Canopy foliar Nitrogen Concentration (CNC) is one of the most important parameters influencing vegetation productivity in forest ecosystems. In this study, we explored the potential of imaging spectrometry (hyperspectral) remote sensing of CNC in conifer plantations in China's subtropical red soil hilly region. Our analysis included data from 57 field plots scattered across two transects covered by Hyperion images. Single regression and partial least squares regression (PLSR) were used to explore the relationships between CNC and hyperspectral data. The correlations between CNC and nearinfrared reflectance (NIR) were consistent in three data subsets (subsets A–C). For all subsets, CNC was significantly positively correlated with NIR in the two transects (R²=0.29, 0.33 and 0.36, P<0.05 or P<0.01, respectively). It suggested that the NIR-CNC relationship exist despite a weak one, and the relationship may be weakened by the single canopy structure. Besides, we also applied a shortwave infrared (SWIR) index — Normalized Difference Nitrogen Index (NDNI) to estimate CNC variation. NDNI presented a significant positive correlation with CNC in different subsets, but like NIR, it was also with low coefficient of determination (R²=0.38, 0.20 and 0.17, P<0.01, respectively). Also, the correlations between CNC and the entire spectrum reflectance (or its derivative and logarithmic transformation) by PLSR owned different significance in various subsets. We did not find the very robust relationship like previous literatures, so the data we used were checked again. The paired T-test was applied to estimate the influence of inter-annual variability of FNC on the relationships between CNC and Hyperion data. The inter-annual mismatch between period of fieldwork and Hyperion acquisition had no influence on the correlations of CNC-Hyperion data. Meanwhile, we pointed out that the lack of the canopy structure variation in conifer plantation area may lead to these weak relationships.

This paper illustrates the spatial variations in urban resource and environmental efficiency (REE) amongst 285 cities in China using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model, and examines the factors that have had the greatest effect on this spatial pattern by regression models. The results gave an average urban REE of 0.6381, and an average pure technical efficiency (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE) of 0.6964 and 0.9225, respectively. The results support the existence of a U-shaped relationship between REE and income level, which means that an increase in urban GDP does not result in an equivalent increase in environmental efficiency. Economic growth affects REE in three ways: scale effects (population scale and urbanization rate); composition effects; and spatial effects. Improvements in urban resource use and environmental efficiency depend upon both technological innovation and effective governance. Policies designed to achieve these improvements should therefore be implemented at all levels of government and local enterprise.

Tourists' authentic perceptions are crucial for the development of world heritage resources. The paper focuses on exploring the relationships between tourists' authentic perceptions and authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage. Through the empirical study on the Forbidden City in Beijing, we find that the relationships between the above two factors can be simulated by the model of set theory in algebra. As a result, five types of set relationships are proposed: “separation relation”, “intersection relation”, “inclusion relation I”, “inclusion relation II” and “superposition relation”. According to sample distribution rules, the set relationships can be further divided into primary set relationships and secondary set relationships. The study on set relationships based on demographic characteristic of tourists by using two-way analysis of variance method shows that the tourists in different groups of gender, ages, levels of education, visit frequencies and levels of early perspectives have different perceptions for the set relationships. The findings in this paper are helpful for identifying effects of the authenticity-based exploitation of world heritage resources and proposing future strategies for world heritage resources from tourists' authentic perspectives.

Global change is induced by human activities and these changes impact tourism development. The transportation system especially aviation consumed by tourists and accommodation facilities in coastal destinations release massive greenhouse gases and contribute to global change. The ocean is very important to the society and the economy, and coastal tourism is one of the main human activities in the coastal zone. Coastal tourism resources are rich in China, and coastal tourism plays a decisive role in the marine economy. Here, we analyze problems and challenges during the development of coastal tourism resources from the global change perspective, and identify key factors for the future and ecologically friendly coastal tourism resource development and management under the framework of sustainable development. Based on our findings we recommend changing the pattern and products of coastal tourism to develop low carbon coastal tourism based on the idea of “green thinking”; more attention on developments of creative tourism products such as ecotourism and alternative tourism; changes to coastal tourism resource utilization by developing low carbon coastal tourism, advocating carbon emission reduction, promoting carbon compensation and carbon economy, and encouraging new energy saving technology application. Stakeholders also need to be considered. All these measures should be implemented and optimized during the process of planning-management-monitoring-evaluation in the dynamic model. Due to limited data on coastal tourism resource development and management in the global change perspective, part of our reference data is from whole tourism research results and this is a shortcoming of our approach.

As important suppliers of energy resources, mining areas have made huge contributions to China's socio-economic development. However, some factors are inhibiting the further development of mining areas and, thereby pose a threat to social stability, as well as resource and energy security in the country. In 2012, the National Development and Reform Commission formulated a project aiming to support the sustainable development of mining areas. This study collected and compiled the project's first-hand survey data from 128 mining areas across China and comprehensively investigated the current development status of the country's mining areas. The problems facing the development of China's mining areas are analyzed, and four specific suggestions are provided, namely: promote industry transformation, remove institutional constraints, improve people's livelihoods to maintain the stability of mining areas, and protect the environment to provide a clean, healthy living environment for mining area residents. This paper provides the first comprehensive and systematic picture of China's mining areas and highlights the importance of mining areas for the country's economic and social development.

The Shelterbelt Forest System Program in northeast, north and northwest China (the Three-North Shelterbelt Program, TNSP) is the largest ecological reforestation program in the world. TNSP vegetation research has important ecological meaning and profound social and economic significance. Here, spatio-temporal variation in vegetation cover under the TNSP was examined using the NDVI average method, major climatic factors such as temperature and precipitation, and linear regression trend analysis from 1982 to 2006. We found that in the past 25 years, NDVI vegetation in the study area has consistently risen at a rate of 0.007 per decade. Vegetation cover, temperature and precipitation are positively correlated. The area of vegetation associated with precipitation is larger than the area related to temperature; precipitation is the key factor affecting vegetation growth across the TNSP. From 1982 to 2006, regions with improved vegetation cover were found in the central and southern part of the Greater Khingan Mountains, central part of the Lesser Khingan Mountains, northeastern part of the Changbai Mountains, Yanshan Mountians, Western Liaoning Hilly Region, Altai Mountains, Tien Shan Mountains, eastern part of the Qilian Mountains, eastern part of the northwest desert as well as southern part of the Gully Region of the Loess Plateau. However, vegetation cover declined on both sides of the Greater Khingan Mountains, western part of the Hulun Buir Plateau, northern part of the Sanjiang Plain, southern part of Horqin Sandy Land, southern part of the northwest desert and northern part of the Gully Region of the Loess Plateau.

We conducted a quantitative analysis of the relationship between the evolution of China's industrial structure and environmental change. Using the industrial structure characteristic bias index and data from 29 manufacturing industries in each province from 1995 to 2010, we described the impact of pollution-emission characteristics of industry structure on the regional environment. The results show that wastewater-discharged characteristic of industrial structure in the northwest and central areas declined from 1995–2010, but this trend has weakened. The industrial structure of southwest and southeast areas had a high level of solid waste discharge and a constantly strengthening trend in SO₂ emissions. We also analyzed the growth and recession of each sector in eight regions in China from 1995 to 2010. Among the eight regions, the middle reach of the Yellow River, and northwest and southwest China had a clear increasing trend of high pollution industries; the eastern coast, southern coast, middle reach of the Yangtze River and northeastern China did not sustain an increase in high pollution industries. In addition, regression analysis modeling was used to analyze the impact of the evolution of industrial structure on the disparities of regional environmental effects. We found that regional industry structure was closely related to environmental quality, especially for western areas at lower stages of economic development. In the future, all regions must prevent and forefend the risk of environmental pollution in the update and adjustment of industrial structure.

Here, the geographical space distribution of the oil and gas industry in China is comprehensively investigated using the overall Moran's I index and local Moran's I index. We found that China's oil and gas industry development from 2000 to 2010 has a differentiated geographical space distribution upstream (extractive industry) but not downstream (refining industry). To analyze upstream and downstream states a spatial econometrics model (SEM) was used to identify influential factors resulting from the spatial concentration of the oil and gas industry. An external effect is the key factor promoting the spatial concentration of the upstream industry in China; governmental economic policy is another important factor.

Islands are special regional units with unique development models and pathways and because of their locations, resources and environmental advantages, play an important role in the process of national modernization. Here, industrial coefficient variation and shift-share methods were used to explain the evolution of island county economies and the competitiveness of their industrial structures. We found that industrial structures in island counties have undergone a complex evolution, have not followed a pure levo-rotation mode or dextrorotation mode, and have experienced mixed evolutionary modes. The industrial structures in island counties are relatively simple, and the evolution of industrial structures in island counties has an apparent leaping feature. Last, the economic development of 12 focal island counties were divided into five categories in accordance with analysis of their economic development: Competitiveness Strengthened and Structure Optimized; Competitiveness Strengthened but Structure Declined; Competitiveness Weakened but Structure Optimized; Competitiveness Weakened and Structure Declined; and Structure Relatively Stabilized.

Despite its recency as a research area, ecosystem service research has developed over the last decade into a significant area of science. In this paper we review recent advances and challenges in ecosystem service research. Our review finds that (i) Ecosystem services are ubiquitous in biosphere. But they are treated differently among scientific communities. In order for the concept of ecosystem services to make a large and meaningful contribution to conservation and human well-being, it needs to be clearly defined and put into a framework so that it is both fit for a given research purpose and operational for management decisions. In addition, there is not one classification scheme for all purposes. Ecosystem services should be classified based upon both the characteristics of ecosystem services of interest and a context for which the concept of ecosystem services is being mobilized. (ii) As sources of human well-being, ecosystem services have several key ecological and economic characteristics such as complexity, spatial scales, public-private goods aspect and benefit dependence. Understanding these characteristics is a prerequisite for measuring, modeling, valuing and managing ecosystem services. (iii) Human demands for ecosystem services and the supply and use of them are three necessary linkages between ecosystems and human well-being. They are of great importance to such vital issues as ecological conservation and social equity. In most cases, integrated studies involving multi-disciplines, multi-sectors and multi-districts on those three linkages should be carried out to support sound ecosystem service management decisions. And (iv) ecosystem services have multiple value attributes including utilitarian values and non-utilitarian values. In the processes of making decisions concerning the use of ecosystem services, all kinds of values are usually played out on a common and not always level playing field. They intersect and interact in various ways, and may complement or counter-balance each other in assisting decisions. A multi-criteria valuation system should be developed and used to estimate the value of ecosystem services.

The fishery quota management system is an output control fishery management mode based on ecological characteristics of the fishery resource under the historical context of overfishing-caused fishery crises and the failure of traditional input control management. This system depends on total allowable catch and has been successfully implemented in Iceland, New Zealand and other countries. Chinese researchers hold different views on the legal characteristics of the quota system, but the majority identify the characteristics as quasi-property. Based on the biological nature of the resources and substance of the system, international and domestic quota systems can achieve substantial results only when they strictly follow the joint obligation of remaining below the total allowable catch and the obligation shall be performed by limited access, strengthening supervision and other means to realize sustainable use.