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2015, 7 (6) Online: 01 December 2015 Previous issue Next issue
  • Analysis of permanent deformations of railway embankments under repeated vehicle loadings in permafrost regions
  • Wei Ma, Tuo Chen
  • DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2015.00645
  • 2015, Vol.7 (6): 645–653 Abstract ( 272) HTML PDF (563 KB) ( 270 )
  • By large-scale dynamic tests carried out on a traditional sand-gravel embankment at the Beilu River section along the Qinghai-Tibet Railroad, we collected the acceleration waveforms close to the railway tracks when trains passed. The dynamic train loading was converted into an equivalent creep stress, using an equivalent static force method. Also, the creep equation of frozen soil was introduced according to the results of frozen soil rheological triaxial tests. A coupled creep model based on a time-hardening power function rule and the Druker-Prager yield and failure criterion was established to analyze the creep effects of a plain fill embankment under repeated train loads. The temperature field of the embankment in the permafrost area was set at the current geothermal conditions. As a result, the permanent deformation of the embankment under train loading was obtained, and the permanent deformation under the train loads to the total embankment deformation was also analyzed.
  • Moraine-dammed glacial lake changes during the recent 40 years in the Poiqu River Basin, Himalayas
  • XiuJuan Zhang, ShiYin Liu, Li Liu
  • DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2015.00654
  • 2015, Vol.7 (6): 654–665 Abstract ( 273) HTML PDF (696 KB) ( 318 )
  • Glacier retreat is not only a symbol of temperature and precipitation change, but a dominating factor of glacial lake changes in alpine regions, which are of wide concern for high risk of potential outburst floods. Of all types of glacial lakes, moraine-dammed lakes may be the most dangerous to local residents in mountain regions. Thus, we monitored the dynamics of 12 moraine-dammed glacial lakes from 1974 to 2014 in the Poiqu River Basin of central west Himalayas, as well as their associated glaciers with a combination of remote sensing, topographic maps and digital elevation models (DEMs). Our results indicate that all monitored moraine-dammed glacial lakes have expanded by 7.46 km2 in total while the glaciers retreated by a total of 15.29 km2 correspondingly. Meteorological analysis indicates a warming and drying trend in the Nyalam region from 1974 to 2014, which accelerated glacier retreat and then augmented the supply of moraine-dammed glacial lakes from glacier melt. Lake volume and water depth changed from 1974 to 2014 which indicates that lakes Kangxico, Galongco, and Youmojanco have a high potential for outburst floods and in urgent need for continuous monitoring or artificial excavation to release water due to the quick increase in water depths and storage capacities. Lakes Jialongco and Cirenmaco, with outburst floods in 1981 and 2002, have a high potential risk for outburst floods because of rapid lake growth and steep slope gradients surrounding them.
  • Study of seasonal snow cover influencing the ground thermal regime on western flank of Da Xing'anling Mountains, northeastern China
  • XiaoLi Chang, HuiJun Jin, YanLin Zhang, HaiBin Sun
  • DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2015.00666
  • 2015, Vol.7 (6): 666–674 Abstract ( 297) HTML PDF (477 KB) ( 333 )
  • Although many studies relevant to snow cover and permafrost have focused on alpine, arctic, and subarctic areas, there is still a lack of understanding of the influences of seasonal snow cover on the thermal regime of the soils in permafrost regions in the mid-latitudes and boreal regions, such as that on the western flank of the Da Xing'anling (Hinggan) Mountains, northeastern China. This paper gives a detailed analysis on meteorological data series from 2001 to 2010 provided by the Gen'he Weather Station, which is located in a talik of discontinuous permafrost zone and with sparse meadow on the observation field. It is inferred that snow cover is important for the ground thermal regime in the middle Da Xing'anling Mountains. Snow cover of 10-cm in thickness and five to six months in duration (generally November to next March) can reduce the heat loss from the ground to the atmosphere by 28%, and by 71% if the snow depth increases to 36 cm. Moreover, the occurrence of snow cover resulted in mean annual ground surface temperatures 4.7-8.2 ℃ higher than the mean annual air temperatures recorded at the Gen'he Weather Station. The beginning date for stable snow cover establishment (SE date) and the initial snow depth (SDi) also had a great influences on the ground freezing process. Heavy snowfall before ground surface freeze-up could postpone and retard the freezing process in Gen'he. As a result, the duration of ground freezing was shortened by at least 20 days and the maximum depth of frost penetration was as much as 90 cm shallower.
  • Vertical distribution of soil moisture and surface sandy soil wind erosion for different types of sand dune on the southeastern margin of the Mu Us Sandy Land, China
  • ChaoFeng Fu, JingBo Zhao, FanMin Mei, TianJie Shao, Jun Zuo
  • DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2015.00675
  • 2015, Vol.7 (6): 675–686 Abstract ( 191) HTML PDF (1147 KB) ( 279 )
  • Soil moisture is a critical state affecting a variety of land surface and subsurface processes. We report investigation results of the factors controlling vertical variation of soil moisture and sand transport rate of three types of dunes on the southeastern margin of the Mu Us Sandy Land. Samples were taken from holes drilled to a depth of 4 m at different topographic sites on the dunes, and were analyzed for soil moisture, grain-size distribution and surface sediment discharge. The results show that: (1) The average soil moisture varies in different types of dunes, with the following sequences ordered from highest to lowest: in the shrubs-covered dunes and the trees-covered dunes the sequence is from inter-dunes lowland to windward slope to leeward slope. The average moisture in the bare-migratory sand dunes is sequenced from inter-dunes lowland to leeward slope to windward slope. (2) Vegetation form and surface coverage affect the range of soil moisture of different types of dunes in the same topographic position. The coefficient of variation of soil moisture for shrubs-covered dunes is higher than that of other types of dune. (3) The effect of shrubs on dune soil moisture is explained in terms of the greater ability of shrubs to trap fine-grained atmospheric dust and hold moisture. (4) The estimated sand transport rates over sand dunes with sparse shrubs are less than those over bare-migratory dunes or sand dunes with sparse trees, indicating that shrubs are more effective in inhibiting wind erosion in the sandy land area.
  • Water accounting for conjunctive groundwater and surface water irrigation sources: A case study in the middle Heihe River Basin of arid northwestern China
  • XueXiang Chang, Bing Liu, Hu Liu, ShouBo Li
  • DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2015.00687
  • 2015, Vol.7 (6): 687–701 Abstract ( 200) HTML PDF (796 KB) ( 308 )
  • Oases in arid northwestern China play a significant role in the region's economic stability and development. Overexploitation of the region's water resources has led to serious environmental consequences. In oases, irrigated agriculture is the primary consumer of water, but water shortages resulting from dramatically growing human needs have become a bottleneck for regional sustainable development, making effective management of the limited available water critical. Effective strategies must be formulated to increase agricultural productivity while reducing its environmental impacts. To support the development of such strategies, water use patterns were analyzed during the 2007 and 2008 growing seasons, from May to early October, to identify opportunities for improving water management using the Molden-Sakthivadivel water-accounting method, which combines groundwater and surface water into a single domain and can provide a good estimate of the uses, depletion, and productivity of water in a water basin context. The study area lies in Linze County, Gansu Province, China. In the study area, the inflow water resources consist of irrigation, precipitation, and soil water, which accounted for 89.3%, 8.9%, and 1.8% of the total in 2007, and 89.3%, 4.8%, and 5.9% in 2008, respectively. The irrigation depends heavily on groundwater, which accounted for 82.1% and 83.6% of the total irrigation water in 2007 and 2008, respectively. In 2007 and 2008, deep percolation accounted for 50.1% and 47.9% of the water outflow, respectively, with corresponding depleted fractions of 0.51 and 0.55, respectively. For the irrigation district as a whole, the water productivity was only 1.37 CNY/m3. To significantly increase crop water productivity and prevent depletion of the region's groundwater aquifer, it will be necessary to reduce the amount of water used for irrigation. Several water-saving agricultural practices are discussed and recommended.
  • Modeling spatial and temporal change of soil erosion based on multi-temporal remotely sensed data
  • Pei Liu, PeiJun Du, RuiMei Han, Chao Ma, YouFeng Zou
  • DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2015.00702
  • 2015, Vol.7 (6): 702–708 Abstract ( 257) HTML PDF (462 KB) ( 290 )
  • In order to monitor the pattern, distribution, and trend of land use/cover change (LUCC) and its impacts on soil erosion, it is highly appropriate to adopt Remote Sensing (RS) data and Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze, assess, simulate, and predict the spatial and temporal evolution dynamics. In this paper, multi-temporal Landsat TM/ETM+ remotely sensed data are used to generate land cover maps by image classification, and the Cellular Automata Markov (CA_Markov) model is employed to simulate the evolution and trend of landscape pattern change. Furthermore, the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is used to evaluate the situation of soil erosion in the case study mining area. The trend of soil erosion is analyzed according to total/average amount of soil erosion, and the rainfall (R), cover management (C), and support practice (P) factors in RUSLE relevant to soil erosion are determined. The change trends of soil erosion and the relationship between land cover types and soil erosion amount are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the CA_Markov model is suitable to simulate and predict LUCC trends with good efficiency and accuracy, and RUSLE can calculate the total soil erosion effectively. In the study area, there was minimal erosion grade and this is expected to continue to decline in the next few years, according to our prediction results.
  • Comparative anatomical studies of Artocarpus altilis(Parkinson) Fosberg and Artocarpus communis(J. R. &G. Forster) in Nigeria
  • Akinwumi J. Akinloye, Temitope I. Borokini, Kehinde A. Adeniji, Funmilola M. Akinnubi
  • DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2015.00709
  • 2015, Vol.7 (6): 709–721 Abstract ( 358) HTML PDF (793 KB) ( 382 )
  • Comparative anatomy of two Artocarpus species was carried out to identify and describe anatomical characters in search of distinctive characters that could possibly be used to delimit the two taxa. Transverse, tangential and radial longitudinal sections and macerated samples of the stem and root wood were prepared onto microscopic slides. Epidermal peels and cleared leaves of the two species were made. Characteristic similarity disparity in the tissues arrangement as well as cell inclusions were noted for description and delimitation. The two Artocarpus species studied had essentially the same anatomical features;however, there were characters that seem to be taxon specific. The study revealed that at the transverse plane of the root, A. communis (J. R. &G. Forster) have predominantly solitary vessel, whereas pore multiple was predominant in A. altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg. Tyloses in vessels of the root were more frequent in A. communis than in A. altilis. In the cleared leaves, venation pattern also revealed some differences in the two species. The veins of A. communis were more or less straight and that of A. altilis were undulating especially in the secondary veins. Prismatic crystals were found in the cortex of the petiole in A. communis but not in A. altilis. Similarly, tannins were found in the root bark of A. communis but not in A. altilis. Trichomes and scales were more abundant in A. communis than in A. altilis. In the transverse section of the leaves, abaxial and adaxial epidermis were uniseriate in A. communis but only the abaxial epidermis was uniseriate in A. altilis, the adaxial epidermis was made up of 2 to 3 layers of cells. The epidermal cells in A. communis were predominantly short cylindrical shaped cells but were not so in A. altilis.
  • Land use and land cover change processes in China's eastern Loess Plateau
  • JinChang Li, HaiXia Liu, Yong Liu, ZhiZhu Su, ZiQiang Du
  • DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2015.00722
  • 2015, Vol.7 (6): 722–729 Abstract ( 188) HTML PDF (395 KB) ( 257 )
  • Using Landsat remote sensing images, we analyzed changes in each land use type and transitions among different land use types during land use and land cover change (LUCC) in Ningwu County, located in the eastern Loess Plateau of China, from 1990 to 2010. We found that grassland, woodland, and farmland were the main land use types in the study area, and the area of each type changed slightly from 1990 to 2010, whereas the area of water, construction land, and unused land increased greatly. For the whole area, the net change and total change were insignificant due to weak human activity intensity in most of the study area, and the LUCC was dominated by quasi-balanced two-way transitions from 1990 to 2010. The insignificant overall amount of LUCC appears to have resulted from offsetting of rapid increases in population, economic growth, and the implementation of a program to return farmland to woodland and grassland in 2000. This program converted more farmland into woodland and grassland from 2000 to 2010 than from 1990 to 2000, but reclamation of woodland and grassland for use as farmland continued from 2000 to 2010, and is a cause for concern to the local government.
  • Evaluation of eco-economic effects in relation to resettlement policy in Shulehe River Basin
  • Li Liu, Qi Feng
  • DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2015.00730
  • 2015, Vol.7 (6): 730–735 Abstract ( 172) HTML PDF (381 KB) ( 260 )
  • In the Shulehe River Basin, policy of resettlement was very effective in handling agricultural development and livelihood problems in regions of poverty limited by topography, climate, or infrastructure. Thus, since 1996-1997, the Shulehe River Basin resettlement project transferred roughly 7.5×104 people from areas of Dingxi, Longxi or Minxian which could not offer sufficient resources for the residents. Meanwhile, construction facilities such as the reservoir, which underpins the resettlement project, also triggered an internal migration of people away from the reservoir to other parts of the Shulehe River Basin. This large scale migration derived apparent effects in water resources, land use and cover change, agricultural structure as well as landscapes. Results show that total arable land expanded by 3.1×108 m2, cattle numbers maintained a stable level of 1×104, pigs declined to a low level due to market trends, and sheep numbers soared from 17.44×104 to 73.57×104. However, greening and afforestation increased while croplands maintained a rational tendency accompanying with greening area expansion. From the standpoint of integration, the Shulehe River Basin resettlement policy fulfilled its previous goals of improving the inhabitants' livelihood and the capacity of environment when spatial residues including environmental capacity and resources consumption for sustainable development are still positive conditions.
  • A review of water resources utilization and protection in Southwest China
  • CuiFang Wu, Steve Déry, WanCai Wu, XueBin Liu, JinHui Xiong, WenQi Gao
  • DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2015.00736
  • 2015, Vol.7 (6): 736–746 Abstract ( 209) HTML PDF (538 KB) ( 378 )
  • Yunnan and Guizhou are two provinces in Southwest China where in recent years drought disasters have occurred due to natural and human factors. This paper reviewed literature and summarized the related achievements of water resources utilization and protection in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. This included characters and utilization of precipitation, rivers, and karst ground water in the two provinces, and also the various explanations of drought (climate and human factors) and strategies for coping with droughts. Our concluding remarks highlight three lines of future studies: inequalities and equitable use of water distribution, better evaluation systems, and raising awareness through conservation practices.