The Dapeng Peninsula is located in the eastern part of Shenzhen, Guangdong. The peninsula has a wide variety of different coastal landforms. In this paper, the basic features of the coastal landforms of the Dapeng Peninsula are discussed. The results of field investigations and laboratory experiments show that the peninsula’s coastal landforms can be classified into three groups: rocky coasts, depositional coasts, and biological coasts. As lying in a fault uplift zone, the rocky coasts occupy most of the coastal line of Dapeng Peninsula. Typical costal erosion landforms such as sea cliffs, wave cut benches, sea caves, sea arches and sea stacks can always be found on the coasts. Depositional coasts of the peninsula develop in bays between rocky headlands. Generally, a barrier-lagoon system is formed in the bay which is deeply embayed with a stream flowing in. In the bay without streams, a bay head beach develops. The middle of the peninsula is narrow and shaped somewhat like a dumbbell, and muddy beaches are formed in its eastern coast because the coastline concaves deeply landwards providing shelter from wave attacks. Mangroves grow in the muddy beaches, as well as the lagoons. Coral reefs are found in the shallow water areas around the coasts of the peninsula. According to the field evidences and the dating of the sediments of the Dapeng Peninsula and its surrounding areas cited from the previous studies, the main important factors controlling the development of the peninsula’s coastal landforms were geological structures and sea-level changes during Holocene; The peninsula’s coastal landforms began to develop after middle Holocene; no strong structural uplift had happened in the areas of the peninsula since middle Holocene; The sea level had a higher standing after the middle Holocene on the coasts of the Dapeng peninsula.

With the rapid development of the city of Guangzhou, human engineering activities have exacerbated the natural environment. In recent years, a large number of key projects construction have been completed, such as the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway, several serious geological hazards have occured in Jinshazhou area. In this paper, on the basis of the field surveys for years, the causal factors of the geological disasters are analyzed systematically, an evaluation index system is established, and the evaluation methods of geological hazard susceptible degree are presented. According to the geological disaster evaluation grade, Jinshazhou is divided into four regions, which are high risk region, medium risk region, low risk region and least risk region. The central and southern parts of Jinshazhou where the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed rail tunnel passes through are of high risk region of geological hazard occurrence. In that region there are buried karst areas, the geological environment is fragile, and large-scale construction is inappropriate. The eastern part of Jinshazhou, where Xunfeng fault(F3), Shabei fault(F4) and Baoli Xiziwan fault(F5) pass through, are of medium risk region. In the region there are adverse rock soil masses, and the major geological disaster is land subsidence. The southeast and central parts of Jinshazhou, where there are less soluble rock strata, are of low risk region. The western part of Jinshazhou is a hilly area and is of the least risk region, where there develops no karst and have no basic condition for geological disasters.

Study of Magnetic properties of marine surface sediments are gradually proved to be one of the effective means for source analysis of marine sediments. In this paper samples from 39 stations in the sea areas around the Hainan Island were collected to analyze the magnetic characteristics of the surface sediments. It is shown that the low frequency magnetic susceptibility and frequency-dependent susceptibility in the areas have significant spatial differential features. The high values are mainly distributed in the southern sea area of the Hainan Island, while in the eastern and western sea areas the values are gradually decreasing from the coast to sea. The influence factors of magnetic susceptibility analysis shows that the susceptibility of the marine surface sediments in the study area is mainly contributed by terrestrial material, so the spatial distribution characteristics of low frequency magnetic susceptibility and frequency magnetic susceptibility can indicate the diversity of the input of terrestrial material. The studied area can be divided into four parts based on the Q type cluster analysis combined with the geographical location of sampling points. In the sea area to the east of Hainan Island with a water depth over 100 m (Part I) the sediments are mainly from the Pearl River system and to some extent are affected by the terrestrial material carried by the coastal rivers of west Guangdong. In the sea area to the east of Hainan with a water depth less than 100 m and the area to the south of Hainan (Part II) the sediments are mainly from the coastwise eruption and coastwise rivers of the Island; In the northern waters of the Beibu Gulf (Part III) the sediments are from Qiongzhou Strait and coastal rivers around the Gulf; In the sea area to the west of Hainan (Part Ⅳ) the sediments are from the rivers and coastal erosion in southwestern Hainan and from the materials carried by the ocean currents from south to north. The study shows that the combination of low frequency magnetic susceptibility and frequency dependent susceptibility can effectively indicate the source change in the offshore surface sediment.

At present the emissions from agricultural and industrial activities are relatively neglected in the influencing factors analysis of greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, the method of 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories is used to calculate the emissions of greenhouse gas of Fujian Province from 2001 to 2010. On the basis of the carbon dioxide equivalent which is converted from greenhouse gases, we have analyzed the influencing factors of greenhouse gas emissions by the model of LMDI, and introduced some new indexes to explain the influence of the emissions from industrial and agricultural activities. The results show that although the total emission of greenhouse gas was increasing during the period of the study, its growth rate was decreasing; The accumulative effects of industrial structure, economic scale, population size, energy structure, per capita income, urbanization level and industrial strength of urban residents played positive roles on greenhouse gas emissions, in which the contribution rate of industrial strength of urban residents reached 13.66%. The accumulative effects of energy intensity and agricultural production intensity played negative roles on greenhouse gas emissions, in which the contribution rate of agricultural production intensity was more than 50%. The research results indicate that the influence of industrial and agricultural activities is so significant that they can not be neglected. The paper would provide some references for Fujian province to formulate the policies and measures scientifically on energy-saving and emission reduction.

Soil erosion is a common environmental problem in the world. Hengyang Basin, located in hilly region of South China, with a population of millions, plays an excellent role in social and economic development of Hunan Province. So, it is of practical significance to understand the soil erosion processes in the basin. This paper collects the following materials such as the landsat images of 2000 and 2008, precipitation data from 1959 to 2008, the 1/250 000 DEM data and Soil Taxomony map of Hengyang. With those materials, the paper uses the RUSLE equation to calculate the whole quantity of soil erosion of the Hengyang Basin in 2000 and 2008 with ArcGIS 9.2, and the parameters in the equation are calculated with the method used in domestic reports in recent years. According to our results, the soil erosion in the basin can be classified into five grades: light, mild, medium, severe, and most severe. The large-scale engineering construction is the main reason causing soil erosion in the Hengyang Basin. In recent years the soil erosion situation has been improved, but the ecological costruction and control of soil erosion still need to be strengthened.

Lightning prevention is particularly important for the Wudangshan Mountains Scenic Region, which has been listed as a site of World Cultural and Natural Heritage. With the range of 1 km2 (1 km ×1 km) being the basic unit, the lightning frequency, polarity, intensity and other parameters in each unit from Jan. 1st, 2008 to Dec. 31st, 2011 are gained for the whole region. At the same time, the influences of geological features and the lightning environment and geographical environment of the Wudangshan Mountains on lightning activities are analyzed. The results show that: most of the lightning happens at T14-18 in June-August. The daily variation of lightning frequency is obvious in each area, the peak appears at T16:00, while the minimum value at T10-11. The lightning frequency increases with the increase of altitude, while the average lightning current intensity decreases in the mountainous areas. As a result, the correlation coefficient between the lightning density and the elevation is 0.834 56. The atmospheric circulation characteristics indicate that there are three main types of lightning storms in the Wudangshan Mountains: there are subtropical high of the northwest lightning type，upper-level trough lightning type and vortex lightning type, in which the northwest lightning type of the subtropical high dominates the area.

One-hour traffic circle has a significant impact on regional economic development, urban planning and daily life of residents. However, almost all existing studies use Euclidean distance method to study the circle. That is a simple way which only can artificially, qualitatively and roughly express the one-hour traffic circle. To overcome those shortcomings, this paper presents the traffic circle of Guangzhou according to the complex road network system, and analyzes the traffic circle quantitatively and accurately. The results show that: 1) The one-hour traffic circle of Guangzhou covers the nine major cities in the Pearl River Delta, in which Foshan benefits the most; 2) The inter-city rail transit and express highway networks contribute the most to the formation of one-hour traffic circle; 3) The one-hour traffic circle of Guangzhou is delimitated in a range of 120 kilometers from the central district of the city since urban roads are not straight; 4) There are not many islands in the traffic circle because of developed transport network.

At present, China is in a critical period of upgrading industrial structure and realizing the transformation of economic development patterns. As an important part of the tertiary industry, the logistics industry has a role of reducing the cost of economic operation effectively, improving operational efficiency and promoting the upgrade of industrial structure. In this paper the spatial dependency of rationalization of industrial structure and the optimization of industrial structure are tested, a spatial panel Durbin Model is built through introducing the spatial lag items of dependent variable and independent variable into the model. The impact of the development of logistics industry on the industrial structure optimization is analyzed from the aspects of rationalization of industrial structure and optimization of industrial structure, based on the thirty provinces panel data in China during 1997-2010. The results show that rationalization of industrial structure and optimization of industrial structure have significant positive spillover effect and there is an obvious difference among the eastern region, central region and western region of China. The development of modern logistics industry not only can significantly promote the process of the industrial structure optimization, but also promote the development of adjacent areas through the positive spillover effect. Finally, some relevant suggestions are put forward in this paper.

Based on the urban panel data of 35 metropolitan cities from 1997 to 2011, the paper provides an empirical analysis on the long-term causal relationship between airport and city economic growth. The result shows that there is a unilateral Granger causal-effect from the growth of air passenger to the urban economic growth in the 35 major cities. There is a unilateral Granger causal-effect from the growth of air passenger and air cargo to the urban economic growth in the municipalities and sub-provincial cities. Hub airport is the endogenous factor to city economic growth, promoting the long-term growth. But there is a unilateral Granger causal-effect from the urban economic growth to the growth of air passenger in other capital cities, the small airports just have short-term effect. The discrepancy of airports will make us use the new-classic growth theory or endogenous growth theory to comprehend the meaning of urban economic growth, and will intensify the city economic differentiation. The development of aviation network will have important influence on urban system. The long-term causality from city economic growth to air transport is not common, possibly indicates that the industrial structure of Chinese metropolitan cities don’t have strong dependence on airfreight transport. Considering the conditions of city development, the airport city will be the new engine of the urban economic growth in the future, if the governments could plan airports and layout related industries reasonably.

Based on the data from enterprises of textile and garment manufacturing from 1995 to 2012 in Shanghai, this paper explores the formation and evolution of the spatial pattern of textile and garment manufacturing in metropolitan areas by using methods of circle analysis, hot spot analysis and kernel density estimation. The results are as follows: First, enterprises are mainly located in the 10-30 km radius circle from city center, the suburbanization trend of enterprises is obvious and the hot zone transfers from central city areas and suburban areas to exurban areas. Second, the spatial distribution trend of enterprises of different nature and scale has its own features: foreign capital companies and joint venture enterprises are mainly located in suburban areas and their spatial location does not change obviously, the distribution intensity of domestic enterprises is significantly higher than that of joint ventures and foreign enterprises in the exurban areas; large enterprises are mainly located in northeast area of the city centre, as well as suburban areas and local centers with convenient traffic, mid-size enterprises are much stronger than large enterprises both on the range and intensity of distribution, the distribution density of small micro-enterprises in the exurban area is significantly higher than mid-size and large enterprises. Third, the results indicate that the factors such as history, change of geographical conditions, financial crisis, policy adjustment and planning guidance are the main driving factors.

With the rapid economic development, resource and environmental pollution problems have gradually become serious, the limitedness of resources and importance of environment are gaining more and more public attention. The paper analyzes the relationship between economic development and coastal environment in Guangdong province during 1991-2011. An Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) econometric mode of the relationship between economic growth and waste water discharge in Guangdong was established. The results showed that: Fitting curves of Guangdong’s waste water emissions and GDP reflected significant EKC relation. A decoupling effect occurred between industrial wastewater emissions and GDP. Industrial production’s pressure on resources and the environment gradually reduced. Sewage emissions growth was relatively fast, leading to serious eutrophication of coastal waters. The frequency of occurrence of red-tide gradually increased, which had a direct threat to the normal functioning of the coastal water body. The annual change of coastal catch rate in Guangdong suggested that the biodiversity of the coastal waters was to a certain extent restored, but the situation was still not optimistic. The EKC theory shows that economic growth will ultimately improve the quality of the environment, but that has prerequisite. The province must develop environmental protection policy and establish coastal ecological conservation areas, so as to achieve regional economic development in harmony with the environment.

The toponym culture of the Thirteen Hongs in ancient Guangzhou (Canton) is a spatio-temporal system. Although it’s now difficult to find the ancient buildings of the Thirteen Hongs on the ground, their relics still can be identified. There are many buildings closely related to the system, and so it’s possible to understand the beginning, development and change of the system and find relation between the environment around the relics and the sino-foreign trade by investigation on the toponym culture of Guangzhou Thirteen Hongs. The Thirteen Hongs should be highlighted as an international famous brand for Guangzhou, and a historical and cultural trading port tourism project be established, that would contribute to the construction of international cultural city of Guangzhou. The article sorts out a series of geographic names of Guangzhou Thirteen Hongs, analyzes their toponym culture characters, reveals their distribution rule (along the river and closed to the waters) and the spread of the culture. The article also puts forward some measures to protect the intangible culture heritage of the Thirteen Hongs toponym.

The Zhuang is a typical rice planting nationality in China. Rice planting in the Zhuang area is characterized by its strong adaptation to the environment. In different geomorphic regions, the Zhuang people have been fully aware of the profound influence of natural geographical environment, climate and soil on rice planting. In order to adapt their planting to the natural geographical environment and achieve maximum production efficiency, the Zhuang people who live in mountain area always choose to plant Japonica rice which grows for a longer growth period and is cold-resistant and infertility-endurable, while those who live in river valley and hilly area always choose to plant indica rice which grows for a shorter period . In Karst mountain areas suffering from water deficiency and drought, the local Zhuang people usually plant upland rice. However, as the upland rice tastes poor and the relation between people and land is changing from comfortable to tight, the upland rice planting status is falling in Zhuang’s planting structure. In addition, the position of the rice used in Zhuang’s life also affects the selection and planting of rice varieties.

The rising of Macao in the Middle and Later Periods of the Ming Dynasty was an inevitable outcome since the Ming Government carried out very special foreign trade policy, although Macao was selected by Portuguese occasionally after they went through many changes. The paper tries to explore as a very tiny area why Macao could become a very important port of transshipment in the east-west trade at that time based on the particular tribute trade in the Ming Dynasty, and specially focuses on the influence of Guangzhou and economic relations between Macao and Guangzhou. In addition, the study analyzes the similarities and differences of Macao, Guangzhou and Yuegang, which were the only three open ports in the Later Periods of the Ming Dynasty, from the perspective of national trade. It is believed that the rising of Macao was largely benefited from the restrictions of Tribute Trade Policy of the Ming Dynasty to private foreign trade and traditional port development. Furthermore, Guangzhou had advantage in national foreign trade but shortage in some port functions, that helped Macao to establish the biggest international trade framework in the world at that time to play a role equivalent to an outer port of Guangzhou.

Hot springs were wildly used for sightseeing, ablution, health caring and other recreational activities in ancient China. On the basis of systematic survey of the related historical hot spring data, this paper analyses the composing elements, forms and characteristics of ancient hot spring tourism landscapes. The conclusions are as follows: The landscapes of ancient hot spring can be classified into two types including single scenery and composite scenery. The single scenery was small scale hot spring landscape unit, which was composed of springhead, spring water, motion state, color, and hot spring organism, while the composite scenery was a complex of hot spring water, rocks, buildings, and plants, which constituted an integrated beautiful landscape. Some particular hot spring landscapes became local famous scenic spots. In ancient China local people in a region often selected their famous scenic spots to form a group of scenes, known as the Eight Scenes, the Ten Scenes, or the Twelve Scenes, in which hot spring landscapes were usually included. Each scene was always named with a phrase of four Chinese characters, describing the beautiful scenery briefly and artistically, and so the region could be well known for its famous group of scenes. The study of ancient hot spring landscapes would give useful enlightenment to the development and construction of modern hot spring tourism.

Based on the investigation and in-depth interviews with 56 enterprise CEOs and managers in the Pearl River Delta(PRD), this paper addresses that location, policies and laws, production costs, infrastructure and the supporting capacity of industry are five determining factors that influence the development of enterprises. By establishing the index evaluation system, this paper makes use of Analytic Hierarchy Process method to analyze the investment environment changes of the labor-intensive industries and the tech-intensive industries. The result shows that the investment environment now is more favorable to technology-intensive industries rather than labor-intensive industries. Meanwhile, we make a further analysis on the reasons influencing investment environment for the PRD in production costs, location, policies and laws and the supporting capacity of industry and so on. Finally, in order to improve the investment environment in the PRD, we suggest that the government should speed-up industrial upgrading and encourage the industry transfer; redevelop the old factories, old villages and old towns to release more land; and foster regional integration.

With the 1:10 000 topographic map of Guangzhou in 1928, the land types, built-up area and scope of urban building land were determined, and the construction land was divided into three categories, which were single building, arcade streets, and blocks. According to historic data and field investigation，a 2D model of built-up area was reconstructed by giving different value to the three categories without considering the altitude. The flat pattern, mean height, spatial pattern, aspect ratio, skyline and urban morphology of Guangzhou was studied. The conclusions were drawn as follows: 1) In 1928, Guangzhou’s built-up area was 17.77 km2 and the city’s shape was elongated along the Pearl River. 2) Most buildings were short and their average height just was 6.07 m. 3) The flat pattern was built in multi-level blocks and arcades streets with high aspect ratio, which were the largest combination of buildings in Guangzhou. 4) The roads with high aspect ratio provided plenty of natural ventilation. 5) Not only the height of single buildings but also the skyline reflected well that the height distribution presented a reverse T shape composed of the Yanjiang Road West along the Pearl River and the city central axis from Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall to Municipal offices building. 6) Basin, block, valley and terrace were the basic elements for Guangzhou’s urban spatial morphology. Guangzhou’s spatial morphology not only reflected urban functional areas and the combination of productivity and market in the period of the Republic of China but also became a typical representative of the cities surrounded by hills and rivers in South China.

City civil center movement as an important strategy and governance mode shows effective influence on city development. The paper adopts level evolvement research method to study the location criterion and influencing element of civil center movement for Shenzhen-Dongguan-Huizhou metropolitan in the PRD. The research shows that the concept of civil center changes in China and forms new trend for diffusion of service center and related infrastructure. Civil center movement can be classified into three types as regional integration, space governance driving and new development mode creation. The study on Shenzhen-dongguan-Huizhou metropolitan comes to the conclusion that the civil center movement of Shenzhen is related with regional cooperation of PRD region and Shenzhen-Hong Kong integration, the civil center movement of Dongguan is related with spatial governance to reach the goal of function exchange between new and old civil centers, the civil center movement of Huizhou is related with new urban development pole creation. These three successful movement modes help inspection of the combination and interaction development path between political center and economic center in metropolitan and would be enlightening for metropolitan development in China.

A 540 cm long sediment core was collected from a residual swamp in Fuzhou basin. Element geochemical, 137Cs and 14C isotopic dating techniques were applied to determine recent sedimentation rates. The results indicated that there were two sedimentary environments for the core. The sedimentary environment of the lower part was proluvial-alluvial and the upper part was swamp. However, both of them were very stable. The three concentrations of 137Cs from swamp sediment were in excellent agreement with the 137Cs fallout activities of the northern hemisphere. The interpolated age of the core bottom was 1950, agreeing with the dating result of 14C, suggesting the 137Cs dating result of this core was reliable. The sedimentation rates showed that the proluvial-alluvial sediment was very rapid in the subsiding area of Fuzhou Basin from early 1950s to middle 1960s which was about 20.9 cm/a. With the change of the basins and plains and the development of Channel Bars in the lower reaches of the Minjiang River, the broad channel changed to the swamp, and the sedimentation rate was decreasing: from middle 1960s to middle 1970s, it was about 9.9 cm/a; and from middle 1970s to middle 1980s, it was about 7.1 cm/a; and later, it was about 3.1 cm/a. The extremely large sedimentation rates in the study area were closely related to the different activities of fault blocks in Fuzhou Basin.

The rapid economic development of the Pearl River Delta region has caused over-exploitation of resources, environmental pollution and ecosystem function damage. In order to seek the spatial gradient of environment, the S, N and C contents of Funaria hygrometrica are studied in three typical areas which are Guangzhou, Zhaoqing and Huaiji, representing the core, periphery and edge of the Pearl River Delta, respectively. Analytical results show that there is positive correlation between the sulfur and nitrogen contents in Funaria hygrometrica and the degree of industrialization. The contents of the sulfur in Funaria hygrometrica of Guangzhou, Zhaoqing and Huaiji City are 2 485.86, 1 778.15 and 1 339.84 mg/kg respectively. The contents of the nitrogen in Funaria hygrometrica of the three cities are 2106.5 mg/kg, 2 007.39 mg/kg and 1 661.88 mg/kg, respectively, and both the contents of sulfur and nitrogen in Guangzhou are the highest, while those in Huaiji the lowest. However, the correlation between the C/N ratio of Funaria hygrometrica and the degree of industrialization is negative. The C/N ratios of Funaria hygrometrica are 18.377, 18.513 and 23.905 in Guangzhou, Zhaoqing and Huaiji, respectively, and C/N is the lowest in Guangzhou and the highest in Huaiji. That signifies that major components of elements N changes in atmosphere. The element N in the atmosphere of Huaiji originates from NHx-N(ammonium) based on the emission from agriculture, while that in Guangzhou originates from NOx-N(nitrate) based on the emission from industry mainly.

Nankeng River, a branch of Xinfengjiang River, directly flows into Xinfengjiang reservoir, which is the largest drinking water source in Guangdong Province. During the field survey, waste water without treatment inflooded the Nankeng River due to lawless mining. So 9 common pollutants, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, Cr, As and Hg, were determined in the water and sediments of Nankeng River. The results showed that water was contaminated seriously in low water period. In 2011 and 2012, the contents of Pb, As and Hg in water were 1.7-1.8, 1.3-1.9 and 1.6-2.9 times over the second grade of drinking water quality standard, respectively, while those of Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn and As in sediments were 4.8, 9.0, 3.9, 4.3 and 10.9 times, respectively, over the soil quality standard. Otherwise, the riparian plants from Nankeng River were collected and identified, and 15 plant species, dominated by fern and perennial grass, were found. The 9 common pollutants in plants were also examined, and the results indicated that Pteris vittata was not only an arsenic-accumulating plant, but also a compound-accumulator, which can be used in the soil remediation of multiple contamination.

The composition, life forms, damage degrees, original districts and invasive routes of alien invasive plant species in urban wetlands of Meizhou City are analysed in this paper based on our field survey and literature review. The results show that 33 species from 16 families and 29 genera of alien invasive plant species are distributed in the urban wetlands of Meizhou. The Asteraceous plants are the most in number and take up 27.3% of the total species. Herbaceous plant is the dominant life form. In addition, there are 10 species that have caused high degree of threat to the local ecological environment. Most of the alien invasive plant species originally were from the Americas and were introduced intentionally or unintentionally by human beings. On the basis of the research, the strategies for controlling the alien invasive plants are proposed, such as establishing ecological risk evaluating system, enhancing entry quarantine, enhancing regional cooperation, increasing public awareness, effectively preventing and controlling the alien invasive plants, and transforming harmful plants into useful ones, etc. The results of this paper will provide reference for sustainable development of urban ecology and economy of the city.

This paper makes a research on the geomorphologic value of Shibing Karst, including karst evolutionary environment, types and distribution of karst landforms, geomorphological evolutionary history, and the records corresponding to the major stages of earth's history. The paper also makes a comparative analysis between karst landform of limestone and that of dolomite. The outcome illustrates that Shibing Karst has a very suitable context for karst landform development, like other regions in southern China; it shows the unique and spectacular dolomite fengcong-gorge landform in tropics and subtropics, with the reverse rejuvenation from Fenglin to Fengcong karst, and it is the typical site for dolomite gorge landform and its evolution; Shibing Karst has recorded the Caledonian Movement, Hercynian Movement, Indo-China Movement, Yanshan Movement and Himalayan Movement of southern Asia. The Yanshan Movement created Bijiashan anticline and other dislocations and formed the base terrain-skeleton of Shibing Karst. The Himalayan Movement shaped comprehensively the gorge karst landform in Shibing. The dolomite karst of Shibing shows open landform structures, while closed landform in limestone area, Shibing Karst occupies a very important position in the series of South China Karst and has geomorphologic value of World Natural Heritage.

In order to understand the occurrence degree of karstification under different soil CO2 concentration and soil water chemistry, the soil CO2 concentration, water content and erosion rate of limestone were monitored in the area of Guilin, Guangxi Province.The results showed that: (1)The soil CO2 concentration had seasonal variation obviously with a trend of that the highest in summer and the lowest in winter, the soil CO2 concentration in summer was 3~5 times as many as those in other seasons on the whole, the maximum was 60899.64 mg/m2, while the minimum only 5587.21 mg/m2; (2)The CO2 concentration in the soil of depression was higher than that in the soil of slope at the layers of the same depth, the former was nearly 20 000 mg/m2 more than that of the latter in summer, and the concentration was higher at deep layer than that at surface, and the mean value was 4353.54 mg/m2 more than the concentration at surface; (3) The average values of soil water chemistry in the soil of slope and depression were as follows: pH 7.49 and 6.41, conductivity 300 μS/cm and 78 μS/cm, Ca2+ 60 mg/L and 15.43 mg/L, 2.78 mg/L and 0.44 mg/L, respectively; the pH value, conductivity, Ca2+ and in soil water of slope were all higher than those of the depression; (4) Corrosion test indicated that the Karstification was very obvious in the study area, and was closely related to soil CO2 and soil water. So it is concluded that the karstification was driven by soil CO2 and soil water.

Dapeng Peninsula National Geopark of Shenzhen is plentiful in animal resources. Survey on animal diversity in the geopark was carried out from August 2012 to Jan 2013. The results showed that a total of 109 species of vertebrates were recorded, in which there were 16 species of beasts, 63 of birds, 19 of reptiles and 11 of amphibians. Analysis showed that Oriental Realm dominated the species composition. There were 1 species and 12 species in the geopark which belong to the first and second class state key protected wildlife in China, respectively. Those species include Python molurus, Manis pentadatyla, Miluus Korschun, Falco peregrinus, F. peregrinus, F. tinnunculus, Accipiter nisus, Polophilus sinensis, Centropus bengalensis, Glaucidium cuculoides, G. brodiei, Cuora trifasciala and Haplobatrachus rugulosus, etc. Meanwhile, some important species were discovered in the park for the first time, such as Paramesotriton hongkongensis. In the paper the situation and protection of the wild vertebrate resources in this region are analyzed, some suggestions about species identification, habitat protection, appropriate recovery plans, cooperations in the protections, propaganda and education, etc. are proposed.

Watershed-scale ecological function zoning can provide scientific basis for ecological and environmental protection. This study is based on the analysis of watershed geographic elements, ecological sensitivity, ecosystem services, and extent of urban development and productivity layout. With RS, GIS technology, this paper uses combination methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis to make out the Nanliu River Basin ecological function zoning. Spatially the Nanliu River basin is divided into six ecological function zones: Ⅰ ecological function zone of forest ecosystems, Ⅱ ecological function zone of terrestrial ecosystem to maintain water environment, Ⅲ ecological function zone of soil and water conservation, Ⅳecological function zone of forestry products supply, Ⅴecological function zone of urban development, Ⅵ ecological function zone of coastal waters. The problems existing in the zones are expounded and the countermeasures against those problems are suggested in the paper.

Colleges and universities are trending towards openness and diversification with the influence of reform and construction promoted by the social transition in China. Study of the environment cognition on two types of campus would make it significant to construction and development of colleges and universities based on the tendency from unitized campus to socialized campus. Using Environment-behavior study as an entry point, this paper selects Hunan Normal University and Central South University, which represent socialized campus and unitized campus respectively, as comparative cases. Questionnaire survey on the basis of exploratory research is used to extract samples of environmental cognition and spatial behavior, and the subjective evaluation and sketches depicting are employed to obtain the first-hand data and information. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of statistical data, visualization sketch, buffer analysis and spatial overlay, some conclusions can be drawn as follows: 1) Socialized campus is integrated into the urban system in its passive adaptation to the social transition, forming an open and sharing situation, that leads to worse environmental cognition, as compared with that of unitized campus. 2) As natural and geographical factors, function pattern and users’ subjective awareness intertwine together, with the impetus of time factor, the spatial behavior patterns different from those in unitized campus appear in socialized campus. 3) The interaction mechanism between environmental cognition and spatial behavior is built based on the expansibility of students’ cognition and the persistent impact of the social transition environment. Finally, the paper also discusses some views on university construction.

This paper carries on the arrangement and classification of historical materials on hail disasters during the Ming Dynasty of China, builds a database of hail disasters, and grades the hail disasters according to the size and harm of hail. Firstly, it reveals the regularity of time distribution and frequency of hail in the Ming Dynasty by using the methods of statistics; Secondly, it shows the distribution of different grades of hail disasters on the administrative division map of the Ming Dynasty. The results indicate that: There were 1970 times of hail disasters that occurred in the Ming Dynasty; The hail disasters can be classified into three grades, in which the most was the second grade of hail disasters; Hail disasters in the Ming Dynasty had obvious phased and seasonal characteristics; Hail disasters more happened in the middle and later periods of the Ming Dynasty, more in spring and summer, less in autumn, and the least in winter; The disasters mostly were distributed in the eastern regions, less in the western, not so much in the central, also less in the northern and southern regions; In different provinces the seasonal distribution was different. It is believed that the results could provide a reliable historical background for prediction and prevention of the future hail disasters.

“Yuedong” is a toponym that is widely used, it means “the eastern Guangdong” in Chinese. However, its ancient geographical senses and modern geographical senses are different. There are also several explanations of “Yuedong” in the contemporary era, that influences our daily life and work. Consequently, it is necessary to seek a more reasonable geographical sence of “Yuedong” and the result would provide reference for relevant departments. Having combed the evolution of the ancient senses of “Yuedong” according to historical documents, the paper observes the usage of the toponym in contemporary academic circles and the media with quantitative statistic ways. The research shows that the scope of “Yuedong” became smaller gradually along with the constantly narrowing of the scope of “Yue” in ancient time. There are at least four geographical senses of “Yuedong” in the contemporary era. In those four senses, the saying “Yuedong has five cities” is the most accepted by academia and the media. In combination with the economic development situation and natural terrain features, the paper analyses the advantages and disadvantages of each geographical sense of “Yuedong” in the contemporary era, and tries to make a united definition for “Yuedong”. According to the definition, “Yuedong” refers to the eastern part of Guangdong, including five cities: Chaozhou, Shantou, Jieyang, Shanwei and Meizhou.

The Hengshitang geothermal field, located in Yingde, Guangdong Province, is of carbonatite geothermal resources. Based on the regional geological data and the groundwater temperatures collected from the drilling holes, this paper analyses its geotherm characteristics, reservoir conditions, recharge, runoff, and drainage. Devonian-carboniferous carbonatites mainly compose geothermal reservoir of the field, whose geothermal water runoff and geotherm characteristics are controlled by a series of geological structures along Wuchuan-Sihui deep fault zone. Geotemperature curves show that the geothermal field appears an irregular long elliptic shape, with major axis being nearly NW trending, hence inferring that variation of the geotherm is related to fractures and corrosion degree of rocks. There is no additional heat source here, thus the geothermal water is mainly caused by deep cycling process.

Aiming at the problems of poor objectivity of multidimensional index weight assignment for evaluation of arable land security, the authors proposed and applied projection pursuit model (pp) optimized by a real coded accelerating genetic algorithm (RAGA) to evaluate the arable land security in the rapid urbanization suburbs of Metropolitan cities. In the paper Panyu district and Conghua city in Guangzhou are taken as examples, and 32 indicators are selected to build four security sub-systems, namely, the quantity security, structural security, quality security, ecological security, and economic and social security. The results indicate that: (1) Using RAGA-PP model can achieve satisfactory results in the objective evaluation of multi-target and multi-factor arable land security.(2) The weights of arable land security impact index between outer suburbs and peri-urban area in Guangzhou city are very different. (3) Due to the difference of development orientation and development strategy, the urbanization rates of the areas are different, the arable land security level of Panyu is lower than that of Conghua, as Panyu is in peri-urban area while Conghua in outer suburbs. (4) From the sub-goals, Panyu’s arable land has a higher level of economic security, but it’s quantity security, quality and ecological security are lower than those in Conghua.

As the communications center among the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and Eurasia, the Nansha Islands plays an increasingly pivotal strategic role in the future. Currently, as many islands and reefs have been illegally occupied by surrounding countries, controlling the unoccupied reefs would be an effective approach for China to safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity. Consequently, to evaluate the strategic value of unoccupied reefs is significant. In this paper, the research approach is based on AHP and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. Five atolls are selected as research objects, which are Wufang Atoll, Xinyi Shoal, Haikou Shoal, Banyue Shoal, Jianzhang Shoal, respectively. Through establishing norm index system of evaluation and constructing fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model, the paper comprehensively estimates strategic value of the reefs and analyzes their strategic importance and potential from four aspects: sovereign value, military value, sea channel controlling value and resource controlling value. Results show that the strategic values of the atolls from high to low are Wufang Atoll (90.57), Banyue Shoal (86.99), Xinyi Shoal (74.09), Jianzhang Shoal (65.94), and Haikou Shoal (58.12). The strategic values of Wufang Atoll and Banyue Shoal are the highest, they have great development potential.

Water quality of the offshore area along the western coast of Leizhou Peninsula was investigated in January, 2011. Based on the data, three aspects of the environmental quality of the investigated sea area were assessed and discussed by using the methods of single factor index, eutrophication level, and comprehensive fuzzy assessment. The results showed that: (1) the major pollution factors of the sea surface water were petroleum and active phosphate (PO4-P), 100% of which exceeded the standards, and at some sampling stations the indexes such as pH and Cr6 also exceeded standards. (2) The nutrient in the investigated area was poor, the eutrophication level in the western coast offshore area was lower than that in the eastern. The content of active phosphate (PO4-P) in some sampling stations exceeded the class III water quality standard, that meant certain risk of pollution. (3) According to the water quality sorting, water environment quality in the western coast offshore area was higher than that in the eastern. The high value of fuzzy membership grade appeared near the ports of Jianghong, Yanzao, Lemin and Danchang. (4) That the detected items exceeded the standards in surface water was influenced by offshore operations, shipping oil wastewater and the upstream pollutants. Jianghong Port is one of the ten largest fishing ports in Guangdong. In recent years, offshore operations have become more and more frequent, ocean fishing and farming have been developed greatly, in addition, there are few rivers pouring into the sea, and the hydrodynamics is relatively weak in winter, leading to that the contents of petroleum, activated phosphate and heavy metals exceed the standards. The poor water quality of the sea surface near Lemin Port is caused by the pollutants from Tieshan Port.

Evolution of the Pearl River course in Guangzhou has a crucial impact on ecological environment. This paper integrated the data from ancient maps, historical records and modern remote sensing to build a graphic library for the representative river section of the Pearl River in urban area of Guangzhou, which quantitatively reflected the evolution characteristics of the urban river course. Combining the results from other relevant researches, the paper also deduced the evolution trend of the river channel. The results showed that the Pearl River channel narrowed with a rate of 0.6-0.8 m/a before the 1950s. Since then the whole section shape tended to be stable except parts of the course that changed greatly. At last, the paper discussed the influence of the river course evolution on urban ecological environment.

Large scale hydrological observations in the eight estuaries of the Pearl River were simultaneously carried out in February, 2011. Analysis of the field data showed that: (1) the eight estuaries in descendant order of runoff were: Modaomen, Humen, Hongqimen, Jiaomen, Yamen, Hutiaomen, Jitimen and Hengmen; (2) during tide waves going into the estuaries, Modaomen and Jitimen reached their top water level first, Humen and Jiaomen the last, and their time difference about 1 to 2 hours; the runoff was strong and tide was weak in Modaomen; the flood velocity in Modaomen was smaller than those in other estuaries, but ebb velocity the contrary; (3) the eight estuaries in descendant order of average salinity were: Humen, Yamen, Modaomen, Hutiaomen, Hengmen, Jiaomen, Hongqimen and Jitimen; (4) Humen, Yamen and Jitimen were of strong salinity mixing type; Modaomen belonged to strong salinity mixing type during spring tide, but high-degree stratification type during neap tide. other four estuaries belonged to moderate-degree mixing type, which were characterized by high salinity at bottom layer and low at surface layer, strong mixing during spring tide and weak mixing during neap tide.

Based on the data from Chinese chorography, this paper obtained the total number of hot springs in different historical periods in China, and analysed the spatial characteristics and disposition of the hot springs by using the software of ArcGIS. The conclusions can be drawn as follows: According to historical records, there were forty-seven hot springs from the Qin Dynasty to the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which were mainly distributed in the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. There were one hundred and eight hot springs in the Tang and Song Dynasties mainly distributed in economically developed regions, and the distribution core area moved from northwest to southeast. There were four hundred and nineteen hot springs in the Ming and Qing Dynasties distributed all over the country. The spatial development tendency of hot spring resources was: from east to north, from central China to other places, more in north-east than in north-west. The natural environment, demand of society and the process of regional development were the main factors which affect temporal-spatial distribution of hot spring resources.

Increase or decrease and transition of precipitation in China are studied in this paper based on the annual precipitation records of 563 stations during 1960-2010 by using the piecewise linear fitting model. Data analysis is performed by using ANUSPLIN software. The results are as follows: In the past 50 years there were two increase centers and two decrease centers of precipitation in China. The increase centers were in southeast of the Tibetan Plateau and south of the Yangze River-Huai River Basin, while the decrease centers in the Bohai Sea rim region and southwest China. Three precipitation transitions occurred in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The transitions in the 1970s and 1980s moved along the longitude, and that in the 1990s along the latitude. And the initial years of the transitions moved from west to east. The increase and decrease zones of precipitation were distributed along the latitude. The increase and decrease zones occurred alternately in most areas of China and the distribution was of “+, -, +” or “-, +, -” type along the longitude. The center line of precipitation change was basically in accord with the North-South dividing line of China.

Since the 1990s, the banking reform in China has expedited the delivery and development of local banks, mainly the city commercial banks and the rural commercial banks. They serve primarily the enterprises of small and medium size and residents of urban and rural area to make up the market vacancies of large national banks. According to the analysis on banking system reform, the number of the outlets of the city commercial banks and the rural commercial banks has increased significantly as the governments released the restriction on single geographical business scope and allowed them setting up cross-regional branches. The geographical distribution of the city and rural commercial banks has also been changed greatly after the reform. In comparison with national banks, we found that local banks’ head offices have closer links to cities with strong financial needs by better economic development, while the remote branches show some differences in location choice: city commercial banks prefer developed areas and take a nationwide strategic layout and regional gradients layout to expand; On the contrary, rural commercial banks give priority to developing regions and mainly expand in a jumping mode in its economic region.

In this paper 2077 papers about eco-city were collected from the journals whose composite impact factors are more than 0.9 in CJFD from 1980-2012, and by using NoteExpress and econometric methods, the dynamic characteristics of eco-city study in China were summarized based on research timing, research methods, research types, research scales, research areas, the authors and their affiliations. The core-authors and their papers were preliminarily analyzed by Price's law. The results show that since the eco-city theory was introduced into China, the number of Chinese eco-city papers has achieved great growth. Research methods and research types have diversified increasingly, the use of quantitative approaches has increased obviously, and the case study on the basis of empirical research has become a mainstream. The research scale has changed from single meso-scale to paralleling macro-, meso- and micro-scales. The research areas have spread from coastal to inland areas. The numbers of core-authors and their papers have increased, while their proportion decreased relatively. From the analysis on high-impact papers, high volume posting journals, their authors and subjects, a fact can be illustrated that academics in planning, geography and ecology are the backbones of eco-city study in China. At the end, this paper also looks ahead the trend of Chinese eco-city study in the future.

Monitoring of air CO2 concentration of Baojinggong Cave was carried out from December 15, 2011 to April 15, 2013. The results indicate that the cave air CO2 concentration showed notable spatial and seasonal variations. Monthly CO2 concentration of cave air varied from 201×10-6 to 3450×10-6 with an annual average of 1018×10-6. The CO2 concentration was higher in summer (from May to Octomber) and lower in winter (from November to next April). The sites closer to cave entrances, affected by strong cave ventilation, had lower CO2 concentration. The variation of cave air CO2 concentration was mainly influenced by cave ventilation and changes of vegetation respiration and soil microbial activity, which in turn were associated with changes in climate and environment. In addition, the special structure of Baojinggong Cave and tourists also contributed to the variation of cave air CO2 concentration.