We developed four Georgei fir (Abies georgei var. smithii) tree-ring width chronologies at the timberline in the Sygera Mts. in southeast Tibet, China. All individual standard chronologies and a regional well-replicated ringwidth composite chronology (RC) show significantly positive correlations with mean summer (June-August) temperature. Herein mean summer temperature was reconstructed for southeast Tibet back to A.D. 1765 based on RC. This reconstruction successfully captures recent warming observed in the instrumental record since 1961 with the last decade being the warmest period in the past 242 years. It agrees in general with other temperature reconstructions of the Tibetan Plateau and extratropical northern hemisphere. This study allows seeing recent warming on a longer time scale in southeast Tibet.

Abstract:Haze pollution has worsened and has received close attention by news agencies in the past two years. This type of environmental pollution might have a great effect on tourism image and the entire tourism industry of a destination. This study aimed to reveal the potential impacts of haze pollution on the tourism industry. Based on a case study in Beijing using questionnaires for potential tourists, awareness of haze pollution, impacts of haze pollution on travel and attitudes toward the impacts were discussed. The results indicated that haze pollution has a considerable potential impact on travel, and there are distinct differences among travel elements and tourism market segments. Due to its impacts, haze pollution could be taken into account in tourists' decision-making processes, causing a portion of potential tourists to cancel tourism plans. As a result, tourist arrivals to similar destinations could decrease by a small margin, but the most significant impact could be on the temporal distribution of tourist arrivals, namely tourism seasonality, due to tourists' "avoiding" psychology.

a b s t r a c tDeveloping methods of measuring multidimensional poverty and improving the accuracy of poverty identification have been hot topics in international poverty research for decades. They are also key issues for improving the quality and effectiveness of rural poverty reduction programs in China. So far, selection and integration of poverty indicators remains the main difficult for measurement of multidimensional poverty. Guided by the sustainable livelihoods framework developed in the UK by the Department for International Development (DFID), an index system and an integration method for geographical identification of multidimensional poverty were established, and they were further used to carry out a county-level identification of poverty in rural China. Additionally, comparisons were made of the identification results with counties having single-dimension income poverty in rural areas and poor counties designated by the Chinese central government. The results showed that a total of 655 counties, with 141 million rural residents, were identified as multidimensionally poor. They are concentrated and conjointly distributed geographically, and evil natural conditions are their common features. In comparison to the income poor and the designated poor counties, the multidimensionally poor counties were not only worse in single-dimensional and composite scores, but also having multiple disadvantages and deprivations. By identifying the disadvantage and deprived dimensions, the measurement of multidimensional poverty should be very helpful for each county to work out and implement antipoverty programs accordingly, and it would make contribution to improve the sustainability of poverty reduction. Hopefully, this research may also shed light on multidimensional poverty measurement for other developing countries.

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Abstract:Human activity intensity is a synthesis index for describing the effects and influences of human activities on land surface. This paper presents the concept of human activity intensity of land surface and construction land equivalent, builds an algorithm model for human activity intensity, and establishes a method for converting different land use/cover types into construction land equivalent as well. An application in China based on the land use data from 1984 to 2008 is also included. The results show that China's human activity intensity rose slowly before 2000, while rapidly after 2000. It experienced an increase from 7.63% in 1984 to 8.54% in 2008. It could be generally divided into five levels: Very High, High, Medium, Low, and Very Low, according to the human activity intensity at county level in 2008, which is rated by above 27%, 16%-27%, 10%-16%, 6%-10%, and below 6%. China's human activity intensity was spatially split into eastern and western parts by the line of Helan Mountains-Longmen Mountains-Jinghong. The eastern part was characterized by the levels of Very High, High, and Medium, and the levels of Low and Very Low were zonally distributed in the mountainous and hilly areas. In contrast, the western part was featured by the Low and Very Low levels, and the levels of Medium and High were scattered in Gansu Hexi Corridor, the east of Qinghai, and the northern and southern slopes of Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang.

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