Lyapunov stability for an age-structured population model

This is a short notice on the McKendrick equation that I actually learned from Yu.M. Svirezhev in the 1990s. This McKendrick equation modelling the evolution in time of an age-structured population has received attention recently from mathematicians. The initial and boundary conditions for the McKendrick equation imposed by the population model are not the standard side conditions one sees in PDE theory for an evolution equation. In the simplest case, the problem reduces to a well-known model in demography, the Lotka integral equation.     

安徽省城市建设用地变化及驱动力分析

基于安徽省17个地级市的各类土地利用变化数据,采用典型相关分析、主成分分析和偏最小二乘回归分析等方法,分析安徽省2000~2011年建设用地的数量变化、结构变化及区域差异变化,探讨城市建设用地变化的主要驱动力。研究表明:安徽省城市建设用地面积以每年5.8%的速度不断增长;安徽省城市建设用地系统结构性增强,系统从无序向有序方向发展;从安徽省各市建设用地变化的区域特征来看,各市的建设用地相对变化率差异明显,东部、中部和南部地区变化幅度较大,西部和北部建设用地变化的幅度相对较小;居民生活水平的提高与经济发展、道路设施完善是安徽省城市建设用地变化的主要驱动力。     

长三角地区城市建设用地扩展的水资源约束

基于资源约束理论,构建城市建设用地扩展的水资源约束模型,并测算2002-2013年期间长三角地区地级及以上城市建设用地扩展中的水资源约束强度。结果显示,研究时段内长三角地区城市建设用地扩展受到水资源的明显约束,区域建设用地扩展速度比没有水资源约束时年均下降0.35%;水资源约束强度具有空间分异规律,形成了以"苏州—杭州—宁波"、"南京—苏州"为中心地区向江苏北部和浙江南部区域逐步衰减的空间变化特征;水资源约束与城市经济总量和城市规模等级紧密相关,总体上城市经济总量大,规模等级高,建设用地扩展受水资源的约束越大。依据水资源约束强度大小将长三角地区城市归为强约束、中约束、低约束和无约束四类,发现不同类型城市在劳动力增长率、水资源供给增长率、经济产出对建设用地扩展的弹性上存在明显差异。研究还表明,即使在河网密布的长三角地区,城市用地扩展也受到水资源的约束,其他地区务必重视水资源重要性,严格遵循"以水定产、以水定城"的管理政策,提高水土资源利用效率,促进城市可持续发展。     

中国城镇化加速阶段中期土地城镇化与人口城镇化的协调程度

土地城镇化与人口城镇化是否协调在过去几年倍受关注。选择了我国城镇化加速阶段中期(1996~2006年)这一时间段,通过土地利用变更调查数据,采用离差系数模型对这10 a间我国各省份土地城镇化与人口城镇化增长速度的协调性进行分析。得出的结论表明:(1)我国土地城镇化与人口城镇化增长速度总体失调,土地城镇化超前;(2)人口-土地城镇化协调程度区域差异明显,不同发展阶段的省份表现出来的人口城镇化、土地城镇化增长速度及其协调程度不一样;(3)各省份应根据自身不同的城镇化发展阶段,总结过去的经验和教训,结合当前以人为核心的新型城镇化,推进人口城镇化和土地城镇化协调发展。     

Population collapses in the pre-modern period: case study of the Fuping County,Northwest China

The pre-modern history of population change in the Fuping County (Shaanxi Province, China) during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (AD 1368–1911) was reconstructed using historical sources. The Fuping County experienced two major population collapses, i.e. the late Ming Dynasty (1550–1640s) and the 1860–1880s. The first one was caused by the great AD 1556 earthquake and the extreme droughts and warfare in the 1630–1640s. The second one was caused by warfare and extreme droughts. As a whole, natural disasters, including extreme drought and great earthquake, were the key direct causes of population collapse, and climatic cooling would be a potential indirect cause. It is very interesting that population collapses occurred almost synchronously in the Fuping County and whole China, and the trends of population change were also very similar. Climate–population relationship in China would be valid at finer geographic level, and climatic cooling could be a potential indirect cause of population collapse.     

桥梁-道路建设对西南山地城市扩展影响机制研究——以重庆嘉陵江两桥为例

交通因素对城市空间扩展的影响是一个研究热点,但国内外关于桥梁-道路建设对山地城市扩展影响机制的研究还不多见。基于桥梁-道路对城市待开发区域区位的影响,提出了点状辐射、线状辐射和环状辐射3种影响机制。以重庆嘉陵江大桥和黄花园大桥建设对嘉陵江北岸影响为例,将研究区划分为5个分区,基于Arc GIS软件提取各分区城市建成区与河岸的空间分布关系,并通过5个分区1940~2009年城市扩展差异比较印证3种影响机制。研究结果表明,桥梁和道路建设促进研究区建成区迅速扩张,但对不同分区的建成区扩展速度的影响有差异;第3分区城市扩展反映了桥梁-道路对城市扩展的点状辐射和线状辐射,而第4分区城市扩展反映了桥梁-道路对城市扩展的环状辐射。结论表明研究提出的点状辐射、线状辐射和环状辐射符合桥梁-道路建设对西南山地城市扩展的影响机制。     

Coupling a settlement growth model with an agro-economic land allocation model for securing ecosystem services provision

Mountain landscapes are undergoing rapid land-use changes. Settlement expansion, the intensification of agricultural land-use practices, and farmland abandonment result in a decline of natural and semi-natural habitats and the related ecosystem services (ES). In this context, spatial planning has emerged as a key instrument for the management of ES provision. To better understand trade-offs and interactions between settlement growth and ES provision in a spatially explicit manner, we present a new modeling framework coupling an agent-based, agro-economic optimization model and a cellular-automata-based settlement growth model. The framework is applied in an inner alpine valley in the Valais, Switzerland, which experienced rapid settlement growth in recent years. Results demonstrate how the model framework allows support of local planning processes. Particularly cooperation among municipalities and an explicit consideration of ES can inform spatially explicit ES trade-off decisions under increasing demand for land. We conclude that better informed spatial planning processes support ES provision.     

The safety effect of open-median management on one-side widened freeways: A driving simulation evaluation

Introduction: Highway expansions and upgrades are often required to increase road network capacity. The widening of one side of a highway, referred to as ‘one-side widening,’ is sometimes implemented in these highway expansion projects. During one-side widening, to save costs, openings can be configured on existing medians (as opposed to removing the existing medians altogether). The median openings allow vehicles in the outer lanes to enter the inner lanes, but they also raise safety concerns and may require alternate open-median management strategies for traffic authorities. There is little existing research that has evaluated the safety effect of these open-median management strategies. Method: To bridge this gap, this study proposes a procedure that evaluates the safety of open-median management strategies for one-side widened highways. The proposed procedure was implemented through driving simulation experiments on a section of Binlai Freeway in Shandong, China. First, the minimum location requirements for median openings were determined by calculating the short length of the weaving segment. Then, simulation tests were carried out to observe driving performance and workload measures. Results: The results indicate that the procedure successfully evaluates the safety effect of open-median management strategies for one-side widened freeways. It was also found that driving performance and workload are sensitive to the opening length and traffic flow. Conclusions: Therefore, median opening placement should be carefully selected in consideration of not only driving performance and workload but also traffic volume predictions. Practical Applications: The findings in this study can guide open-median management strategies for traffic safety one-side widened highways.     

基于RS和GIS技术的重庆市主城区扩展分析

采用重庆市主城区2000年和2010年两个时相的TM影像提取城市扩展信息,对影像数据的归一化建筑指数（NDBI）、归一化植被指数（NDVI）和归一化水体指数（NDWI）进行RGB组合增强,再进行决策树分类和减法运算获取研究区扩展信息,发现建筑区面积增加了1.62倍,大部分是由植被区转变而来。其扩张方向受地理影响,南北方向为外延型,东西方向为飞地型。借助统计资料进行精度验证和城市扩展的驱动因素分析发现,区域发展政策、经济增长和人口扩张是主要的影响因素,探讨了对经济增长、城市扩张和人口增长的关系。研究结果表明,以遥感手段监测与研究城市发展变化的趋势是可行和高效的。