Linking the assessment of ecological engineering construction with zoning management in the typical agro-pastoral area of China: A perspective from quantity, quality and function.

Combatting land damage has become a global priority, and China has adopted a series of ecological engineering measures, especially in the agro-pastoral area with fragile ecological environment. The effectiveness of ecological engineering construction (EEC), from a comprehensive recognition encompassing its quality, quantity, and function, has remained largely unknown. To this end, Zhangbei County, a typical agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China, was chosen as our focal area. After summarizing the timelines, aims and results of the EEC during various periods in Zhangbei, the linear spectral mixture analysis was employed to process Landsat 5 TM images in 2000 and 2010, as well as Landsat 8 OLI images in 2020. Then, a comprehensive evaluation framework of EEC was established from the perspective of "quantity-quality-function", and the ecological effectiveness of EEC was evaluated from 2000 to 2020 in Zhangbei. Results revealed that EEC played a critical role in enhancing quantity, quality and function, in spite of that, there were still numerous regions showing varying degrees of degradation in terms of these aspects. Then, by extending the three-dimensional cube as the theoretical basis for the zoning management of EEC, we merged four zones according to the space matching relationship among quantity, quality and function of EEC, namely, Ecological conservation area, Ecological improvement area, Ecological restoration area and Ecological remodeling zone. More targeted ecological measures were required for specific matching relationship among quantity, quality and function of EEC. This study is expected to present an empirical case for assessing the ecological effectiveness of EEC in areas or countries with similar restoration demand and support regional management.

Optimum display luminance and contrast polarity of desktop head-up display under office lighting level based on visual ergonomic study.

New type desktop head-up display (HUD) can reduce visual fatigue and protect vision through long viewing distance. In this study, participants evaluated visual performance, fatigue, and discomfort of desktop HUD under two contrast polarity (N = 36) and five display luminance levels (N = 21). A positive polarity advantage was found over negative in visual fatigue and discomfort (p < .05). Statistically significant effect of luminance was found on visual performance, fatigue, and discomfort (p < .05). The calculated optimum display luminance by the proposed inverted-U fitted model was 153 cd/m2 under 300 lx, higher than that of traditional desktop displays. It is speculated that higher luminance is required to offset the reduction in contrast sensitivity due to smaller target angular size, which caused by longer viewing distance. These findings suggest that positive polarity and 153 cd/m2 can be used to improve performance and avoid fatigue and discomfort when utilising desktop HUD under 300 lx.

A visual ergonomic study was conducted on new type desktop HUD. With visual performance, fatigue, and discomfort as optimisation goals, positive polarity and 153 cd/m² was recommended under 300 lx. Compared with traditional desktop displays, higher luminance was required in desktop HUD under the same illumination.

Optimum display luminance under a wide range of ambient light for cockpit displays.

The self-luminous cockpit displays need to be adaptive to a wide range of ambient light levels, which changes from very low illuminance to very high levels. Yet, current studies on evaluation and luminance setting of displays in bright surroundings are still limited. In this study, a three-dimensional visual ergonomic experiment was carried out to investigate how bright a cockpit display should be to meet aircrew operational requirements under different illuminance. A lab study with a within-subjects (N = 12) design was conducted in a simulated cockpit. According to the Weber-Fechner's Law, human observers evaluated five display luminance conditions (101, 101.5, 102, 102.5, 103 cd/m2) under five ambient illuminance conditions (10°, 101, 102, 103, 104 lx). Visual performance, visual fatigue and visual comfort were used as evaluation bases, which were measured by d2 task, subjective fatigue questionnaire and visual perception semantic scales. Nonlinear function fitting was used to calculate the optimal luminance under a certain illuminance. Finally, curvilinear regression was used to analyze the illuminance and its corresponding optimal luminance. Based on Silverstein luminance power function, a luminance adjustment model with the form of power function was obtained. The proposed three-dimensional model fits the experimental data well and is consistent with the existing studies. It can be regarded as a supplement and optimization of the previous model under high ambient illuminance. This study can contribute not only to the pleasing luminance setting of panel displays in aircraft cockpits but also to other self-luminous devices, such as tablet devices, outdoor monitoring equipment and advertising screens.

Optimizing the Use of Cultivated Land in China's Main Grain-Producing Areas from the Dual Perspective of Ecological Security and Leading-Function Zoning.

In order to achieve the coordinated development of ecological protection and cultivated land use, ecological security and cultivated land use functions (CLUFs) in the study area were evaluated by constructing a comprehensive evaluation index system. The leading CLUFs were measured, and it was determined to use the normalized revealed comparative advantage (NRCA) index. The spatial superposition analysis of the ecological security level and the leading CLUFs was carried out to obtain the zoning of the coordinated development of ecological security and cultivated land use, and differentiated utilization strategies were proposed for different zones. The results of this study showed the following: (1) The ecological security level of cultivated land in Yuanyang County can be divided into high, medium, and low security levels, accounting for 30.68%, 43.42%, and 25.9% of the total cultivated land area, respectively. The overall ecological security level is high. (2) The current cultivated land use mainly has a production function, accounting for 38.39% of the total cultivated land area, the leading CLUFs that are 34.16% of the cultivated land are the ecological function, and 27.45% of the cultivated land is the living function. (3) The spatial superposition analysis of the ecological security level and leading CLUFs yielded four zones of cultivated land use enhancement, including a production core zone, and different control strategies were proposed for the different zones. These strategies may help to fully realize the multifunctionality of the cultivated land without compromising ecological protection. Implementing differentiated protection for cultivated land in different use zones can achieve the coordinated development of ecological protection and cultivated land use, thus promoting the sustainable use of cultivated land resources.

Trade-Off and Projecting Effects of Land Use Change on Ecosystem Services under Different Policies Scenarios: A Case Study in Central China.

Predicting the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics and trade-off/synergy relationships of ecosystem service value (ESV) under different policy scenarios is of great significance for realizing regional sustainable development. This study established a framework and used the geographical simulation and optimization systems-future land use simulation (GeoSOS-FLUS) model and bivariate local autocorrelation analysis to stimulate and predict the impact of land use change on the ESV of Anyang City from 1995 to 2025. We also explored the trade-offs and synergy among ecosystem services under three policy scenarios (natural evolution, cultivated land protection, and ecological protection) in 2025. Results show that (1) the land use change in Anyang from 1995 to 2025 was significant, and the degree of land use change under the cultivated land and ecological protection scenarios was more moderate than that under the natural evolution scenario; (2) The total ESV decreased between 1995 and 2015, amounting to losses of 1126 million yuan, and the decline from 2015 to 2025 under the natural evolution scenario was more significant than those under the cultivated land protection and ecological protection scenarios; and (3) an obvious synergy was observed between various ecosystem services in Anyang City under different scenarios in 2025, and the most significant synergy was observed under the natural evolution scenario. In terms of spatial distribution, the agglomeration of "high-high" synergy in the west and "low-low" synergy in the central region was significant. Local areas showed "high-low" and "low-high" trade-off relationships scattered between their built land and woodland or cultivated land. The proposed framework can provide certain scientific support for regulating land use and ecosystem services in rapidly urbanized areas.