DOCSLIB.ORG

Environmental Monitoring Report PRC: Shaanxi Mountain Road Safety

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Environmental Monitoring Report PRC: Shaanxi Mountain Road Safety Environmental Monitoring Report Semi-annual Report August 2016 PRC: Shaanxi Mountain Road Safety Demonstration Project Prepared by Foreign Fund Financed Project Office of Shaanxi Province Transport Department for the People’s Republic of China and the Asian Development Bank. This environmental monitoring report is a document of the borrower. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of ADB's Board of Directors, Management, or staff, and may be preliminary in nature. In preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. Semi-annual Environmental Monitoring Report #1 For Period Ending June 2016 Project: 46042-002 Loan Number：3294-PRC Shaanxi Mountain Road Safety Demonstration Project Prepared by the Foreign Fund Finance Project Office of Shaanxi Province Transport Department August 2016 ABBREVIATIONS ADB – Asian Development Bank AEMS – Ankang Environmental Monitoring Station AMTB – The Ankang Municipal Transport Bureau DO – Dissolved Oxygen EA – Executing Agency EIA – Environmental Impact Assessment EMP – environmental management plan EMS – Environmental Monitoring Station FFPO – Foreign-fund Finance Project Office GDP – Gross Domestic Product GRM – Grievance Redress Mechanism IA – Implementing Agency LIEC – Loan Implementation Environmental Consultant NO2 – nitrogen dioxide PMO – project management office PRC – People’s Republic of China RR – rural road SCG – Shangnan County Government SO2 – sulfur dioxide SPG – Shaanxi Provincial Government SPTD – Shaanxi Provincial Transport Department SS – Suspended Solid TPH – Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon TSP – Total Suspended Particulate CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT .................................................................................................... 1 1.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT ............................................................................................ 3 1.4 PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT ........................................................................................................... 4 1.5 REPORT FORMAT ........................................................................................................................... 5 1.6 REPORT PREPARATION .................................................................................................................. 5 2. PROJECT PROGRESS ........................................................................................................................ 6 2.1 PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION ORGANIZATION .................................................................................. 6 2.2 PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS ........................................................................................ 7 2.3 UPDATED IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE ........................................................................................ 7 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EMP AND MONITORING PLAN.............................................................. 8 3.1 EMP AND MONITORING PLAN OBJECTIVE .................................................................................... 8 3.2 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR EMP AND MONITORING PLAN .............................................. 8 3.3 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND MONITORING RECORDS AND REPORTING ....................... 13 3.4 EMP AND MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS ............................................................... 13 3.4.1 Project Component G316 ................................................................................................. 13 3.4.2 Project Component S102, S224 and Eight Rural Roads ............................................. 16 3.4.3 Project Readiness Monitoring .......................................................................................... 16 3.4.4 Clause on Environment in Bidding Documents and Contract Documents ................ 17 3.4.5 Effectiveness of Public Consultation ............................................................................... 17 3.4.6 Evaluation of Implementing Mitigation Measures ......................................................... 18 3.4.7 Environmental Inspection ................................................................................................. 21 3.4.8 Grievance Redress Mechanism ...................................................................................... 21 4. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ..................................................................................... 23 4.1 COMPLIANCE WITH EMP REQUIREMENTS .................................................................................. 23 4.2 CORRECTIVE ACTIONS ................................................................................................................ 23 1. Introduction 1.1 Background 1. Shaanxi Province is one of the least-developed provinces in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the Qinba mountain area is especially poor with a poverty incidence exceeding 30% in 2012. Both Ankang and Shangluo, two prefecture-level cities in the Qinba mountain area, have strong potential for expansion of the agricultural, mineral, hydropower industries and for the development of tourism. However, lack of transport infrastructure is constraining economic growth and poverty reduction. Better road connections with improved capacity will enable southeast Shaanxi to realize its full economic potential. 2. Reported road fatalities and injuries in Shaanxi from 2008 to 2012 cost $5 billion. Ankang and Shangluo are experiencing road fatality and injury rates that far exceed the provincial and national averages. There is obvious and urgent need to improve road safety provisions in Qinba mountain area. 3. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) participation has supported three road projects in Shaanxi Province since 2001 to improve institutional frameworks and the performance of the road subsector. This project represents a new strategic direction for ADB’s support to the PRC road subsector. Successful implementation and subsequent promotion of the road safety project approach will encourage replication in other provinces of the PRC and serve ADB’s sustainable transport initiative goal to promote road safety and social sustainability as key strategic agenda. 4. Impacts of the Project will be reduction of road crash fatalities and serious injuries, and provision of efficient and safe all-weather accessibility in southeast Shaanxi Province. The outcome will be safer and more efficient trunk and rural road networks in southeast Shaanxi Province, in line with the demonstration project objectives and the 12th Five-Year Plan of the PRC. 1.2 Description of the Project 5. This Project includes four outputs, including (i) Output 1: trunk road upgrade. Three trunk roads (approximately 187km) in the cities of Ankang and Shangluo will be upgraded from Class III/IV to Class II/III standard incorporating major safety design enhancements; (ii) Output 2: rural roads upgrade. Eight rural roads (approximately 140km) in poor agricultural areas will be upgraded from earthen roads to paved Class IV standard, including improved safety design enhancements; (iii) Output 3: crash reduction program. Road safety only investment will be made on 25 additional rural roads (approximately 542km); and (iv) Output 4: institutional development. The capacity of the Shaanxi Province Traffic Bureau road safety agencies and local traffic bureaus will be strengthened, particularly in road safety management, implementation, and enforcement; the use of road safety equipment, software, and training; and public 1 awareness building. A road safety education and community awareness campaign will be conducted. 6. The trunk roads G316 (34.36km) and S102 (60.25km) are located in Ankang City, with G316 traversing Hanbin District and Xunyang County, and S102 within the Xunyang County. Trunk road S224 (92.45km) is located in Shangnan County in Shangluo City. Seven of the eight rural roads are located in Ankang City, and one is located in Shangnan County. Locations of the trunk roads and rural roads are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2. 7. The project cost totals $399.96 million, with $200 million or 50.01% funded by ADB from its ordinary capital resources and $199.96 million covered by local counterpart fund. Figure 1 Trunk Roads G316 and S102 and Seven Rural Roads in Ankang City 2 Figure 2 Trunk Road S224 and One Rural Road in Shangluo City 1.3 Description of the Environment 1.3.1 Physical Environment 8. Shaanxi Province in located in northwest of China. Sitting in southeast of Shaanxi, Ankang City is located in the hilly and gully region of the Qinba Mountain, with Han River and Yue River running through the middle of the district from west to east. Shangnan County is located at the southern foothill of the eastern Qinling Mountain range, characterized by low hills. 9. Major rivers in the project area include Han River, Xun River, Qianyou River, Xian River, Dan River, Xiang River and Tao River. Han River and the Xian River, Dan River, Xiang River and Tao River are Category II water bodies,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Chapter 5 Sinicization and Indigenization: the Emergence of the Yunnanese
    Between Winds and Clouds Bin Yang Chapter 5 Sinicization and Indigenization: The Emergence of the Yunnanese Introduction As the state began sending soldiers and their families, predominantly Han Chinese, to Yunnan, 1 the Ming military presence there became part of a project of colonization. Soldiers were joined by land-hungry farmers, exiled officials, and profit-driven merchants so that, by the end of the Ming period, the Han Chinese had become the largest ethnic population in Yunnan. Dramatically changing local demography, and consequently economic and cultural patterns, this massive and diverse influx laid the foundations for the social makeup of contemporary Yunnan. The interaction of the large numbers of Han immigrants with the indigenous peoples created a 2 new hybrid society, some members of which began to identify themselves as Yunnanese (yunnanren) for the first time. Previously, there had been no such concept of unity, since the indigenous peoples differentiated themselves by ethnicity or clan and tribal affiliations. This chapter will explore the process that led to this new identity and its reciprocal impact on the concept of Chineseness. Using primary sources, I will first introduce the indigenous peoples and their social customs 3 during the Yuan and early Ming period before the massive influx of Chinese immigrants. Second, I will review the migration waves during the Ming Dynasty and examine interactions between Han Chinese and the indigenous population. The giant and far-reaching impact of Han migrations on local society, or the process of sinicization, that has drawn a lot of scholarly attention, will be further examined here; the influence of the indigenous culture on Chinese migrants—a process that has won little attention—will also be scrutinized.
    [Show full text]
  • Mythical Image of “Queen Mother of the West” and Metaphysical Concept of Chinese Jade Worship in Classic of Mountains and Seas
    IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 21, Issue11, Ver. 6 (Nov. 2016) PP 39-46 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org Mythical Image of “Queen Mother of the West” and Metaphysical Concept of Chinese Jade Worship in Classic of Mountains and Seas Juan Wu1 (School of Foreign Language，Beijing Institute of Technology, China) Abstract: This paper focuses on the mythological image, the Queen Mother of the West in Classic of Mountains and Seas, to explore the hiding history and mental reality behind the fantastic literary images, to unveil the origin of jade worship, which plays an significant role in the 8000-year-old history of Eastern Asian jade culture, to elucidate the genetic mechanism of the jade worship budded in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, so that we can have an overview of the tremendous influence it has on Chinese civilization, and illustrate its psychological role in molding the national jade worship and promoting the economic value of jade business. Key words: Mythical Image, Mythological Concept, Jade Worship, Classic of Mountains and Seas I. WHITE JADE RING AND QUEEN MOTHER OF THE WEST As for the foundation and succession myths of early Chinese dynasties, Allan holds that “Ancient Chinese literature contains few myths in the traditional sense of stories of the supernatural but much history” (Allan, 1981: ix) and “history, as it appears in the major texts from the classical period of early China (fifth-first centuries B.C.)，has come to function like myth” (Allan, 1981: 10). While “the problem of myth for Western philosophers is a problem of interpreting the meaning of myths and the phenomenon of myth-making” as Allan remarks, “the problem of myth for the sinologist is one of finding any myths to interpret and of explaining why there are so few.” (Allen, 1991: 19) To decode why white jade enjoys a prominent position in the Chinese culture, the underlying conceptual structure and unique culture genes should be investigated.
    [Show full text]
  • To Increase the Benefits of Water Investment for Regional and National Development ---A Case Study of Shaanxi Province
    Global Water Partnership(China) WACDEP Work Package Three Outcome Report To increase the Benefits of Water Investment For Regional and National Development ---A case study of Shaanxi Province Research Office of Shaanxi Provincial People’s Congress Shaanxi Provincial Water Resources Department Xi’an Jiaotong University Copyright @ 2016 by GWP China Abstract Water is not only the indispensable and irreplaceable natural resources for human survival and development, but also very important strategic resources. Water is the infrastructure and the basic industry of the national economic and social development. With the economic growth, the pressure on scarce resources and ecological environment protection is highlighted. The need for government at all levels to speed up the water investment and improve people's welfare is pressing. Therefore, a comprehensive assessment of water investment in Shaanxi Province is of great practical significance. Relatively speaking, Shaanxi Province is short of water resources with less total amount and per capita share. In addition, the spatial distribution of water resources is also extremely unreasonable: the southern part of Shaanxi Province which is part of the Yangtze River basin takes up over 70% while the northern part which is highly populated with fast industrial development only shares 30% of it. The conflict between the demand for water resources and the distribution, to some extent, restrict the social and economic development. The Shaanxi Provincial Government has put the water sector in an important place. It is even so from 2010 to now with a dramatic increase on investment, reaching a total investment amount of 22.408 billion RMB in 2013.
    [Show full text]
  • Download This Issue As A
    CLEAN WATER • BLUE PLANET’S FIRST RESPONDERS • CITIZEN ACTION WATERKEEPER WATERKEEPER® WARNING OF THE DANGERS of INACTION, HIS HoLINESS THE GYALWANG DRUKPA HAS JOINED WITH WATERKEEPER ALLIANCE TO PROTECT THE HIMALAya’s GLACIERS 100% PCW PAPER VOLUME ALSO: BATTLING WATER SCARCITY, 10 , CALIFORNIA SALMON ISSUE THREATENED 2 SHARING WATER IN THE SOUTH / DEADLY DROUGHT IN COLOMBIA / 2014 THE THREAT VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 $5.95 of COAL MINING FROM INDONESIA TO NORTH CAROLINA ® ©2014 John Paul Mitchell Systems Mitchell John Paul ©2014 “As a kid, I went camping many summers with the Boys & Girls Club to learn about trees, water and wildlife…an experience I never forgot (and why our products have always been cruelty free). Today, we support Waterkeeper Alliance to protect nature and keep our waterways clean for generations to come, because we care about the environment.” THE BEST IN PROFESSIONAL SALON HAIR CARE PRODUCTS John Paul DeJoria, Guaranteed ONLY when purchased within the professional beauty salon industry, Co-founder and Chairman of the Board Photographed with his son (and Joe) NOT from a drugstore, supermarket, or other unauthorized source. paulmitchell.com B:8.625” T:8.125” S:7.125” YOUR PASSION DRIVES US ©2014 CONTENTSVolume 10, Issue 2 TO A GREENER FUTURE. It’s why Toyota proudly supports the Waterkeeper Alliance for its stewardship of the world’s waterways. Toyota.com/USA 34 38 42 30 B:11.25” T:10.75” S:9.75” NEWS & UPDATES FEATURES 10: AlAskA’s sAlmon Get 24: wAter sCArCIty– theIr DAy In Court Three Stories from California to Georgia to Colombia: 26: fIsh out of wA ter 12: ePA on BoArD for Klamath Riverkeeper wants California’s laws enforced, water to flow, mIlwAukee’s rIVers and salmon to thrive.
    [Show full text]
  • Analysis of the Changing Laws and Influencing Factors of Social and Economic Indicators in the Upper Reach of Han River Basin
    Universal Journal of Geoscience 6(3): 55-64, 2018 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/ujg.2018.060301 Analysis of the Changing Laws and Influencing Factors of Social and Economic Indicators in the Upper Reach of Han River Basin Xiu Wei1, Dengfeng Liu1,2,*, Jinkai Luan1, Mingliang Li3, Mu Lin4 1State Key Laboratory of Eco-hydraulics in Northwest Arid Region of China, School of Water Resources and Hydropower, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710048, China 2Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA 3General Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Planning and Design, Ministry of Water Resources, Beijing 100081, China 4School of Statistics and Mathematics, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing 100081, China Copyright©2018 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract In the socio-hydrological system, the social socio-economic indicators showed a downward trend in processes, ecological processes and hydrological processes different ranges. According to the analysis results, some coupled together and interacted. The base of the analysis relevant ecological compensation suggestions are put and modeling of socio-hydrological processes is the forward for the Upper Reach of Han River Basin. quantitative analysis of the social processes. The construction of the middle route of the South-To-North Keywords Han River Basin, Mann-Kendall Water Diversion Project in China and the implementation Comprehensive Test, Linear Trend Analysis, Cumulative of the Dan River ecological management project will have Departure, Ecological Management, Ecological an important impact on the socio-economic development Compensation of the upper Han River basin in China.
    [Show full text]
  • The Detection of Flood Characteristics Alteration Induced by the Danjiangkou Reservoir at Han River, China
    water Article The Detection of Flood Characteristics Alteration Induced by the Danjiangkou Reservoir at Han River, China Xiao Zhang *, Baofei Feng, Jun Zhang, Yinshan Xu, Jie Li, Wenjing Niu and Yanfei Yang Bureau of Hydrology, Changjiang Water Resources Commission, Wuhan 430010, China; [email protected] (B.F.); [email protected] (J.Z.); [email protected] (Y.X.); [email protected] (J.L.); [email protected] (W.N.); [email protected] (Y.Y.) * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +86-152-4023-3358 Abstract: As one of the most common natural phenomena, floods can bring both risks and benefits for human beings. They can pose a risk of inundation to a human habitat but can also be utilized as a resource with hydraulic engineering. Improving the knowledge of flood characteristics is the basis and premise of improving water resources management and ecological environmental protection. Presently, the quantitative evaluation of flood characteristics needs to gradually evolve from a single indicator to a systematic one. In this paper, by introducing the concepts of ecohydrology on magnitude, frequency, and duration, a set of flood characteristics indicators evaluation system is constructed based on the hydrological characteristics for the section where Danjiangkou Reservoir is located at the middle reach of the Yangtze in China. The results showed that the Danjiangkou Reservoir has changed the flood characteristics to a great extent both of seasonal or annual floods, and the mean degree of the flood characteristic alteration indicators is about 19%. The changing trend of the flood indicators upstream showed an increasing trend from the 1970s to 2010s, while downstream were divided into two periods by the year of about 1975.
    [Show full text]
  • Jade Myths and the Formation of Chinese Identity
    Journal of Literature and Art Studies, April 2017, Vol. 7, No. 4, 377-398 doi: 10.17265/2159-5836/2017.04.001 D DAVID PUBLISHING Jade Myths and the Formation of Chinese Identity YE Shu-xian LIU Wan-er Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China Reality is constructed by societies, whose process must be analyzed by the sociology of knowledge. The “reality”, taken as granted by the public, has sharp contrast from one society to another. By Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman: The Social Construction of Reality Chinese civilization is the only surviving one that has a continual history that lasts for several thousand years since the Stone Age. What’s the secret of its lasting cultural vitality? How can it live through numerous military conflicts and political transitions and still firmly hold a large population of various ethnics within its administration? A long-established cultural centripetal force, i.e. cultural identity shared by multi parties, shall be the key to former questions. According to current focus of cultural research, this force is termed as “Chinese identity”, which explores the formation and continuation of Chinese civilization from the perspective of cultural identity. What is cultural identity? A simplified answer is: Cultural identity fundamentally refers to ethnicity. This characterizes a group whose members claim a common history or origin and a specific cultural heritage, no matter that the history or origin is often mythicized or that the cultural legacy is never totally homogeneous. The essential thing is that these common elements are lived by the concerned group as distinctive characteristics and perceived as such by others1.
    [Show full text]
  • Water Quality Variability and Related Factors Along the Yangtze River Using Landsat-8
    remote sensing Article Water Quality Variability and Related Factors along the Yangtze River Using Landsat-8 Yang He 1,2, Shuanggen Jin 2,* and Wei Shang 3 1 School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China; [email protected] 2 Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030, China 3 College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] or [email protected]; Tel.: +86-21-3477-5292 Abstract: Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) are important in- dicators to evaluate water environmental quality. Monitoring water quality and its variability can help control water pollution. However, traditional monitoring techniques of water quality are time- consuming and laborious, and can mostly conduct with sample point-to-point at the edge of lakes and rivers. In this study, an empirical (regression-based) model is proposed to retrieve Chl-a, TN, and TP concentrations in the Yangtze River by Landsat-8 images from 2014 to 2020. The spatial- temporal distribution and variability of water quality in the whole Yangtze River are analyzed in detail. Furthermore, the driving forces of water quality variations are explored. The results show that the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of the water quality parameters are 25.88%, 4.3%, and 8.37% for Chl-a, TN, and TP concentrations, respectively, and the root mean square errors (RMSE) are 0.475 µg/L, 0.110 mg/L, and 0.01 mg/L, respectively. The concentrations of Chl-a, TN, and TP in the upstream of the Yangtze River are lower than those in the midstream and downstream.
    [Show full text]
  • Development of Payment Standards for Ecosystem Services in The
    G Model AGWAT-4538; No. of Pages 7 ARTICLE IN PRESS Agricultural Water Management xxx (2016) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Agricultural Water Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat Development of payment standards for ecosystem services in the largest interbasin water transfer projects in the world a,b b a,∗ Jian Sun , Zhiliang Dang , Shaokui Zheng a School of Environment, MOE Key Laboratory of Water and Sediment Sciences/State Key Lab of Water Environment Simulation, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China b Institute of Water Resources and Hydro-electric Engineering, MOE Key laboratory of Northwest Water Resources and Environment Ecology, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710048, China a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Interbasin water transfer (IBWT) projects effectively overcome water shortages resulting from the uneven Received 27 August 2015 distribution of water resources and water demand. However, these projects may also create water con- Received in revised form 20 June 2016 flicts between the water source and receiving areas. As a method to solve water conflicts, the payments Accepted 22 June 2016 for an ecosystem services (PES) approach determines a payment standard based on different calculation Available online xxx methods. However, an overall survey revealed that few PES studies had applied to evaluate IBWT projects by these different calculation methods, and no comparison has been made among these payment stan- Keywords: dards. This study applied the conservation cost method (CCM), the market value method (MVM), and Interbasin water transfer the payment ability method (PAM) to determine payment standards for the Middle Route Project of the Payments for ecosystem services South-to-North Water Diversion project in China, the largest IBWT project in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Hazardous Materials Water Quality in the Upper Han River Basin
    Journal of Hazardous Materials 165 (2009) 317–324 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Hazardous Materials journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhazmat Water quality in the upper Han River basin, China: The impacts of land use/land cover in riparian buffer zone Siyue Li a, Sheng Gu a, Xiang Tan a,b, Quanfa Zhang a,∗ a Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, China b Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China article info abstract Article history: Vegetated riparian zones adjacent to rivers and streams, can greatly mitigate nutrients, sediment from Received 10 July 2008 surface through deposition, absorption and denitrification, yet, human activities primarily land use prac- Received in revised form tices have dramatically reduced the capacity. In this study, 42 sampling sites were selected in the riverine 15 September 2008 network throughout the upper Han River basin (approximately 95,200 km2) of China. A total of 252 water Accepted 29 September 2008 samples were collected during the time period of 2005–2006 and analyzed for physico-chemical variables Available online 11 October 2008 and major ions. Correlation analysis, principal components analysis and stepwise least squares multiple regression were used to determine the spatio-temporal variability of water quality variables and in par- Keywords: Water quality ticular their correlations with land use/land cover in the 100 m riparian zone along the stream network. Riparian The basin in general has a better water quality in the dry season than the rainy season, indicated by Land use and land cover the primary pollutants including CODMn and nitrogen.
    [Show full text]
  • A Regional Archaeology of the Guan River Valley, Henan, China
    A REGIONAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE GUAN RIVER VALLEY, HENAN, CHINA by Yanxi Wang (Under the Direction of Stephen A. Kowalewski) ABSTRACT This study examines the history of settlement patterns, land use practices, sociopolitical structure, and the inter-regional integration in the Guan Valley, Henan, China from 4000 B.C. to the modern period (A.D.1911). The Guan Valley is an environmentally diverse region and culturally peripheral to three cultural core areas: the Central Plain, the Yangtze River region, and the Guanzhong Basin. This regional full-coverage survey located 96 sites in 135 km2 in the middle Guan Valley. The earliest occupation dated to the Middle Yangshao period (4000-3500 B.C.). In the Late Yangshao (3500-2900 B.C.), occupations increased rapidly and expanded to the upper reach and tributaries of the Guan River. After an occupational rock bottom during the early states period (1900-771 B.C.), occupations recovered rapidly and reached a new level of organization complexity in the Eastern Zhou (770-221 B.C.). This pattern continued into the Qinhan period (220 B.C.-A.D. 220), when hamlets increased in number and expanded into hilly areas. After Qinhan, settlements decreased in number and hierarchy simplified. A Land use analysis explores several environmental conditions associated with settlement locations. Compared to historic occupations (after 1900 B.C.), prehistoric settlements were more affected by some environmental variables, for example, flood risks. In the historic period, there was a growing trend towards the exploitation of hilly areas. Regional primacy characterized settlement systems of most periods. The formation and maintenance of the primate center went through several changes-ceremonial center during Late Yangshao, gateway community during Longshan (2900-1900 B.C.), and administrative center since the Eastern Zhou.
    [Show full text]
  • Land-Use Change from Arable Lands to Orchards Reduced Soil Erosion and Increased Nutrient Losses in a Small Catchment
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by NERC Open Research Archive Land-use change from arable lands to orchards reduced soil erosion and increased nutrient losses in a small catchment Zhujun Chena,b, Lei Wangc, Ansheng Weia, Jingbo Gaoa, Congli Lid, Jianbin Zhoua,b a College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China b Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and the Agri-Environment in Northwest China, Ministry of Agriculture, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China c British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK d Soil and Fertilizer Station in Zhouzhi County, Zhouzhi, Shaanxi, China HIGHLIGHTS RUSLE and GIS methods were used to evaluate soil erosion and nutrient losses Land-use in the catchment was changed from crop to kiwifruit orchards since 1990 The orchards significantly reduced soil erosion More available phosphorus was lost from the orchards GRAPHICALABSTRACT Abstract: China has been facing rapid land-use changes since 1980s. For example, more and more arable lands have been converted to orchards in China’s Loess Plateau (640,000 km2) to produce high-value fruits, such as kiwifruits and apples. Over-fertilisation is very common in China’s orchards. It is urgent and timely to assess the effects of land-use change on soil erosion and nutrient losses to support sustainable land-use and environmental management in China. The case study area Yujia River Catchment, where many arable lands growing wheat and maize (1957–1989) have been converted to kiwifruit orchards (1990–2013), is a typical hilly region at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi.
    [Show full text]