Rencai Dong

The planning, construction, and management toward sustainable cities in China needs the Environmental Internet of Things

Chinas rapid urbanization and its success in developing the Internet of Things (IoT) will decide its future development direction. The construction of sustainable cities is crucial to China because China has such a large population. The Xiamen Long-term Urban Ecosystem Observation and Research Station (Xiamen LUEORS) was started in 2006, together with the research related to the Environmental Internet of Things (EIoT) for Xiamen LUEORS. This paper explains the purpose, general framework, and main features of EIoT, and outlines the results of performing EIoT experiments in some areas, including a ‘town village’, a peculiar phenomenon of Chinas urbanization. It also discusses the development trends of IoT and proposes the concept of ZeroSpace Interconnection of Things (ZeroIoT, or ZeroSIT).

Landsenses ecology and ecological planning toward sustainable development

ABSTRACT This paper proposes the concepts and associated contents of landsenses ecology and mix-marching data, and explains the roles of the meliorization model and Internet of Things (IoT) in the landsenses ecology-based land-use planning, construction and management. It also analyses the importance and application approaches of mix-marching data. In the current situation of rapid social-economic, scientific, and technological development, there exists an urgent need for us to further study landsenses ecology and its applications.

Research on the framework of the Environmental Internet of Things

Higher urbanization rates cause new urban environmental problems and changing trends. New technologies also provide novel techniques for environmental management. This paper establishes a framework for an Environmental Internet of Things (EIoT) and describes key technologies, including Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), network techniques, Geographic Information System (GIS), WebGIS, and distributed database techniques. The framework of the EIoT from bottom to top includes environmental sensors, real-time network monitoring system, environmental databases, environmental information platform, and environmental management system. We discuss the construction of our EIoT and show how it provides real-time monitoring at the residential level of environmental factors such as water, soil, atmosphere, noise, and wind. The EIoT can also realize online environmental simulation and management and is currently being extended to the city, regional, and national levels. The EIoT can improve understanding of the urban environment and help to provide advanced technological solutions for increasingly serious environmental problems.

Impact of tourism development on land-cover change in a matriarchal community in the Lugu Lake area

Remote sensing was used to assess the impacts of tourism development on temporal land-cover changes in the Lugu Lake region, home to the Mosuo people. The ecological and economic significance of the Lugu Lake area derives from the existence of a unique matriarchal system and the success of tourism development. Temporal land-cover changes between 1990 and 2005 were evaluated using digital interpretation of multitemporal Landsat TM images. Pairwise comparison methods were used to quantify changes in land-cover during three periods: 1990 to 1995, 1995 to 2001, and 2001 to 2005. The areas surveyed in each period were 10,226 ha, 7,727 ha and 9,344 ha, respectively. The annual rate of land-cover change for farmland, forest, grassland and wetland were 2.86%, 5.85%, 3.95%, 6.28%, respectively. Farmland and wetland have decreased, whereas forest, grassland and residential areas have increased. The land-cover changes could be explained by the success of tourism development and ecosystem management in Lugu Lake region. The impact of tourism on land cover and the community environment were assessed. The results show that most farmers actively left farms for off-farm jobs and took measures to protect forest, grassland and wetland by developing tourism in the study area. However, construction in residential areas has proceeded in a disorderly fashion. In future, the potential impacts of tourism on the lake ecosystem need to be re-assessed and monitored.

Traffic noise monitoring and simulation research in Xiamen City based on the Environmental Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) has many potential applications in the field of environmental monitoring. In this article, some hardware, including noise meters, ZigBee, and GPRS, were assembled and adjusted to get traffic noise data, which would be analyzed and compiled into a database based on the categories and characteristics of the data. Based on traffic noise data from 35 roads of nine green spaces in Xiamen, we used a back propagation neural network to practice net-simulation of noise data from 30 roads, while data from the remaining 5 roads were used as test data. Finally, the trained neural network was used to simulate traffic noise from 100 roads in Xiamen Island. Software systems using VB language and Flex network technology were also developed, and the simulation results were published on the Internet. The success of the method indicates that the Environmental IoT not only enables fast and effective acquisition of environmental data, but also enables accurate simulation and real-time network distribution.

Analysis of management effectiveness of natural reserves in Yunnan Province, China

Yunnan Province has many and unique natural resources and rich biodiversity. Natural reserves (NRs) play a significant role in maintaining and protecting the biodiversity and stability of ecosystems in this area. Yunnan is a typically eco-environmentally fragile area; thus positive effects of NRs are important in the construction of an ecological safety barrier for southwest China. Evaluation of the effectiveness of management of NRs has been implemented to improve management outcomes. This study provides indices to evaluate problems and management effectiveness for 60 NRs, covering national and provincial NRs of Yunnan Province. These indicate that management of NRs suffers from inadequate funding, poor infrastructure and equipment, low community participation, and a lack of government support. The indices had relatively low scores for infrastructure and equipment, ecotourism, monitoring, and evaluation, but high scores for planning and design and ownership. There were significant positive correlations between protection rank, size, age of NRs, and management effectiveness. International exchanges and collaboration would help to improve management of the NRs. NRs that straddle administrative boundaries had relatively higher scores than those within an administrative unit. Management success was not correlated with staff input, which might imply low efficiency of staff in this area. Some recommendations are offered to improve management of NRs based on analysis of management problems and identification of influencing factors.

Prioritizing protection measures through ecosystem services valuation for the Napahai Wetland, Shangri-La County, Yunnan Province, China

The Napahai Wetland is a typical plateau wetland in the Hengduan Mountain Area, China, with characteristic geography and abundant biodiversity. Serious ecosystem degradation in the Napahai Wetland has occurred from natural factors and human disturbances, and urgent protection measures must be taken to protect this important wetland. We assessed the value of ecosystem services in the Napahai Wetland using the market pricing method, the replacement cost method, the shadow engineering method, the cost expenditure method, and the contingent valuation method. Our study encompassed the valuation and analysis of services of product supply, climate regulation, water supply, flood control, environmental purification, nutrient conservation, habitat, tourism, and scientific research. Our estimates indicated a total monetary value, for all ecosystem services in the Napahai Wetland, of 237.96 million Yuan (2008: comparable price), which translates into a unit area estimate of 76 thousand Yuan/ha. We estimated that the value associated with tourism accounted for 43.7% of the total, and the values associated with habitat, nutrient conservation, scientific research, and flood control accounted for 13.5%, 9.7%, 8.1%, and 7.2%, respectively. Product supply only accounted for 9.7%. These findings suggested that the Napahai Wetland provides abundant sociocultural resources to humans and significantly contributes to life support systems. In comparison, product supply was not shown to be a major component of ecosystem services. On the basis of this analysis of ecosystem services, we have proposed some actions that can be taken to protect the Napahai Wetland.

Data issue considerations for the monitoring and evaluation of natural resources and the environment – a case study of Shangri-La County, Yunnan Province, China

The county-governed administrative area considered in this study is a unit with wide distributed basic geographical characteristics in China. In addition, the area is the basic organizer and manager of the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system of the natural resources and environment (NRE) of China. To enhance the reliability and sustainability of the M&E system subjected to the NRE, the researchers should focus on the data sources and emphasize the data qualities that are of concern to various stakeholders. In this paper, an in-depth metadata analysis, based on the M&E indicator system of the NRE, is composed of two approaches and a typical practical case: (1) metadata tracking approach – generate the core parameters of each indicator, such as the publisher, the creator, the coverage, the update cycle and type; (2) questionnaire survey approach – invite some scholars, consultants and citizens to evaluate the feasibility and the accessibility of the data sources of the 22 preset M&E indicators and (3) practical case – acquire the data sources of the dynamic monitoring of NRE in Shangri-La County, Yunnan Province, China, including a backward economy and imperfect statistical systems. The goal of this research is to explore the basic status of M&E data of one vast county-governed area in China, with the hope to improve the stability of the M&E system of the NRE at the county level.

Study on the modified quadrat sampling method for urban ecosystem network monitoring

Rapid urbanisation and developments in urban ecosystem research have increased attention on the spatial and temporal rules of urban land expansion, changes to the urban interior spatial structure and improvements to urban ecosystem functioning. There is an urgent need for a scientific method which uses remote sensing (RS), global positioning system (GPS), geographical information system (GIS) and ground surveys to quickly, constantly and accurately monitor urban spatial patterns, ecological processes and environmental changes. This study proposes a method to establish urban plots for a Long-term Ecosystem Research Station. The five procedures to determine the 24 plots were (1) analysis of city geography, (2) expert screening, (3) index analysis of urban land use in the plot, (4) coupled analysis of plot characteristics and overall urban development and (5) verifying that plot distribution was suitable for long-term monitoring of the spatial pattern of urban expansion.

Assessment of urban ecological risk from spatial interaction models for Lijiang City

Rapid growth in land use has caused problems such as waste of natural resources, geological disasters and damage to heritage through the social, economic and environmental impacts of urban sprawl. In this paper, a new model and index system of urban ecological risk assessment (ERA) based on geographic information system (GIS) was built. To identify and classify urban ecological risk factors, three crucial parameters are described: land use features, spatial distance between receptors and risk sources and developed area. World Cultural Heritage conservation areas serve as key receptors, while expansion of land use for construction results in massive urbanisation as a risk source. To analyse the relationships between the receptors and risk sources, a spatial interaction model (SIM), spatial analysis with GIS and geostatistical methods were used. The results show that urban sprawl land threatens Lijiangs land-use patterns. The Lashihai wetland and Wenbi reservoir are at highest risk, while Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is only slightly affected. This research provides further and more comprehensive technical support for identifying potential ecological risk and guaranteeing ecological security in zoning and achieving sustainable development of Lijiang City.