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The challenge for implementing an ecosystems approach to environmental decision-making processes, such as spatial planning, is to understand the range, nature and amount of ecosystem services currently provided and the potential for such service provision in the future. The ability to spatially represent ecosystems services is a critical element of the evidence base on which to make decisions about how physical space is used most effectively and sustainably, and the way people and activities are distributed at different spatial scales. This paper reports on the outcomes of a research project originally undertaken for the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which developed a methodology for mapping ecosystem services using GIS and readily available, existing land use/land cover datasets. Critical components of the methodology, in order to determine which datasets are appropriate for which services, are network analysis and stakeholder engagement techniques, to define the relevant typology of ecosystem services and their relationship to land use/land cover types. The methodology was developed and tested successfully in the context of green grid (green infrastructure) networks in a major UK regeneration area, the Thames Gateway, to the east of London, and its potential use in impact assessment further explored through a number of case studies.

The purpose of this work is to study the land cover and land types of Nanji Island. A scene IKONOS image was taken to classify the land types including village, farmland, shrubbery, meadow, reservoir, sands and so on. Then several models were built base on fractal theory to analyze the land types. Condition of the land cover and land use was analyzed at three aspects as following: 1) effects of patch area; 2) fractal characters of land types; 3) test of difference of fractal character between every two land types. The results show that the values of D of meadow and shrubbery are higher, and those of farmland and village are smaller, and that the fractal characters are determined by the degree of interferes of human activities.

The Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is one of the most endangered animals. Reasonable protective measures have been carried out by Russia to ensure a basically stable growth of the Amur tiger population since 1930s, and the population has grown to more than 500. There are only 20 Amur tigers in China for now. Global Land Cover 2000 and GlobCover 2009 were used as the data sources to analyze and investigate the land cover status of the Amur tiger distribution regions in China and Russia. The results showed: The human activity area was decreasing in the entire Amur tiger distribution region, and this situation was more remarkable in China. On the whole, Russia had higher forest coverage and better forest quality, leading to a certain difference between the habitats for the Amur tiger in China and Russia. A comparison of land covers of the Amur tiger distribution regions in China and Russia would provide scientific reference and basis for the conservation of the Amur tiger in China.