Important Economic Regions Research Articles

Groundwater Exploitation and Its Impact on the Environment in the North China Plain

The North China Plain (NCP) is one of China's most important social, economic, and agricultural regions. Currently, the Plain has 17,950 thousand ha of cultivated land, 71.1 percent of which is irrigated, consuming more than 70 percent of the total water supply. Increasing water demands associated with rapid urban and industrial development and expansion of irrigated land have led to overexploitation of both surface and the ratio of groundwater resources, particularly north of the Yellow River. In 1993, the ratio of groundwater exploitation to recharge in many parts of the NCP exceeded 1.0; in some areas, the ratio exceeded 1.5. Consequently, about 1.06 million ha of water-short irrigated areas in the NCP also have poor water quality. Persistent groundwater overexploitation in the northern parts of the NCP has resulted in water-level declines in both shallow and deep aquifers. According to data from 600 shallow groundwater observation wells in the Hebei Plain, the average depth to water increased from 7.23 m in 1983 to 11.52 m in 1993, indicating an average water-table decline of 0.425 m/year. Water table declines are not uniformly distributed throughout the area. Depletion rates are generally greatest beneath cities and intensively groundwater-irrigated areas. Water-table declines have also varied over time. With the continued decline of groundwater levels, large depression cones have formed both in unconfined and confined aquifers beneath the Hebei Plain. Groundwater depletion in the NCP has severely impacted the environment. Large tracts of land that overlie cones of depression have subsided, seawater has intruded into previously freshwater aquifers in coastal plains, and ground-water quality has deteriorated due to salinization, seawater intrusion, and untreated urban and industrial wastewater discharge. In order to balance groundwater exploitation with recharge, the major remedial measures suggested are to strengthen groundwater management, to raise water use efficiency, to adjust the water-consumed structure, and to increase water supply

Winterthur

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size General Information: With 90,000 inhabitants, Winterthur is the sixth largest town in Switzerland. Winterthur is situated only 25 km northeast of Zurich and can be reached from the international airport Zurich-Kloten in 15 minutes by train. Nonetheless, Winterthur is an independent economic, cultural, and educational center. Winterthur is the traditional headquarter of the Winterthur insurance company as well as of Sulzer, a Swiss technology corporation, globally active in medical technology, the oil, gas and chemical industries, mechanical engineering and building services. In 1987, Winterthur was one of the first Swiss cities which started to redevelop inner-city industrial areas with land owned by Sulzer. The author states: The City of Winterthur promotes itself as the “second capital” (next to Zurich) of the largest and most important economic region in Switzerland. Winterthur, on the one hand, is part of the region of Zurich, but on the other hand has its own character and qualities and developed its own self -assurance during the last years. Winterthur is convinced that for the optimal functioning of the Swiss urban network, a balance between the power of the cantons and the cities is required.

Agrarian Cycles in Germany 1339–1670: A Spectral Analysis of Grain Prices and Output in Nuremberg

Price series of agricultural products are one of the few types of time series available for the description of economic activity in the preindustrial world. Therefore, they have always attracted the interest of economic historians dealing with this period. In addition to newly constructed time series of rye prices in an important economic region in preindustrial Europe, we present corresponding data on grain output based on tithe statistics. The data are analyzed using new univariate and multivariate spectral techniques. The main finding is that the price series exhibit genuine cyclical movements, which can be explained to a large extent as harvest cycles. The cycles vary over the period under consideration. The existence of similar patterns in grain price data developed by others as well as the correlation of prices in various regions of Germany is demonstrated.

The Transformation of Comparative Advantage: East Java 1920–1990s

East Java is an important economic region in its own right. Its integration into the world economy began in the mid 19th century with the development of plantation exports. However, between the 1920s and the 1970s East Java suffered a 50-year economic hiatus. This paper argues that the hiatus can be explained by structural rigidity, which affected East Java much more than West Java. It analyses foreign and mterisland trade statistics to chart the decline of the old export base of plantation crops and the slow transition towards a new comparative advantage in manufactures that became manifest in the late 1980s.

The Kola Peninsula: Geography, History and Resources

The Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia is one of the most important economic regions in the circumpolar North. The region contains valuable natural resources, including a wide variety of mineral and fish resources, and is proximate to the large gas fields of the Barents Sea. A large population, industrial complexes, and military infrastructure are also characteristic of the region. The Kola Peninsula developed rapidly during the Soviet period (1917-92) under the principles of socialist development policy. This policy favoured extensive resource extraction and industrialization and resulted in increased northern settlement, much of it involuntary. Soviet development policy prompted the opening of new mines and the construction of smelters and refining facilities, while Soviet military policy necessitated the establishment of large military basing operations. Resource development and processing have led to severe environmental damage in the region and beyond. This paper describes the geographical features of the Kola Peninsula and the region's development history and contains data on natural and labour resources.Key words: Kola Peninsula, Murmansk Region, Murmansk, Russian Arctic, Soviet Arctic, natural resources, economic development, militarization

The future of coastal development in the Yellow Sea Rimlands

With its strategic location in East Asia, the Yellow Sea Rim is becoming an important economic region, where the socialist economies of China and North Korea and the market economies of Japan and South Korea interact and exchange for their mutual benefit. In light of the recent rapprochement among Northeast Asian countries, the article describes the emerging pattern of development in the Yellow Sea Rim. It assesses the potential gains of opening up the region by assuming a complete or partial removal of political barriers. Anticipating the future of cooperative regional development in the Yellow Sea Rimlands, the article discusses regional strategies and key issues involved in cooperation, in particular between China and South Korea.