Effects of Human Activity on the Third Pole and Trade-Offs for a Sustainable Plateau

Dear Colleagues,

As the third pole of our world, the Tibetan Plateau serves a fundamentally important role in regulating global and regional climate. However, the Plateau is facing many social, economic, environmental, resource and geo-security issues due to the intensification of human activities. This Special Issue aims to provide a deeper understanding of the state, process, and trend of human living environment and human wellbeing in the Plateau, and to provide practical and feasible strategies for the long-term governance and high-quality development of the Plateau. This Issue calls for submissions on the following topics:

1) Spatial and temporal differences in the structure and intensity of human activities, with the objectives of revealing the spatial and temporal characteristics of human activities on the Tibetan Plateau, clarifying the intensity and scope of human activities, and analyzing the dynamic processes and change patterns of human activities;

2) Health and safety assessment of the human living environment, with the objectives of clarifying the constraints on the safety of the living environment on the Tibetan Plateau and the key factors affecting human health;

3) Indicators and indices on the sustainable, high-quality development of the Plateau, such as building a comprehensive assessment index system of human well-being or high-quality development;

4) Simulation of human living environment (e.g., land change) and human well-being, to diagnose, weigh, and predict the changes of human living environment and human well-being on the Tibetan Plateau;

5) Tools, algorithms, and methods (e.g., land-use simulation models) that apply to, or have a potential to be applied to, the study of the effects of human activity on the Third Pole and trade-offs for a sustainable plateau; and

6) Regional economic and political environments of the Tibetan Plateau, such as spatio-temporal patterns of the economic and political interactions between the plateau and its surrounding countries.

Prof. Dr. Changqing Song
Dr. Peichao Gao
Prof. Dr. Wenhui Kuang
Guest Editors

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