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This paper systematically presents the development process of studying ancient Chinese ethnic scripts over the past seven decades since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, including the establishment of related research institutions and academic disciplines. Firstly, it records the establishment of the Chinese Association for Ethnic Paleography, the emergence of ancient scripts of ethnic groups in China as an academic discipline, and the conduction of a comprehensive and in-depth study of ancient Chinese ethnic literature in history. Secondly, this paper outlines the establishment of the National Leading Group for Compilation and Publication Planning of Ancient Ethnic Books, the census of ancient books written in ethnic scripts, the specialized preservation and conservation of ancient ethnic books in Xizang and Xinjiang, the promotion of compiling and publishing ancient ethnic books, and how the promotion further drives the protection of and research on ancient books written in ethnic scripts. Thirdly, the paper lists many innovative outcomes in studying ancient ethnic books. Fourthly, the paper proposes to conduct further censuses and in-depth research in this area, establish a grading system for ancient ethnic books, and utilize the resource of ancient ethnic books written in ethnic scripts in a modern context to further promote the excellent cultural heritages of the Chinese nation and enhancing ethnic unity and national unity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Luojia 1–01 (LJ1-01) night lighting satellite's superior spatial information capture capability provides conditions for accurate assessment of regional wealth distribution inequality (RWDI) at a small scale. This paper evaluated the wealth Gini coefficient (WGC) of 2,853 counties and 31 provinces in mainland China to establish a comprehensive picture of inequalities at county-level regions in China as a whole, using data from LJ1-01 and the Suomi National Polar Orbiter Partnership Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-VIIRS). The WGC values (LJ-Gini) calculated by the LJ1-01 data are always higher than those (NPP-Gini) based on NPP-VIIRS, and the mean of the ratio between them is 1.7. Compared with NPP-Gini, LJ-Gini showed sensitivity to low RWDI areas. The average county and provincial LJ-Gini are statistically consistent, 0.77 and 0.78; County LJ-Gini's volatility is significantly higher than that of the provincial LJ-Gini, with standard deviations (SD) 0.13 and 0.096. The differences of RWDI in the regions within some provinces are more significant than in other provinces. For example, the SD of Tibet is 0.31, while all provinces' average SD is 0.13. In addition, this paper establishes a grading criterion based on the normal distribution abstracted from provincial LJ-Gini to reflect the corresponding relationship between the LJ-Gini value and the five inequality ranks. Totally, RWDI demonstrates heterogeneity at various spatial scales and regions, and it correlates negatively with economic development. The superior performance of LJ1-01 data in evaluating county-level RWDI demonstrates its potential to evaluate RWDI on a smaller scale, such as communities and streets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are the richest collections of palm leaf manuscripts in Potala Palace of Tibet in China; they represent very precious cultural heritage with both literature and research value. The study reported in this paper has selected the original palm leaf manuscripts and the photocopies of palm leaf manuscripts in Potala Palace as investigation objects randomly. The investigation of damage status focuses on both media (palm leaves) and handwriting. Results show 11 kinds of deterioration of palm leaf manuscripts. They can be divided into three categories based on the frequency and destructiveness of deterioration: major, minor and occasional deterioration. The purpose of grading is to take targeted measures according to the degree of damage. Restoration and preservation of palm leaf manuscripts in the Potala Palace are relatively complicated because of minimal research on the restoration of palm leaf manuscripts. There are few stable and mature restoration methods that would be used for damaged manuscripts. It is very important to find out the most suitable method for seriously damaged palm leaves before making a restoration plan in order to prioritize appropriately and facilitate long-term preservation and utilization. This study analyzes and demonstrates the feasibility of the restoration techniques for the most damaged, thus laying a foundation for comprehensive practices of the preservation and restoration of the palm leaves in the Potala Palace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the data of 30 provinces (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions and Tibet) at the provincial level from 2010 to 2019 as the research object, this paper analyzes the current situation and characteristics of China's agricultural modernization and response to carbon emissions. Agricultural modernization is decomposed into production modernization, management modernization, and ecological modernization. This study uses the spatial Dobbin model to demonstrate the impact of agricultural modernization on carbon emissions and analyzes the impact of agricultural modernization on carbon emissions in the East. The direct effect and spatial spillover effect of the three western regions are to different degrees. The results show that agricultural carbon emissions are spatially dependent. The development of agricultural modernization and transportation of neighboring provinces and cities will have an impact on agricultural carbon emissions in this region. Therefore, under the background of rural revitalization and low-carbon agriculture, this paper further analyzes the impact of agricultural modernization on the spatial distribution of carbon emissions in the eastern, central, and western regions. Recommendations are proposed with a view to giving better play to the process of agricultural modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy is crucial to promoting green technology innovation and development. However, there needs to be more research on the relationship between the digital economy, digital talent aggregation (DTA), and green technology innovation (GTI). Therefore, based on the data from 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in mainland China (excluding Tibet) from 2011 to 2020, this paper uses fixed effect, threshold effect, moderating effect model, and spatial econometric model to make an empirical analysis of this research direction. The results show that (1) there is a nonlinear relationship between the digital economy and green technology innovation (GTI). This effect has regional heterogeneity effects. In the central and western regions, the digital economy is more prominent in promoting green technology innovation (GTI). (2) Digital talent aggregation (DTA) has a negative moderating effect on the influence of the digital economy on promoting green technology innovation (GTI). (3) The negative spillover effect of the digital economy on local green technology innovation (GTI) will be intensified at the spatial level due to the accumulation of digital talents. Therefore, this paper suggests that the government should actively and reasonably develop the digital economy to promote green technology innovation (GTI). In addition, the government can implement a flexible talent introduction policy, strengthen talent quality education and talent service station construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tibetan Buddhism has an inseparable connection with the spatial characteristics, development process, and human-natural environment of the Tibetan Plateau. This paper takes monasteries as carriers of Tibetan Buddhist culture in U-Tsang region which is one of the traditional geographical units of Tibet. Using geospatial analysis methods, this study explores the spatial quantification characteristics of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and qualitatively and quantitatively analyzes the factors that influence the spatial distribution of monasteries. The results indicate that: (1) Political activities of human society influence the pattern of political power. Under the unique context of Tibetan theocracy system, the scope of political authority has a significant influence and affects the religious spatial pattern in the U-Tsang region throughout history. The distribution of monasteries in the U-Tsang region shows significant spatial differences at three sub-regional scales. (2) The religious spatial pattern in the U-Tsang is the result of the diverse interaction of human-natural factors. The results indirectly endorse that religious space is an inevitable product of the interaction between humans and the environment. (3) The religious spatial distribution patterns in the three major Tibetan regions have distinct characteristics, closely related to the superior conditions of their respective historical and geographical environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tibetan Plateau is a driver and amplifier of global climate change. The increased frequency and scale of landslides in this area are one of the manifestations of extreme climate change. Studying the trigger of landslides is of great value to the research, protection, and management of engineering geology and climatic environmental changes. However, to our knowledge, there is no efficient, convenient and intelligent method to recognize the trigger of landslides in the Tibetan Plateau. Therefore, a new high-efficiency and high-precision deep learning algorithm has been proposed in this study to analyze the landslides triggers. Specifically, this paper proposes a novel lightweight neural network landslide classification method (MNTL) based on MobileNet-V2 and transfer learning. Mobilenet-V2 requires few parameters and few floating-point operations per second. Furthermore, it is integrated with transfer learning to improve the representation learning ability of the model. The proposed method was applied to classify landslides induced by rainfall and thawing effect. The method required only 30 samples of each class, and it converged quickly in just 3 min and achieved a 94% forecast accuracy. Compared with six state-of-the-art deep learning classification methods—specifically, VGG-16, VGG-19, ResNet-50, ResNet-101, Inception, and MobileNet-V2, the proposed method exhibited competitive advantages in terms of convergence speed and generalization capability. MNTL can be embedded into the mobile terminal, which is conducive to the rapid application of landslide-related research results at a small cost. More importantly, the work in this paper could serve as a potential basis for advancing research on the correlation between landslide hazards and climate change in southeast Tibet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid economic growth in the twenty-first century, innovation has become an essential component of national development, and industry-university-research regional collaborative innovation is the key to implementing China's innovation plan. Using panel data from 30 provinces and cities in China (excluding Tibet Autonomous Region) from 2011 to 2018, this paper employs the two-stage dynamic DEA model to develop a rating index system of regional collaborative innovation performance, which is divided into knowledge innovation stage and technology innovation stage, and measures the collaborative innovation efficiency of 30 provinces in China. The environmental regulation score is then determined by using the entropy method. Finally, an experimental application of the panel Tobit model is conducted to investigate the impact mechanism of environmental regulation on regional collaborative innovation. The results reveal that the collaborative innovation efficiency values of the majority of provinces are between 0.5 and 0.7, leaving ample room for growth. When the efficiency value of collaborative innovation is broken down by region, the eastern, central, and western regions show a pattern of "rising in the east, stable in the center, and falling in the west." The findings of the Tobit regression reveal that the effect of environmental regulation on regional collaborative innovation performance follows a "U"-shaped distribution, confirming the "Porter Hypothesis." This study proposes remedies and proposals to enhance regional collaborative innovation performance from the perspective of environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports lithium concentrations and isotopic compositions of olivines in the oceanized subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) peridotites of the Tibetan Yunzhug ophiolite. The results show systematic Li isotope changes with distance from the rim of olivine grains. δ7Li values of olivine in dunites decrease from + 10.46 to + 1.33‰ with increasing distance to olivine rim from 26.15 to 124.71 μm. A negative correlation of δ7Li and Li content in olivine from dunite and harzburgite indicates recent diffusive ingress of Li into the peridotites. The extremely heavy Li isotopic composition requires the seawater or seawater alteration endmember in the mixing model, and reveals Li diffusion from seawater into olivine. As in dunites, olivines in a harzburgite sample show similar variations in δ7Li as a function of distance from the grain rim (e.g., 6.01 to 1.73 in sample 14YZ13). We suggest that the behavior of Li in the oceanized SCLM peridotites may be controlled by Li diffusion from seawater, as Li activity in the liquid state is higher than the solid state in transporting Li through the olivines in the peridotites. This study supports that seawater Li diffusion is one of the important factors for the heterogeneity of mantle Li isotopes in ophiolites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On October 11 and November 3, 2018, two large landslides occurred at the same location in Baige Village, eastern Tibet, China. These landslides pose a serious threat to both upstream and downstream areas, raising great concerns in China and worldwide. Currently, the influencing factors and fundamental mechanism of the Baige landslide are questioned, and further research is needed. Multiple methods, including comprehensive field investigation, satellite remote sensing, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) 3D imaging, and geographical information systems, are used to analyze the main characteristics, influencing factors, and fundamental mechanism of the Baige landslide. The results reveal that the occurrence of the Baige landslide is closely related to deep-seated gravitational slope deformations (DSGSDs); tectonic activity, river incision, earthquakes, and rainfall are also responsible for the formation of the event. From a long-term perspective, DSGSDs, active tectonic deformation, repetitive seismic activities, rapid river incision, and sustained rainfall infiltration all interact with each other and finally trigger catastrophic landslides. The damage deformation process of the Baige landslide can be divided into three stages: epigenetic deformation, time-dependent deformation, and failure. Some unstable rock masses still exist in the source area, and thus, successive deformation monitoring and timely mitigation measures should be implemented to reduce the residual risks. The research in this paper is meaningful for further research on such large-scale landslides along the Jinsha River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 20 years, Lebai gully (Linzhi, Tibet, China) has been affected by several debris flow events. These debris flow events caused the blockage of three-quarters of the river channel at the mouth of the Lebai gully, threatening thousands of acres of cultivated land, houses, and residents' property in the upper reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River. However, few investigations have been carried out on the debris flows in the Lebai gully, and the triggering mechanism of Lebai debris flows remains elusive. In this paper, we presented a detailed demonstration of the geological environment and geomorphological features of the Lebai Basin, and a detailed geohazard history of the Lebai gully was collected and presented based on interviews with local villagers. To provide information on the lithological, hydrological, and geotechnical characteristics of the terrain in Lebai gully, the electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) method was carried out to research the subsurface characteristics of debris flow fans. The ERT results illustrated the two-layered vertical strata of the debris fan, and the shallow layer of relatively low resistivity, which has thicknesses of 5–18 m, could be described as Quaternary colluvial deposits, while the deep layer of relatively high resistivity could be considered Precambrian bedrock. Taking a relatively large-scale debris flow on August 20, 2003, as an example, a detailed discussion was carried out on the possible factors triggering this event, and it was found that the Lebai debris flows were closely related to pre-event rainfall, air temperature, and antecedent earthquakes. Moreover, with the intention of evaluating the future risk of river blockage and helping to make rational decisions on developing suitable mitigation measures, the unstable deposits found in field investigations were generalized to geometric models according to their geometric characteristics, and the volumes of these unstable materials in each location were estimated using digital elevation models and geometric spatial analysis methods. A dynamic model named RAMMS was used to predict these unstable materials' dynamic processes and final deposit characteristics. The simulation results revealed a great possibility that the Yarlung Tsangpo River will be blocked at the mouth of Lebai gully in the future, and it is necessary to take further mitigation measures. The research in this paper contributes to a better understanding of the debris flows in the Lebai Basin and provides meaningful and valuable information for debris flow hazard mitigation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on public data such as the Educational Statistics Yearbook and the National Statistics Yearbook, this paper analyzes the equalization trend of fundamental education in the Tibet Autonomous Region (hereinafter referred to as Tibet), China, using data on running conditions in primary and middle schools in Tibet from 2013 to 2020, and carries out clustering of the rankings of data from China in 2020. The results show that the equalization level of primary and middle education in Tibet has continuously improved from 2013 to 2020. This is evidenced by the increases and improvements in education funding per student, student-teacher ratios, numbers and academic qualifications of teachers, per capita teaching areas and per capita teaching assets. In 2020, the per student education fee in Tibet took the lead in China's 31 provincial regions, and the student-teacher ratio was close to the national average. Running conditions in primary and middle schools in Tibet still require improvement. This is reflected in the low proportion of full-time teaching staff in primary and middle schools, lack of teachers with senior professional titles in middle schools, area of auxiliary teaching facilities (laboratories, computer rooms, gymnasiums, etc.) in middle schools, and especially in high schools, and shortage of teaching assets (books, computers, multimedia classrooms) in middle schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The leaf area index (LAI) is a crucial vegetation parameter that characterizes leaf sparsity and canopy structure, and the study of the spatial distribution pattern of the forest LAI and its environmental response can help to reveal the adaptive capacity of forest vegetation to climate change in semiarid areas. In this paper, a remote sensing inversion model of the LAI, which pertains to the forest ecosystem of Xinglong Mountain in the transition zone between the Qinghai‒Tibet Plateau and Loess Plateau, was established by combining an optical instrumentation method, a remote sensing inversion method, and a generalized additive model (GAM). The results showed that (1) the Meris terrestrial chlorophyll index (MTCI) linear regression model provided the greatest explanatory power for the LAI in the Xinglong Mountain forest, with R2 = 0.88 and RMSE = 0.32. (2) The LAI was influenced mainly by the altitude, slope, profile curvature, aspect, planform curvature, temperature, precipitation, and evapotranspiration. According to the single-factor GAM, altitude (R2 = 0.43) explained most of the total variation in the LAI, followed by precipitation (R2 = 0.36). According to the multifactor GAM, the above influencing factors could explain 84.2% of the total variation in the LAI, which was significant (P < 0.001). (3) Interaction analysis revealed that the LAI was significantly influenced by the interaction between topographic and meteorological factors (P < 0.001). It was revealed that the topography of Xinglong Mountain is fragmented, the vertical band spectrum of vegetation is notable, and the forest LAI exhibits high spatial heterogeneity under the interaction between topographic and meteorological factors, reflecting the environmental response mechanism of vegetation growth in forest ecosystems in ecological transition zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an identification framework for dynamic risk perception with "Questions & Answers (Q&As) + travel notes", which newly attends to the dynamic nature of risk perception and overcomes the liabilities of traditional data collection methods, such as questionnaires and interviews, which induce high costs in data acquisition, tend to produce small sample sizes and suffer from large sample deviations. Via 2627 Q&As released by tourists before travel and 17,523 travel notes released by tourists after travel, the dynamic change in 20 identified risks before and after travel to Tibet is portrayed with the help of text mining technologies, which can automatically identify risk perception types and sentiment tendencies from massive amounts of textual data. The study finds that before travel, tourists usually underestimate risks related to safety, health and time but overestimate risks related to transportation, route selection and season. The results of the study are not only informative for destination tourism risk management and image promotion but also important for tourists to form more reasonable risk assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) stated: "We should focus on the construction of One Belt and one road, insist on introducing and going out, implement high-level trade and investment liberalization and facilitation policies, and promote the formation of a new pattern of the comprehensive opening." Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), as part of its opening-up, has a direct impact on the quality of China's economic development. This paper studies the impact of FDI quality on the economic development of the provinces in the 30 inland provinces of China, excluding Tibet, from 2007 to 2015. This paper does not find that comprehensive FDI quality has a significant impact on China's high-quality economic development. The further study sample is divided into three texts in the East and West, and found that the export capacity of the eastern provinces of FDI significantly promote high-quality economic development in the region; the technical level of the central provinces of FDI significantly promotes high-quality economic development in the region, but then the actual size of the FDI has a significant inhibitory effect on central provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the mechanism of landslide dam failure caused by overtopping, a simplified mathematical model for simulating dam breach overtopping flow processes was proposed in our previous work. The model is composed of five main modules including hydrodynamic, sediment transport and erosion, headward erosion, breach lateral evolution, and breach side slope stability. However, the breach lateral evolution module is still based on the assumption existing in most available models that breach lateral spreading is linearly related to the undercutting, i.e., the lateral erosion rate is twice as much as the vertical undercutting rate in the process of dam breaking. This assumption is obviously lack of theoretical basis. Through a theoretical analysis of sediment initial motion on the river channel slope, a lateral erosion formula was deduced in this paper. Then the lateral enlargement model was developed to update the breach evolution module in the previously established simulation model. To verify the effectiveness of the modification, A case study was conducted in the same overtopping failure event of Baige landslide dam, which was located at the border of Tibet Autonomous Region and Sichuan province in China, took place on November 3, 2018. A good model performance was achieved with predicted flood volume, peak discharge and occurrence time within 10% margin of error compared with field monitoring data. Furthermore, a comparing with the previous model was carried out and the results obtained by the modified model applying the new lateral enlargement formula proposed in this study indicate that the predicting accuracy of the model can be improved significantly for the simulation of landslide dam overtopping failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying the ecological vulnerability of the sensitive and fragile ecosystem of the Ya'an-Qamdo section along the southern route of the Sichuan-Tibet transport corridor is of paramount importance to reduce environmental damage resulting from infrastructure construction. This paper divided the Ya'an-Qamdo transport section into 22 subzones according to their ecological environment characteristics. Based on the vulnerability evaluation model established by the fuzzy matter-element analysis method, the eight main assessment indicators of ecological vulnerability were windstorm, rainstorm, snowstorm, extreme temperature, extreme air pressure, geological hazard, natural conditions, and social resources. The rating and ranking of vulnerability in each subzone were based on the weight of the judgment indicators. Scientific processes were used to verify the rationality of both the indicators themselves and their weights. The results of this study show that subzone 9, located in the subalpine cold and humid forest and scrubland zone, is the most vulnerable, and subzone 1, located in the low- to mid-land warm and humid forest zone, is the least vulnerable. The conclusion of the study suggests that targeted measures of ecological protection should be formulated before development and construction of major transportation infrastructure. Construction should evade the most vulnerable areas, and in-depth research on ecological restoration should be carried out in low- to mid-vulnerability areas so that the ecological environment along the route can be protected effectively for sustainable economic and social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inherent biases in numerical simulation models of global climate models (GCMs) reduce the scope for accurately assessing future droughts under multimodel ensemble. The aim of this research is to increase the efficiency of multimodel ensembles. Consequently, this paper introduces a two-way hybrid weighting scheme for ensembling multiple GCMs. The proposed weighting scheme enhances the coherence of the multimodel ensemble of climate model simulations with real observed data and minimizes the impact of non-identical seasonal behavior in climate simulations within the multimodel ensemble. In the application, we consider precipitation data from 18 GCMs of CMIP6 from the Tibet Plateau region. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, we compared the proposed ensemble data with simple model averaged (SMA) ensemble using the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r), root mean squared error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE). Furthermore, we assessed the future characteristics of various drought categories using the steady-state probabilities of a Markov Chain. Small values of errors metircs and high correlation indicate that the proposed hybrid weighting scheme exhibits better performance than the SMA. Under the proposed index, the long term probabilities of various drought classe show variations across different time scales of drought. These results provide perspectives on how the the long term probabilities of various drought categories evolve over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The instability of slope blocks occurred frequently along traffic corridor in Southeastern Tibet (TCST), which was primarily controlled by the rock mass structures. A rapid method evaluating the control effects of rock mass structures was proposed through field statistics of the slopes and rock mass structures along TCST, which combined the stereographic projection method, modified M-JCS model, and limit equilibrium theory. The instabilities of slope blocks along TCST were then evaluated rapidly, and the different control factors of instability were analyzed. Results showed that the probabilities of toppling (5.31%), planar (16.15%), and wedge (35.37%) failure of slope blocks along TCST increased sequentially. These instability modes were respectively controlled by the anti-dip joint, the joint parallel to slope surface with a dip angle smaller than the slope angle (single-joint), and two groups of joints inclined out of the slope (double-joints). Regarding the control effects on slope block instability, the stabilization ability of double-joints (72.7%), anti-dip joint (67.4%), and single-joint (57.6%) decreased sequentially, resulting in different probabilities of slope block instability. Additionally, nearby regional faults significantly influenced the joints, leading to spatial heterogeneity and segmental clustering in the stabilization ability provided by joints to the slope blocks. Consequently, the stability of slope blocks gradually weakened as they approached the fault zones. This paper can provide guidance and assistance for investigating the development characteristics of rock mass structures and the stability of slope blocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-temperature hydrothermal systems are mainly distributed in the north–south graben systems of southern Tibet as an important part of the Mediterranean–Tethys Himalayan geothermal belt in mainland China. As the largest unit capacity and second stable operating geothermal power station in China, Yangyi is the fracture-controlled type geothermal field in the center of Yadong–Gulu Graben. In this paper, hydrogeological and hydrochemical characteristics, isotope composition (δD and δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr and δ11B) of borehole water, hot springs, and surface river samples were analyzed. From the conservative elements (such as Cl− and Li+) and δD and δ18O values, the geothermal water of the Yangyi high-temperature geothermal field is estimated to be of meteoric origin with the contributions of chemical components of the magmatic fluid, which is provided by partially molten granite as a shallow magmatic heat source. According to logging data, the geothermal gradient and terrestrial heat flow value of the Yangyi high-temperature geothermal field are 6.48 ℃/100 m and 158.37 mW m−2, respectively. Combining the hydrothermal tracer experiment, 87Sr/86Sr and δ11B ratios obtained with gradually decreasing reservoir temperatures from the Bujiemu stream geothermal zone to Qialagai stream geothermal zone, we suggested the deep geothermal waters were mixed with local cold groundwater and then flow northeastward, forming the shallow reservoir within the crushed zone and intersect spot of faults in the Himalayan granitoid. Furthermore, in the process of ascent, the geothermal water is enriched in K+, Na+, and HCO3− during the interaction with underlying Himalayan granitoid and pyroclastic rocks that occur as wall rocks. The detailed description and extensive discussion are of great significance for the further exploitation and utilization of north–south trending geothermal belts in Tibet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic understanding of the spatio-temporal changes and driving factors in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau holds significant scientific reference value for the future of ecological sustainable development. This paper utilizes MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and meteorological data to investigate the spatio-temporal changes and driving factors of vegetation coverage in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from 2001 to 2020. Methods employed include the dimidiate pixel model, trend analysis, partial correlation analysis, and residual analysis. The results demonstrate a generally fluctuating upward trend in vegetation coverage across the Tibetan Plateau over the past two decades, with spatial expansion occurring from northwest to southeast. Vegetation coverage exhibits a positive correlation with climate factors. Approximately 60.7% of the area showed a positive correlation between vegetation fractional cover (FVC) and precipitation, with 8.66% of the area demonstrating extremely significant (p < 0.05) and significant (p < 0.01) positive correlation. Human activities, on the whole, have contributed to the enhancement of vegetation cover in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The areas where human activities have positively impacted vegetation cover are primarily situated in north-central Qinghai and north of Ngari, while areas experiencing degradation include certain grassland regions in central-eastern Yushu, Nagqu, and Lhasa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bayan Har Basin is an important part of the Tethys tectonic in the Tibet Plateau. There are various conjectures regarding the basement and tectonic attributes of the Bayan Har Basin. Based on the aeromagnetic anomaly characteristics in the Bayan Har Basin, the structural units and fault system are derived, and the basement composition and structural attributes are discussed in this paper. We draw the following conclusions: (1) The Bayan Har Basin and its adjacent regions can be divided into five magnetic structural units, consisting of the southern Tarim Block, the Qiangtang Block, the western Yangtze Block, the Qinling–Qiliang–Kunlun Orogenic Belt and the Bayan Har Basin. (2) The Muztagh–Kunlun–A'nyêmaqên suture zone and the Xijir Ulan–Yushu–Jinsha River suture zone are the basic frameworks of the north–south division of the basin. (3) The basement in the eastern Bayan Har Basin is composed of Proterozoic metamorphic rocks, and the basement in the western and central basin is composed of Meso–Neoproterozoic metamorphic rocks. (4) The Triassic tectonic attribute of the Bayan Har Basin may be foreland basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of power development industry is facing enormous pressure to reduce carbon emissions in the context of global decarbonization. Using solar energy instead of traditional fossil energy to adjust energy structure is one of the important means for reducing carbon emissions. Existing research focuses on the evaluation of the generation potential of centralized or distributed photovoltaic power plants, rather than the comprehensive evaluation of multi-type power plants. Based on multi-source remote sensing data for information extraction and suitability evaluation, this paper develops a method to comprehensively evaluate the construction potential of multi-type photovoltaic power stations and determine the potential of photovoltaic power generation and carbon emission reduction on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). The results showed that estimating the power generation potential of only single-type photovoltaic power stations cannot accurately reflect the photovoltaic power generation potential of QTP. It is also demonstrated that the emission reduction effect of the photovoltaic power generation in all prefecture-level cities of QTP can meet national emission reduction targets, showing high annual power generation potential, of which 86.59% is concentrated in Qinghai province's Guoluo, Yushu, and Haixi. An accurate estimation of the photovoltaic power generation potential in QTP can provide a useful theoretical basis for developing carbon-saving and emission reduction strategies for clean energy in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Located in the southwest of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Tibet is characterized by high cold, high radiation, and large differences in temperature between day and night. Tibetan residential buildings are famous for adapting to the harsh ecological environment and maintaining durability. Based on the residential buildings in Tibet, this paper extracts the technical process and color decoration culture in the construction process in order to adapt to the harsh natural environment. This paper first analyzed the four ecological construction modes of Tibetan residential buildings, analyzed the interior layout characteristics and cultural customs connotation, and introduced the architectural decoration characteristics and decorative color painting. The results show that the ramming type of adobe mainly includes the selection of building foundation, wall laying, floor and roof construction and so on, and its insulation effect is better. The rubble masonry type mainly adopts irregular gneiss, supplemented by clay, which has strong compressive capacity. Logs dry type using log masonry, heat preservation. and shock resistance is better. Concrete-infilled wall frame is composed of horizontal and vertical load-bearing system, which has stronger seismic performance. Tibetan residential buildings generally have two or three floors. The first floor is the enclosure and sundry room, the second floor is the rest place, and the third floor is the Sutra hall and sun terrace. The overall outdoor color of Kangba Tibetan buildings is mainly red and black, while the indoor color is mainly blue and red, with wood carvings and furniture. The layout of Tibetan villages can be divided into centripetal layout and scattered layout. Tibetan residential buildings provide a new sustainable development direction for the current global urbanization process at the expense of the ecological environment. It can alleviate the crisis of global resource shortage, climate warming, and biodiversity degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is of great significance to study the spatial differentiation of surface gravel in northern Tibet Plateau for regional ecological environment restoration. In this paper, the particle size and spatial position of the surface gravel are studied. On the basis of the impact factors of topography, vegetation, land use, meteorology, soil, social economy, etc., the quantitative attribution of the gravel particle size is studied in the geomorphological type areas of the northern Tibetan Plateau by using geographic detector and regression analysis. The experimental conclusions are as follows: Firstly, the explanatory power of each impact factor to gravel particle size and the coupling degree between factors are different in different geomorphological types. Among the impact factors, NDVI and land use types are the dominant factors that determine the spatial heterogeneity of gravel particle size. However, in extremely high mountain areas, the explanatory power of altitude factor gradually increases with the increase of topographic relief. Secondly, two-factor interaction is helpful to enhance the explanatory power of spatial heterogeneity of gravel particle size. Except for the interaction of altitude factor in the high relief but extremely high-altitude mountains, the interaction of NDVI and other important factors is mostly found in other regions. Among them, the interaction between NDVI and land use type is the most significant. Thirdly, the areas with high gravel particle size identified by the risk detector are mainly areas with high vegetation coverage and weak external erosion, such as shrubbery, wooded land, and high-coverage grassland. Therefore, the specific conditions of different regions should be fully considered in the study of the spatial heterogeneity of gravel size in the northern Tibetan Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a depth-averaged numerical model is proposed to simulate the propagation of debris flows. To understand the dynamical features of debris flows, the granular-liquid mixture model is employed, where the resistance of liquid constituent consisting of water and fine particles is described by Herschel-Bulkley rheology, and the resistance of granular constituent involving the coarse particles is formulated by the Voellmy model. An Eulerian leapfrog finite difference scheme is employed to numerically solve the governing equations of debris flows. Several idealized dam break problems are numerically implemented to test the accuracy and stability of the numerical scheme, and good agreement with the analytical solutions is found. Furthermore, the experiment carried out by Iverson (2010) is numerically implemented in this study to validate the proposed model, and the results are in good agreement. Then, a typical debris flow in Tianmo gully in Tibet, China, is numerically analyzed based on the proposed model. The results show that several details of the motion of debris flows over a real terrain can be accurately predicted by the proposed model. The comparisons between the basal Coulomb friction model and the Voellmy model show that the mobility of debris flows can be overestimated when only the Coulomb friction model is employed. An analysis based on the unsteady motion of a uniform mass indicates that Voellmy resistance can rescue the issue in regard to the absence of resistance of the granular component due to fully liquefied states. Finally, the influence of the rheology of liquid slurry on the motion of debris flows is analyzed, and the results demonstrate that the basal resistances caused by the liquid slurry were very small relative to the basal resistances caused by granular constituent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For all developing countries, how to coordinate the interaction of industrial production and environmental protection in the process of economic development is a common challenge. In the past few decades, the Chinese government has realized that rapid economic development has brought about environmental pollution issues. Therefore, during the 12th and 13th Five-Year Plan period (2011–2015 and 2016–2020), a series of objectives and tasks on improving the quality of the atmosphere, water, soil, and ecological environment have been formulated by the Chinese government, which made solid progress. Based on the entropy weight TOPSIS (technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution) method and the coupling and coordination degree model (CCD model), this paper selected 14 indicators of the ecological environment and the economic system to evaluate the coordinate development of 30 provinces in China (except Tibet) from 2013 to 2019. The results show that in the past few years, the coordinated development in most regions has continued to improve, but still maintained in the transitional state of coordinated development, because the current effectiveness of China's battle against pollution is not stable, and the industrial structure dominated by heavy industry and chemical industry, and the energy structure dominated by coal have not fundamentally changed. Based on this conclusion, we provided some suggestions for the national and provincial institutes to reduce pollutants and carbon emissions, and continuously improve the quality of the ecological environment by adhering to the strategy of green and low-carbon development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Selecting appropriate mapping units is vital for landslide susceptibility mapping as well as pattern investigation, given that various units-based analyses extensively control the prediction performances. This paper investigated the landslide development through the interpretation and field surveys along the Yunling–Yanjing segment of the Lancang River in southeastern Tibet, and fulfil LSM with the consideration of 15 conditioning factors. Two grid unit methods (single-point and multi-point patterns) and two slope unit methods were comparatively analyzed for model training and mapping of landslide susceptibility via machine learning algorithms. The results suggest that the landslides are preferentially distributed in an elevation range of 2000–4000 m, in a slope range of 20–40°, a local relief range of 1000–2500 m, and southwest-oriented slopes. The data extracted by the multi-point method denotes a higher representation of landslide development features. All models possessed positive prediction ability for landslide susceptibility, and the multi-point method based on grid unit performed the best with the AUC exceeding 0.9. The best-performing models indicated that zones of high and very high susceptibility mainly distributed adjacent to the mainstem and some tributaries of the Lancang River. Furthermore, the distribution of "safety islands" (the slopes less prone to landslides) along National Highway G214 was reasonably illustrated as well, which provides a hazard predictability for such an important transportation corridor along the deeply-incised valley in the Lancang River. This study demonstrates a theoretical basis for the regional disaster prevention and mitigation for human activity, and provides methodological references for landslide susceptibility evaluation in similar mountainous areas over the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is one of the most complex natural hazards. Therefore, precise drought monitoring and forecasting are the biggest tasks for hydrologists and environmentalists. Under grid data structure, this paper provides a new drought index—the adaptive standardized precipitation index (ASPI), for the evolution of drought, inferring its spatio-temporal patterns and detecting trends. The methodology of the proposed index is based mainly on dynamic time warping clustering algorithm and dynamic principal components. Historical simulated precipitation data from the Australian community climate and earth-system simulator model of coupled model intercomparison project 6 of 727 grid points scattered around the Tibet Plateau has been considered. Results show that as the time scale increases, the severe and extreme drought trends have increased significantly. Further, the significant decreasing magnitude in ASPI reveals the persistence of future drought in the Tibet Plateau region. From a data mining point of view, the outcomes associated with this research recommend the endorsement of ASPI for effective and precise drought monitoring under grid data structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep underground rock tunnels and caverns in mountainous areas are often subjected to the coupling impacts of high geo-stresses and high-ground temperature that can threaten the stability of rock masses. This paper presents an experimental study of strength, deformation, and failure as well as energy evolution characteristics for rockburst potential evaluation of granite under the influence of coupled high confining pressure and ground temperature using a series of triaxial compression tests with samples drilled from a borehole about 1000 m in the depth of a mountain tunnel in Tibet area. Three representative confining pressures (20, 40, and 60 MPa) and four typical temperatures (30, 60, 90, and 120 ℃) around the engineering range were inspected according to the previous tunnel site investigations. The strength and deformability of the granite samples were analyzed under the influence of coupled high confining pressure and temperature. An energy storage index is introduced to discuss rockburst potential of the granite under thermal–mechanical coupled conditions. It is found that high-ground temperature leads to degradation of mechanical properties of the granite samples, while high pressure increases its strength and deformability. In addition, the high pressure and ground temperature couplings increase both the energy storage capacity and rockburst potential, with 60–90 ℃ being the strengthening range. The findings are beneficial to understanding the behavior of surrounding rock masses, the evaluation of its stability, and rockburst potential for deep underground tunnels in areas with high in-situ stress and ground temperature. Highlights: Mechanical and energy evolution behaviors of granite were reported under thermal-mechanical coupled conditions. Rockburst potential of granite under thermal-mechanical coupled conditions was evaluated by an energy index. Granite strength decreased with increasing temperature with 60–90 ℃ being the strengthening range of rock potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present mineralogical, whole-rock geochemical, Sr and Pb isotopic, and zircon trace elemental and U–Pb geochronological data for the newly-discovered Pengco listvenite in central Tibet, in an attempt to probe the petrogenesis of listvenite and the tectonic environment. The listvenite is composed of magnesite, quartz and minor dolomite and Cr-spinel. Chemistry of abundant protogenetic Cr-spinel in the Pengco listvenite as well as the whole-rock Cr and Ni concentrations and low rare-earth element contents indicates the harzburgite protolith. Addition of Ca and K and redistribution of Si at sample scale suggest that the formation of Pengco listvenite was not an isochemical process. Serpentinization could partly accounts for the enrichments in some fluid mobile elements before listvenitization. The εHf(t) values of xenocrystic zircons in the Pengco listvenite are dominantly negative, suggesting a continental crustal source. The zircon age spectra and high whole-rock initial 87Sr/86Sr values (0.7094–0.7107, and one up to 0.7193) and high 207Pb/204Pb (15.750–15.759), 208Pb/204Pb (39.145–39.215) and 206Pb/204Pb (18.542–18.567) of the Pengco listvenite are similar to those of the Qiangtang continental sediments/upper crust, indicating the terrigenous source of reactant fluids and fluid-assisted solid-state transfer during the formation of listvenite. The Pengco listvenite is likely formed in the forearc extensional environment of the Bangong Meso-Tethyan ocean during the Late Jurassic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central Tibet constitutes part of the central part of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, which is one of the highest seismically active areas in China. This paper discusses the regularity of seismic activity in this area. Based on a stratified viscoelastic earth model, we calculated the Coulomb stress changes imparted from four strong earthquakes (M ≥ 6.3) along the Bengco–southeastern piedmont of the Nyainqentanglha mountain fault zone in this region. The result shows that the study area may be entering a new active period from 2020. There was a trigger between the strong earthquakes (M ≥ 6.3) on the Bengco fault zone. The post-seismic viscous relaxation effect of a strong earthquake had a significant impact on subsequent earthquakes (M ≥ 6.3). In the next 100 years, the Coulomb stress loading is more than 1.0 MPa in the northwest section of the Bengco fault and the central part of Nimu segment of the southeastern piedmont of the Nyainqentanglha mountain fault. Thence, strong earthquakes may occur along these fault segments. The maximum magnitude of the earthquake could be M6.7 in the next 100 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The alpine regions of Tibet are biogeographically unique and highly biodiverse. As the political, economic, and cultural center of Tibet, the city of Lhasa's population growth and economic development have further weakened the region's already fragile ecological environment. Coordinating relationships between stable economic development, sustained population growth, rational resource use, and environmental protection has become an urgent issue. This paper establishes an ecological resistance surface based on the ecological resistance factor index to evaluate Lhasa's ecological security level. The obtained results show that the city's ecological security level is good, with high security level in the north, northwest, and northeast, and low-level in the south and the middle of city. High-level ecological security areas accounted for 34.5% of the city's total area, and low-level areas accounted for 9.0%. The overall Moran's I index of the city's ecological security was 0.518. According to a LISA clustering chart, Lhasa's ecological security grades are mainly high-high (HH) and low-low (LL). These two grades showed an apparent flaky spatial clustering in the city. We elected eight large-scale nature reserves in the city as ecological sources, constructed a resistance surface of the ecological accumulation of ecological sources, used the MCR (minimum cumulative resistance) model and gravity model to extract potential ecological corridors, and finally identified potentially important ecological corridors. A total of 51 ecological nodes and 80 potential ecological corridors were extracted, with a total length of about 3449.7 km. The length of the primary and secondary corridors accounted for 32.32% of the total length. Combining the development of Lhasa's ecological economy with tourism and cultural industry planning, a layout of ecological network model with one ring and three belts is proposed. An ecological space development strategy of agglomeration within the ring and axial drive should be implemented. This study provides a decision-making reference for the spatial layout of the ecological industry in Lhasa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Himalayan volcanic earthquake zone has significantly impacted China's Sichuan-Tibet region. Many barriers have formed as a result of the earthquake and secondary disasters, such as landslides, which have blocked the river. The breach of the barrier lake seriously threatens the lives and property safety of downstream personnel. There has been little research on the surrounding ecology for the later treatment of the barrier lake. This paper aims to scientifically predict the risk of dam break in a barrier lake as well as to explore its impact on the ecological environment and put forward controllable measures. Based on four major barrier lake events in the Sichuan-Tibet area, Diexihaizi, Tangjiashan barrier lake, and so on, we extract water bodies from remote sensing images and use the HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Center of River Analysis System) model to investigate whether there is a dam break risk and the route of the dam break is predictable. Simultaneously, from 1990 to 2020, the smallest administrative region is located. The InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) model is utilized to evaluate and analyze its habitat and create an evaluation based on flood inundation data. The results suggest that a stable barrier lake (such as Diexihaizi) has a sound effect on the habitat quality index following engineering treatment. The development of the barrier lake has altered the types of neighboring lands used and the natural patterns of the region's landscape. The habitat quality index will marginally deteriorate within a 1-km radius of the barrier lake. However, the quality of habitats in the area ranging within 3 km and 5 km has improved. It is necessary to discharge and strengthen the barrier lake artificially. Human-controlled regions, according to studies, will recover higher habitat quality index values than other locations. Whether the barrier lake has a positive impact on the surrounding area, on the other hand, is primarily dependent on the original ecology. The development of barrier lakes is damaging and unprofitable in Tibet, where the actual ecology is better in the short term. Still, in Sichuan Province, where the habitat quality is relatively low, the appearance of dammed lakes has played a role in correcting the ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terminalia chebula Retz. (Fam. Combretaceae), commonly called black or chebulic myrobalan, is a species of Terminalia. In Tibet, T. chebula is called the "King of Medicine". It is well known as 'Haritaki' since it can be used to cure all kinds of diseases and is considered sacred to God Siva (Hara). The whole plant possesses high medicinal value. The aim of this article is to review the available scientific information regarding traditional uses, bioactive chemical constituents, and pharmacological activities of T. chebula based on in vitro and in vivo studies. First, in this paper, the studies published on T. chebula from 1980 to 2022 were reviewed, and the biological activity and mechanisms of action of T. chebula were evaluated based on in vitro and in vivo studies. T. chebula presented anti-diabetic, anti-hyperlipidemic, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic, gastroprotective, anti-microbial, antiparasitic, wound healing, and anti-aging activities. Thus, this review suggests potential applications of T. chebula in nutraceuticals, functional foods, and pharmaceutical industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in patterns of meteorological parameters, like precipitations, temperature, wind, etc., are causing significant increases in various extreme events. And these extreme events, i.e., floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, droughts, etc., lead to a shortage of water resources, crop failures, wildfires, and economic losses. However, Global Circulation Models (GCMs) are considered the most important tools for quantifying climate change. Therefore, we selected 20 different GCMs of precipitation in our research, as the frequency of extreme events, like drought and flood, is highly related to changes in precipitation patterns. However, this research introduced a new weighting scheme — MCFSAWS-Ensemble: Monte Carlo Feature Selection Adaptive Weighting Scheme to Ensemble multiple GCMs, whereas, Monte Carlo Feature Selection (MCFS) is one of the most popular algorithms for discovering important variables. However, the proposed weighting scheme (MCFSAWS-Ensemble) is mainly based on two sources. Initially, it evaluates the prior performance of each GCM model to define their relative importance using MCFS. Then, it computes value by value difference between the observed and simulated model. In addition, the application of this paper is based on the monthly time series data of precipitation in the Tibet Plateau region of China. In addition, we used twenty GCMs from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) to analyze the implications of the MCFSAWS-Ensemble. Further, we compared the performance of the MCFSAWS-Ensemble scheme with Simple Model Averaging (SMA) through Mean Average Error (MAE) and correlation statistics. The results of this research indicate that the proposed weighting scheme (MCFSAWS-Ensemble) is more accurate than the SMA approach. Consequently, we recommend the use of advanced machine learning algorithms such as MCFS for making accurate multi-model ensembles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying the magnitude of an earthquake is very important for long-term and medium-term earthquake prediction, post-earthquake emergency rescue and seismic hazard assessment. Paleo-seismology is the investigation of past earthquakes in the geological record, in particular their location, timing and size. Uncertainties remain in the paleo-earthquake magnitudes determined by traditional surface rupture parameters, especially because most seismic events do not result in surface ruptures or are of less than 0.3 m (M = ~ 6–6.8). To address the problem of magnitude evaluation of earthquakes that did not reveal major dislocations, this paper deals with the methods used to determine the seismic shaking intensity based on the types and forms of soft-sediment deformation structures, including maximum liquefaction distance, thickness of disturbed layer, empirical formulae, and thickness of rapidly deposited sand layer. Then we discuss and analyze these methods in terms of their theoretical basis, advantages and disadvantages, accuracy, applicability and problems. We chose two case studies: first, a typical seismics-related deposit (liquefied layer and disrupted layer) represented by a seismite in the late-Pleistocene Lake Lisan section near Masada in the Dead Sea Basin; and second, the liquefied diapir triggered by an earthquake in the late-Quaternary lacustrine sediments at Luobozhai in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River, East Tibet. The five methods listed above are employed to determine earthquake magnitudes associated with the seismics-related deposit and liquefied diapir, yielding magnitudes of 5.5–6.5 and 6.0–7.0, respectively. The combination of the five methods, provided a new and relatively convenient method for determining seismic shaking, especially in lacustrine sediments. This study can serve as a valid reference for comparing methods of calculating the magnitude of a paleo-earthquake based on surface rupture parameters, and provides a better understanding of the long-term seismic activity and risk in tectonically active regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallholder livelihoods in agricultural areas in Tibet Autonomous Region, China (Tibet for short) have traditionally been based on subsistence mixed crop-livestock systems. Like many parts of China and the developing world, rural Tibet is undergoing rapid change in agricultural development, boosted by links with the off-farm sector. However, the agricultural transition process in Tibet has not been linear, is affected by policies particular to the region, and varies significantly for different categories of rural actors. This paper analyses heterogeneity of household types in agricultural areas of southern Tibet and how household structures and characteristics result in different agricultural development pathways. Data is drawn from a stratified random survey of 144 households in three townships in southern Tibet and analysed through three methods: cluster analysis, bio-economic modelling, and analysis of household perceptions and attitudes to change. The analysis allows for the identification of three key household types — semi-subsistence, pluriactive and semi-commercial — organised along a continuum of intensification, commercialisation, specialisation and productivity. The study demonstrates the diversity of household farming systems in Tibet which in turn highlights the need for disaggregated analysis and tailored development policies and strategies. However, the analysis also reveals commonalities in development paths between groups, where all farm types are more interested in pursuing income and livelihood goals through an increase in productivity than through an increase in scale. Farmers in all systems choose to retain agriculture as a base from which to pursue livelihood strategies, especially through off-farm activities. Accounting for this household heterogeneity is important on several levels. First, it provides more granular detail on the process of development in rural areas of Tibet that have been very difficult to access in English literature especially in recent years. Second, the characteristics of the case study in agricultural areas of Tibet — especially the mixed agricultural-pastoral systems, high levels of seasonality, heavy state investment and increased integration with the other regions of China — may contribute to the broader agricultural development study. Third, policymakers in the central and local governments may be interested in how the household heterogeneity may affect — or be affected by — policies to increase agricultural productivity, intensify systems, change the composition of crop-livestock systems, promote rural-urban transformation and pursue environmental objectives, especially grassland degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On June 25, 2020, Jinweng Co in Yiga, Tibet, experienced an outburst flood that resulted in catastrophic damage to farmland and roads. The complex causal factors for glacial lake outburst flooding (GLOF) are not fully understood. This paper provides a systematic analysis of the contributing factors leading to the GLOF disaster in terms of meteorological triggering, glacial activity, lake expansion, landslide, and glacial collapse. The analysis is based on multi-source remote sensing approaches. Pixel offset tracking of Sentinel-1 images shows changes in the glacier flow velocity from 2017 to 2020. Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 images and inventory data have revealed the expansion of the lake since 1998. The satellite precipitation measurements revealed that the highest daily rainfall in recent years occurred approximately 4 days before the GLOF. Time series synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscattering images and interferograms suggest that a landslide had occurred from the western lateral moraine into the lake. Additionally, SAR images suggest possible ice collapse from the glacier tongue into the lake. The causal mechanism for the June 2020 GLOF event was likely the dam failure triggered by heavy rainfall and combined with landslides and ice collapses. Our research can provide a reference to identify and mitigate glacial lake outburst disasters in mountainous regions based on satellite optical and radar images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to study the effects of near-earth thunderstorms electric field on the showers with different zenith angle ranges. A vertical and uniform atmospheric electric field model is used in our simulations. The counting rates of ground cosmic rays at YBJ (located at YangBaJing, Tibet, China, 4300 m a. s. l.) are found to be associated with the strength and polarity of the electric field. The variations are also strongly dependent upon the shower's zenith angle and the distance to shower core. During thunderstorms, when the distance to shower core is less than a certain value (4 m in −1000 V/cm and 40 m in +1000 V/cm), the counting rates decrease as the distance to shower core decreases, and the decreased amplitude becomes larger with the increasing zenith angle and electric field strength, especially for that in positive fields (i.e., fields accelerating positive charges downwards). As the distance to shower core increases, an increase of ground cosmic ray intensity occurs, and the enhanced amplitude becomes lager with smaller zenith angles. However, when the distance to shower core is large enough (320 m in −1000 V/cm and 540 m in +1000 V/cm), the enhanced amplitude increases with the increasing zenith angle as well as the rising strength of the electric field. A clear relationship between the intensity variations of the ground cosmic rays from showers with different zenith angle ranges and the distances to shower core in fields is given in this paper. Our simulation results are beneficial to understand the flux variations obtained by ground-based cosmic ray detectors with scaler mode and shower mode, as well as the acceleration mechanisms of secondary charged particles caused by an atmospheric electric field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the translator, Rongzom's (fl. late 11th/early 12th c.), scholastic philosophical defense of early Dzokchen (rdzogs pa chen po) or "Great Perfection." As our earliest instance of religious apologia in Tibet, this examination contributes to a growing body of knowledge about the Tibetan assimilation of post-tenth century of Vajrayāna Buddhism and the indigenous response to the forces of cultural transformation shaping the late eleventh/early twelfth century Tibet. Traditional authorities and academics have identified Dzokchen as a Tibetan tradition of Buddhism that drew intense criticism at the time from renaissance agents. This paper explores the primary Tibetan response by describing Rongzom's philosophical defense of Great Perfection. As such, it illuminates the intellectual and ideological context of the milieu as it evinces Rongzom's innovation and mastery of Indian systems of logic, language, and epistemology in the Dzokchen approach to the Buddhist path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On September 7, 2017, a slope failure occurred in Zhimei village, Chengduo County, Qinghai Province, China. This event involved the failure of 2.4 × 104 m3 of soil from the source area. The displaced mass traveled about 480 m with a vertical distance of approximately 80 m. Based on field investigation and numerical analysis, the failure mechanism and propagation process of Zhimei earthflow were analyzed. The results indicated that seasonal freeze–thaw cycles and sustained rainfall in the rainy season before the slope failure could be the leading causes of slope instability, and a short-term cold snap that coincided with this slope failure may play a secondary role in causing the event. The DAN3D simulation results estimated that the movement process of Zhimei earthflow could last for approximately 800 s with an average displacement rate of 0.6 m/s. A combined Bingham model demonstrated the best performance in reproducing this event. The results in this paper could contribute to drawing some valuable conclusions, which can be used in the future for enhancing the accuracy of hazard assessment for areas with topographical and climatic characteristics similar to those of this case on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A great number of gravels exist in the sliding zone soil of ancient landslides in the eastern margin of Tibet Plateau, which play an important role in the strength of the sliding zone soil. Determination of the mobilized strength of the gravelly sliding zone soil is the key to stability evaluation and disaster prevention for reactivated ancient landslides. Taking the Jiangdingya (JDY) ancient landslide reactivated in 2018 as a typical case, the mobilized strength of gravelly sliding zone soil is studied through laboratory tests and back analysis in this paper. The results indicate that: (1) After long-distance shearing, the cementation between soil particles is gradually lost, and the residual strength is mainly controlled by the sliding friction resistance between soil particles. The higher the gravel content, the greater the residual strength. A positive linear correlation can be established between the friction coefficient and the shear surface roughness. Due to the existence of gravels, the shear surface friction resistance increases, leading to the increase of residual strength. (2) The statistical analysis shows that the residual internal friction angle φr of gravelly sliding zone soil is controlled by both the clay and gravel content, which is significantly different from the clayey sliding zone soil dominated by the clay content. It is suggested that the ratio of gravel to clay content can be used as an index to evaluate the residual internal friction angel of gravelly sliding zone soil. (3) The mobilized strength of ancient landslides is generally greater than the residual strength, but slightly less than the recovery strength. The sliding zone soil strength has gradually attenuated from the recovery strength to the residual strength before reactivation. The ancient landslide is in a creeping state as a whole. Under the action of external forces, the strength of sliding zone soil is likely to decrease rapidly, which triggers accelerated sliding of ancient landslides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate rockbursts in deep-lying long tunnels, a multiple factor analysis and predictions were conducted. It is necessary to establish whether the primary evaluation indexes cover the entire development–occurrence–evolution process for rockbursts and how best to determine the weights of the final selected indexes. We developed an evaluation model with attribute reduction and chose 5 out of 11 primary evaluation indexes to cover the typical characteristics of energy storage, rockburst proneness, and risk of failure. The weights of the primary evaluation indexes and the offset distance were then determined using the entropy weight ideal point method. Combining geostress field inversion and rock mechanic tests, the evaluation model was applied to the case of the Sangzhuling Tunnel along the Sichuan–Tibet railway. Rockburst prediction results achieved 41.2% and 94.1% accuracy when using the Manhattan and Euclidean distance functions, respectively. A more specific classification of the evaluation indexes may optimize the weight assignment and help obtain more accurate results. This paper provides a reliable method for rockburst predictions for hard rock and deep-lying long tunnels, which may have good prospects for engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: In recent decades, an increasing proportion of alpine shrub meadow has become severely degraded owing to the combined effects of global climate warming and rodent infestation, with significant impacts on soil water retention. The present paper investigates the patterns and controlling factors of soil water retention of alpine shrub meadow under different degrees of degradation, to help inform decisions on the management of degraded alpine shrub meadow. Methods: Four degradation stages were defined: non-degradation (ND); light degradation (LD); moderate degradation (MD) and higher degradation (HD). Pearson correlation and redundancy analysis were used to examine the relationships between soil physical properties and soil hydraulic properties. Results: Sand content increased while clay content decreased with increasing degree of degradation. In HD treatment, the available nitrogen and soil bulk density of surface soil layer was significantly lower than that in the other three stages, whereas the soil organic matter content and soil total porosity of surface soil layer was increased significantly, the soil compaction of 0–10 cm soil depth in HD was reduced significantly. The soil water retention of 0–60 cm soil depth first decreased and then increased with increasing degradation, with the maximum values occurring in HD, and the soil organic matter has an overwhelming effect on soil water retention than soil texture. Conclusions: As the degree of degradation increased, the surface soil structure deteriorated, and available nitrogen reduced while soil organic matter increased sharply in higher degradation, which leads to the highest soil water retention in higher degradation. Our results suggested that the soil water retention in degraded alpine grassland was largely determined by soil organic matter, and the soil organic matter parameters should be incorporated in hydrological models of degraded alpine ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Y-chromosome-specific short tandem repeat loci (Y-STRs) are commonly analysed in forensic science for paternity testing, familial searches, and, in sexual assault cases, to determine male DNA identity from mixed sources with high background female DNA content. The Microreader 40Y ID System is a six-dye multiplex amplification kit that contains 17 Y-STR loci from the Yfiler Plus PCR Amplification Kit and the powerplex Y23 system (DYS19, DYF385a/b, DYS389I/II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS549, DYS635(Y GATA C4), DYS643, Y GATA H4, DYS460, DYS481, DYS533, DYF387S1, DYS449, DYS518, DYS570, DYS576, and DYS627), plus six high polymorphic loci (DYS444, DYS447, DYS557, DYS596, DYS527 a/b) as well as 4 additional candidate Y-STR loci (DYS593, DYF404S1, DYS645) and a Y-Indel loci (Rs2032678), thereby providing greater efficiency, compatibility, and accuracy. The Microreader 40Y ID System can directly amplify markers from blood or saliva on filter paper or FTA cards, without template extraction or purification, and can also be used for extracted DNA templates. To verify the efficiency and accuracy of the kit, the Microreader 40Y ID System was validated by investigating sensitivity, amplification conditions, male-male and male-female mixtures, PCR inhibition, species specificity, reproducibility, and efficacy with degraded samples. The Y-STR loci were also tested using 437 male samples from Tibet, Han, and Yi. The Microreader 40Y ID System was able to compensate for some of the shortcomings of Y-STR markers in practical applications, such as cost and profile interpretation, and fully meets the domestic Y chromosome database construction specifications and requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic inequality and poverty are problems experienced by many countries. Considerable attention has been paid to these issues in recent times. Studies on economic inequality have been characterized by geographical disparities and a lack of consideration of functional orientation. As one of the most typical and featured mountainous areas in Western China, Tibet demonstrates both the necessity and urgency of conducting studies on income inequality and growth issues. This paper proposes to address these problems by exploring the temporal and geographical variations in income inequality in Tibet, thereby revealing the differences in functional zones. Spatial Markov chains and panel regression analysis were applied to identify the spatial-temporal dynamics of income disparity. The results of this study show that (1) the overall income inequality in Tibet shows an expanding trend in the period 2005–2010 and a converging trend in the period 2010–2015, and there is a large disparity in income inequality between functional zones; (2) Tibetan farmers and herdsmen may face great difficulties in achieving substantial growth in the near future; (3) frontier counties, cultivated land, and grassland areas have negative impacts on income growth, while cordyceps counties, GDP per capita, agricultural product proportion, transfer payments, the ratio of non-agricultural employment to the total employment, the length of the average schooling year, and the slaughter rate of cattle and sheep have positive impacts; and (4) functional orientation has made great differences to income inequality and its mechanism. In light of these results, evidence-based policies have been formulated to boost average household income and narrow income inequality in Tibet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trench basin, as an important sedimentary repository in oceanic subduction zones, documents faithfully the evolution of paleodrainage and paleogeographic information. Because of the frequent intense deformation during and after deposition, the recognition of trench-basin strata in orogenic belts is quite challenging. Several trench-fill deposits have been identified from the Yarlung Zangbo suture in southern Tibet, which can be classified into two types based on major differences in formation timing and tectonic setting. The first type developed during subduction of the Neotethyan oceanic slab in the Cretaceous (e.g., the Jiachala, Rongmawa, and Luogangcuo formations), and the second type developed during the initial stage of the India-Asia collision in the Palaeogene (e.g., the Sangdanlin-Zheya formations). The former was originally deposited on the subducting oceanic crust and then accreted as tectonic slices into the subduction complex; the latter was deposited unconformably on the continental margin of the subducting Indian plate and then involved in the subduction complex during the continental collision. Typical lithologies of trench-basin fills include abyssal chert, siliceous shale, silty to sandy turbidites, debris flows deposits, and slump deposits without carbonate. Detritus feeding these basins were chiefly from the uplifted terrane in the upper plate. This paper summarizes the geological features of trench basins developed in southern Tibet and proposes criteria for recognizing trench-basins in collisional orogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the theory of social construction of reality deriving from the writings of Max Weber, Alfred Schutz, Thomas Luckmann and Peter Berger to explain the origin of national identity and hence the emergence of a nation. It argues that social construction of national reality originates from everyday life experience taken for granted during the process of socialization. Individuals make sense out of the external world. Experiences taken for granted become actor's stock of knowledge. A common scheme of knowledge shared by the community serves to differentiate in-group (nationals) and out-group (foreigners). Collective consciousness thus defines national identity and hence a nation. Unless people (both in-group and out-group) interact with and learn from each other, different stocks of knowledge taken for granted will create political tension. This theory will be applied to understand the tensions in Tibet and along the Taiwan Strait. The paper further argues that Taiwan can hardly separate from mainland China in the future, while strong Tibetan consciousness continues to defy against powerful Chineseness, resulting in endless upheavals in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]