1 Introduction 1
1.1 From the Obscurity of Park Boundaries to a Framework of Theoretical Hypotheses 1
1.2 Literature Review in Geographies 4
1.2.1 Boundary studies within the human geography 4
1.2.2 Studies on borderland,outbound or inbound tourism 7
1.2.3 National park boundary studies around the globe 9
1.2.4 Boundary studies pertinent to China's nature reserves and national parks 11
1.2.5 Studies on dynamic boundaries and boundary dynamics 13
1.2.6 A summary on boundary studies 16
1.3 Research Goals,Contents and Methodologies 17
1.4 Innovative Findings 23
2 Boundary-Bounding Mechanism Based on Natural Conditions and Social Contexts 25
2.1 Introduction 25
2.1.1 Patch or Segmentation Related Concepts and Applications 25
2.1.2 Island Biogeography and the SLOSS Debate 26
2.1.3 Geographical Studies on Boundary Shapes and Structures 27
2.2 Park Classification Based on Boundary Shapes and Structures 28
2.2.1 Two major classes 28
2.2.2 Class Ⅰ's detailed classification 29
2.2.3 Class Ⅱ's detailed classification 30
2.3 Interpreting Boundary-Bounding Mechanism Based on the Natural Conditions and Social Contexts 31
2.3.1 Boundary-bounding by mountain topologies 31
2.3.2 Boundary-bounding by the course of rivers/gorges 33
2.3.3 Boundary-bounding by sporadic cultural landscapes 34
2.3.4 Affected by previous land uses 35
2.4 Considering the Constraints of Administrative Divisions on the Resource Management 36
3 Check and Balance Functions of Administrative Boundaries over Park Boundarise 38
3.1 Introduction 38
3.1.1 Park boundaries to demonstrate national sovereignty 38
3.1.2 Trans-boundary peace parks around the globe 41
3.1.3 Studies on the trans-boundary tourist areas in China 43
3.2 Classes of Trans-Border Parks and Close-to-Border Parks 45
3.2.1 Spatial interaction related to trans-border parks 45
3.2.2 Spatial interaction related to close-to-border parks 47
3.2.3 Mathematical measurement on spatial interactions 50
3.3 Analysis on the Administrative Boundary's Check and Balance 53
3.3.1 Administrative boundary's hard-core regulation 53
3.3.2 Rationale of the trans-border park boundary growth 55
3.3.3 Place name identity contributes to the park boundary demarcation 56
3.3.4 Spatial re-organization in order to remove the institutional obstacles 57
3.3.5 The contradictions between the hard-core constraining and the soft growth 59
3.4 Seeking a Breakthrough to Understand the Stability and Legal Effectiveness of the Soft Boundaries 59
4 Boundary's Dynamic Evolution Based on the Undulating Areal Statistics 61
4.1 Introduction 61
4.1.1 Studies onthe area-boundary relationship with perspectives of landscape ecology 61
4.1.2 Studies on area-boundary relationship related to national parks in other nations than China 62
4.1.3 Studies of area-boundary relationship related to National Park of China 63
4.2 Classification of the Statistical Data 64
4.2.1 Longitudinal studies based on the incomplete data set 64
4.2.2 Longitudinal studies based on the complete data set 68
4.3 How Much Does the Areal Statistics Relate to Boundary's Dynamic Evolution？ 72
4.3.1 Interpreting null-data and one-year fresh data groups 73
4.3.2 Interpreting the data coherency and completeness 74
4.3.3 Data changes and reflections on boundary effectiveness 76
4.4 The Necessity of the Transfer from Land Based Analysis to Human Factor Based Analysis 79
5 Population Pressure'S Social Driving Towards Boundary's Ebb and Flow 80
5.1 Introduction 80
5.1.1 Studies on the wilderness idea and tribal sovereignty 80
5.1.2 Public enjoyment and public good 81
5.1.3 New needs for the global citizens in the pan-tourism era 82
5.2 A Multi-Dimensional Comparison on Boundary's Population Pressure 84
5.2.1 China's human-land relationship within the global network of national parks 84
5.2.2 Residential population pressure on the borders of national parks in China 87
5.2.3 A Sino-American comparative perspective on tourist population pressure 91
5.3 Boundary's Ebb and Flow Based on the Population Pressure Driving Mechanism 95
5.3.1 Residential population pressure's driving force analysis 95
5.3.2 Tourist population pressure's driving force analysis 97
5.3.3 Translation of population pressure into humanistic drive towards the conservation cause 100
5.4 The Importance to Consider Multi-Dimensionally on Human-Land Relationship for Recreational Purposes 101
6 Collective Boundary-Bounding Mechanism Based on a Multi-Park Regime 102
6.1 Introduction 102
6.1.1 Institutional obstacles for the dissemination of the national park nomenclature 102
6.1.2 China's multi-parks from theories to practices 104
6.1.3 Overlapped boundaries in a multi-park regime 106
6.2 Spatio-Temporal Differences Within the Multi-Park Boundary-Bounding Mechanism 107
6.2.1 Spatio-temporal differences pertinent to national nature reserve's cross-designation 107
6.2.2 Spatio-temporal differences pertinent to national forest park's cross-designation 108
6.2.3 Spatio-temporal differences pertinent to national geopark's cross-designation 109
6.3 Case Studies on the Park Boundary Interactions 111
6.3.1 Interacted boundaries with national nature reserves 111
6.3.2 Interacted boundaries with national forest parks 112
6.3.3 Interacted boundaries with national geoparks 114
6.3.4 Interacted boundaries with multi-park areas 116
6.4 Interpreting the Multi-Park Boundary-Bounding Mechanism 119
6.4.1 Without a proper nomenclature,things would not be perfectly justifiable 120
6.4.2 Boundary-bounding mechanism by nature reserves 121
6.4.3 Boundary-bounding mechanism by forest parks 121
6.4.4 Boundary-bounding mechanism by geoparks 122
6.4.5 A multi-park collective boundary bounding mechanism in a globe wide open context 123
6.5 Creating a Unified Normalized Chinese National Park System at Its Fastest Pace 124
7 Conclusions and Future Plans 126
7.1 Hypotheses Validation 126
7.1.1 Defensible hypotheses 126
7.1.2 Modified hypothesis 127
7.2 Conclusions 127
7.2.1 Multi-factor interactions lead to the difficult boundary growth of national parks 127
7.2.2 National park boundary dynamics is critically controlled by human-land relationship patterns 129
7.2.3 National park boundary can be precisely depicted in the language of cartography 131
7.2.4 Boundless big beauty：the heritage conservation mission of the national park boundaries 132
7.3 Future Plans 136
7.3.1 Initiating positivist studies on national park boundary dynamics in the nearest future 136
7.3.2 Expanding and deepening the international comparative studies on national park boundary topics 137
References 139
Original Chinese References 139
Original English References 155
Appendices 167
Appendix Ⅰ Boundary Shapes of National Parks in China 167
Group 1 Oval-shaped clustering boundary parks（OCB parks） 167
Group 2 Oval-belt-shaped clustering boundary parks（OBCB parks） 172
Group 3 Belt-shaped clustering boundary parks（BCB parks） 173
Group 4 Moon-moon partitioning boundary parks（MMPB parks） 174
Group 5 Moon-stars partitioning boundary parks（MSPB parks） 174
Group 6 Belt-shaped clustering boundary parks（BCB parks） 176
Appendix Ⅱ Various Computed Tables 180
Table 1 List of national parks in China 180
Table 2 List of IBI complicatedness values for national parks 186
Table 3 Ranking list ofthe 162 sovereign states in dimension of national park land use indexes 191
Table 4 List of the 32 sovereign states without national park land use indexes 196
Table 5 Population pressure changing trends of 1999-2009 in urban landscaped region of 81 administrative divisions 197
Table 6 Population pressure changing trends of 1999-2009 in rural landscaped region of 149 administrative divisions 200
Table 7 Population pressure changing trends of 1999-2009 in pastoral landscaped region of 123 administrative divisions 206
Table 8 Tourist population pressure index 1999-2010 list of national parks in China 211
Table 9 Tourist population pressure index 1999-2010 list of national parks in USA 212
Table 10 Tourist population pressure index 2006-2010 list of national parks in China 213
Table 11 Tourist population pressure index 2006-2010 list of national parks in USA 216
Table 12 Spatio-temporal differences comparison in national parks crossed with national nature reserves（Ⅰ） 216
Table 13 Spatio-temporal differences comparison in national parks crossed with national nature reserves（Ⅱ） 217
Table 14 Spatio-temporal differences comparison in national parks crossed with national forest parks（Ⅰ） 218
Table 15 Spatio-temporal differences comparison in national parks crossed with national forest parks（Ⅱ） 221
Table 16 Spatio-temporal differences comparison in national parks crossed with national geoparks（Ⅰ） 221
Table 17 Spatio-temporal differences comparison in national parks crossed with national geoparks （Ⅱ） 223
Appendix Ⅲ Map of the Boundaries 224