As an important part of resource and environment carrying capacity (RECC), land resource carrying capacity (LRCC) has focused on the limiting factors on regional development from the scale of land resources for more than two hundred years. After a brief review of the origin and early development of LRCC, the progress of LRCC is summarized as a progression from land resource population carrying capacity (LPCC) to land resource comprehensive carrying capacity (LCCC), and the hot issues of LRCC have changed from the simple human–grain relationship to more complex social and economic activities–land resources relationships. The corresponding research methods also evolved, from static research to dynamic research, and the assessment factor have evolved from a single factor to a comprehensive index system. Agro-ecological zoning (AEZ), system dynamics (SD), ecological footprint (EF), and comprehensive evaluation methods have come to be viewed as the most representative methods of LRCC in recent years....

Information on where rubber plantations are located and when they were established is essential for understanding changes in the regional carbon cycle, biodiversity, hydrology and ecosystem services. Here, we proposed a simple and modified phenology-based method to map rubber plantations and evaluate the effectiveness of this method in Xishuangbanna in southwest China, the second largest area of natural rubber cultivation. Our phenological algorithm is supported by local meteorological data and involves the re-normalization of two Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager-derived vegetation moisture indices (i.e. the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI)). We then applied air temperature data (daily records from 1981 to 2015) and periodic in situ observations of rubber plantations (weekly records from 2017 to 2018) to determine the phenological stages of rubber tree growth with the goal of selecting the most effective Landsat images. The re-normalization algorithm was able to highlight the temporal differences in the vegetation canopy and moisture content of rubber plantations, because rubber trees in Xishuangbanna display unique defoliation-foliation signals during the dry season. The resultant map of rubber plantations showed a high overall accuracy of 92.3% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.846. The developed phenological re-normalization method with meteorological data greatly enriches remote sensing-based approaches for mapping rubber plantations.

Climate is an important factor that affects the livability of a region. The climate suitability of a region's environment for human settlement profoundly affects the regional socio-economic development and the population distribution. Tibet is an area that is sensitive to climate change. Given the impact of global climate change, the climate suitability of Tibet has undergone significant changes. In this study, the temperature humidity index (THI) values for Tibet were calculated, and the relationships between the population distribution and the THI were analyzed quantitatively. In this way, the zoning standards for climate suitability in Tibet were determined such that the climate suitability could be evaluated. The results show that the average annual temperature in the southeast of Tibet, where the population was densely distributed, was relatively high. The mean annual relative humidity showed a trend of gradually decreasing from south to north. Regions with a suitable climate, including the high suitability areas (HSAs), the moderately suitable areas (MSAs) and the low suitability areas (LSAs), accounted for only 7.90% of the total area but accommodated over 40% of the total population. The critically suitable areas (CSAs) accounted for 37.81% of the land area and 48.24% of the total population. Non-suitable areas (NSAs) were widely distributed in Tibet and accounted for 54.29% of the total area and 11.33% of the total population. The results of this study may provide a reference for guiding the reasonable distribution of population and promoting the optimization of the spatial planning in Tibet.

Improving the management system of state-owned natural resource assets (SONRAs) plays an important role in the institutional reform of ecological civilization in China. It is of great significance for promoting the protection of natural resources and effectively safeguarding the owner's equity in their SONRAs. Guizhou Province is one of the first ecological civilization pilot sites in China. In this study, we used field investigation methods and the method of historical documents to obtain materials and data about the management of SONRAs in Guizhou Province, and then systematically analyzed the practices in SONRAs management. On this basis, some remaining problems were identified, such as the uncertainty regarding the amount of SONRAs, poorly-defined ownership of property rights and an imperfect revenue system. In response to these problems, countermeasures and suggestions are proposed for the effective maintenance of the owner's equity in their SONRAs, including establishing an inventory and statistics system to complete the task of comprehensive inventory, establishing an evaluation and accounting system and exploring the path for value realization of ecological products, establishing the principal-agent system and figuring out the asset management listing and agency system, perfecting the income management system to standardize asset income management and improving the asset allocation system to promote the efficiency of resource allocation. The results of this study will provide a reference for strengthening and improving the management of SONRAs in Guizhou Province.

In recent years, precipitation extremes in China have increased due to global warming, posing a significant threat to human life and property. It is thus crucial to understand the changes in population exposure to precipitation extremes and the causes of these changes, since complex terrain areas are not accurately simulated by rain gauge interpolation data. Thus, we first used three satellite-based precipitation products—TRMM 3B42, CHIRPS, and CMORPH—combined with population data to analyze the spatiotemporal changes of precipitation extremes and population exposure from 1998 to 2019 in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region. In addition, the contributions of population, climate, and composite factors were quantified. The results showed that TRMM 3B42 outperformed the other two datasets in the BTH region. Over the past 22 years, the precipitation extremes in the central and northeastern regions, especially in Beijing, reached 2.5 days per decade, while the northern and southern regions showed a downward trend. The highest population exposure was mainly concentrated in central Beijing, most areas of Tianjin, and the urban centers of cities in southeastern Hebei province. Compared to the 2000s, a significant increase in exposure was observed in Beijing, Tianjin, and Zhangjiakou in the 2010s, whereas other regions showed negligible changes during this period. Climatic factors had the greatest influence on population exposure in most cities such as Qinhuangdao and Hengshui, where their climatic contribution exceeded 70%. While population change was more responsible for the increase in population exposure in the densely populated cities such as Tianjin, Handan, and Langfang, these cities contributed over 60% of the population. The interaction effect in Beijing and Tianjin was relatively obvious. The results of this study can provide a scientific basis for formulating targeted disaster risk management measures against climate change in the BTH region.