Progress and prospects of applied research on physical geography and the living environment in China over the past 70 years (1949–2019)

Physical geography is a basic research subject of natural sciences. Its object the environment which closely related to human living and development, China’s complex diverse. According national needs regional physical geographers have achieved remarkable achievements in applied basis research, also has substantially contributed planning economic growth social protection macro ecosystems resources, sustainable development. This study summarized practice application China over past 70 years following fields: differences environments regionalization; land use cover changes; hazards risk reduction; process prevention desertification; upgrading medium- low-yield fields Huang-Huai-Hai region; engineering construction permafrost areas; geochemical element anomalies control endemic diseases; positioning observation geographical elements; identification geospatial differentiation detectors. Furthermore, we proposed future direction field geography.