Wilderness

Click here to access Dr Ying LONG's pictures taken in wilder areas. 

Global projections of future wilderness decline under multiple IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios

Globally, wilderness areas are being lost at a rate that outpaces their protection, which has adverse effects on the global environment. Rapid action is needed to understand the trends and consequences of global wilderness change. We present projections of global wilderness decline in 2100 under the influence of land-use change within the framework of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (IPCC SRES). The projections revealed that the decline of wilderness was deeply affected by different global socioeconomic development pathways. The total wilderness loss (4.74%) in scenario A2 (with slow technological innovation and traditional demand for biofuels) was much higher than in the other scenarios. Around 76.51% of the loss of global wilderness globally occurs occurred in South America, which will occur in Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests. The smallest loss (0.08%) occurred in scenario B1 (with a high level of environmental consciousness). We found that wilderness losses in 2100 will be concentrated in some important biomes, which have relatively high-density carbon storage. These findings stress the importance of targeted wilderness protection to ensure the long-term integrity of ecosystems and the balance of the carbon cycle.
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Li et al 2021 RCR_Wilderness.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 15.4 MB
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We are also sharing the GIS data we produced in this paper
Global projections of future wilderness.
Compressed Archive in ZIP Format 78.7 MB

Identification and Spatial Distribution of Wilderness Areas at the National Scale in Mainland China

Wilderness areas have great value and protection significance. China, however, has not yet conducted an up-to-date wilderness resources inventory. This study presents the first wilderness map for the continental areas in mainland China using a resolution of one square kilometer measuring unit. Based on the concept of the Wilderness Continuum, a classic wilderness mapping method is applied. A wilderness map is produced considering four key attributes of wildness assessments including remoteness from settlements, remoteness from access, and biophysical naturalness as well as the apparent naturalness of the landscape. The result is evaluated through combining them with equal weight using Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE). In the end, the Chinese Wilderness Index (WQI) Map distinguishing different levels of wilderness for the land evaluated is produced. According to the Chinese Wilderness Map, the five categories assigned including the high-quality wilderness, relatively high-quality wilderness, medium-quality wilderness, low-quality wilderness and other remaining areas, are respectively taken up to 4.3%, 12.4%, 11.9%, 24.0% and 47.4% of the total continental areas of China. This study describes the spatial distribution of wilderness areas in China for the first time, which is expected to provide an important basis for the development of wilderness protection policies in China, containing great contribution to the establishment of development plans of all kinds of protected areas and to a more scientific delineation of ecological protection redlines.

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曹越和龙瀛 2016 中国国家地理_荒野.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 887.2 KB
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曹越等 2017 中国园林_中国荒野.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 20.5 MB
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Cao et al 2017 IJW_Wilderness.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 1.2 MB
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Map in high resolution for downloading (Wilderness in China)
Wilderness in China HR.jpeg.zip
Compressed Archive in ZIP Format 19.2 MB

Mapping Potential Wilderness in China with Location-based Services Data

Wilderness mapping can provide valuable information for natural resource management. In this article, a novel, straightforward approach has been developed to identify wilderness areas in China using emerging new data. Tencent LBS (location based service) data that reflect human activities are used as a basis for mapping wilderness

characteristics for the whole of China while admitting non-human-activity zones as observed wilderness, rather than estimated/inferred wilderness using spatial factors based on conventional wilderness mapping approaches using GIS. The mapping results using new data are compared and integrated with the results from the MCE approach. The wilderness map, delineating the range of wilderness across the whole of China, could be used in landscape planning to protect the remaining natural resources and evaluate existing spatial ecological protection schemes. With increasingly available new data, the proposed approach can be applied for mapping wilderness at other spatial scales and in other geographical areas.

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Ma and Long 2019 ASAP_Wilderness.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 3.8 MB
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The GIS data for the spatial distribution of inferred wilderness areas in China
Wilderness_MCE_LBS.zip
Compressed Archive in ZIP Format 34.6 MB

Other publications in China Geography Megazine

中国国家地理

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周垠和龙瀛 2017 中国国家地理_黄土高原.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 227.7 KB
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龙瀛等 2014 中国国家地理_西藏.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 1.7 MB
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周垠和龙瀛 2017 中国国家地理_拉萨.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Document 10.0 MB