Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present and exploit fundamental information, such as semantic meanings and geographical features, of phytotoponyms (a type of toponym that includes plant names) in Western Hubei (China). Long-term vegetation degradation is also estimated. Toponym data for this study were obtained from the place names database of Hubei Province at the Civil Affairs Department of Hubei. In total, 1259 instances of phytotoponyms were recognised; 898 (71.3%) were woody plant toponyms, and 361 (28.7%) were herbaceous plant toponyms. Subsequently, we randomly selected a similar number (1250) of non-phytotoponyms to compare with the phytotoponyms. All toponyms were localised and geo-referenced. The results showed that the most common plant names recognisable in place names are common plants that have a close connection with daily life and positive morals in Chinese culture and literature. The occurrence of plant names can reflect the characteristic plants of a city. The vegetation coverage rate where phytotoponyms are located is higher than that in non-phytotoponym areas. Altitude has a stronger correlation with the number of phytotoponyms than slope and vegetation coverage degree. The identification of long-term vegetation degradation based on phytotoponyms is presented for reference only, and other methods and materials are needed to validate these results.
Highlights
Geographical names are exclusive names given to physical or anthropogenic geographic entities at specific spatial locations and are important signs by which humans understand natural and human activities [1]
Our aim was to understand the fundamental information of phytotoponyms and estimate long-term vegetation degradation based on phytotoponyms
We performed a series of studies on phytotoponyms in Western Hubei, China, including semantic analysis, geographical feature and vegetation coverage analysis, correlation analysis between the number of phytotoponyms and altitude, slope as well as vegetation coverage degree and coarse vegetation degradation estimations
Summary
Geographical names are exclusive names given to physical or anthropogenic geographic entities at specific spatial locations and are important signs by which humans understand natural and human activities [1]. Toponyms provide valuable information for research, including linguistics, geography, history and ethnology [3]. Geographical names can reflect physical geographical features, such as topography, hydrology, flora and fauna, and human geographical features, including populations, ethnicities and politics. Toponyms are valuable document that can be used to study the history of ethnic distributions and migrations. Wang constructed a Geographic Information System (GIS) database of toponyms in Yunnan and retrieved the distribution characteristics of multi-ethnic toponyms [11], and he analysed the spatial distribution of Zhuang vs non-Zhuang toponyms in Guangxi [12]. Guan researched the geographical distribution of nationality by national language toponyms [13], and other researchers have assessed place name landscapes [14,15,16,17]
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