Abstract

The environment in villages in Southwest China has been experiencing constant changes, indicating related change-inducing factors as well as their constitution and hierarchy. Starting from the classification of built environment according to Rapoports view, the “environment” consists of fixed, semi-fixed and unfixed elements (A. Fixed-feature elements: infrastructure, buildings, walls, floors, etc. B. Semi-fixed-feature elements: “furnishings” of the environment, interior or exterior, trees and gardens, fences, signs, billboards, lights, etc. C.Unfixed-feature elements: typically people and their activities, behaviors, etc.). Five representative historic villages in Southwest China (Zhenshan Village in Guizhou, Zhanglang Village in Yunnan, Moluo Village in Sichuan, Huaili Village in Guangxi, and Gongzhong Village in Tibet) were investigated to demonstrate the changes in terms of landscape in the last decade. This article provides an analysis of the dialectical relationship between reservation practices and evolving landscapes from a diachronic perspective. This analysis reveals defects of heritage conservation projects for historic villages in Southwest China. The results indicate the following: (1) there exists an important relationship between unfixed-feature elements of landscape and cultural heritages in historic villages, (2) semi-fixed-feature elements, although being neglected in most preservation practices, show strong sensitivity to mass tourism, (3) fixed-feature elements are highly vulnerable to civil engineering techniques, and (4) the most active change-inducing factors for evolving landscapes in historic villages include value orientations of villagers, relative locations of villages, ethnic groups, customs, and economic development. In conclusion, approaches to promoting sustainable development of historic village in Southwest China are explored.

Abstract

The present study focused on statistical analysis of interannual, interdecadal variations of climate variables and extreme climate events during the period of 1961–2010 using observational data from 376 meteorological stations uniformly distributed across Southwest China, which includes Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing, Sichuan and Tibet. It was found that temperatures in most of the region were warming and this was especially evident for areas at high elevation. The warming was mostly attributable to the increase in annual mean minimum temperature. The characteristics of high temperature/heat waves are increase in frequency, prolonged duration, and weakened intensity. Annual precipitation showed a weak decreasing trend and drier in the east and more rainfall in the west. The precipitation amount in flood season was declining markedly in the whole region, rainfall from extreme heavy precipitation did not change much, and the portion of annual precipitation contributed by extreme heavy precipitation had an increasing trend, annual non-rainy days and the longest consecutive non-rainy days were both increasing, the extreme drought had a decreasing trend since the 1990s, the autumn-rain days displayed a downward fluctuation with apparent periodicity and intermittency. The number of southwestern vortices was decreasing whereas the number of moving vortices increased. Ma, Z.-F., J. Liu, S.-Q. Zhang, et al., 2013: Observed climate changes in Southwest China during 1961–2010. Adv. Clim. Change Res., 4 (1), doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1248.2013.030.