Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment, Volume 1 Chinese Research Perspectives: Environment
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Youjiang China-9
China China-7: Bailongjiang China-8: Youjiang China-9: Huang-he Bailongjiang 27 Introduction China, in the southeast of Eurasia, faces the Pacific Ocean on the southeast, stretches northwestward to the interior of Asia and borders the South Asian sub-continent on the southwest. As the world's third largest country in area, China has a vast territory which spans for about 620 longitude from east to west and 500 latitude from north to south, and covers an area of 9 600 000 km2. The topographical conditions of China are very complex, but the general tendency is higher in the west and lower in the east. The climatic conditions of China are complex and multiple in nature. Monsoon climate is a predominant feature of the country which, with its most part under the influence of SE and SW monsoons possesses the peculiarity that it is humid and ample in rainfall around the southeast while dry and scarce in precipitation in the northwest. Generally, the regional distribution of precipitation in China is extensively uneven. According to the quantity and character of precipitation in various areas, the country can be divided into 5 types of zones, viz. a very humid zone, a humid zone, a semi-humid zone, a semi-arid zone and an arid zone. The mean annual precipitation is 608 mm varying from 1 600 mm the southeast and southwest to less than 200 mm in the north and northwest. China is a country having a large number of rivers. There are about 5 000 rivers each with a catchment area in excess of 1 000 km2. -
2005 Report on the State of the Environment in China
2005 Report on the State of the Environment in China State Environmental Protection Administration Table of Contents Environment....................................................................................................................................7 Marine Environment ....................................................................................................................35 Atmospheric Environment...........................................................................................................43 Acoustic Environment ..................................................................................................................52 Solid Wastes...................................................................................................................................56 Radiation and Radioactive Environment....................................................................................59 Arable Land/Land Resources ......................................................................................................62 Forests ............................................................................................................................................67 Grassland.......................................................................................................................................70 Biodiversity....................................................................................................................................75 Climate and Natural Disasters.....................................................................................................81 -
A Case Study for the Yangtze River Basin Yang
RESERVOIR DELINEATION AND CUMULATIVE IMPACTS ASSESSMENT IN LARGE RIVER BASINS: A CASE STUDY FOR THE YANGTZE RIVER BASIN YANG XIANKUN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2014 RESERVOIR DELINEATION AND CUMULATIVE IMPACTS ASSESSMENT IN LARGE RIVER BASINS: A CASE STUDY FOR THE YANGTZE RIVER BASIN YANG XIANKUN (M.Sc. Wuhan University) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHYLOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2014 Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis is my original work and it has been written by me in its entirety. I have duly acknowledged all the sources of information which have been used in the thesis. This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university previously. ___________ ___________ Yang Xiankun 7 August, 2014 I Acknowledgements I would like to first thank my advisor, Professor Lu Xixi, for his intellectual support and attention to detail throughout this entire process. Without his inspirational and constant support, I would never have been able to finish my doctoral research. In addition, brainstorming and fleshing out ideas with my committee, Dr. Liew Soon Chin and Prof. David Higgitt, was invaluable. I appreciate the time they have taken to guide my work and have enjoyed all of the discussions over the years. Many thanks go to the faculty and staff of the Department of Geography, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and the National University of Singapore for their administrative and financial support. My thanks also go to my friends, including Lishan, Yingwei, Jinghan, Shaoda, Suraj, Trinh, Seonyoung, Swehlaing, Hongjuan, Linlin, Nick and Yikang, for the camaraderie and friendship over the past four years. -
The Formation and Failure of Natural Dams
THE FORMATION AND FAILURE OF NATURAL DAMS By John E. Costa and Robert L. Schuster US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Open-File Report 87-392 Vancouver, Washington 1987 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR DONALD PAUL HODEL, Secretary U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Dallas L. Peck, Director For additional information Copies of this report can write to: be purchased from: Chief of Research U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Geological Survey Books and Open-File Reports Section Cascades Volcano Observatory Box 25425 5400 MacArthur Blvd. Federal Cfenter Vancouver, Washington 98661 Denver, CO 80225 ii CONTENTS Page Abstract ------------------------------------------------------- 1 Introduction --------------------------------------------------- 2 Landslide dams ------------------------------------------------- 4 Geomorphic settings of landslide dams --------------------- 4 Types of mass movements that form landslide dams ---------- 4 Causes of dam-forming landslides -------------------------- 7 Classification of landslide dams -------------------------- 9 Modes of failure of landslide dams ------------------------ 11 Longevity of landslide dams ------------------------------- 13 Physical measures to improve the stability of lands1ide dams ------------------------------------------ 14 Glacier dams --------------------------------------------------- 16 Geomorphic settings of ice dams --------------------------- 16 Modes of failure of ice dams ------------------------------ 16 Longevity and controls of glacier dams -------------------- 20 Moraine dams --------------------------------------------------- -
Rethinking Chinese Territorial Disputes: How the Value of Contested Land Shapes Territorial Policies
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2014 Rethinking Chinese Territorial Disputes: How the Value of Contested Land Shapes Territorial Policies Ke Wang University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Wang, Ke, "Rethinking Chinese Territorial Disputes: How the Value of Contested Land Shapes Territorial Policies" (2014). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1491. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1491 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1491 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Rethinking Chinese Territorial Disputes: How the Value of Contested Land Shapes Territorial Policies Abstract What explains the timing of when states abandon a delaying strategy to change the status quo of one territorial dispute? And when this does happen, why do states ultimately use military force rather than concessions, or vice versa? This dissertation answers these questions by examining four major Chinese territorial disputes - Chinese-Russian and Chinese-Indian frontier disputes and Chinese-Vietnamese and Chinese-Japanese offshore island disputes. I propose a new theory which focuses on the changeability of territorial values and its effects on territorial policies. I argue that territories have particular meaning and value for particular state in particular historical and international settings. The value of a territory may look very different to different state actors at one point in time, or to the same state actor at different points in time. This difference in perspectives may largely help explain not only why, but when state actors choose to suddenly abandon the status quo. -
2 FUJIMOTO.Ec6
Naoya FUJIMOTO : Diversity of Agricultural Water Management 23 農工報 44 23~65, 2005 Diversity of Agricultural Water Management - An Analysis of the Policies in the People’s Republic of China - FUJIMOTO Naoya* Contents Ⅰ Introduction ………………………………………23 2 Measure of Analysis ……………………………37 1 Trends in Agricultural Water Policies of the 3 Results …………………………………………42 World ……………………………………………23 Â Case Studies ………………………………………49 2 Aim of this Study ………………………………31 1 Policy for Saving Water-usage or Reducing 3 Basic Information on China ……………………31 Water Leakage …………………………………49 À Agricultural Water and Organizations 2 Policy for Better Management of Concerned in China ………………………………32 Agricultural Water ………………………………56 1 Organizations Concerned with Agricultural 3 Water Trade in Zhejiang Province ……………58 Water ……………………………………………32 4 Results …………………………………………62 2 Agricultural Water in China ……………………33 Ã Conclusion ………………………………………62 3 Water Law and Related Regulation in China …34 References ……………………………………………63 Á Analysis of Web-site Articles ……………………37 摘要 …………………………………………………65 1 Hypothesis ………………………………………37 I Introduction water pricing. Moreover, the OECD has addressed the idea that irrigation water is consumed unproductively 1 Trends in Agricultural Water Policies of the World and inefficiently. Tackling water shortages will become one of the Although European countries and the United States biggest international agendas by the middle of the 21st of America (USA) have argued this issue for a long century. How to manage water resources is affected by time, it is essential to discuss this issue for Asian international politics, because these resources are countries, the main operators of irrigation systems in the connected to worldwide population growth, lack of world. Asian countries should also join the discussion natural resources and damage to the environment caused to better understand the issues as an international by economic growth and inconsiderate use of water. -
Threatened Birds of Asia: the Birdlife International Red Data Book
Threatened Birds of Asia: The BirdLife International Red Data Book Editors N. J. COLLAR (Editor-in-chief), A. V. ANDREEV, S. CHAN, M. J. CROSBY, S. SUBRAMANYA and J. A. TOBIAS Maps by RUDYANTO and M. J. CROSBY Principal compilers and data contributors ■ BANGLADESH P. Thompson ■ BHUTAN R. Pradhan; C. Inskipp, T. Inskipp ■ CAMBODIA Sun Hean; C. M. Poole ■ CHINA ■ MAINLAND CHINA Zheng Guangmei; Ding Changqing, Gao Wei, Gao Yuren, Li Fulai, Liu Naifa, Ma Zhijun, the late Tan Yaokuang, Wang Qishan, Xu Weishu, Yang Lan, Yu Zhiwei, Zhang Zhengwang. ■ HONG KONG Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (BirdLife Affiliate); H. F. Cheung; F. N. Y. Lock, C. K. W. Ma, Y. T. Yu. ■ TAIWAN Wild Bird Federation of Taiwan (BirdLife Partner); L. Liu Severinghaus; Chang Chin-lung, Chiang Ming-liang, Fang Woei-horng, Ho Yi-hsian, Hwang Kwang-yin, Lin Wei-yuan, Lin Wen-horn, Lo Hung-ren, Sha Chian-chung, Yau Cheng-teh. ■ INDIA Bombay Natural History Society (BirdLife Partner Designate) and Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History; L. Vijayan and V. S. Vijayan; S. Balachandran, R. Bhargava, P. C. Bhattacharjee, S. Bhupathy, A. Chaudhury, P. Gole, S. A. Hussain, R. Kaul, U. Lachungpa, R. Naroji, S. Pandey, A. Pittie, V. Prakash, A. Rahmani, P. Saikia, R. Sankaran, P. Singh, R. Sugathan, Zafar-ul Islam ■ INDONESIA BirdLife International Indonesia Country Programme; Ria Saryanthi; D. Agista, S. van Balen, Y. Cahyadin, R. F. A. Grimmett, F. R. Lambert, M. Poulsen, Rudyanto, I. Setiawan, C. Trainor ■ JAPAN Wild Bird Society of Japan (BirdLife Partner); Y. Fujimaki; Y. Kanai, H. -
Morphological Change in the Pearl River Delta, China
Marine Geology 363 (2015) 202–219 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Geology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/margeo Morphological change in the Pearl River Delta, China Wei Zhang a,b,c,⁎, Yang Xu b, A.J.F. Hoitink c,M.G.Sassid,JinhaiZhenga,b, Xiaowen Chen e, Chi Zhang a,b a State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China b College of Harbor, Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China c Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands d Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, NIOZ, Den Burg, Netherlands e Xijiang River Administration, Zhuhai, 519090, China article info abstract Article history: Morphological changes in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) have been investigated using bathymetric charts, underwa- Received 2 July 2014 ter Digital Elevation Models, remote sensing data and Geographic Information Systems. Water depths were ex- Received in revised form 16 February 2015 tracted from digitized charts to explore the accretion–erosion characteristics of three estuarine environments, Accepted 21 February 2015 and to provide quantitative estimates of changes in sediment volumes. Multi-temporal satellite images have Available online 26 February 2015 been used, in combination with topographical data, to analyze the coastline changes. PRD has gained an abundant amount of sediment of almost 9.45 × 105 km3 above the 10-m isobath in the period roughly between 1970 and Keywords: 4 3 Morphological change 2010; the average sedimentation rate was 3.15 × 10 km /yr. Between 1976 and 2006, the coastline extended Sedimentation seaward by 579.2 m on average, with a mean net extension rate of 19.3 m/yr. -
Areas Benefiting from Water Conservation in Key Ecological Function Areas in China
Nov., 2015 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol.6 No.6 J. Resour. Ecol. 2015 6 (6) 375-385 Eco. Compensation DOI:10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2015.06.005 www.jorae.cn Areas Benefiting from Water Conservation in Key Ecological Function Areas in China XIAO Yu1*, ZHANG Changshun1 and XU Jie1,2 1 Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China; 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China Abstract: Ecosystem services are transferred from the service-providing area to the service-benefiting area to satisfy human needs through some substance, energy or information. Most studies focus on the provision of ecosystem services and few focus on the demands on ecosystem services and their spatial distribution. Here, on the basis of the flow of water conservation services from the providing area to the benefiting area, the benefits produced by water conservation service are investigated and the benefiting areas are identified. The results indicate that in 2010 the water conservation service of key ecological function areas provided irrigation water for 1.67×105 km2 of paddy fields and 1.01×105 km2 irrigated fields, domestic water to urban residents and industrial water to factories, mines and enterprises of 2.64×104 km2 urban construction land and domestic water to rural residents across 3.73×104 km2 of rural settlements and formed 6.64×104 km2 of inland water which can be used for freshwater aquaculture, downstream regions comprise 1.31×104 km of navigable river, which can be used for inland shipping. The benefit areas of the key function areas located in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River are greater and more influential benefit areas. -
A Mighty River Runs Dry
A Mighty River Runs Dry Hydro dam reservoirs will soon trap the Yangtze’s entire flow By Fan Xiao Chief Engineer Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau China August 2011 PROBE INTERNATIONAL, ENGLISH EDITOR: PATRICIA ADAMS Introduction The annual filling of the Three Gorges Dam reservoir reduces water levels downstream in the Yangtze basin, causing a plethora of problems for the millions of people who live and work along the banks of the Yangtze River. But the Three The fate of the Gorges Dam is not the only perpetrator. Yangtze is sealed. When all So prodigious have dam builders been, the upper reaches of of the planned the Yangtze are now intercepted by numerous hydropower hydropower projects which also impound the river’s vital water flow before it reaches Three Gorges. With even more projects projects are underway, the fate of the Yangtze is sealed. When all of the completed, the planned hydropower projects are completed, the amount of amount of water water needed to fill all the reservoirs along the Yangtze will needed to fill all exceed the river's flow during the impoundment period each the reservoirs year and the Yangtze River will run dry. along the Yangtze will 1 The cost of low water levels downstream of the Three exceed the Gorges Dam river's flow during the The Three Gorges Dam was built to have a normal pool impoundment level1 of 175 metres above sea level. In 2003, upon period each year completion of the barrage, authorities filled the reservoir to and the Yangtze the 135 metre mark. -
Alexander Wylie's 1867 Travels
Alexander Wylie’s Travels on Shu Roads in 18671 David Jupp September 2012 (Updates on Itinerary in April 2013 & 2015) Introduction Alexander Wylie (1815-1887) (Chinese name: Weilie Yali 伟烈 亚力) was a British Protestant Missionary who spent many years in China and was well-known for his Chinese language skill and scholarship. He seems to have had a similar approach to Walter Medhurst and others in that he mastered Chinese language and literature (Wylie, 1867a) and put particular effort into translating English into Chinese language books. He also wrote articles in Chinese containing “Useful Knowledge” such as mathematics, astronomy and engineering. This approach reasoned that only when Chinese had modernised would they become fully receptive to the Christian Gospel. He is also well-known for his collected biographies of Missionaries to China (Wylie, 1867b) and (well before Joseph Needham) bringing to the attention of the west the advanced state of Chinese science and mathematics in the past. After China had been opened by the Opium Wars, Wylie was active in finding out as much as possible about the interior of China. After 1860, the Taiping rebellion had been extinguished and the most unequal of the “Unequal Treaties”, the “Treaty of Tien-tsin”, (Tienjin, 天津条约) had been signed in 1858 and was gradually coming into force. The Treaty established foreign legations in Beijing; unlimited access for foreign vessels to the Yangtze River; foreigners to travel into the interior for travel, trade and missionary activities; Chinese to be Christian if they wished and various other things such as payment of a large amount of money, legalisation of the Opium Trade etc. -
Using the Invest Model to Assess the Impacts of Climate and Land Use Changes on Water Yield in the Upstream Regions of the Shule River Basin
water Article Using the InVEST Model to Assess the Impacts of Climate and Land Use Changes on Water Yield in the Upstream Regions of the Shule River Basin Peijie Wei 1,2, Shengyun Chen 1,3,4,* , Minghui Wu 1,2, Yanfang Deng 4, Haojie Xu 5 , Yinglan Jia 1,2 and Fang Liu 1,2 1 Cryosphere and Eco-Environment Research Station of Shule River Headwaters, State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; [email protected] (P.W.); [email protected] (M.W.); [email protected] (Y.J.); [email protected] (F.L.) 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 3 School of Geographical Sciences, Academy of Plateau Science and Sustainability, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810008, China 4 Long-Term National Scientific Research Base of the Qilian Mountain National Park, Xining 810000, China; [email protected] 5 State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agroecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: Water yield is a key ecosystem function index, directly impacting the sustainable devel- opment of the basin economy and ecosystem. Climate and land use/land cover (LULC) changes Citation: Wei, P.; Chen, S.; Wu, M.; are the main driving factors affecting water yield. In the context of global climate change, assessing Deng, Y.; Xu, H.; Jia, Y.; Liu, F. Using the impacts of climate and LULC changes on water yield in the alpine regions of the Qinghai–Tibet the InVEST Model to Assess the Plateau (QTP) is essential for formulating rational management and development strategies for water Impacts of Climate and Land Use resources.