Land cover and vegetation change are among the most important aspects of environmental change. Vegetation change can be quantified by landscape pattern indices (LPI). Landscape indices are routinely calculated using planar land use/land cover (LU/LC) maps, obtained by the projection of a non-…

High N₂O emissions have been observed in semi-arid grasslands, especially during freeze/thaw periods, when denitrification might be the main process of N₂O production. However, there have been few denitrification studies in semi-arid grassland. This study was designed to determine the…

Land degradation and global warming are currently highly active research topics. Land degradation can both change land cover and surface climate and significantly influence atmospheric circulation. Researches have verified that carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) are major greenhouse gases (…

Integrated transportation and land use studies are of major interest to planners because they consider the interaction between transportation development and land use change. Quantifying the impact of transport infrastructure on land use change is necessary for evaluating the role of…

Although the importance of science, in both desertification control and other types of environmental governance, has been emphasized by many studies, little is known about how science influences institutional changes. Based on a method combining surveys, interviews, observation, and a meta-…

This study measures the public preferences for cultivated land protection as a case study of Wenling City, China, using the choice experiment (CE) approach. The estimation results indicate that the most important attribute for cultivated land protection in Wenling City was land facility,…

Remote sensing images obtained by remote sensing are a key source of data for studying large-scale geographic areas. From 2013 onwards, a new generation of land remote sensing satellites from USA, China, Brazil, India and Europe will produce in 1year as much data as 5 years of the Landsat-7…

It is important to identify nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from non-point sources (NPS) to protect watershed water quality. However, few studies have been conducted in a large basin to determine the sources and causal factors of N and P from multiple land use and soil types. In this study, the…

We investigated microbial biomass and composition (lipid profile), mineral N pools and soil physicochemical parameters in the top 5-cm soils 19 years after reforestation of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook) woodland with itself or a native broadleaf species, Mytilaria laosensis…

SUMMARYIn this article we discuss the two largest reforestation and forest conservation programmes in China, the Natural Forest Protection Programme (NFPP), and the Slope Land Conversion Programme (SLCP, also called Grain for Green), introduced in 1998. The NFPP reformed the state forest…

Groundwater plays a key role in arid regions as the majority of water is supplied by it. Groundwater pollution is a major issue, because it is susceptible to contamination from land use and other anthropogenic impacts. A study was carried out to build a vulnerability map for the Ordos Plateau…

Hydropower, next to coal, is the second most important source of electric power supply in China. It amounted to 20.4% of the nation's total installed capacity of electricity generation in 2011. To provide a comprehensive picture of the development of hydropower in China and its potential…