The potential of remote sensing for monitoring land cover changes and effects on physical geography in the area of Kayisdagi Mountain and its surroundings (Istanbul)

The effect of land cover change, from natural to anthropogenic, on physical geography conditions has been studied in Kayisdagi Mountain. Land degradation is the most important environmental issue involved in this study. Most forms of land degradation are natural processes accelerated by human activity. Land degradation is a human induced or natural process that negatively affects the ability of land to function effectively within an ecosystem. Environmental degradation from human pressure and land use has become a major problem in the study area because of high population growth, urbanization rate, and the associated rapid depletion of natural resources. When studying the cost of land degradation, it is not possible to ignore the role of urbanization. In particular, a major cause of deforestation is conversion to urban land. The paper reviews the principles of current remote sensing techniques considered particularly suitable for monitoring Kayisdagi Mountain and its surrounding land cover changes and their effects on physical geography conditions. In addition, this paper addresses the problem of how spatially explicit information about degradation processes in the study area rangelands can be derived from different time series of satellite data. The monitoring approach comprises the time period between 1990 and 2005. Satellite remote sensing techniques have proven to be cost effective in widespread land cover changes. Physical geography and particularly natural geomorphologic processes like erosion, mass movement, physical weathering, and chemical weathering features etc. have faced significant unnatural variation.     

射电望远镜项目周边地区土地利用结构合理度评价

以射电望远镜(FAST)项目周边的平塘县、罗甸县为研究区域,利用遥感数据和“3S”技术手段,结合相关统计资料,从土地利用结构系统、土地利用程度系统、土地利用效益系统、土地利用可持续系统4个方面,选取18个指标构建土地利用结构合理度评价指标体系,运用ITOPSIS模型对研究区土地利用结构合理度进行定量评价。结果表明:研究区土地利用结构合理度较低,且存在时空变化差异。2000年、2005年、2013年平均土地利用结构合理度分别为27.45%、29.84%、17.76%,呈先增大后减小波动变化趋势;2000、2005年平塘县土地利用结构合理度均高于罗甸县,2013年略低于罗甸县。     

Impact of different land uses on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon contamination in coastal stream sediments

PAHs are ubiquitous environmental pollutants that can cause adverse health and ecological effects. In the present study, we examined the impact of land use on the concentration and composition of PAHs in 28 coastal stream sediments on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii. In densely populated urban areas, the concentration range of total PAHs in the stream sediments affected by mixed residential and industrial activities (RI) are 0.40-9.05 ppm, which is significantly higher than the 0.36-4.21 ppm detected in the stream sediments affected predominantly by urban residential land uses (UR). The stream sediments affected by agricultural activities (AG) reported a concentration range of 0.09-2.14 ppm, which is lower than those of the RI and UR stream sediments. The molecular weight of PAH is a factor, as only high molecular weight (HMW) PAHs were significantly affected by land uses (ANOVA P = 0.009). Correlation analysis showed that only in the UR stream sediments were significant correlations observed between PAH concentration and two anthropogenic indicators: population density (r = 0.57, P = 0.027) and vehicle density (r = 0.55, P = 0.034). The fractional concentrations of PAHs were analyzed by using PCA analysis, which led to the separate clustering of the RI and AG stream sediments and suggest distinct PAH sources between the two land uses. Two PAH source indicators, including Ant/(Ant + Phe) and Fl/(Fl + Py), indicates that PAHs sources in the RI stream sediments are most likely of petroleum origin, while PAHs in the UR and AG stream sediments most likely came from combustion activities. In addition, the concentration and relative potency of carcinogenic PAHs in the coastal stream sediments exhibited similar patterns as the total PAH concentration with respect to land uses.     

Wastewater treatment plants and landfills emit volatile methyl siloxanes (VMSs) to the atmosphere: investigations using a new passive air sampler

Volatile methyl siloxanes (VMSs) are a class of chemicals with an increasing range of applications and widespread distribution in the environment. Passive air samplers (PAS) comprising sorbent-impregnated polyurethane-foam (SIP) disks were first calibrated and then deployed around two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and at two landfill sites to investigate inputs of VMSs to air. SIP-derived air concentrations for ΣVMSs (ng/m³) at background sites on the perimeter of the WWTP were 479 ± 82.3 and comparable to results for the upwind samples at the landfills (333 ± 194). Order of magnitude higher concentrations of ΣVMSs (ng/m³) were found for on-site samples at the WWTPs (3980 ± 2620) and landfills (4670 ± 3360). Yearly emissions (kg/yr) to air were estimated and ranged from 60-2100 and 80-250, respectively, for the cyclic VMSs. These findings demonstrate and quantify for the first time, waste sector emissions of VMSs to the atmosphere.     

无公害农产品土地利用评价体系的研究

土地资源是人类生存最基本的资源，对它的利用与开发必须保持协调的可持续的发展规划。本文以无公害农产品土地利用为例，从环境的角度，构建了产地环境条件子系统、自然条件子系统、经济效益分析子系统和环境影响分析子系统以及各自包含的评价指数集。产地环境条件指标集和自然条件指标集是基于现状的，采用结果指标表达；针对布局规划，环境影响分析和经济效益分析是一种预测评价，对其指标集的构建采用了过程指标的设计。     

毛乌素沙地气候变化及其对植被覆盖的影响

利用1961—2007年毛乌素沙地气温、降水资料,对研究区近50 a来气温和水分资源各分量的时空变化进行了研究,并结合TM影像和中巴资源卫星影像,从气候变化和群落水分收支平衡的角度,对毛乌素沙地近20 a的植被覆盖变化及其原因进行了分析。结果表明:近50 a,沙地增温趋势显著,变化率为0.33℃/10 a。全区域年均温变化趋势的范围为0.16~0.5℃/10 a,且增温的程度存在西北部最强、东南部最弱的趋势。水分资源各分量时空分布极不均匀:东南部降水量P和可利用降水Δw多、陆面蒸散E强,西北部相反。P、E、Δw均呈现出逐年减少的趋势,并且大致经历了3个变化阶段。近20 a毛乌素沙地植被覆盖变化与气候变化密切相关。为适应不断变化的气候需要,在进行沙地治理与生态建设中,必须考虑人工植被建设的可持续性问题。     

太湖流域重污染区LUCC及驱动因素分析

通过对太湖流域重污染区1999年和2007年的2期遥感影像数据解译结果的分析,获取了太湖流域重污染区主要土地利用类型的信息,分析了8年来研究区内土地利用与覆被变化趋势,并对区域内土地利用/覆被变化的驱动因子进行了探讨。结果表明,从1999～2007年间,太湖流域重污染区内耕地面积减少,而林地、建设用地、园地、水域总体呈增加的趋势,其中减少的耕地主要转化为建设用地。在区域结构中,影响土地利用结构变化的驱动力因素主要是经济的发展、城市化进程推进、人口增长以及政策因素这4个方面,而研究区内经济的快速发展和人口的增长成为土地利用/覆被变化的关键因素。     

沙地退化植被恢复过程中植被的空间异质性

通过野外取样和室内分析,应用地统计学分析方法研究了科尔沁沙地退化植被恢复过程中不同封育年限（0、11和20年）的流动沙丘的植被盖度和丰富度特征及其空间异质性规律。结果表明,随着流动沙丘的固定和封育年限的增加,植被盖度和丰富度逐渐增加。在流动沙丘植被恢复过程中,植被盖度和丰富度具有明显的空间自相关性,其空间自相关范围从封育0年的流动沙丘（46.05m和33.63m）、封育11的流动沙丘（21.63m和17.25m）到封育20年的流动沙丘（26.12m和24.18m）先减小后增加,但均未超出我们的研究尺度50m,表现出不同大小的斑块形式分布的小尺度分布格局。由半方差函数及其参数和空间分布格局图分析得出,随着沙丘植被的恢复,植被特征的空间异质性在所研究的尺度上表现出先增大（封育0年到封育11年）后减小（封育11年到封育20年）的变化特点。     

Response of ecological storage and conservation to land use transformation: A case study of a mining town in China

Rapid land use transformation shaped by agriculture, industrialization and population urbanization has a great influence on ecological environment. Based on theory of ecosystem service functions, this study aims at revealing the response of ecological storage and conservation to each unit area of land use transformation. Taking Cishan Town, a mining town in China, as a case study, this paper estimates the “past-present-future” ecological storage impacted by the process, result and possibility of land use transformation. The local land use and industrial distribution show that the active areas of land use transformation are also the areas of concentration of human (industrial) activities. Ecological storage shows the different responses to land use ways. And then this study combines the ecological storage indices with the indices of ecosystem pattern and land condition into the“5A” framework (active state, active degree, active possibility, active balance and active condition) for grading ecological conservation, and then assigns all regions of Cishan Town into different grades through membership functions for complex mapping of ecological conservation. The research results show that the ecological conservation in Cishan goes toward two extreme grades (best grade and worst grade). Uneven and unbalanced land use transformation is the main cause of that. Hence, rational and timely reflection of impact of land use transformation on ecological storage and conservation can assist land use planners and local government in adjusting land use ways and balancing regional ecology and economy.     

Exploring the future of European crop production in a liberalised market, with specific consideration of climate change and the regional competitiveness

Long-term future development of European agriculture within the global market is highly uncertain, but can potentially have large impacts on the future of agricultural businesses, rural communities and amenities such as traditional landscapes and biodiversity. Despite great uncertainties it is of interest to explore the extent of these potential changes. This paper provides an explorative scenario of the European crop production in a liberalised world without European Union (EU) market interventions. The results do not form a prediction or a business as usual scenario, but rather a plausible and salient thought-experiment of a possible future based on the consistent integration of current conceptual and quantitative models.Future scenarios for climate, demography, technology and global demand for agricultural commodities are used to assess the competitiveness of European agriculture. Regional economic competitiveness is determined by combining indicators for the economic strength of farms in a region and population pressure on agricultural land, and subsequently used to determine where agricultural production is likely to sustain under the market liberalisation scenario. The method is illustrated for the 27 EU member state countries for three commodities: wheat, potato and milk (relying on grass).Results include maps of the dominant wheat, potato and milk producing regions across Europe as projected for 2050. They show that due to increased agricultural productivity, less agricultural land will be needed to supply the European demand for food and feed. In addition, production will concentrate in those regions which have a comparative advantage. This potentially leads to a strong polarisation between north-western Europe and southern Europe, which faces negative impacts of climate change and central and northern Europe where agricultural businesses lag in economic strength and farm size. A contrasting policy intervention scenario illustrates how differences in demand and productivity result in an expansion of the agricultural area, especially for the production of wheat.Although the complete liberalisation scenario may seem unlikely, and the underlying assumptions have great uncertainty, the results help identify and map market pressures on agricultural land use across regions in Europe. As such, it stimulates policy debate on the desired future for the European agricultural sector and the trade-offs between economic competitiveness under global market conditions and policy intervention. In addition, it provides a basis for the planning of alternative economic strategies for agriculturally less competitive regions.