A Review of “Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South”

Research on small cities has begun to attract the attention of scholars who argue that contemporary urban scholarship, in its preoccupation with the largest and most advanced world-class cities, have largely ignored small to medium-sized cities. In China, although much attention has been paid to economically advanced urban centers, there actually has been a steady stream of work on small cities. This article profiles how a comparatively smaller city in western China attempts to market itself by selectively placing itself within various social–spatial and political–economic realities. Through Jinghong, we illustrate how local officials and planners attempt to center the city as a gateway to Southeast Asia. By activating, often discursively, multiscalar transborder strategies, local officials in Jinghong not only mobilize ethnic imaginaries, but they also adopt forms of entrepreneurial tactics to promote growth. Developmental strategies of Jinghong not only vacillate between (and draw on) both rural and urban resources; they are furthermore expected to alleviate rural poverty. Through highlighting the agency of small cities like Jinghong in China, this article speaks to the broader developmentalist critique of third- and fourth-world cities as an unfortunate footnote in global urban restructuring, often depicted as places of uniform marginalization and structural irrelevance. Indeed, by focusing on the geography of small cities and giving due attention to their size and proximity to rural spaces, case studies like Jinghong might yet point empathetically to different ways and imperatives of “being urban” where the weight that they carry can also be duly recognized.     

The 50th anniversary of the appearance of V. B. Sochava’s first article on the geosystem

In 2013, we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the publication of V. B. Sochava’s first paper in which he offered the definition of the term “geosystem”. His paper entitled “The definition of some notions and terms in physical geography” remains one of the most frequently cited articles in the national geographical literature. The concept of the geosystem was included in encyclopedias. The geosystem ideology is used in training of specialists in the field of geography.     

Modeling the history of Lake of the Woods since 11,000 cal yr B.P. using GIS

Because of differential isostatic rebound, many lakes in Canada have continued to change their extent and depth since retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Using GIS techniques, the changing configuration and bathymetry of Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Manitoba, and Minnesota were reconstructed for 12 points in time, beginning at 11,000 cal yr B.P. (9.6 ¹⁴C ka B.P.), and were also projected 500 years into the future, based on the assumption that Lake of the Woods continued to have a positive hydrological budget throughout the Holocene. This modeling was done by first compiling a bathymetric database and merging that with subaerial data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). This DEM file was then adjusted by: (1) isobase data derived from Lake Agassiz beaches prior to 9000 cal yr B.P. (8.1 ¹⁴C ka B.P.) and (2) modeled isostatic rebound trend analysis after 9000 cal yr B.P. Just after the end of the Lake Agassiz phase of Lake of the Woods, only the northernmost part of the basin contained water. Differential rebound has resulted in increasing water depth. In the first 3000 years of independence from Lake Agassiz, the lake transgressed >50 km to the south, expanding its area from 858 to 2857 km², and more than doubling in volume. Continued differential rebound after 6000 cal yr B.P. (5.2 ¹⁴C ka B.P.) has further expanded the lake, although today it is deepening by only a few cm per century at the southern end. In addition, climate change in the Holocene probably played a role in lake level fluctuations. Based on our calculation of a modern hydrological budget for Lake of the Woods, reducing runoff and precipitation by 65% and increasing evaporation from the lake by 40% would end overflow and cause the level of the lake to fall below the outlets at Kenora. Because this climate change is comparable to that recorded during the mid-Holocene warming across the region, it is likely that the area covered by the lake at this time would have been less than that determined from differential isostatic rebound alone.     

Singapore in the 1990s. Can population policies reverse the demographic transition?

Singapore experienced an extraordinary demographic transition from a population growth of over 4% per year in the late 1950s to around 1.6% in the 1990s and below replacement fertility since 1986. In 1987 official government policy shifted to measures for increasing fertility. This paper explores whether Singapore's pronatalist policies can reverse the demographic transition. The present policies aim to selectively increase fertility among the well educated. By 1987 the slogan switched from "stop at two" to "have three, if you can afford it." The policy included tax relief for a third child and other measures to encourage a third child. The policies are expected to have a different influence on society according to one's education, income, and family size. The government target is to selectively increase population by 40% over 25 years. Singapore's transition may follow the theory that low fertility is attained in societies where kin relationships are less important than personal educational achievements. The three ethnic groups responded differently to educational and fertility policies. The Chinese acquired the best education and attained the lowest fertility. The Chinese, who comprised 76% of total population in 1986, continued to have low fertility, while increases occurred among the Malays and the Indians. Future trends are considered difficult to predict. A survey conducted in 1992 in Ang Mo Kio among 489 reproductive age respondents revealed that Malays had the earliest marriage and first births before the age of 25 years (75% of Malays and 50% of Indians). The Chinese had their first child at 25 years or older. Without controls for the age of the mother, a strong statistically significant association was found between ethnic group and age at marriage and age at first birth. The relationship was not supported for current fertility. A comparison of women married for 5 years or less and 5 years or more revealed that women in recent marriages showed a greater likelihood of postponing marriage and childbirth for all ethnic groups. Since 1987, third order births as a percentage of all births increased from 21.47% before 1987 to 23.11% during 1987-92, which only suggests the favorable impact of the pronatalist policy. Educational changes are likely to become more influential in affecting choice of family size.     

Handling Geographic Information. Report of the Committee of Enquiry Chaired by Lord Chorley,Department of the Environment. (London: HMSO, 1987.) [Pp. 208. ] Price £l14-95. ISBN Oil 752015 2.

ABSTRACT

A wide range of environmental process simulations would benefit from the development of GIS able to cope with the additional dimensions of vertical space and time, and having extended spatial modelling facilities. The results of a project in the first of these areas, namely on the development of techniques for handling four-dimensional (4-D) data, are described. The key topics of data models, visualization and interpolation have been studied. Problems include the large size of some 4-D data sets, the sparseness of sampling in some dimensions compared with others, and the need to combine data sets from different sensors which may be of different dimensionalities and scales. The gridded volume data common to most environmental models are stored in a 4-D bintree form in which all dimensions are treated identically. Simple 4-D objects may also be stored, and links are provided between volume and object databases. The techniques have been implemented within a computational testbed allowing parallel processing to cope with large data sizes.     

The geomorphologist S. S. Voskresenskii — An explorer of Siberia and the Far East

An outline is given of the career and scientific and teaching activity of the outstanding geomorphologist, professor of Moscow State University S.S. Voskresenskii, who created new scientific directions in the study of topography. He is rightfully given credit for geographical investigations of Siberia and the Far East in the latter half of the 20^th century.     

Where Are the Women? Accounting for Discrepancies in Female Doctorates in U.S. Geography

Although there have been noticeable improvements in recent years, geography continues to be a predominantly male discipline. The percentage of women receiving PhDs in geography has tracked lower than the U.S. average of female PhDs. Previous studies of women's contribution to geography have focused on personal accounts or on the study of some of the most prominent practitioners, with a few studies using basic data on PhDs awarded and Association of American Geographers membership to determine trends. This article provides a comprehensive overview of doctoral degrees in geography by gender, over time, and across all universities in the United States by examining an alternative database, that of doctoral dissertations. The analysis yields three separate types of results. First, historical and contemporary variations among U.S. universities are examined. Second, data indicate that male and female doctoral students differ in the sex of their advisor. Third, a simple regression model explains some of the discrepancies in the proportion of female doctoral students by department. In sum, this article provides a comprehensive empirical study of the factors that might contribute to the continued disparities in female doctoral students in geography.     

Washington Women: Practicing Geography in the U.S. Government, 1915–1970s

Histories of geography, especially those dealing with the twentieth century, tend to focus on geographic thought or academia rather than on practice in other arenas such as government agencies. In the United States during that period, however, the latter included a higher proportional representation of women professionals than did research-oriented universities. This article examines the careers of selected women geographers who had long-term and senior positions in Washington, DC, in agencies such as the Library of Congress, Bureau of the Census, the Department of State, and the Office of Naval Research. Drawing on sources including directories, the archives and oral history collections of the Society of Woman Geographers, and interviews conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I explore four main themes: how these women came to government work, aspects of the intersections of personal and professional lives, ways in which economic and political contexts shaped their opportunities and experiences, and the nature of their contributions.     

A Review of: “Remote Sensing of Soils and Vegetation in the USSR”. By P. J. CURRAN,G. M. FOODY,K. YA. KONDRATYEV,V. V. KOZODEROV and P. P. FEDCHENKO. (London: Taylor & Francis, 1990.) [Pp. 200.] Price £30·00. ISBN 085066 4020.

As they increase in popularity, social media are regarded as important sources of information on geographical phenomena. Studies have also shown that people rely on social media to communicate during disasters and emergency situation, and that the exchanged messages can be used to get an insight into the situation. Spatial data mining techniques are one way to extract relevant information from social media. In this article, our aim is to contribute to this field by investigating how graph clustering can be applied to support the detection of geo-located communities in Twitter in disaster situations. For this purpose, we have enhanced the fast-greedy optimization of modularity (FGM) clustering algorithm with semantic similarity so that it can deal with the complex social graphs extracted from Twitter. Then, we have coupled the enhanced FGM with the varied density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise spatial clustering algorithm to obtain spatial clusters at different temporal snapshots. The method was experimented with a case study on typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and Twitter’s different interaction modes were compared to create the graph of users and to detect communities. The experiments show that communities that are relevant to identify areas where disaster-related incidents were reported can be extracted, and that the enhanced algorithm outperforms the generic one in this task.     

Will Glacier No.1 Tianshan exist in the 22nd century?

Mountains have been described as the water towers of the world. Almost all major rivers have their sources in mountains; glaciers are important water resources that contribute meltwater to river discharge. Glaciers participate in the global water cycle and, with their solid water storage, are an important component of the water balance. As solid reservoirs, glaciers continue to receive the mass nourishment of solid precipitation from the atmosphere, and their meltwater feed and regulate river discharge. Physical changes in glaciers are an indicator of climate change. Over the past half century, the global temperature has increased by 1–2 °C, which emphasizes the urgent task of monitoring glaciers and predicting their trend. As an example, we have investigated, researched, and surveyed Glacier No.1 in the Urumqi River source, Tianshan (abbr. Glacier No.1 Tianshan or Glacier No.1) for half a century. We have found an increase by degrees of the glacial regression during the last 400 years and discovered a terminal moraine which is forming today. The global temperature is rising continually, while the local glacial temperature is 0.4 times that of the global temperature change. Thus, we forecast that Glacier No.1 Tianshan will disappear during the late 21^st Century (2074–2100 A.D.).