity, it also has reasonable relationship (R2 > 0.68) with HCO3-, this indicates crack length can be well used for the prediction of these properties of soda-saline soils.
2015, 25(5): 602-611.
doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0780-z
Abstract:
Gully erosion is one of the major causes of land degradation in most areas and attracts increasing attention from researchers. We monitored gullies in the Kebai region in Heilongjiang Province of China by using remote sensing data and found that gully density increased with the increase in slope when the slope was less than 3°. Gully density in sunny slopes or windward slopes was greater than in shady slopes or leeward slopes because of the impacts of freezing and thawing, wind and solar radiation. Specifically, the gully density in northeast slope was the greatest and in southwest was the smallest. Gully density was reduced with increasing slope length and the longer the slope length, the less the gully density changed between 1965 and 2005. Affected by runoff, gullies most easily to occur in concave slopes and the critical elevation for gully erosion was 250-275 m. Moreover, hilly regions had the greatest gully density, followed by tableland regions, whereas the gully density in flatlands was the lowest. However, the gully density of these three types of landforms all increased between 1945 and 2000, and the portion of increase was 57.45% (hill), 52.91% (mesa) and 25.32% (plain), respectively.
Gully erosion is one of the major causes of land degradation in most areas and attracts increasing attention from researchers. We monitored gullies in the Kebai region in Heilongjiang Province of China by using remote sensing data and found that gully density increased with the increase in slope when the slope was less than 3°. Gully density in sunny slopes or windward slopes was greater than in shady slopes or leeward slopes because of the impacts of freezing and thawing, wind and solar radiation. Specifically, the gully density in northeast slope was the greatest and in southwest was the smallest. Gully density was reduced with increasing slope length and the longer the slope length, the less the gully density changed between 1965 and 2005. Affected by runoff, gullies most easily to occur in concave slopes and the critical elevation for gully erosion was 250-275 m. Moreover, hilly regions had the greatest gully density, followed by tableland regions, whereas the gully density in flatlands was the lowest. However, the gully density of these three types of landforms all increased between 1945 and 2000, and the portion of increase was 57.45% (hill), 52.91% (mesa) and 25.32% (plain), respectively.
2015, 25(5): 612-628.
doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0752-3
Abstract:
Over the past two decades, numerous ports located in China have participated in port integration strategies, thus influencing the entire port system. The current research is initiated in order to examine the nature of port integration in China, including associated temporal pathways, spatial patterns and dynamics. Results indicate that port integration in China has been characterized by a significant increase at the turn of the 21st century, comprising thirteen distinguishable pathways typified by differing dynamics, particularly between the northern and southern ports. Pathways were found to include 44 seaports and river ports, chiefly concentrated in the Bohai Rim, Yangtze (Changjiang) River Delta, Beibu Gulf and the southeastern Fujian, thus representing significant spatial regions. Categorically larger seaports have become the primary beneficiaries of port integration. Integration cases were divided into four categories based upon quantified dynamic magnitude including the government-driven mode, market-driven mode, government/market-driven mode and strategic alliance, and into five further categories based upon spatial extent including port internal integration, jurisdictional port integration, port integration across neighbor region, regional port integration and hub-feeder port integration. Results suggest that several factors have effectively driven port integration in China, including legislative tools and spatial planning, optimization of shoreline resources and port functionality, and port competition with the same hinterland.
Over the past two decades, numerous ports located in China have participated in port integration strategies, thus influencing the entire port system. The current research is initiated in order to examine the nature of port integration in China, including associated temporal pathways, spatial patterns and dynamics. Results indicate that port integration in China has been characterized by a significant increase at the turn of the 21st century, comprising thirteen distinguishable pathways typified by differing dynamics, particularly between the northern and southern ports. Pathways were found to include 44 seaports and river ports, chiefly concentrated in the Bohai Rim, Yangtze (Changjiang) River Delta, Beibu Gulf and the southeastern Fujian, thus representing significant spatial regions. Categorically larger seaports have become the primary beneficiaries of port integration. Integration cases were divided into four categories based upon quantified dynamic magnitude including the government-driven mode, market-driven mode, government/market-driven mode and strategic alliance, and into five further categories based upon spatial extent including port internal integration, jurisdictional port integration, port integration across neighbor region, regional port integration and hub-feeder port integration. Results suggest that several factors have effectively driven port integration in China, including legislative tools and spatial planning, optimization of shoreline resources and port functionality, and port competition with the same hinterland.
2015, 25(5): 629-643.
doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0753-2
Abstract:
As an important part of land use/cover change (LUCC), historical LUCC in long time series attracts much more attention from scholars. Currently, based on the view of combining the overall control of cropland area and ‘top-down’ decision-making behaviors, here are two global historical land-use datasets, generally referred as the Sustainability and the Global Environment datasets (SAGE datasets) and History Database of the Global Environment datasets (HYDE datasets). However, at the regional level, these global datasets have coarse resolutions and inevitable errors. Considering various factors that influenced cropland distribution, including cropland connectivity and the limitation of natural and human factors, this study developed a reconstruction model of historical cropland based on constrained Cellular Automaton (CA) of ‘bottom-up’. Then, an available labor force index is used as a proxy for the amount of cropland to inspect and calibrate these spatial patterns. Applied the reconstruction model to Shandong Province, we reconstructed its spatial distribution of cropland during 8 periods. The reconstructed results show that: 1) it is properly suitable for constrained CA to simulate and reconstruct the spatial distribution of cropland in traditional cultivated region of China; 2) compared with ‘SAGE datasets’ and ‘HYDE datasets’, this study have formed higher-resolution Boolean spatial distribution datasets of historical cropland with a more definitive concept of spatial pattern in terms of fractional format.
As an important part of land use/cover change (LUCC), historical LUCC in long time series attracts much more attention from scholars. Currently, based on the view of combining the overall control of cropland area and ‘top-down’ decision-making behaviors, here are two global historical land-use datasets, generally referred as the Sustainability and the Global Environment datasets (SAGE datasets) and History Database of the Global Environment datasets (HYDE datasets). However, at the regional level, these global datasets have coarse resolutions and inevitable errors. Considering various factors that influenced cropland distribution, including cropland connectivity and the limitation of natural and human factors, this study developed a reconstruction model of historical cropland based on constrained Cellular Automaton (CA) of ‘bottom-up’. Then, an available labor force index is used as a proxy for the amount of cropland to inspect and calibrate these spatial patterns. Applied the reconstruction model to Shandong Province, we reconstructed its spatial distribution of cropland during 8 periods. The reconstructed results show that: 1) it is properly suitable for constrained CA to simulate and reconstruct the spatial distribution of cropland in traditional cultivated region of China; 2) compared with ‘SAGE datasets’ and ‘HYDE datasets’, this study have formed higher-resolution Boolean spatial distribution datasets of historical cropland with a more definitive concept of spatial pattern in terms of fractional format.
2015, 25(5): 644-656.
doi: 10.1007/s11769-015-0781-y
Abstract:
This study examines the socio-spatial context of uneven development and the residential accessibility of green space in Dalian of Liaoning Province, China. The social fairness was analyzed with a community scale as the basis. We combined social scientific methods with a GIS method using a behavior accessibility model from the perspectives of fairness of urban green space allocation based on social geography, geographic information science, management science and many other related discipline theories. The results show that: 1) Most of the urban green space distribution presents an unbalanced phenomenon, and it does not match with the population distribution; 2) We found some differences in the accessibility of the population with different attributes and opportunities to use and enjoy the urban green spaces, mainly due to: the dual social and spatial attributes of the residents and the serious stratum differentiation generated were the internal causes; the residential space differentiation and the pursuit of economic and real estate development were the direct causes; and unreasonable planning, in regard to the fact that government policies did not give consideration to efficiency and fairness, was also an important factor.
This study examines the socio-spatial context of uneven development and the residential accessibility of green space in Dalian of Liaoning Province, China. The social fairness was analyzed with a community scale as the basis. We combined social scientific methods with a GIS method using a behavior accessibility model from the perspectives of fairness of urban green space allocation based on social geography, geographic information science, management science and many other related discipline theories. The results show that: 1) Most of the urban green space distribution presents an unbalanced phenomenon, and it does not match with the population distribution; 2) We found some differences in the accessibility of the population with different attributes and opportunities to use and enjoy the urban green spaces, mainly due to: the dual social and spatial attributes of the residents and the serious stratum differentiation generated were the internal causes; the residential space differentiation and the pursuit of economic and real estate development were the direct causes; and unreasonable planning, in regard to the fact that government policies did not give consideration to efficiency and fairness, was also an important factor.
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