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Riparian areas produce a variety of ecosystem service (ES) functions and play an important role in the coupled nature-human systems. Taking account of riparian ES in riparian greenspace planning framework and balancing the ecological and social aspects of ES can help to achieve the composite goals for urban-rural sustainability. However, there is still a lack of research on the integration thinking and quantification approach for riparian ES to support riparian greenspace planning and decision-making. This research mainly discusses the possible way of incorporating the ES into riparian greenspace planning and presents an integrated framework of the interaction between riparian ES and riparian greenspace planning, including evaluating riparian ES supply-demand budget to support multi-scales (region, urban, and street) riparian greenspace planning. Taking the Nanchuan District of Chongqing in China as a case study, we aim to achieve the following three results: first, recognizing the relationship and building a link between riparian ES and riparian greenspace planning; second, establishing a multi-scale scoring system of two ES supply-demand indicators for mapping on three spatial scales; third, applying riparian ES supply-demand mapping into riparian greenspace planning from three aspects of balancing planning goals, multi-scale planning tasks, and planning strategies and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uneven land reform and entangled land-use regulations are extensively regarded as the key to urban sprawl in large cities in China. Although the significance of land issues has been substantially recognized, conflicts regarding land finance seem to be a generally under-evaluated factor in explaining the phenomenon of urban sprawl. This study conducted an extensive literature research and proposed a conceptual framework to demonstrate the effects of land financial incentives on urban sprawl in China. Urban sprawl in China manifests in multiple forms, such as leapfrogged industrial parks, low-density residential communities that are discontinuous from existing urban centers, and chaotic peri-urban informal development. These forms of urban sprawl may be closely associated with failures in government and market forces under the land financial incentives. We used this framework to analyze the experiences of Chongqing and found that local governments have heavily relied on land finance through the proactive approach of land leasing. Stimulated by the incentives, Chongqing has accelerated its urban development beyond the existing restrictions of natural barriers and sprawled toward the peri-urban areas. The causes of urban sprawl were highlighted from the inherent impulses and conflicts of land finance, such as the oversupply of underpriced industrial land at the current loss of land finance, overreliance on the continuously increasing land finance from residential land, and fierce competition on slicing the pie of land finance through formal and informal means. The proposed framework and the challenges of anti-sprawl policies were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abundant in organic matter, the lower Silurian Longmaxi shale in the Upper Yangtze Platform, South China, has been demonstrated to play important roles in the petroleum system as both a good source rock and a shale gas reservoir. In order to better understand the heterogeneous organic matter accumulation of such shales in the southeastern Chongqing area, the vertical variations of total organic carbon (TOC) contents, mineral concentrations and biomarker distributions were systematically analyzed in this study. The Longmaxi Formation consists of fine-grained siliciclastic rocks deposited in a restricted marine shelf environment, and it can be further subdivided into two members. The lower member is enriched in TOC, whereas a diminished TOC content is documented in the upper member. Laterally, the TOC content gradually drops southeast-ward in the study area. The mineralogical compositions, dominated by quartz and clay, and, to a lesser extent, feldspar and carbonate, show good correlations with TOC contents vertically, especially in the lower member. Saturated and aromatic hydrocarbon biomarkers indicate a dominant organic matter origin from lower hydrobionts (algae and bacteria) in a reducing marine environment. Negative correlation relationships between TOC contents and terrigenous clastic minerals indicate the predominant role of dilution of terrigenous clastic materials in controlling the organic matter accumulation. The sea level drop combined with the continuously active Xuefeng Uplift contributed to more terrigenous clastic inputs into the study area, which resulted in a significant reduction of TOC content in the upper Longmaxi member. • Characteristics of organic geochemistry and mineralogy of the Longmaxi Shale were analyzed. • The organic matter mainly originates from lower hydrobiont in a reducing marine environment. • Good correlations exist between TOC content and mineralogical compositions. • The organic matter accumulation is predominantly controlled by the dilution of terrestrial clastics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]