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Integrated studies of physical geography in China: Review and prospects

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Abstract

Modern physical geography in China grew from Chinese traditional geography and has been profoundly influenced by the geographical disciplines of Euro-America and Russia. Since the 1950s, integrated studies of physical geography in China have made remarkable progress in the fields of comprehensive physical geographical regionalization, land studies, landscape ecology, and land surface geographical processes. During the past few decades, under the background of global change and rapid socio-economic transformation, a series of environmental and resources problems have boomed in China. To solve these problems and promote the development of integrated studies of physical geography, the following issues were proposed as research priorities: (1) coupling of land surface patterns and processes; (2) integrated research on regional responses and adaptation to global change; (3) analysis of human dimensions of the earth system; (4) ecosystem service research from a geographical perspective; (5) integration of multi-source data and model development; (6) integrated studies on unique geographical units; and (7) important global issues and relevant international programs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, CAS, Beijing, 100085, China

    Bojie Fu & Naiqing Pan

  2. Joint Centre for Global Change Studies, Beijing, 100875, China

    Bojie Fu & Naiqing Pan

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Naiqing Pan

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  1. Bojie Fu
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  2. Naiqing Pan
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Correspondence to Bojie Fu.

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Foundation: National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41230745

Author: Fu Bojie, Professor and CAS Academician, specialized in physical geography and landscape ecology.

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Fu, B., Pan, N. Integrated studies of physical geography in China: Review and prospects. J. Geogr. Sci. 26, 771–790 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-016-1298-8

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