A REVIEW OF LICHEN GROWTH AND APPLIED LICHENOMETRY IN SOUTHWEST AND SOUTHEAST GREENLAND

This paper presents a critical review of previous lichenometric and lichen growth studies in southern parts of West and East Greenland. These studies include classic work from around Søndre Strømfjord, Sukkertoppen, Sermilik and Angmagssalik. Particular emphasis is placed on those studies examining the role played by climatic continentality on the growth rate of crustose lichens in Greenland. The latter part of the paper presents new data on lichen growth rates from Sermilik, between 2001 and 2006, in 22 different lichen species. Measurements show that different species grow at different rates and growth rates vary from site to site. In this study Rhizocarpon geographicum generally grows slowly (<0.2 mm a⁻¹) while other species such as Pseudephebe minuscula grow more rapidly (1.0 mm a⁻¹) in the same environment. Comparison with other studies shows that taxa-specific growth rates are slightly greater in West than in East Greenland – probably as a result of the slightly more favourable climate and higher precipitation levels. It is suggested that recent climate change, most marked in southern Greenland, will probably result in changed growth curves (over time) for species such as Rhizocarpon geographicum . However, only more precise growth curves and lichenometric dating curves can demonstrate such a phenomenon.     

A new look at population change and regional development in Aotearoa New Zealand

In New Zealand, population change is interlinked with regional development. Places growing in population attract regional investment, while regional investment—or lack thereof—can change migration patterns. However, to determine the appropriate response to population change for a community, it is important to understand that population change involves much more than “just” migration. Specifically, it involves interactions between the three components of population change: natural change (births minus deaths), net migration (international and internal) and population ageing (changing cohort size). For example, migration can be negative, but growth can be positive due to underlying natural increase or growth in cohort size. Responses need to differ, depending on these drivers. The goal of this article is to provide new insights into these interactions using data for 275 cities, towns and rural centres (hereafter “urban places”) in New Zealand for the period 1976 to 2013. The results show that natural change has been consistently positive for most urban places up to the present, although projections indicate that in the future this component will become negative across much of the country. At the same time, net migration shows considerable spatial variation, not only in terms of volume, but also direction (negative or positive), which differs markedly by age. A net gain of people of retirement age can offset a net loss of young adults to deliver overall growth, and vice‐versa, but the two have very different implications for longer term growth. An analysis of the drivers of net migration using GIS and machine learning techniques provides an indication of the importance of economic conditions (land‐use and access to markets), lifestyle, access to essential services (hospitals and education) and their interaction with age in regional change. The results show that population age is the best predictor of migration. Younger people are moving to cities for tertiary education and work and older people near or in retirement are moving to smaller lifestyle towns but also want to be close to amenities such as hospitals and international airports. The research also shows that natural lifestyle characteristics (landscape and climate), in combination with age are just as important as economic conditions for understanding migration. Regional development, such as infrastructure that helps business (ports and services) is important for the working age population but not necessarily the retirement age group. When regional development, age/life‐cycle stage and lifestyle come together, such as in Queenstown and Tauranga, net migration gain is high.     

The processes of incorporation and secession of urban and suburban municipalities: The case of Poland

ABSTRACT

The aim of the article is to explain the phenomena of mergers and territorial disintegration of Polish towns and cities from three perspectives: social, economic and spatial-primal. Administrative border changes are fundamental components of local urban policy guidelines in countries that have experienced a dual history in the socialist and post-socialist periods, such as Poland. The main method of the authors research was the application of statistical and cartographic methods focused on measuring quantitative administrative changes in urban areas and their demographic effects. The scope of the research covered all towns in Poland existing in the years 1945–2018. Since the changes in the administrative boundaries of cities particularly concern the rural areas in the vicinity of large cities, the suburban municipalities surrounding urban centres were analysed too. The findings underline the deterministic role of political systems in the territorial expansion of towns and cities, and indicates their role for current planning decisions. The authors conclude that noticeable differences between two analysed periods have had at least two significant causes. First, the political and economic systems determining the changes differed, and second, each system was accompanied by differing directions of economic development and therefore also different ‘urbogenic’ forces.     

首都生态经济区的提出及其战略构想

北京作为全国的政治、经济、文化中心,具有强大的综合创新优势,必须在实现经济体系高效性与生态系统稳定性上做出表率,建设首都生态经济区是北京山区科学发展的必然趋势。首都生态经济区地域范围为北京的七山区县,其建设要以"两山、五河、七组团"为空间结构,以"一区、三基地、一平台"为框架性目标。作为探索北京山区环境、经济与社会协调发展的路径,建设首都生态经济区是优化山区生态环境建设的现实需要,符合山区发展转型的客观要求,具有重要的科学意义、实践基础和理论依据,应遵循打破行政界限、生态主导发展等原则,力争用10-15年的时间,建设生态产业经济带(走廊)、拓展生态经济区地域空间范围、打造中国北部生态经济增长极,以建设成北京绿色崛起先导区和全国生态经济示范区。     

The Rocky Mountains And The Southwest: Using Feature Names To Study Two Iconic Subregions In The American West

Geographic regions can be defined in many ways, including via physiography, historical development patterns, language, and culture. After broadly surveying different methods of regionalization and their influences on studies of the American West, this article uses a vernacular‐mapping approach to: first, propose distinctive toponyms that are relatively unique to cultures situated in the American Rocky Mountains and Southwest areas; second, map the spatial distributions of these toponyms across the western American landscape; and, third, compare the resulting distributions to the geographies of western businesses that incorporate regional terms into their corporate names. Notably, while the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest are iconic American regions that have captured the imagination for centuries, their cultural geographies are relatively underexplored in the literature. This article makes a modest contribution to this research gap by using geographic information systems (GIS) to map high concentrations of culturally distinctive feature names. The results reveal that the boundaries of vernacular Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions correspond relatively well with boundaries delineated with physiographic characteristics     

Global and Regional Water Availability and Demand: Prospects for the Future

One of the most pressing global issues currently facing mankind is the increase in world population and its impact on the availability of freshwater. Recent estimates of water stocks and flows through the world's hydrologic cycle and their spatiotemporal variability illustrate the nature of current and projected water disparities throughout the world. As all such problems manifest themselves at smaller scales, a major challenge in freshwater assessments is how to handle this on different geographical scales. Increasing use of water is creating water shortages in many countries that are projected to have significant population increases in the next 25 years. Humankind is projected to appropriate from 70% to 90% of all accessible freshwater by 2025. Agriculture is the dominant component of human water use, accounting for almost 70% of all water withdrawals. Hence, many of the solutions to water-related food and environmental security come from within agriculture by increasing the efficiency and productivity of water use. Many factors significantly impact the increasing water demand, including population growth, economic growth, technological development, land use and urbanization, rate of environmental degradation, government programs, climate change, and others. Demand management, not increasing supply availability, is the realistic way forward. Although, thanks to market forces, the threatened exhaustion of nonrenewable resources has not happened, renewable resources, such as freshwater, remain problematic because they are vulnerable to human overuse and pollution. Climate change adds further risks and uncertainties to the global picture requiring the adoption of adaptive management in water resources based on monitoring and reevaluation. Although climate change may be perceived as a long-term problem, it needs to be addressed now because decisions today will affect society's ability to adapt to increasing variability in tomorrow's climate. If we are to balance freshwater supply with demand, and also protect the integrity of aquatic ecosystems, a fundamental change in current wasteful patterns of production and consumption is needed. Recognition of the links between rapidly growing populations and shrinking freshwater supplies is the essential first step in making water use sustainable.     

Ecological patterns and sustainability of freshwater swamp forest ecosystems: assessing climate and disturbance interactions

Species composition and factors that control the distribution of freshwater swamp forests in West Africa are largely unknown. To achieve this, 24, one‐hectare forest plots were established to assess the tree species (DBH ≥ 10 cm) distribution across the ecosystem. A total of 138 species within 100 genera and 41 families were distributed across the forest plots and 47 species were identified as indicator species. These indicator species were used to constrain the species‐environmental categories across three broad habitat types: the disturbed freshwater zone, the mangrove‐freshwater transition zone and the intact freshwater zone. While 40 species are associated with one of the three forest categories, seven of them coexisted in disturbed and mangrove‐freshwater zones. Disturbance (local factors) was identified as the most important determinant of the species distribution followed by the climatic factors. Future climate predictions for the locations are quite variable and suggest that some species may be non‐viable as the ecosystem's composition may alter. While the indicator species provides insights on the species‐environment relationships, and is useful for informing forest conservation and planning, their tendency to continually co‐exist with others and provide vital functions is dependent on how sustainably the people use them.     

THE PRAIRIE PENINSULA: A CLIMATIC PERSPECTIVE

The adequacy of climate to explain the distribution of the tallgrass-prairie—oak-hickory forest in the United States has been investigated and it is shown that the prairie peninsula originated due to a unique combination of climatic conditions prevailing in the Middle West. The climate which is unique to the peninsula has been defined in terms of effective moisture as determined by soil moisture deficit, water surplus, and the index of moisture using the Thornthwaite's water budget procedure.

The results of this study demonstrate that definite quantities of soil moisture deficit, water surplus, and the index of moisture restrict the growth and development of the tallgrass-prairie-oak-hickory forest to a well-defined geographic region in the United States. Vegetational response to effective climate is expressed in the closeness of fit between the critical isolines of soil moisture deficit, water surplus, and the index of moisture and the boundaries of the prairie peninsula. In particular, the moisture index isolines of 15 and 30 enclose the study area virtually on all sides and this shows that the climate of the prairie peninsula resembles neither the climate of the “true prairie” nor the climates of the surrounding forest regions.     

Combining spatial data with survey data improves predictions of boundaries between settlements

Studies of land-use change often require the combination of socioeconomic survey data with spatially continuous maps of land-cover change. One approach is to define maps of land ownership, assuming that all land-use change can be attributed to the owners or managers of each parcel of land. Unfortunately, records of administrative boundaries between towns and villages are commonly unavailable in developing countries and prohibitively costly or time consuming to map for individual projects. However, point locations of the settlements themselves can be obtained easily from existing maps or remotely-sensed imagery. In this paper we compare three methods – circular buffers, unweighted Voronoi polygons (sometimes referred to as Thiessen polygons) and multiplicatively weighted Voronoi polygons – for estimating boundaries between villages in an agricultural landscape in West Africa. The benefits and limitations of each approach are discussed, and their accuracy assessed using 98 independently collected GPS coordinates of village boundaries. We present a novel method for generating and optimising weights for multiplicatively weighted Voronoi polygons using survey data of village sizes from a subset of villages. By using both spatial information and survey data from villages, we show that multiplicatively weighted Voronoi polygons outperform other methods of predicting village boundaries, and increase the correlation coefficient between surveyed village area and mapped areas from 0.18 to 0.68 compared with more commonly used unweighted Voronoi polygons. Our method of weighting Voronoi polygons can be implemented with data and software commonly available to researchers and non-governmental organisations.     

滇桂边境地区跨境婚姻的现状、特征与原因

利用宏观县区政府统计资料和定性个案访谈资料,对滇桂边境地区跨境通婚进行调查分析,结果发现：滇桂边境地区跨境通婚数量在不断增长,地理通婚圈由边境向内地延伸,通婚辐射范围越来越广,一部分跨境婚姻即将演变为内地跨国婚姻;婚入人口性别结构严重失衡,边境国家女性嫁入中国的数量远远多于中国边境女性嫁到邻国;跨境婚姻中夫妇双方整体教育文化素质偏低,多以小学和初中为主,呈现出教育资源的弱弱结合;跨境通婚的结婚登记率较低,大多以“事实婚姻”的方式在中国组成家庭,并且这些家庭早婚多育现象比较严重,不利于中国计划生育的有序执行;夫妇年龄差偏大以及跨境通婚具有代际传承等特征。进一步分析发现：导致滇桂边境地区的跨境通婚不断增长的原因与地理空间的邻近性、跨境民族文化圈子的同源性、等级通婚圈的封闭性、边境邻国→中国边境→中国内地的二级经济阶梯推动性、中越两国人口性别结构的互补性、不同国家婚姻制度“错位性”和边境地区政治形势的不稳定性存在密切的关系。     

中国城市网络关联与经济增长溢出效应——基于大数据与网络分析方法的研究

深化城市网络空间特征的认识,科学测度经济增长的溢出效应,对推进新时期区域协调发展具有重要意义。本文结合城市网络和网络外部性两种研究视角,基于网络分析和空间计量方法,使用互联网大数据构建信息网络、企业网络、人口网络三种流要素城市网络,对中国336个地级以上行政单元的网络空间异质性、经济增长溢出效应进行实证分析。研究发现：中国城市网络联系具有显著的空间异质性,呈现出“中心-外围”特点,形成全国范围和省域、城市群范围两种尺度下的空间结构,表现出兼具择优选择与地理邻近的复杂特征;网络关联下城市经济增长具有显著的正向和负向溢出效应,反映出网络外部性对区域经济增长的重要影响,对比实体空间溢出效应表现出地理邻近关系下的相似性,以及跨越省级边界的差异性;对于全国范围下的网络关联矩阵,使用对称化和标准化处理更为合适,表明省域和城市群是推进区域经济协调发展的重要载体。     

Spatial Patterns of Migration and Income Change in the Mountain West: The Dominance of Service-Based,Amenity-Rich Counties

One of the most recognizable and important changes occurring in the West is rapid population growth. This article intends to address questions associated with whether patterns of population growth and income migration are associated with “new” and “old” West economies. Rural restructuring in the U.S. has created a group of counties with service-based economies. In the Mountain West, a number of counties with service-based economies are located in areas with high levels of environmental or natural amenities, creating what has been termed the “New West.” Migration to the rural parts of the Mountain West, and the income transfers associated with migration, are increasingly concentrated within these New West counties. Rapid population growth, the changing characteristics of in-migrants, and their spatial concentration in New West counties provide a basis for conflicts over what the rural West is becoming.     

Spatial Patterns of Migration and Income Change in the Mountain West: The Dominance of Service‐Based,Amenity‐Rich Counties

One of the most recognizable and important changes occurring in the West is rapid population growth. This article intends to address questions associated with whether patterns of population growth and income migration are associated with “new” and “old” West economies. Rural restructuring in the U.S. has created a group of counties with service‐based economies. In the Mountain West, a number of counties with service‐based economies are located in areas with high levels of environmental or natural amenities, creating what has been termed the “New West.” Migration to the rural parts of the Mountain West, and the income transfers associated with migration, are increasingly concentrated within these New West counties. Rapid population growth, the changing characteristics of in‐migrants, and their spatial concentration in New West counties provide a basis for conflicts over what the rural West is becoming.     

近50年东北地区生态地理界线的代际变化

以吉良(Kira)的热量指数(温暖指数WI和寒冷指数CI)和徐文铎的湿度指数HI为指标,以10 a为尺度定量研究1961~2007年东北地区4条主要生态地理界线变化。在此基础上分析东北地区生态地理界线变化对气候变化的响应。结果表明:东北地区1961 ~ 2007年整体上纬向生态地理界线向高纬(垂直带向上)移动,经向生态地理界线向东移动,但阶段性上表现出波动性移动。东北地区生态地理区域界线从整体上位置、移动速度的变化和阶段性位置、移动速度的变化都很好响应气候变化。它们对水热等生态气候基本要素十分敏感。     

南极与青藏高原冰芯中阳离子对比研究

本文选取南极Ｎｅｌｓｏｎ站、横断山的海螺沟冰川、喜马拉雅山的达索普冰川、西昆仑的古里雅冰川和天山的托木峰冰川为研究对象,以化学成分作为指标,作了模糊聚类分析。结果表明,在不同水平下分类,冰川之间关系程度不同,反应的气候环境也不同。南极与青藏高原冰川中离子浓度存在差异,尤其是Ｎａ＋和Ｃａ２＋的含量差异显著。Ｎｅｌｓｏｎ站的Ｃａ２＋／Ｎａ＋之值比青藏高原各冰芯低许多,其与海水中Ｃａ２＋／Ｎａ＋之值相当。Ｃａ２＋／Ｎａ＋之值体现了冰川离海洋的距离,Ｃａ２＋／Ｎａ＋之值越小,则冰川离海洋越近,反之则越大。     

美国荒野风景河流的空间分布特征及其对中国的启示

美国荒野风景河流体系是全球最早建立的河流保护地类型。经过50年发展,其完善的体系呈现出一定空间分布特征。将线状国家荒野风景河流（NWSR）抽象为点状单元,对208个NWSR单元进行空间计算,并与自然生态和社会经济等因素进行叠加分析。结果表明,美国已有40个州分布NWSR,其中以俄勒冈等3个州的数量分布最多,且集中分布于特定的区域：西部的太平洋海岸、落基山脉和山间高地3个自然地理区;极地、温湿润、干旱3个Ⅰ级生态区;太平洋西北部、加利福尼亚、阿拉斯加及五大湖4个流域。NWSR线密度与州域的人口密度、经济水平相关性不强,但与大坝建设密切相关。荒野思想影响了法案制定,法案指导了遴选标准,遴选标准又进一步影响了NWSR的空间分布。研究对中国的借鉴意义在于：应当明确保护地指导思想、关注价值突出区域、确定合适遴选标准、重视保护地系统规划等。     

第二居所旅居者与当地居民社会互动过程及机制——以三亚市为例

第二居所旅居在流动谱系中介于短时性旅游与永久性旅游移民之间,是一种新的人口流动现象。地理学对日常生活的关注从宏大的结构叙事向后现代的多元与微观化转向。在此背景下,本文借鉴符号互动理论,探析第二居所旅居者与当地居民之间差异的建构及其对社会互动的作用过程与机制。结果发现：旅居者与当地居民所处人文地理环境产生的内在差异,使得三亚市存在着明显的“三亚人”与“东北人”之间“我者”与“他者”的对视;这些内在差异经过“人”的定义与解释被赋予特殊意义,并基于“外地人”与“本地人”身份符号意义建构出新的内涵,影响两者的互动实践;其具体作用过程包括：不了解对方、污名化对方、不愿与对方交往3个阶段。本文从微观层面研究社会互动的内在运作机制,有利于宏观政策制定的针对性与有效性,促进旅居地的可持续发展。     

气候变化背景下中国沿海地区灾害风险研究与应对思考

沿海地区是城市化水平较高的区域,在全球气候变化背景下,该地区极端天气气候事件频发,灾害风险日益加大,已严重制约了该地区社会经济的可持续发展。论文立足气候变化背景,探讨沿海地区灾害风险变化的新特点,认为：当前极端天气气候灾害的发生仍具较大的不确实性,气候与灾害在时空尺度上呈现多样性变化特征,各气象灾害风险存在较大差异性,灾害系统构成要素也更加复杂。鉴于气候变化给沿海地区灾害风险研究带来新的挑战,文章提出在气候变化背景下,沿海地区灾害风险系统的构建应关注灾害的时空尺度变化、多灾种灾害的协同效应、城市化与气候变化,并构建了基于气候变化背景下的灾害风险系统框架。最后,为提升气候变化背景下我国沿海地区灾害风险应对能力建设,提出以下建议：注重灾害防御系统的多样化、注重灾害防御系统的稳健性、实现多灾种灾害信息的共享、强化承灾主体的自恢复能力、加强灾害风险分担与转移能力建设、逐步适应气候变化背景下的极端天气与自然灾害。     

Visual simulation of regional development differentiation in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region

Regional development differentiation is a complicated spatial and temporal dynamic process. Recent developments in spatial statistics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have led to an increasing interest in quantitative analysis and visualization of the process. However, so far, few direct connections have been made between the newly developed methods and classic spatial development theories, which would be very helpful for the interpretation and understanding of regional spatiotemporal differentiation. Using basic concepts and academic principles of polarized growth theory and gradient transfer theory, this paper quantifies the concept of regional development space. It then proposes a method based on GIS to visually simulate and analyze regional development spatiotemporal differentiation through a case study of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region (BTHMR), China. The main research results are as follows. 1) The proposed method, built on classic theories and well-developed GIS technology, presents a good picture of regional development spatiotemporal differentiation. 2) The levels of regional development, in terms of per capita GDP across BTHMR, diminished significantly with increased distances away from city propers (which can be seen as the regional growth poles), leading to the appearance of development valley zones between different cities. The development valley zones between each city coincided with their boundary areas, which indicates that administrative boundaries have some impact on regional development, if the regional division is based on administrative boundaries. 3) From 1993 to 2007, the development level in the whole BTHMR improved significantly, of which polarized growth was dominant, especially for Beijing and Tianjin. However, as the two economic development engines in BTHMR, the pull effects of both Beijing and Tianjin on their peripheral areas were comparatively weak, except for those on Tangshan. 4) The structure and pattern of gradient transfer and balanced development in the BTHMR had not been completely developed yet, and the sustained polarized development of the regional economy in BTHMR was still going to be the main trend in the next 5–10 years.     

Long-Term Appreciation of Owner-Occupied Single-Family House Prices in Milwaukee Neighborhoods

Annual price indices of owner-occupied single-family houses are estimated for 111 neighborhoods in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the period of 1971-1993 using hedonic price methods controlling for quality differences across housing units. The rates of price appreciation vary significantly from neighborhood to neighborhood. During the 22-year study period, nominal house prices in some neighborhoods increased more than 500%, whereas those in others decreased. In general, the neighborhoods close to each other exhibit similar price movements. In some cases, however, there are sharp differences between the neighborhoods when strong boundaries, such as a river or an expressway, exist between them even though the physical distance between them is small. Poor neighborhoods generally have experienced low appreciation rates, although the racial composition and the crime rate in the neighborhood seem to contribute the differential as well.