Search

Copyright of China Rural Water & Hydropower is the property of China Rural Water & Hydropower Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Shamai tungsten deposit is located in the western part of the Xing'an Mongolian orogenic belt of northeastern China and contains quartz‐vein hosted tungsten mineralization. In this paper, we present the results of zircon laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS) U–Pb dating of the fine‐grained biotite monzogranite, medium‐grained biotite monzogranite, and porphyritic biotite monzogranite samples from the deposit as well as in situ zircon Hf isotopic and in situ plagioclase Pb isotopic analyses. Combining new laser Raman spectroscopic data for fluid inclusions with previously HO isotopic data yields insights into the precipitation of ore minerals. The fine‐grained biotite monzogranite, medium‐grained biotite monzogranite, and porphyritic biotite monzogranite were emplaced at 142.5 ± 1.0 Ma, 141.9 ± 1.1 Ma, and 140.2 ± 1.0 Ma, respectively. The fine‐ to medium‐grained biotite monzogranite and porphyritic biotite monzogranite samples contain zircons with εHf(t) values from 3.2 to 7.9 and from 4.2 to 7.6, respectively, yielding tDM2 model ages from 996 to 692 Ma and 923 to 708 Ma, respectively. The geochemical, zircon Hf isotopic, and in situ plagioclase Pb isotopic data indicate that the magmas were generated by the partial melting of juvenile crustal material mixed with mantle‐derived components. The laser Raman and HO isotopic data for fluid inclusions within tungsten‐bearing quartz veins indicate that the tungsten mineralization formed as a result of fluid mixing. Combining the data with the spatial and temporal distribution and tectonic setting of tungsten deposits in NE China suggests that this area records four stages of mineralization at 300–290, 250–230, 200–180, and 150–130 Ma. The Shamai deposit occurred in an intra‐continental extensional regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Desertification is one of the main obstacles to global sustainable development. Monitoring, evaluating and mastering its driving factors are very important for the prevention and control of desertification. As one of the largest deserts in China, the development of desertification in Otindag Sandy Land (OSL) resulted in the reduction in land productivity and serious ecological/environmental consequences. Although many ecological restoration projects have been carried out, the vegetation restoration of OSL and the impact mechanism of climate and human activities on desertification remain unclear. Methods: Taking OSL as the research area, this paper constructs the desertification index by using the remote sensing images and meteorological and socio-economic data, between 1986 and 2016, and analyzes the spatio-temporal evolution process and driving factors of desertification by using trend analysis and spearman rank correlation. Results: The results showed that: (1) Desertification in the OSL has fluctuated greatly during the past 30 years. Desertification recovered between 1986 and 1990, expanded and increased between 1990 and 2000, reduced between 2000 and 2004, developed rapidly between 2004 and 2007, and recovered again between 2007 and 2016; (2) The desertification of OSL is dominated by a non-significant change trend, accounting for 73.27%. In the significant change trend, the area of desertification rising trend is 20.32%, which is mainly located in the north and east, and the area of declining trend is 6.41%, which is mainly located in the southwest; (3) Desertification is the result of the superposition of climate and human activities. Climate change is the main influencing factor, followed by human activities, and the superposition effects of the two are spatio-temporal differences. Conclusions: These results shed light on the development of desertification in OSL and the relative importance and complex interrelationship between human activities and climate in regulating the process of desertification. Based on this, we suggest continuing to implement the ecological restoration policy and avoid the destruction of vegetation by large-scale animal husbandry in order to improve the situation of desertification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-source remote sensing data can provide abundant Earth observation information for lithology classification and identification, especially in some areas with complex geological conditions where the field geological survey is difficult to carry out. Compared with mountainous areas with large outcrops of rock, the lithology information obtained based on traditional field measurement and single optical remote sensing data in semi-arid areas is greatly limited due to the uneven vegetation coverage. While the combination of microwave and optical remote sensing technologies can effectively improve the integrality and reliability of the obtained lithology information in semi-arid areas. This paper selected Duolun County of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as the study area, added vegetation suppression for microwave and optical images into the conventional lithology classification process, and integrated Sentinel-1A and Landsat-8 images of the study area to carry out the experiment. The improved water-cloud model with the parameter of vegetation coverage and the method of feature-oriented principal component analysis based on multiple vegetation indices were used to realize the vegetation suppression in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) backscattering images in two polarization modes and multispectral images. The processed SAR backscattering, SAR texture and spectral feature images were used to form seven feature combinations for lithology classification by the maximum likelihood method. The results showed that the proposed lithology classification scheme cannot achieve high-precision classification of all lithologic types, but it was effective in identifying the major lithologies dominated in the Quaternary deposits of the study area. In all feature combinations, the combination of all the three types of features reached the highest classification accuracy, with the overall classification accuracy of 88.60% and the kappa coefficient of 0.75 for five major lithologies. The experimental results fully demonstrated the advantages of integrating microwave and optical remote sensing data in lithology classification in a semiarid area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cold surge (CS) is an extreme climate event that frequently affects China. By using a 0.25° × 0.25° gridded observation dataset provided by the China Meteorological Administration (CN05.1), this paper investigates the spatial–temporal characteristics of various CSs in China during 1962–2018. According to the duration and coverage area (CA), CSs are classified into the short‐lived cold surges (SLCSs), the persistent cold surges (PCSs) and the extensive and persistent cold surges (EPCSs). They are also divided into the weak cold surges (WCSs), the strong cold surges (SCSs) and the super strong cold surges (SSCSs) based on the temperature drop (ΔT). The extreme cold surges (ECSs) are also defined and occur 38 times over 57 years. The total CSs and various CSs all display patterns of higher frequencies in the northeast and lower frequencies in the southwest. Northeast China and Inner Mongolia are frequently hit by various CSs, but the frequencies show overall downward trends in the regions during 1962–2018. The ΔT of the total CSs and ECSs both show significant decreasing trends in the whole of China from 1962 to 2018. From 1962 to 2018, the annual frequency and the ΔT of the total CSs both show decreasing trends. SLCSs and WCSs frequencies show overall increasing trends, but other kinds of CSs show overall decreasing trends. The annual frequencies of the total CSs and various CSs all have trend abrupt changes around 2000. The ΔT of ECSs shows a sharply increasing trend during 1962–2018. The total CSs and all kinds of CSs frequencies have a significant periodic oscillation. ECSs occur most in February. The total CSs and other kinds of CSs occur most in January. There are obvious differences between the multiyear average ECSs frequencies before 2000 and after 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Mine Automation is the property of Industry & Mine Automation Editorial Department and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Evaluating the water resources carrying capacity (WRCC) is the prerequisite and foundation for the planning and management of water resources. In this paper, according to risk theory, a framework for the risk assessment of WRCC was proposed based on the fragility of damage‐affected bodies and the damage posed by disaster‐inducing factors. Then, based on water quantity, water quality, water area, and water flow, a fragility index system was constructed from the water resources, economy, and society category. Additionally, the damage was analyzed in terms of climate change, urbanization, and industrialization. Finally, a model for the risk assessment of the WRCC was established by combining the fragility of the water resources carrying system with the compound damage posed by climate change, urbanization, and industrialization. The developed model was then applied to assess the risk of the WRCC in North China in 2017. The results indicate that the fragility of the WRCC was the highest in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, and the compound damage showed an increasing trend from the southeast to the northwest in North China. Meanwhile, the risk of the WRCC decreased from the southeast to the northwest, the highest risk was observed in Hebei Province, and the lowest risk was observed in Inner Mongolia. This research provides an important technical guideline for the sustainable utilization of water resources and the coordinated development of the economy and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Architectural Journal / Jian Zhu Xue Bao is the property of Architectural Journal Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Architectural Journal / Jian Zhu Xue Bao is the property of Architectural Journal Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Aeromagnetic gradient data have higher horizontal resolution on shallow sources, a magnetic anomaly that can better reflect the features of deeper sources. Therefore, we used a joint survey of aeromagnetic and gradient data to obtain the distribution of sources with different depths. In this paper, we propose an intersection constraint weighting (ICW) method based on aeromagnetic and gradient data for original and gradient anomalies with inconsistent high-low variation characteristics. The ICW method can effectively improve the resolution of inversion results and can more accurately obtain the distribution of magnetic bodies via cross-gradient by gradually adding a gradient component and applying a normalized property weighting function. Our theoretical model tests indicate that the distribution of the recovered magnetic susceptibility model of the ICW method was similar to that of the true model. In addition, the anomaly containing noise with different signal-to-noise ratios verified that the ICW method had a stronger anti-noise ability than other methods. We also inverted real data in the Zhurihe area of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern China. The inversion result showed that the main trend of high magnetic bodies was in the northeast direction, that the shallowest depth of high magnetic bodies was 100 m, and that the greatest depth was 960 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Petroleum Geology & Recovery Efficiency is the property of Petroleum Geology & Recovery Efficiency and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Effective high slope risk assessment plays an important role in the safety management and control of the open-pit coal mining process. Traditional slope stability risk assessment methods rarely consider the time factor or evaluate the dynamic change of high slope in an open-pit mine at a certain time in a sensitivity assessment. This paper develops an interval trapezoidal fuzzy soft set method to achieve the high slope dynamic risk evaluation. The proposed dynamic interval trapezoidal fuzzy soft set method for risk assessment of high slope in an open-pit coal mine is developed by integrating the time points and weights of slope risk factors. The extended interval trapezoidal fuzzy soft set was used to calculate the weights of risk factors at different times, and the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) method was applied to determine the weights of risk factors. The weight change of different risk factors with time can be easily achieved with the proposed method. As a case study, this approach is implemented into a risk assessment model for the north high slope in Shengli #1 open-pit mine located in Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia. The model complies with three time points and contains 4 primary risk factors (S) and 17 secondary risk factors. The results indicated that the hydrological climate conditions and slope geometry conditions were the high risk factors affecting this open-pit coal mine slope. The reasonability and effectiveness of the evaluation results were verified with in-situ observations and measurements. This dynamic risk assessment method is helpful for improving safety management and control for the high slopes of open-pit mines in the coal mining process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unavoidable wind power prediction error poses a challenge for wind power to participate in day-ahead scheduling plan. This paper proposes a two-stage correction method considering NWP wind speed and power correction. Firstly, this paper fully considers the historical similarity of NWP wind speed, and adopts the improved clustering distance for segment matching and wind speed correction based on the extracted most relevant trend component, which enhances the utilization of NWP information and avoids the randomness and uncertainty of the intelligent correction method, and gram angular field (GAF) and stacked autoencoder (SAE) are used for feature extraction and conditional variational autoencoder (CVA) is used to generate specific samples to ensure the adequacy of the clustering process. Secondly, considering the historical similarity of error of predicted power, the power is further corrected based on the proposed weighted double-constraint to realize the secondary calibration. The Proposed method is applied to several wind farms in China to verify its effectiveness. The results show that the proposed method reduces the N RMSE by 3.82 % and N MAE by 3.40 % compared with direct prediction in the wind farms in western Inner Mongolia, which is important for promoting wind power consumption and maintaining the safe and stable operation of the power system. • Propose a method to extract the most relevant trend component form wind speed. • Propose a novel method for wind speed correction and power calibration. • Propose a sample condition generation method based on GAF and CVA. • Propose an improved clustering distance into the wind speed correction process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a nomadic community in Inner Mongolia autonomous region of China as an example, this paper analyzes the local characteristics of chronic diseases suffered by families and nomads in the nomadic area of Inner Mongolia and puts forward the problem of ignoring the local cultural and ecological factors in the social welfare system dealing with the chronic diseases of nomadic area. The paper describes disregard of the welfare system, institutions, communities, families, and individuals of chronic diseases in the nomadic area and points out that social work practice research should be carried out based on the cultural and ecological relevance and local knowledge of the nomadic area. It is believed that the family healthcare model suitable for nomadic area has practical significance for effectively dealing with chronic diseases in the nomadic area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exploration of Erdaohe Cu-Ag-Pb-Zn deposit in Zhalantun City, Inner Mongolia has entered the stage of blind exploration. It is a difficult problem at this stage whether common geophysical methods can find anomalies caused by 300∼1000 m or deeper Pb-Zn deposits in this area. Whether the problem is solved or not has a strong practical significance for the current and future prospecting work in this area. According to the theory of induced polarization sounding in time domain, it is considered in this paper that when the parameters such as high power, suitable device, and time delay are well coupled with the deep blind ore, it is possible to find anomalies caused by deep lead-zinc ore larger than 300 m. In order to prove the feasibility of the deep application of this method, the high-power induced polarization sounding experiment with different devices and different power supply cycles was carried out in Erdaohe copper-silver lead-zinc mine. The test results show that by adopting the measurement method of the encrypted equipotential device and selecting the appropriate polar distance, when the power supply period is 32 s, the time delay is 200 s and the sampling width is 200 s, a good deep lead-zinc mine anomaly can be found. The equipotential symmetrical quadrupole sounding MN/AB = 1/10 and the depth correction coefficient is 0.41 for inversion can accurately determine the anomaly location, which is worthy of popularization and application in this area. The ore bodies in this area are controlled by structures and distributed in lenticular layers along the fault footwall interlayer fracture zone. The ore bodies may change with the occurrence of the fracture surface. The characteristics of low resistivity, low slow, and high polarization of IP and single peak anomaly of IP sounding are important signs of lead-zinc prospecting in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium is one of the important strategic energy metals, which is in short supply in China. There are three major types of lithium deposits: brine and salt lake type, highly differentiated granite or pegmatite type, and carbonate-clay type. In recent years, some new types of lithium deposits have also begun to receive great attention and subject recent research. There are many crypto-explosive breccia pipe type deposits in the world, including copper, gold, lead, zinc, tungsten and tin deposits, but little is known about this type of lithium deposit. This paper introduces the latest research results of the Weilasituo Sn−Li−Rb polymetallic deposit in Inner Mongolia (NE China), which occurs in the middle-southern section of the Great Xing'an Range metallogenic belt. A remarkable feature of this deposit is the coexistence of various mineralization types, including granite type Rb and Sn−Zn, hydrothermal crypto-explosive breccia pipe type Li−Rb, quartz vein type Sn−Zn and sulfide vein type Pb−Zn−Ag mineralization. Among them, hydrothermal crypto-explosive breccia pipe type Li-Rb deposit is currently very rare at home and abroad, which is likely a new type of rare metal deposit that worthy of our attention. This paper systematically summarizes the geology, alteration and mineralization, geochemistry, isotopes and geochronology of the Weilasituo deposit, and establishes a new petrogenic and metallogenic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Grasshoppers are among the most dangerous agricultural pests of China. However, the monitoring, prediction and control of grasshoppers are complex and difficult. Therefore, it is crucial to detect the key factors affecting the spatial distribution of grasshopper occurrence, understand the role of the environmental factors in grasshopper occurrence, and study whether different laws exist between different grass types. Here we conduct a species–environmental matching model integrated by Maxent model and remote sensing data to identify the spatial distribution of grasshopper occurrence in Inner Mongolia of China, analyze the related environmental variables and detect the most relevant environmental factors for grasshopper occurrence both in typical steppe and meadow steppe. Grasshoppers mainly threaten natural grassland vegetation and crops. Therefore, it is of great significance to understand the relationship between environmental factors and grasshopper occurrence. This paper studies the spatial distribution and key factors of grasshopper occurrence in two grass types by integrating a machine learning model (Maxent) and remote sensing data within the major grasshopper occurrence areas of Inner Mongolia, China. The modelling results demonstrate that the typical steppe has larger suitable area and more proportion for grasshopper living than meadow steppe. The soil type, above biomass, altitude and temperature mainly determine the grasshopper occurrence in typical steppe and meadow steppe. However, the contribution of these factors in the two grass types is significantly different. In addition, related vegetation and meteorological factors affect the different growing stages of grasshoppers between the two grass types. This study clearly defines the different effects of key environmental factors (meteorology, vegetation, soil and topography) for grasshopper occurrence in typical steppe and meadow steppe. It also provides a methodology to guide early warning and precautions for grasshopper pest prevention. The findings of this study will be helpful for future management measures, to ensure grass ecological environment security and the sustainable development of grassland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytogenic mounds (nebkhas) formed by shrubs are a common phenomenon in arid and semi-arid areas. The formation of nebkhas is accompanied by the appearance of the fertile island effect. Quantitative evaluation of the shrub sand compost island effect is a key link in preventing soil erosion and nutrient loss. This study took the typical shrub Tetraena mongolica in desert areas as the research object and quantified the sand-trapping capacity of the shrub. We revealed the influence of sediment texture and volumetric soil water content on fertile islands during the development of T. mongolica nebkhas. The results showed that (1) the single shrub intercepted large amounts of sediments due to the high density of branches of T. mongolica, forming nebkhas that were positively correlated with the shrub size. (2) The overall soil nutrient content below the shrub was greater than the soil nutrient content outside the shrub, forming a typical fertile island effect. The soil organic carbon (SOC), alkaline hydrolytic nitrogen (AHN), available phosphorus (AP), and available K (AK) content all increased gradually with increasing nebkha volume. Compared with the deep soil of nebkhas, the nutrient content of the surface soil was generally higher. (3) There was a positive correlation between the volumetric water content and nutrient content in nebkhas. (4) The semi-ellipsoid shape of T. mongolica enabled it to intercept large amounts of coarse-grained material. Fine sand (100–250 µm) was the main particle size in the sediment aggregates inside the nebkhas. The fine sand content generally increased with increasing shrub size. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that the fine sand content of the nebkha sediments had a strong positive correlation with the soil nutrient content. This paper provides an example for evaluating the fertile island effect during the deposition process of nebkhas in the desert transition zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Grain for Green Project (GGP) has considerably improved the vegetation cover of the Loess Plateau, as well as changed the carbon and water coupling process of local vegetation to a certain extent. Water use efficiency (WUE) is a crucial measure for evaluating ecosystem responses to global climate change and is a key indicator of the carbon–water coupling between terrestrial ecosystems and the environment. A comprehensive understanding of the impact of vegetation reconstruction on WUE on the Loess Plateau is of great significance to the vegetation growth and contribution to sustainable of the Loess Plateau. In recent years, scholars have gained a more comprehensive understanding of the distribution and drivers of WUE on the Loess Plateau. However, through the study of carbon and water coupling in the Loess Plateau, it is found that the effects of different vegetation restoration levels on WUE are still to be studied in depth in terms of spatial and temporal heterogeneity and long timeseries. In this paper, we analyzed the trends of Normalized Difference vegetation cover (NDVI) and WUE from 2001 to 2010 and 2011 to 2020, respectively, to research at the WUE of the vegetation in this area in relation to vegetation restoration. It was found that the Loess Plateau's vegetation WUE rose from 2001 to 2020 at a rate of 0.023 g C kg−1 H2O per year, and that the increase from 2011 to 2020 was more significant than the growth from 2000 to 2010. The Loess Plateau's area with a growing trend in vegetation water use rate increased from 77.12% in 2001–2010 to 88.63% in 2011–2020, with the majority of the increased area occurring in the northeastern Inner Mongolia region. After 20 years of the reforestation project, the area where NDVI and WUE increased simultaneously accounted for 71.54% of the Loess Plateau, the area where NDVI increased but WUE decreased accounted for 10.95% of the Loess Plateau, and the area where NDVI increased but WUE decreased accounted for 7.15% of the Loess Plateau. The correlation between temperature precipitation and WUE was not significant for the whole Loess Plateau, further indicating that the increase in vegetation cover was the main reason for the increase in vegetation water efficiency. Therefore, the effect of vegetation cover on WUE should be fully considered when vegetation restoration is carried out on the Loess Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The services provided by grassland ecosystems are important and irreplaceable in maintaining the balance and stability of ecosystems. The spatiotemporal variations of grassland ecosystem service value (ESV) and its influencing factors in Inner Mongolia from 2000 to 2019 were studied in this paper. Based on the socio-economic data, remote sensing data, geographic data, and meteorological data, a dynamic ESV assessment method based on the equivalent factors was used to calculate the grassland ESV for each year. The spatiotemporal dynamic variation and future trend of grassland ESV were studied by coefficient of variation index (CV), Theil–Sen median trend analysis, Mann–Kendall test, and Hurst index, and the Geodetector was used to determine the main factors affecting the distribution of ESV. The results indicated that (1) the annual average grassland ESV of Inner Mongolia was higher in the northeast than in southwest, the average ESV was 2.0794 million CNY/km2, and the pixels were concentrated from 1 to 3 million CNY/km2, accounting for 75.46% of the study area; (2) during the study period, the average grassland ESV increased slowly with time at an annual growth rate of 0.2, and the total ESV decreased first and then increased with the change in grassland area; (3) the average volatility was 0.16, and pixels with CV values between 0.1 and 0.2 accounted for 69.2% of the study area, indicating the fluctuation of ESV was relatively stable during the study period; (4) 37.16% of the grassland ESV in Inner Mongolia decreased slightly and 41.77% increased slightly during these years, and the two parts showed opposite trends in the future; and (5) the single factor influencing the spatial distribution of grassland ESV was mainly normalized vegetation index (NDVI) and precipitation, and the multi-factor interactions were NDVI∩slope and NDVI∩precipitation. All influencing factors exhibited a stronger impact through the two-factor interaction. This study can provide reference values for the policymaking of natural resource conservation or restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 16 years of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and precipitation data are used to analyze the time‐lag effects of the growing‐season NDVI response to precipitation at regional scales. This study focuses on the arid and semi‐arid Hulunbuir grassland dominated by perennials in northeast China. The multi‐month time‐lag effects are examined using simple statistical approaches, which can detect the two distinct time‐lags for four subregions with four major land‐cover types. A "positive" time‐lag effect of the growing‐season NDVI response to precipitation is observed at 1‐month (May in the current year) time‐lag and 13‐month (May in the previous year) time‐lag while a "negative" time‐lag effect is observed at 9‐month (September in the previous year) time‐lag. In addition, the prediction results of NDVI based on precipitation indicate that the NDVI prediction model considered the lagged monthly precipitation has good performance. Therefore, revealing the time‐lag effects is very important for accurately predicting the growing‐season NDVI and evaluating the vegetation dynamics. Recommendations for Resource Managers: The multi‐month time‐lag effects of the growing‐season NDVI to precipitation in arid and semi‐arid grasslands in northeastern China is analyzed in this paper. We can detect the two distinct time‐lags for four subregions with four major land‐cover types. The following implications could be realized based on the observations: The "positive" 1‐month (May in the current year) and 13‐month (May in the previous year) time‐lag memory of the growing‐season NDVI response to precipitation can be found.The "negative" 9‐month time‐lag memory of the growing‐season NDVI response to precipitation associated with September (late growing‐season) meteorological condition can be detected. This "negative" effect does not support the green up of the growing‐season in the next year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant carbon (C) input via litter decomposition is essential for forming soil organic C (SOC). Previous studies have investigated the fate of litter C through one-time litter addition, while litter input could be recurrent, e.g., gradual litter input from above-ground plant material in diverse ecosystems. This paper investigates how litter input's frequency (single vs. repeated) and amount (low vs. high) affect the SOC formation and the associated microbial community composition and activity in a controlled microcosm experiment. After incubating the 13C-labeled litter (Stipa krilovii) for 80 days with the fresh field soil collected from a semi-arid steppe in Inner Mongolia, China, we measured newly formed SOC, microbial biomass C (MBC), and microbial phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) indicated by 13C-labeling. The repeated litter addition resulted in 19.92% greater and 12.45% more efficient SOC formation than the single addition. Repeated litter addition also increased C use efficiency (CUE, + 76.71%), indicating more substrate C allocated for microbial growth than respiration. It also enhanced the fungi to bacteria ratio by 47.40% (based on 13C-PLFA) and maintained relatively stable microbial assimilation of litter C (based on 13C-MBC). These findings were consistent regardless of litter amounts. Our results indicate that the uninterrupted litter input to the soil in natural ecosystems benefits SOC formation and highlights soil fungi's critical role in promoting SOC formation. This study suggests that incorporating plant C input frequency into SOC dynamic models may improve the predictions of C cycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper focuses on a hitherto little-known long (or "Great") wall that stretches along 737 km from northern Inner Mongolia in China, through Siberia into northeastern Mongolia. The wall was constructed during the late medieval period (10th to 13th century CE) but is commonly called the "Wall of Chinggis Khan" (or 'Chingisiin Dalan' in Mongolian). It includes, in addition to the long-wall itself, a ditch feature and numerous associated fortifications. By way of an analysis of this impressive construction we seek to better understand the concept of monumentality and in turn shed light on the wall's structure, function and possible reasons for its erection. We pose the interesting question of whether any construction that is very large and labor intensive should be defined as a "monument", and if so, what that definition of monumentality actually entails and whether such a concept is useful as a tool for research. Our discussion is relevant to the theme of this collection of papers in that it addresses the concept of the 'extraordinary' as conceived by archeologists. Following our analysis and discussion, we conclude that although size and expenditure of energy are important attributes of many monuments, monumentality (i.e., expression of the extraordinary) is not a binary "either-or" concept. Rather than ask whether the "Wall of Chinggis Khan" was or was not a monument per se, our analysis reveals aspects in which it was indeed monumental and extraordinary, and others in which it was not extraordinary, but rather an ordinary utilitarian artifact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HotSpot is an algorithm that can directly mine association rules from real data. Aiming at the problem that the support threshold in the algorithm cannot be set accurately according to the actual scale of the dataset and needs to be set artificially according to experience, this paper proposes a dynamic optimization algorithm with minimum support threshold setting: S_HotSpot algorithm. The algorithm combines simulated annealing algorithm with HotSpot algorithm and uses the global search ability of simulated annealing algorithm to dynamically optimize the minimum support in the solution space. Finally, the Inner Mongolia sandstorm dataset is used for experiment while the wine quality dataset is used for verification, and the association rules screening indicators are set for the mining results. The results show that S_HotSpot algorithm can not only dynamically optimize the selection of support but also improve the quality of association rules as it is mining reasonable number of rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper follows the recent definition of heritage as a socio-political construct to examine the politics of intangible cultural heritage in Inner Mongolia, China. It focuses on how the UNESCO system in concert with the PRC's cultural agenda led to the successful but controversial registration of Mongolian overtone singing (khoomei) to the UNESCO intangible heritage list as a significant tradition of the Mongolian ethnic group in China in 2009. As one of China's major strategic frontiers and one of its five ethnic minority autonomous regions, Inner Mongolia is under-represented in the literature. Inner Mongolia and Mongolia are also a crucial context in which to study the politics of transnational cultural heritage. Empirically, this paper documents unique and valuable local voices in Inner Mongolia speaking about the registration of khoomei through semi-structured face-to-face interviews in Mongolian and Chinese and an analysis of academic and non-academic published work in Chinese. Theoretically, this paper critically examines the influence of transnational heritage registration, initiated and endorsed by UNESCO heritage programs and the PRC's cultural agenda, on sub-national heritage-making in Inner Mongolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although coal makes substantial contributions to economic development, it also causes negative impacts on the ecological environment. To assess the real costs associated with the environmental degradation caused by the coal industry, this paper calculates the external environmental costs of coal in Inner Mongolia by applying the pollution damage method to the three phases in the life cycle of coal: production, transportation and utilization. Based on the environmental pollution and ecological damage caused by coal-related pollutants, this paper first establishes an index system for calculating the external costs associated with the coal industry and a research framework. A model to account for the external costs is then constructed on the basis of the index system to fully reflect the external costs associated with the coal industry. The results demonstrate that the total external environmental cost of coal in the region is 87.373 billion yuan. In detail, the environmental costs associated with the production, transportation and utilization of coal are estimated to be 17.845 billion yuan, 27.551 billion yuan and 41.977 billion yuan, respectively. During the production of coal, air pollution and the loss of value of aquatic ecosystems account for large proportions of the environmental cost, namely 21.78% and 42.67%, respectively. During the transport of coal, the external cost to the environment caused by seaway-based transportation is 12.369 billion yuan, which accounts for 44.89% of the total cost of transportation. Finally, during the utilization of coal, coal combustion causes the greatest damage to human health. These health-related losses are valued at 230.82 billion yuan, which accounts for 54.99% of the total utilization cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desertification research plays a key role in the survival and development of all mankind. The Normalized Comprehensive Hotspots Index (NCH) is a comprehensive index that reveals the spatial distribution of research hotspots in a given research field based on the number of relevant scientific papers. This study uses Web Crawler technology to retrieve the full text of all Chinese journal articles spanning the 1980s–2018 in the Chinese Academic Journal full-text database (CAJ) from CNKI. Based on the 253,055 articles on desertification that were retrieved, we have constructed a research hotspot extraction model for desertification in China by means of the NCH Index. This model can reveal the spatial distribution and dynamic changes of research hotspots for desertification in China. This analysis shows the following: 1) The spatial distribution of research hotspots on desertification in China can be effectively described by the NCH Index, although its application in other fields still needs to be verified and optimized. 2) According to the NCH Index, the research hotspots for desertification are mainly distributed in the Agro-Pastoral Ecotone and grassland in Inner Mongolia, the desertification areas of Qaidam Basin in the Western Alpine Zone and the Oasis-Desert Ecotone in Xinjiang (including the extension of the central Tarim Basin to the foothills of the Kunlun Mountains, the sporadic areas around the Tianshan Mountains and the former hilly belt of the southern foothills of the Altai Mountains). Among these three, the Agro-Pastoral Ecotone in the middle and eastern part of Inner Mongolia includes the most prominent hotspots in the study of desertification. 3) Since the 1980s, the research hotspots for desertification in China have shown a general downward trend, with a significant decline in 219 counties (10.37% of the study area). This trend is dominated by the projects carried out since 2002. The governance of desertification in the eastern part of the Inner Mongolia-Greater Khingan Range still needs to be strengthened. The distribution of desertification climate types reflects the distribution of desertification in a given region to some extent. The Normalized Comprehensive Hotspots Index provides a new approach for researchers in different fields to analyze research progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought refers to a meteorological disaster that results in insufficient soil moisture due to a long-term lack of rainfall and disrupts the moisture balance of crops. Yinshanbeilu in Inner Mongolia is an arid and semi-arid region, and the onset of drought and its subsequent transmission is a key challenge in water resource management. This study takes Yinshanbeilu as the study area, analyses the changing characteristics of multi-timescale drought from 1971 to 2020 based on the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI), and analyses the stochasticity and stability of the drought by using a cloud model. Finally, the cross-wavelet transform method and Pearson's test are used to explore the correlation between atmospheric circulation factors, PRE and PET, and drought. The results indicate that (1) on the annual scale, the frequency of drought in Yinshanbeilu mainly ranges from 22% to 28%, with a high frequency of light droughts, a low frequency of severe droughts, a high frequency of droughts in the east and west, and a low frequency of droughts in the north and south; on the seasonal scale, the frequency of droughts in winter is the highest, with a rate of 34.6%, and the lowest frequency of droughts is in autumn, with a rate of 28.3%. (2) There is a decreasing trend in Entropy (En) and Hyper-Entropy (He), and an increasing trend in Expectation (Ex) for the inter-annual SPI-12 cloud model. Spatially, Ex and He are negatively correlated, while En and He are positively correlated. The inter-annual variation in cloud eigenvalues is greater than the inter-site variation, so the cloud model better reflects the spatial stochasticity and stability of regional inter-annual SPI. For the seasonal-scale SPI-3 cloud model, Ex is smaller in all seasons, En is also smaller, and He is larger. (3) Sunspot, PRE (precipitation), and PET (Potential Evapotranspiration) are all positively correlated with SPI and have the highest correlation. This study reveals the characteristics and causes of variations of drought in Yinshanbeilu, which can be applied to future research areas related to regional drought risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased CO2 emissions from urban energy consumption pose a significant challenge to regional carbon mitigation policies. In this paper, we integrated two nighttime light (NTL) data: the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) composite data to estimate the energy carbon emissions from 2000 to 2019. Then the spatiotemporal dynamics of carbon footprint and deficit in the Yellow River Basin were analyzed at the provincial, municipal, and county scales combined with NPP data. The study shows that (1) the total amount of energy consumption CO2 emissions in the Yellow River Basin had increased from 1332 Mt in 2000 to 6469 Mt in 2019, but the average annual growth rate slowed down after 2010 from 11.5 to 5.61%. (2) From 2000 to 2018, the provinces with the highest carbon footprint and carbon deficit were concentrated in Inner Mongolia and Shanxi. In 2018, Inner Mongolia's carbon footprint was 1366.91 × 104 km2, accounting for 22.8% of the total. Cities with high carbon footprint were mainly economic centers and energy-intensive areas of various provinces. High-carbon deficit counties were mainly distributed in the western region. In 2018, 954 counties exhibited carbon deficits. (3) The carbon footprint in the Yellow River Basin at the municipal and county scales have a significant spatial correlation. The H–H clusters of the carbon footprint on the municipal scale were distributed in the middle reaches of the Yellow River Basin. At the county scale, the L-L clusters were mainly in Sichuan and eastern Henan regions. Through the analysis of the spatial and temporal evolution of carbon footprint and carbon deficit in the Yellow River Basin, it is significant to measure the degree of comprehensive coordination of carbon sources and sinks in the basin, to grasp the differences in the level of regional carbon emissions, and to promote synergistic regional governance, assist in the formulation of more precise carbon emission reduction policies, and to promote green and high-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind erosion is a key global environmental problem. As an important protective measure to provide services to the ecosystems in wind-eroded areas, the wind erosion prevention service is of great significance to the management of wind and sand hazards and ecological environment restoration in the wind-eroded areas and the neighboring areas. Taking the Shiyang River basin as the study area, the quality of supplies for wind erosion prevention services was estimated using the RWEQ model for the years 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020; the trajectories of air masses at wind speeds higher than the sand-causing wind speeds were simulated based on the forward trajectory module of the HYSPLIT model for a 24 h period; the spatial simulation of the flow of wind erosion prevention services on a daily scale with Minqin Station as the sand source was carried out; and the beneficiary areas of wind erosion prevention services were identified. Based on the RWEQ model, the spatial patterns of potential wind erosion, actual wind erosion, and wind and sand stabilization services were obtained, and the supply areas were divided. From 2005 to 2020, the wind erosion prevention service flow in the Shiyang River basin was distributed along a northwest–southeast direction, with a radial decrease from the center to the periphery, and with an extremely strong extraterritorial effect. The amount of wind erosion in the basin has a variable downward tendency over time and a spatial distribution pattern of high in the north and low in the south. The area of higher sand fixation is distributed in the eastern oasis area and desert junction zone. The HYSPLIT model was used to simulate the transport paths of wind and sand within 24 h during 2005–2020, the transmission paths of the wind erosion prevention service flow were obtained to be 59–134, and the flows were 2.55 × 104–3.85 × 106 t, displaying a changing trend of first decreasing, then increasing, and then decreasing. Gansu Province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region are the most important areas benefiting from the wind erosion prevention service flow in the Shiyang River basin. The wind erosion prevention service flows in the basin benefit 47 cities in 9 provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon control in the thermal power generation industry is crucial for achieving the overall carbon peak target. How to predict, evaluate, and balance the allocation of inter provincial carbon emissions has a significant impact on the decision-making of reasonable allocation of inter provincial carbon emissions in the target year. Therefore, this paper uses Monte Carlo-ARIMA-BP neural network and ZSG-DEA model to conduct temporal trend prediction and carbon emission quota allocation research. We propose the "intra provincial and inter provincial" framework for carbon emissions trading in thermal power plants, which aims to break through the barriers in carbon emission rights exchange among provinces. The conclusions are as follows: (1) the growth trend of carbon emissions from thermal power is gradually slowing down and is expected to peak before 2030. (2) Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, and Shandong have high input–output efficiency, and are all the main output provinces for carbon emission quota allocation. After being adjusted using the ZSG-DEA model, they can still be at the forefront of efficiency. (3) The "intra provincial and inter provincial" framework for carbon emissions trading can effectively predict and allocate the carbon emission demand of each province from time and space dimensions, balance the carbon emission rights and interests of each province, and provide forward-looking planning suggestions for inter provincial carbon emission rights exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to realize the ecological restoration of transmission line tower foundation slope and enrich the research methods of slope ecological restoration, this paper studies a nutrient matrix configuration technology for transmission line tower foundation slope in arid areas. The Xilingol arid grassland area in Inner Mongolia is selected as the research object, and plants such as Leymus chinensis, Festuca arundinacea and Agropyron pratense are selected as the grass species of the vegetative substrate configuration technology. Different proportions of water retaining agent, compound fertilizer, microbial agents and other substances are added to the soil, which are combined into 10 test groups. The effect of slope ecological restoration is verified by species suitability, physical and chemical properties of matrix and plant growth. The resβults showed that Caragana korshinskii, Artemisia annua, Astragalus adsurgens, Sonchus oleraceus and other plants are the dominant grass species in the plant substrate plants; The physical and chemical indexes of soil's bulk density, organic matter, total nitrogen and so on in group B2 are better than those in other groups. Adopting the vegetative substrate configuration technology with the proportion of group B2 can obtain a good ecological restoration effect of tower foundation slope of transmission line in arid areas. The vegetative substrate configuration technology can solve the long‐standing ecological and environmental protection problems of the tower foundation slope of transmission line in arid areas, and should be actively promoted and applied. Daur lymphatic is also widely used in ecological restoration of transmission line base slope in arid region. The average coverage rate was 14.85%. The average height was 100.5 cm. It could grow at an altitude of more than 1000 m. After the nutrient matrix of the transmission line base slope was configured, the grass planting belt was established under normal maintenance, and the seeds began to germinate 3 days later. After 10 days, the germination rate was 78% and the coverage rate was 65%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arid Zone Research / Ganhanqu Yanjiu is the property of Arid Zone Research Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Distribution centers are quite important for logistics. In order to save costs, reduce energy consumption and deal with increasingly uncertain demand, it is necessary for distribution centers to select the location strategically. In this paper, a two-stage model based on an improved clustering algorithm and the center-of-gravity method is proposed to deal with the multi-facility location problem arising from a real-world case. First, a distance function used in clustering is redefined to include both the spatial indicator and the socio-economic indicator. Then, an improved clustering algorithm is used to determine the optimal number of distribution centers needed and the coverage of each center. Third, the center-of-gravity method is used to determine the final location of each center. Finally, the improved method is compared with the traditional clustering method by testing data from 12 cities in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China. The comparison result proves the proposed method's effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In aeromagnetic measurement, accurate compensation for the interference magnetic field generated by the aircraft platform due to the aircraft maneuvering in the Earth's magnetic field is an important prerequisite for the accurate identification of the magnetic anomaly signal of the detection target. The flaws of the traditional calibration flight scheme in aeromagnetic interference compensation are firstly analyzed, and then an improved scheme is proposed, featuring smaller calibration flight areas, more simplified maneuvers, shorter flight route and less influence from the magnetometer's direction and extreme weather. The improved scheme can enhance the robustness of the aeromagnetic interference compensation matrix and improve the compensation efficiency, and thus both the solved magnetic compensation coefficients and compensation effects are significantly improved. The experimental results of the aeromagnetic interference compensation in an area of Inner Mongolia of China show that the average accuracy of the repeated survey lines, which are compensated by the improved scheme, can be increased by 5 and 3 nT, respectively, compared with the uncompensated results and the results compensated by the traditional scheme. Therefore, the effectiveness and superiority of the improved calibration flight scheme is fully proved. Plain Language Summary: Aeromagnetic measurement technology is the most economical and effective technical means to obtain high‐precision and high‐resolution geomagnetic information. Because the aircraft used in aeromagnetic measurement is composed of ferromagnetic materials, it will produce an interference magnetic field when maneuvering in the Earth's magnetic field. In order to obtain pure geomagnetic field measurement data, it is necessary to compensate the interference magnetic field. The traditional calibration flight scheme is widely used in the aeromagnetic interference compensation, and has played an important role in the existing aeromagnetic measurement. However, with the continuous improvement of the measurement accuracy of airborne magnetometers, there are higher requirements for calibration, and some defects of the traditional calibration flight scheme are found in practice. Hence, an improved calibration flight scheme is proposed in this paper, which features smaller calibration area, shorter flight route, simplified maneuvers and less influence from the direction of the magnetometer. The experimental results show that the modified scheme can improve the average accuracy of repeated survey lines by 3 nT compared with the traditional one. Therefore, the improved scheme can be directly applied in the aeromagnetic interference compensation of scalar, vector and gradient magnetic measurement of manned and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Key Points: An improved calibration flight scheme is proposed in the aeromagnetic interference compensationEffectiveness and superiority of the improved calibration flight scheme are validated by actual flight dataCompared with the traditional scheme, the improved one can increase the average accuracy of repeated lines by 3 nT [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current crisis in China's ethnic frontiers is animating intense discussion as to whether the present moment is a déjà vu of antecedents or an aberration of the Chinese ethno-political normative. Whereas the bulk of new scholarship focuses on the post-Mao era, few studies exist to elucidate the visuality of ethnic relations in the early PRC when state-building was still unfolding in the ethnic frontiers. This paper investigates how an ethnic hierarchy based on a majority-minority binarism was visually constructed during the formative decade of the socialist era (1949–59). Examining several films featuring Inner Mongolia and the socio-political interaction between Mongol indigenes and Han expeditionary personnel, this paper contends that constructing the visuality of Han superiority as adult guardian overlooking ethnic minors who must answer the interpellation of attaining the likeness of the Han was the centrepiece in substantiating a majority-minority binarism beyond a static ethno- demographic condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the comparison of two sample non parametric regression. An asymptotically correct simultaneous confidence band (SCB) is proposed for the difference of two-sample non parametric regression functions to achieve the goal of comparison. Simulation experiments provide strong evidence that corroborates the asymptotic theory. The proposed SCB is used to analyze different samples of strata pressure data from the Bullianta Coal Mine in Erdos City, Inner Mongolia, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the Mongolian language is equated with ethnic survival in Inner Mongolia, the metadiscourse of Mongolian linguistic purism has become a vital tactic for enacting Mongolian identity and creating a counterspace against Chinese linguistic and cultural hegemony. This paper analyses: (1) the process of establishing iconized links between language, culture, land and race on the second order of indexicalities; (2) the orthographic representation of mixed Mongolian and "pure" Mongolian in the Mongolian social media space Bainu. The study illuminates the interdiscursive processes of presuming and constructing linguistic, cultural, and ethnic boundaries by subaltern groups in an assimilationist nation state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal is one of the fundamental fossil energy supporting the world's economy. The synergistic development between efficient coal mining and ecological environment protection is the inevitable requirement for the preservation of global harmony. As the world's largest coal producer, China has conducted a strategic shift from east to west in terms of the exploitation of its energy resources, posing a serious threat to the fragile ecological environment of the western region. In particular, the surface subsidence caused by coal mining is the root of the ecological deteriotation and the destruction of ground structures. However, it is difficult to reveal the law of large-scale surface subsidence in western mining areas merely by conventional measurement methods such as leveling, on account of the high intensity of coal seam mining, the weakness of the lithology of overlying rock and the large thickness of wind-blown sand strata. In view of this, small baseline subset interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SBAS-InSAR) technology was used in this study to obtain the time series of surface vertical displacement during the whole mining process of the 2401 working face in the Yingpanhao coal mine, Inner Mongolia. Based on the deformation data, the dynamic evolution characteristics of surface subsidence under high intensity mining in the western mining area were analyzed exhaustively. It was found that the surface subsidence is characterized by an extensive coverage range (48.52 km2) with minimal ground settlement (250 mm) in the study area. Meanwhile, the boundary shape of the subsidence basin followed a "circular-parallelogram-trapezoid" changeable process and the coverage area of the basin experienced three stages: a linear increasing period, a temporary stagnation period, and a re-expansion period. Furthermore, there existed an abnormal uplift phenomenon on the east side of the open-off cut in the 2401 working face. Combined with the structure of overlying strata, this paper carried out a preliminary analysis on the reasons of the abovementioned phenomenon. The research results are of vital realistic significance for ground buildings and ecological environmental protection in the aeolian sand mining area in Western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy and the environment are important foundations for sustainable economic development. In order to realize the sustainable development of energy economy, clarify the respective responsibilities of the government and enterprises, and explore the internal mechanism of ecological compensation, this paper constructs an evolutionary game model by means of social benefits, ecological compensation, supervision costs, government subsidies, enterprise punishment, enterprise additional income, enterprise emission reduction costs and other means, through the government's supervision and non-supervision behavior, as well as the cooperation and non-cooperation behavior of enterprises, and analyzes the model parameters and game results. The research shows that: (1) due to the delay effect of technical progress of pollutant discharge, in the long run, the cost of enterprise emission reduction must be less than its benefits. (2) Social benefits brought by government regulation must exceed half of ecological compensation. (3) Government subsidy should not be higher than ecological compensation. Then, taking Inner Mongolia coal mine as an example, the field investigation is carried out from the three aspects of atmosphere, water, and soil, and the ecological environment loss of the mining area is preliminarily calculated based on the national technical specification for ecological environment assessment. Based on the above results, it shows that: (1) From the perspective of the government, social benefit must exceed USD 10.69 million annually; (2) from the perspective of enterprises, government subsidy should be lower than USD 21.38 million annually. In short, ecological compensation mechanism for coal resource development should include two parts: resource consumption reduction and environmental restoration; take the ecological compensation threshold as the standard, strictly eliminating declining enterprises, stimulating technological innovation, weakening the government subsidy, relying on non-governmental organizations to enlarge the social benefits brought by government supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change means that China needs to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its transport sector. The study reported in the paper analysed the spatial–temporal characteristics of carbon doxide emissions produced by transporting coal by rail in the country between 2000 and 2014. The kriging interpolation method was used to analyse the emission distributions. The results showed that total emissions produced from rail transport of coal increased from 1·18 Mt in 2000 to 11·71 Mt in 2014, although they appear to have peaked. Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Shaanxi were the provinces with the largest emission increases. The emissions were positively correlated and showed spatial heterogeneity, with Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces being high-emission provinces surrounded by other high-emission provinces. The paper concludes with a discussion of energy conservation and emissions-reduction measures that could be implemented by the Chinese transport industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on microcredit programs has largely focused on positive socioeconomic outcomes and low accessibility issues in farming areas and has provided less insight into the effects of easily acquired microcredit in pastoral areas. Using a case study approach, and econometric models, this paper addresses this gap by examining why and how easily acquired microcredit loans in Inner Mongolian pastoral areas increase the risk to the financial security of households or livelihood risk. Results show that existing microcredit programs increase livelihood risk because loan and repayment requirements do not align with the husbandry production cycle of contemporary Inner Mongolian pastoralists. This misalignment forces pastoralists to borrow from usurers to repay bank loans. Furthermore, households that need to borrow from usurers typically own smaller numbers of livestock and are less likely to be able to repay the usurers by selling animals. Instead, they tend to increase their bank loans in the coming year to repay the previous year's debt, trapping them in a vicious and ultimately impoverishing circle of annual loans they cannot fully pay back, and feeding increasing debt. We suggest that microcredit programs in semiarid areas should be in sync with the local production cycle and recognize environmental constraints that cause high variation in production seasonally and year to year. Our results supplement previous findings on microcredit applications and are particularly pertinent for other semiarid areas of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we selected Xilingol League in Inner Mongolia, China, as the research area, based on the land-use data of five Landsat remote sensing images taken between 1980 and 2015. Then, we calculated the complex network eigenvalues, such as the average shortest path, betweenness centrality, and degree, to identify the key land-use types, stability, and ecological environment change regularity from the perspective of the land-use system. Finally, we used the Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) method to explore the main driving forces behind changes in the land-use system, to provide scientific support for the study of changing trends in land-use, and regional grassland ecological management. The findings are shown below. First, in the last 35 years, grasslands have always been the major type of change in land-use transfer matrices. Grasslands play a controlling role in the whole land-use system. Second, grassland and cultivated land are the major "transfer out" type of land in the Xilingol area, while construction land and water area belong to the major "transfer in" type of land. Third, the average shortest path values of four transition matrix networks were all less than 1.5, indicating that the land-use system becomes less stable, but the average shortest path values of these four networks present an increasing trend, leading to a more stable development of the land-use system. However, on the whole, it shows an upward trend, and the land-use system is moving in a stable direction. Fourth, the average annual rainfall, population, topographic factors, GDP, and distance from settlements play a prominent role in determining the spatial distribution of change in land-use in Xilingol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Global warming has resulted in change in precipitation across many regions around the world. In this paper, we analyze the stable isotopes in precipitation in Ordos of Inner Mongolia, and then used them to track the origin of the water vapor in the irrigation areas proximal to the Yellow River in the region. Method Rainfalls were sampled from June to September in 2020, and stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in them were measured. Their correlation with factors including air temperature and daily precipitation was analyzed, from which we established the downline equations. The origin of the water vapor was tracked based on the variation of deuterium surplus value; reliability of the results was determined by the HYSPLIT air mass trajectory model Result The isotopes in the sampled precipitation during the experimental period was significantly lower than that in other months, showing their significant correlation with rainfall with p=0.01. The downline equation was D=7.1318O-1.67, affected by evaporation greatly. Water vapor in June was affected by both the westerly belt and the polar air mass, accompanied by water vapor coming from the southeast coastal region. The water vapor in July and August was similar, coming from northwestern China. Water vapor in September was affected by the water vapor in the westerly belt, the polar air mass and local evapotranspiration.Conclusion Precipitation is the main factor determining its isotope content and origin. The HYSPLIT simulation and dynamic-change analysis of the deuterium surplus value showed that the water vapor in the westerly zone is the origin of the water vapor seen in the studied area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents scientific analyses of the wall paintings in Wudang Lamasery, which is located in the Baotou area of Inner Mongolia, China. Raman spectroscopy was used to analyze the pigments of the mural of the Lam rim Hall. The results show that vermilion, red lead, chrome yellow, emerald green and synthetic ultramarine were used. The existence of synthetic pigments provides a clue for the date the mural was painted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal bump, a common dynamic disaster in mining of deep coal resources, its assessing and predicting is an important component in safety management. This paper presents a model to assess and predict coal bump risk based on multiparameter indices. A new energy accumulation index S was proposed by considering acoustic emission and electromagnetic emission signal characteristics in mine shocks. Combined with indices E (energy of microseisms) and N (frequency of microseisms) of microseismic monitoring, a static and dynamic coal bump risk assessment and prediction model was established. We studied coal bump events that occurred during extraction in 311305 working face of Bayangale coal mine in Inner Mongolia, China. We obtained the acoustic emission and electromagnetic emission signal distribution and change law, using principal component analysis method and density ellipse to establish the index S. A typical precursory of coal bumps is that AE and EME strength has obvious fluctuation period of 3-4 days, index S showing an obvious decreasing trend, while the time-series curve of the microseismic energy is relatively stable, and the vibration frequency curve has a significant upward trend. After predict the potential coal bump risk and its area of occurrence, large diameter drilling (Φ150 mm) on-site was used to relief pressure concertation in coal seam and roof. The results demonstrate that this model based on multiparameter indices is capable of quantitatively prewarning rock burst risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-yield coal mining and ecological environment protection are the main aspects of the sustainable development of ecologically fragile mining areas in Western China. This paper briefly describes the development and current situation of solid filling coal mining in China, puts forward a green and sustainable filling coal mining method providing a maximum annual treatment capacity of waste gangue of 2 4 million tons, and analyzes the mechanical compaction properties of solid waste gangue, eolian sand, and loess in these areas. Taking a Coal Mine in Inner Mongolia, China, as an example, the effects of three key indices, namely mining height, face width, and backfill materials' compaction ratio (BMCR) on the subsidence, horizontal deformation, horizontal movement, inclined deformation, and curvature of Quaternary aquiclude are studied. At a mining height of 3 m and BMCR = 80%, the maximum aquifer subsidence is below 168 mm. Based on the surface vegetation growth capacity analysis, the design principle of controlling the SBM key parameters by the ecological water level threshold is substantiated. The results show that the mining height and the BCMR of goaf are the key control indices affecting the stability of Quaternary aquifers, the evolution of ecological water level, and the production of surface vegetation. Combining the underground intelligent dry coal preparation and in-situ filling coal mining technology with a reasonable adjustment of the above parameters, the ecological environment protection can be realized for the whole life cycle of local coal seam mining in the areas under study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coal transport mode from North to South China is investigated to find out how the ocean shipping mode and the north-to-south coal transport are susceptible to the Inner Mongolia-Jiangxi railway based on the bi-level programming game model. This paper derives the following conclusions from the case analysis of the competitive behaviors for the Erdos-Wuhan transport service modes: (1) The inauguration of Inner Mongolia-Jiangxi Railway has obvious traffic transfer effect on the traditional sea-railway combined transport mode, and will lead the freight rate to further reducing; (2) the higher the value of time (VOT) in coal transport service, the more apparent the competition effect of Inner Mongolia-Jiangxi Railway on sea-railway combined transport service mode; (3) the upgrading of sea-railway combined transport service level, especially its rapidity and punctuality, has regulation effect on the competition of Inner Mongolia-Jiangxi Railway. In the end, this paper gives some policy advice on how to improve the transport efficiency of coal from north to south China subject to freight rate, service upgrading and marketing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desertification as a bio-physical stressor threatens food and water security, and is exacerbated by climate change. Other issues such as peace, gender equity, and livelihood are some examples of socio-economic issues also connected to desertification. This is apparent in the cases of Inner Mongolia and the Sahelo-Saharan region, where desertification has spurred the creation of afforestation projects, colloquially known as "Green Walls": these are the Three-North Shelterbelt Project, and the Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative, respectively. This paper explores the principles of environmental ethics (such as vulnerability, common goods, biological and cultural diversity, and environmental virtues) in the two Green Wall projects and compares these in their respective environmental management strategies. The paper concludes that both Green Wall projects can benefit from collaboration such as an exchange of knowledge and effective methods and practices. These include the capacity of the Chinese State in resource mobilization and of the African Union's emphasis on organization at the grassroots level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]