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Topic · Global and Planetary Change

Environmental Changes in China

Environmental Changes in China is a research topic within Global and Planetary Change. Science Explorer counts 21k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the analysis of land use change, its environmental impact, and sustainability in China. It covers topics such as remote sensing, ecosystem services, climate change, wetland landscape, urbanization, and grassland degradation.

  • Land Use Change
  • Environmental Impact
  • China
  • Sustainability
  • Remote Sensing
  • Ecosystem Services
  • Climate Change
  • Wetland Landscape
  • Urbanization
  • Grassland Degradation
Research works
21k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+76%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
90% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Environmental Changes in China

Which countries lead Environmental Changes in China research?

By volume, China and Vietnam publish the most (1.3k and 35 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.3k works
  2. 2 Vietnam 35 works
  3. 3 United States 31 works
  4. 4 Indonesia 18 works
  5. 5 India 17 works
  6. 6 ?? 14 works
  7. 7 Japan 11 works
  8. 8 United Kingdom 9 works
  9. 9 Australia 8 works
  10. 10 Russia 8 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 89.7%Vietnam: 2.4%United States: 2.1%Indonesia: 1.2%6 others listed: 4.6%90%largest
China1,314 · 89.7%Vietnam35 · 2.4%United States31 · 2.1%Indonesia18 · 1.2%6 others listed67 · 4.6%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Environmental Changes in China research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Environmental Changes in China research, followed by Ministry of Natural Resources and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 124 works
  2. 2 Ministry of Natural ResourcesChina 30 works
  3. 3 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 25 works
  4. 4 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 24 works
  5. 5 Hohai UniversityChina 22 works
  6. 6 Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of ChinaChina 22 works
  7. 7 Henan Polytechnic UniversityChina 13 works
  8. 8 Northwest Normal UniversityChina 13 works
  9. 9 China Meteorological AdministrationChina 13 works
  10. 10 China Geological SurveyChina 13 works

Who are the leading researchers in Environmental Changes in China?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Environmental Changes in China include Jun Wang, Philippe Ciais and Guangming Zeng.

  1. 1 Jun Wang China 340k citations
  2. 2 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  3. 3 Guangming Zeng China 204k citations
  4. 4 Yuming Guo Australia 175k citations
  5. 5 Jin Li China 132k citations
  6. 6 Shilong Piao China 114k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Environmental Changes in China?

The most cited paper in Environmental Changes in China is "Key issues of land use in China and implications for policy making" (Yansui Liu, Fang Fang, Yuheng Li, 2014), with 1,165 citations. Next come "Land use change analysis in the Zhujiang Delta of China using satellite remote sensing, GIS and stochastic modelling" (899) and "Neural-network-based cellular automata for simulating multiple land use changes using GIS" (884).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Key issues of land use in China and implications for policy making Yansui Liu, Fang Fang, Yuheng Li · Land Use Policy 27 May 2014 1,165
2 Land use change analysis in the Zhujiang Delta of China using satellite remote sensing, GIS and stochastic modelling Qihao Weng · Journal of Environmental Management Mar 2002 899
3 Neural-network-based cellular automata for simulating multiple land use changes using GIS Xia Li, Anthony Gar‐On Yeh · International Journal of Geographical Information Systems Open access Jun 2002 884
4 Spatial patterns and driving forces of land use change in China during the early 21st century Jiyuan Liu, Zengxiang Zhang, Xinliang Xu et al. · Journal of Geographical Sciences 3 Jun 2010 879
5 Use and misuse of landscape indices Harbin Li, Jianguo Wu · Landscape Ecology 2004 851
All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Environmental Changes in China research done?

The largest centres of Environmental Changes in China research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Wuhan (China) and Lanzhou (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Lanzhou, Guiyang and Ürümqi.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 347 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 86 works
  3. 3 WuhanChina 60 works
  4. 4 LanzhouChina 48 works
  5. 5 GuangzhouChina 37 works
  6. 6 Xi'anChina 35 works
  7. 7 ShanghaiChina 32 works
  8. 8 KunmingChina 31 works
  9. 9 GuiyangChina 29 works
  10. 10 ChengduChina 27 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. LanzhouCN · 47.8 works15×
  2. GuiyangCN · 29.0 works15×
  3. ÜrümqiCN · 22.0 works13×
  4. KunmingCN · 30.8 works9.8×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Environmental Changes in China than the world average.

See Environmental Changes in China on the map

Where is the best place to study Environmental Changes in China?

Among universities, judged by research, Beijing Normal University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 15.2%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Peking UniversityBeijing Normal Unive…University of Chines…Hohai University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Beijing Normal UniversityChina 94.220.2%23.5×24 +29.6%
2University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 93.416.9%11.5×25 +55.1%
3Peking UniversityChina 65.824.4%3.6×10 +32.5%
4Hohai UniversityChina 63.28.9%29.1×22 +53.6%
5China University of Mining and TechnologyChina 53.916.8%11.8×12 +290.1%
6China University of GeosciencesChina 52.510.1%20.7×12 +167.9%
7Northwest Normal UniversityChina 52.013.9%41.8×13 +221.6%
8Beijing Forestry UniversityChina 50.916.9%31.4×12 +149.5%
9Henan Polytechnic UniversityChina 49.712.4%35.8×13 +641.5%
10Lanzhou UniversityChina 48.911.5%10.9×10 +149.4%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Environmental Changes in China, country by country

Is Environmental Changes in China research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 76% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2011. The fastest-growing topics are Environmental Changes in China.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Environmental Changes in China as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0091% in 2024.

still counting0.025%0.050%0.075%Environmental Changes in China0.0091% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Environmental Changes in China over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Environmental Changes in China10.6% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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