Ordos became the new “coal capital” of China within a few decades since the country’s economic reform in 1978, as large-scale surface coal mining dramatically propelled its per capita GDP from being one of the lowest to one of the highest in China, exceeding Hong Kong in 2009. Surface coal-mining areas (SCMAs) have continued to expand in this region during recent decades, resulting in serious environmental and socioeconomic consequences. To understand these impacts and promote regional sustainability, quantifying the spatiotemporal patterns of SCMAs is urgently needed. Thus, the main objectives of this study were to quantify the spatiotemporal patterns of SCMAs in the Ordos region from 1990 to 2015, and to examine some of the major environmental and socioeconomic impacts in the study region. We extracted the SCMAs using remote-sensing data, and then quantified their spatiotemporal patterns using landscape metrics. The loss of natural habitat and several socioeconomic indicators were examined in relation to surface coal mining. Our results show that the area of SCMAs increased from 7.12 km2 to 355.95 km2, an increase of nearly 49 times from 1990 to 2015 in the Ordos region. The number of SCMAs in this region increased from 82 to 651, a nearly seven-fold increase. In particular, Zhungeer banner (an administrative division), Yijinhuoluo banner, Dongsheng District and Dalate banner in the north-eastern part of the Ordos region had higher growth rates of SCMAs. The income gap between urban and rural residents increased along with the growth in SCMAs, undermining social equity in the Ordos region. Moreover, the rapid increase in SCMAs resulted in natural habitat loss (including grasslands, forests, and deserts) across this region. Thus, we suggest that regional sustainability in Ordos needs to emphasize effective measures to curb large-scale surface coal mining in order to reduce the urban–rural income gap, and to restore degraded natural ecosystems.
Understanding the spatial patterns of land-use and land-cover (LULC) and their driving forces in transnational areas is important for the sustainable development of these regions. However, the spatial patterns of LULC and their driving forces across multiple scales are poorly understood in transnational areas. In this study, we analyzed the spatial patterns of LULC and driving forces in the transnational area of Tumen River (TATR) in 2016 across two scales: the entire region and the sub-regions of China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and Russia. Results showed that the LULC was dominated by broadleaf forest and dry farmland in the TATR in 2016, which accounted for 66.86% and 13.60% of the entire region, respectively. Meanwhile, the LULC in the three sub-regions exhibited noticeable differences. In the Chinese and the DPRK’s sub-regions, the area of broadleaf forest was greater than those for the other LULC types, while the Russian sub-region was dominated by broadleaf forest and grassland. The spatial patterns of LULC were mainly influenced by topography, climate, soil properties, and human activities. In addition, the driving forces of the spatial patterns of LULC in the TATR had an obvious scaling effect. Therefore, we suggest that effective policies and regulations with cooperation among China, the DPRK, and Russia are needed to plan the spatial patterns of LULC and improve the sustainable development of the TATR.
The transnational area of Changbai Mountain (TACM) is crucial to sustainable development in Northeast Asia owing to its abundant forest, which helps in maintaining biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services. However, the spatiotemporal patterns of forest in the TACM have been poorly understood across the whole region. The objectives of this study were to quantify the spatiotemporal patterns of forest in the TACM from 1977 to 2015, investigate the causes of forest dynamics, and assess the impacts of forest dynamics on habitat quality. To do this, we first extracted the forest in the TACM from Landsat images acquired in 1977, 1988, 1999, 2007, and 2015 using visual interpretation. Then, we analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of forest in the TACM from 1977 to 2015 using landscape metrics and compared the dynamics of forest between the area in China and the area in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). After that, we investigated the driving forces of forest dynamics and the impacts of forest dynamics on habitat quality. We found that the TACM experienced a noticeable forest decrease—from 1.57 million ha in 1977 to 1.48 million ha in 2015, a decline of 5.78%—and underwent a forest fragmentation process. In particular, the sub-region in the DPRK had a much larger decrease (17.75%) than the sub-region in China (2.86%). We found that timber harvesting, urban expansion, agricultural reclamation, and typhoon disasters were the main driving forces behind forest decreases in the TACM. Specifically, agricultural reclamation was the most important factor in the DPRK sub-region, while urban expansion was the dominant factor in the Chinese sub-region. Furthermore, such forest loss and fragmentation has resulted in declines in habitat quality across both sides of the TACM. Thus, we suggest that more effective forest management with cooperation between China and DPRK is needed to maintain and improve forest coverage in the TACM.
Abstract: The Agro-Pastoral Transitional Zone in Northern China (APTZNC) is one of the major regions of the ecological protection in China due to its sensitivity to climate change. Our objective was to understand the trend of the climate change in the APTZNC. The historical climate change from 1971 to 2015 and the future climate change from 2006 to 2050 in the APTZNC were analyzed by using the historical data and the simulated data. The climate change in the APTZNC showed a warm-dry trend from 1971 to 2005, with the annual average temperature rise by 0.39 ℃/10 a and the annual average precipitation decrease by 4.60 mm/10 a. From 2006 to 2050, the regional climate change will show a warm-humid trend. The annual average temperature will increase by 0.20-0.50 ℃/10 a, and the annual precipitation will increase by 1.49-15.59 mm/10 a. We also found that the regional climate system will be unstable if the greenhouse gas emissions were not controlled. From 2006 to 2050, along with the increase of greenhouse gas emission concentration, the regional warming rate will increase from 0.25 ℃/10 a to 0.48 ℃/10 a, and the precipitation change rate will increase from 3.97 mm/10 a to 14.58 mm/10 a. Therefore, we suggested that effective measures for mitigation and adaptation to the climate change are needed to guarantee the sustainable development of the APTZNC.
Liu, Z.; Ling, M.; Zhu, T.; Xu, D.; He, Y., and Liu, Z., 2020. Research on the influence and countermeasure of radio interference on maritime generation aviation. In: Hu, C. and Cai, M. (eds.), Geoinformatics and Oceanography. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 105, pp. 252–255. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.With the rapid development of radio communication, the electromagnetic environment is becoming more and more complicated in maritime generation navigation. At present, aviation communication security has become an important work of radio monitoring. A plane flies at a fast speed, and the location of the disturbance may have certain errors, especially in general aviation flights at sea; therefore, it is difficult to accurately determine the region where the disturbance source is located, which may result in severe air accident. The uncertainty of the time, region, and nature of the interference makes it difficult and costly to find airborne radio interference. Therefore, scientific analysis of airline radio interference and timely taking of necessary countermeasures play an important role in eliminating civil aviation interference and ensuring flight safety. In addition, we provide two principles about aviation safety.
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