An empirical power function model of V=kQᵐ has been used worldwide to describe the relationship between flow velocity (V, ms⁻¹) and discharge rate (Q, m³s⁻¹) for rill and open channel flows. However, it has seldom been applied to watershed outlet channels taking into account the impacts of…

This article presents a sufficient comparison of two types of advanced non-parametric classifiers implemented in remote sensing for land cover classification. A SPOT-5 HRG image of Yanqing County, Beijing, China, was used, in which agriculture and forest dominate land use. Artificial neural…

Focusing on incentive schemes that induce participation in land-use activities to supply environmental services, this paper examines the potential impacts of REDD+ on livelihoods, in particular with respect to incomes and poverty alleviation. Two case studies, each at a different scale, are…

The purpose of this paper is to empirically track the progress and consequences of the emergence of cultivated land markets in China since 2000. We draw on a set of nationwide, household‐level panel data (for 2000 and 2008) and find that the markets for cultivated land rental have emerged…

Urbanization is one phenomena that drives land use pattern change. Persistent rapid urbanization is associated with depletion of natural resources and worsening conditions in the urban environment. Monitoring urban development is, therefore, an absolute necessity in order to assure sustainable…

Desertification has been widely treated as one of the major environmental hazards in the world by scientific communities and the public. Monitoring the dynamics and causes of desertification is essential to provide important instruction for desertification control strategies and rational…

Complexity embedded in coastal management leads to numerous questions as to how inherent spatial and temporal linkages among evapotranspiration (ET), depth to groundwater and land-use/land-cover change (LUCC) could affect the dynamics among these seemingly unrelated events. This article aims to…

Estimation of land use during the Holocene is crucial to understand impacts of human activity on climate change in preindustrial period. Until now it is still a key issue to reconstruct amount and spatial distribution of prehistoric land use due to lack of data. Most reconstructions are simply…

Part of the Himalayan biodiversity hotspot, Yunnan province in China is a highly diverse terrestrial region, particularly in the wide range of natural forest types. These forests are under considerable conversion pressure as land use intensifies with expanding human population and economic…

Based on the same data source of Landsat TM/ETM+ in 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, all urban built-up areas in China are mapped mainly by human interpretation. Mapping results were checked and refined by the same analyst with the same set of criteria. The results show during the last 20 years urban…

The Inner Mongolian grassland steppe is the most important grazing land in China in terms of cow milk, mutton, and cashmere production. However, intensive livestock grazing has severely degraded the steppe grassland. A sophisticated grazing management is therefore essential for an economically…

Land suitability evaluation can assist in the efficient use of land resources at a regional level. This is an important issue because of the pressures that an increasing population and economic growth have put on limited land resources. Matter-element theory, which was first put forward by the…