Forest cover and land use change directly impact biological diversity worldwide, contribute to climate change and affect the ability of biological systems to support human needs by altering ecosystem services. Given t...Forest cover and land use change directly impact biological diversity worldwide, contribute to climate change and affect the ability of biological systems to support human needs by altering ecosystem services. Given the forest land use characteristics and ecosystem types in Luang Namtha Province, Lao PDR, the forest cover and land cover category of Luang Namtha Province were divided into six classes, i.e., current forest （CF）, potential forest （PF）, other wooded areas （OW）, permanent agricultural land （PA）, other non-forest areas （NF） and water （W）. In first instance, earlier geographic information data （GIS data） of forest cover and land use during 1992 and 2002 was obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry （MAF）, Lao PDR. Two steps of forest land use change assessment were conducted by the MAF, i.e., plot sampling on satellite image maps （SIMs） to detect the changes of forest cover and land use during 1992 and 2002 for the entire Luang Namtha Province and field verification in order to identify causes of the changes. Secondly, dynamic information of the forest land cover changes during this ten-year period was calculated by means of map algebra in ArcGIS 9.2. Thirdly, based on the theory of ecosystem service functions and the service function values of different global ecosystems, the value of the six forest cover and land use categories in the province was obtained. Finally, ecological environmental effects, produced by the regional land cover changes over the study period, were calculated.展开更多
On May 5, 2014, an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw 6.1(the largest earthquake in Thailand so far) occurred in Chiang Rai of the Golden Triangle area in northern Thailand. We had an opportunity to conduct field surve...On May 5, 2014, an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw 6.1(the largest earthquake in Thailand so far) occurred in Chiang Rai of the Golden Triangle area in northern Thailand. We had an opportunity to conduct field survey immediately after the earthquake. Serious damage to buildings and casualties of lives were observed, and the estimated Maximum Mercalli Intensity(MMI) of the earthquake is Ⅷ(evaluated according to the MMI scale of the Chinese Standard). No long continuous ground ruptures were produced during the earthquake, but in the epicenter(commonly within MMI Ⅷ extent), massive small linear ruptures(usually several tens of meters long) developed and displayed intriguing structural features, offsetting many roads several centimeters left laterally on NE trending cracks or offsetting right laterally on NW trending ones. The focal mechanism solution of earthquake shows that this is a pure strike-slip event, and two nodal planes in NW and NE directions had the same motion senses respectively as those of breakage associated with the earthquake. The long axis of the isoseismals and aftershock distributions are in NE direction,which is consistent with the strike of Luang Namtha fault. The 230-km-long Luang Namtha fault which starts from the border of China and Laos, runs through northern Laos, and terminates at Chiang Rai of Thailand is predominated by left-lateral strike-slip and active in late Quaternary, and two earthquakes over Ms 6.0 occurred along the fault in 1925 and 2007 respectively. This Mw 6.1 earthquake occurred at the southwestern end of the fault. All related features such as evident structural rupturing, elongated orientation of MMI and aftershock distribution,as well as the location of the epicenter,suggest that the Luang Namtha fault may be responsible for the 2014 Northern Thailand earthquake.展开更多
文摘Forest cover and land use change directly impact biological diversity worldwide, contribute to climate change and affect the ability of biological systems to support human needs by altering ecosystem services. Given the forest land use characteristics and ecosystem types in Luang Namtha Province, Lao PDR, the forest cover and land cover category of Luang Namtha Province were divided into six classes, i.e., current forest （CF）, potential forest （PF）, other wooded areas （OW）, permanent agricultural land （PA）, other non-forest areas （NF） and water （W）. In first instance, earlier geographic information data （GIS data） of forest cover and land use during 1992 and 2002 was obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry （MAF）, Lao PDR. Two steps of forest land use change assessment were conducted by the MAF, i.e., plot sampling on satellite image maps （SIMs） to detect the changes of forest cover and land use during 1992 and 2002 for the entire Luang Namtha Province and field verification in order to identify causes of the changes. Secondly, dynamic information of the forest land cover changes during this ten-year period was calculated by means of map algebra in ArcGIS 9.2. Thirdly, based on the theory of ecosystem service functions and the service function values of different global ecosystems, the value of the six forest cover and land use categories in the province was obtained. Finally, ecological environmental effects, produced by the regional land cover changes over the study period, were calculated.
基金financially supported by National Institute of Natural Hazards,Ministry of Emergency Management of China(Grant No.ZDJ2019-21)the National Science Foundation of China(Grant No.41472204)。
文摘On May 5, 2014, an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw 6.1(the largest earthquake in Thailand so far) occurred in Chiang Rai of the Golden Triangle area in northern Thailand. We had an opportunity to conduct field survey immediately after the earthquake. Serious damage to buildings and casualties of lives were observed, and the estimated Maximum Mercalli Intensity(MMI) of the earthquake is Ⅷ(evaluated according to the MMI scale of the Chinese Standard). No long continuous ground ruptures were produced during the earthquake, but in the epicenter(commonly within MMI Ⅷ extent), massive small linear ruptures(usually several tens of meters long) developed and displayed intriguing structural features, offsetting many roads several centimeters left laterally on NE trending cracks or offsetting right laterally on NW trending ones. The focal mechanism solution of earthquake shows that this is a pure strike-slip event, and two nodal planes in NW and NE directions had the same motion senses respectively as those of breakage associated with the earthquake. The long axis of the isoseismals and aftershock distributions are in NE direction,which is consistent with the strike of Luang Namtha fault. The 230-km-long Luang Namtha fault which starts from the border of China and Laos, runs through northern Laos, and terminates at Chiang Rai of Thailand is predominated by left-lateral strike-slip and active in late Quaternary, and two earthquakes over Ms 6.0 occurred along the fault in 1925 and 2007 respectively. This Mw 6.1 earthquake occurred at the southwestern end of the fault. All related features such as evident structural rupturing, elongated orientation of MMI and aftershock distribution,as well as the location of the epicenter,suggest that the Luang Namtha fault may be responsible for the 2014 Northern Thailand earthquake.
