Who are the resident stakeholders in a flood project? A spatial analysis of resident stakeholders

The importance of public participation has been discussed and well understood for some time, and many people have moved beyond the development of ideas to putting them into practice. During the past few years, stakeholder theory, one of the most popular theories originating from the field of business management, has been attracting immense attention due to its utility in raising representativeness in government. For instance, Hemmati (Multi-stakeholder process for governance and sustainability: beyond deadlock and conflict. Earthscan, London, 2002) argued that multi-stakeholder processes (MSPs) might be effective methods toward generating better policy options under the current democratic paradigm. In real life, however, stakeholder theory often has not been appropriately adopted in the field of environmental management. Sometimes, planners, prompted by the difficulty of identifying stakes, have used the term “stakeholders” as roughly synonymous with “participants”, thus impairing the content of stakeholder theory. Different from previous work in the field of flood management, we propose an original approach, the spatial analysis of a flood project for resident stakeholders (SAFPRS), to identify resident stakeholders in a flood project, rather than merely improving the weakness of stakeholder identification. Hopefully, this approach might ameliorate the current situation in Taiwan, where some important stakeholders have been too easily excluded in the execution of flood projects.     

‘Think globally,act locally’: sustainable communities,modernity and development

This article sets out to explore the political relationship between the global and the local through the prism of the sustainable development. The ideal of sustainable communities is explored in the context of evolving political fictions that define alternative conceptions of modernity. While the article uses Ireland (reputedly the most globalised society in the world) as a microcosm of development, the context is firmly located within the wider sphere of European and planetary politics. It is argued that the ideal of sustainable communities offers the opportunity of reviving the civic republican tradition of democracy (the Ancient Greek agora) as a metaphor for the public sphere in the conditions of late modern society. The agora in Ancient Greece provided a site of political assembly, based upon participation (citizens’ engagement in decision-making) and deliberation (a process of reached argument). Today, concepts such as ‘participatory civility’ and ‘discursive democracy’ seek to revive these classical ideals, as the basis for building sustainable communities in a transforming modernity that searches for a new logic of development.     

The role of fluvial sediment supply and river-mouth hydrology in the dynamics of the muddy,Amazon-dominated Amapá–Guianas coast,South America: A three-point research agenda

The morphology and sediment dynamics of the 1500 km-long coast of South America between the mouths of the Amazon and the Orinoco Rivers are largely dependent on the massive suspended-sediment discharge of the Amazon, part of which is transported alongshore as mud banks. These mud banks have an overwhelming impact on the geology, the geomorphology, the ecology and the economy of this coast. Although numerous field investigations and remote sensing studies have considerably enhanced our understanding of the dynamics of this coast over the last three decades, much still remains to be understood of the unique functional mechanisms and processes driving its evolution. Among the themes that we deem as requiring further attention three come out as fundamental.The first concerns the mechanisms of formation of individual mud banks from mud streaming on the shelf off the mouth of the Amazon. An unknown quantity of the fluid mud generated by offshore estuarine front activity is transported shoreward and progressively forms mud banks on the Amapá coast, Brazil. The volume of each mud bank can contain from the equivalent of the annual mud supply of the Amazon to several times this annual sediment discharge. The mechanisms by which individual banks are generated from the Amazon turbidity maximum are still to be elucidated. Areas of research include regional mesoscale oceanographic conditions and mud supply from the Amazon.The second theme is that of variations in rates of migration of mud banks, which influence patterns of coastal accretion. Research emphasis needs to be placed on the analysis of both regional meteorological-hydrodynamic forcing and distant Atlantic forcing, as well as on the hydrology of the large rivers draining the Guyana Shield. The rivers appear to generate significant offshore deflection of mud banks in transit alongshore, through a hydraulic-groyne effect. This may favour both muddy accretion on the updrift coast and downdrift mud liquefaction with probably lessened muddy deposition.The third theme concerns sand supply by the Guiana Shield rivers. The rare sand deposits are important in providing sites for human settlements and routes and for nesting by marine turtles. The limited presence of sand bodies on this coast may reflect ‘mud blanketing’, a hypothesis that requires verification through high-resolution seismic analyses of shelf deposits and coring operations. The large Guiana Shield rivers, especially in Surinam and Guyana, have supplied sand for the construction of significant bands of cheniers, probably enhanced by the afore-mentioned downdrift hydraulic-groyne effect on hindered mud deposition. In all the three themes of this future research agenda, two central elements are the sediment input of the rivers of the Amazon basin, starting with the massive mud supply from the Amazon catchment itself, followed by sand inputs by the Guiana Shield rivers and their river-mouth effects on mud banks.     

(Re-)negotiating access: The politics of researching skills and knowledge for ‘sustainable communities’

The last decade has witnessed a surge of interest in ‘sustainable communities’ within the UK. This has stimulated a plethora of research aimed at acquiring a better understanding of what ‘sustainable communities’ might look like and how they can be achieved. However, this has not been accompanied by a reflection and interrogation of the actual processes, challenges and politics of doing ‘sustainable communities’ research. This paper addresses this gap by highlighting the importance of paying attention to the on-going process of negotiating access when carrying out sustainability research at the community level. We draw on a recent study of skills and knowledge for ‘sustainable communities’ in Stroud Gloucestershire, UK, to illustrate the importance of sensitivity to social relationships throughout and beyond the research trajectory within sustainability research. Our experience raises important questions about the politics of research practices when doing sustainability research ‘with’ communities and the challenges associated with participatory approaches as a means to demonstrate research impact. We argue that in developing a fuller understanding of why and how different types of community level initiatives can contribute to the ‘sustainable communities’ agenda, greater consideration needs to be given to how these community practices can be better supported through the process of doing academic research.     

Gated communities,heterotopia and a “rights” of privilege: a `heterotopology' of the South African security-park

This paper attempts a two-tiered analysis of what has come to be referred to as the `security-park', i.e., that South African variation of the `gated community' which combines Blakely and Snyder's [Fortress America: Gated communities in the United States, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, 1999] typically separable `lifestyle', `prestige' and `security zone' gated community types. The first part of this analysis reviews the existing literature on gated communities and relates it back to the South African situation. The second part, both theoretical and empirical, draws on Foucault's [Utopias and heterotopias, in: N. Leach (Ed.), Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory, Routledge, London, 1997] notion of the heterotopia, and on a variety of textual representations of Dainfern. The heterotopia, as an `analytics of difference' becomes a particularly important means of critique here, drawing attention to security-parks as: (1) possessing a precise and well-defined function within society (a function which typically coalesces around points of social crisis), (2) operating distinctive systems of admission and exclusion, (3) containing certain `juxtaposed incompatibilities' (of which a paradoxical `heterochroneity' is one of the most pronounced elements), (4) embodying – via the espousal of a certain `utopics' – an `alternate mode of social ordering' (in Hetherington's [The Badlands of Modernity: Heterotopia and Social Ordering, Routledge, New York, 1997] term). Each of these analytical strands constitutes a discursive relay through which one might deduce wider networks of social power or in the case of Dainfern or security-parks more generally, historical structures of the race- and class-structuring of privilege and poverty. Representations and practices of the security-park are in this way indicative of a far larger political rationality – a self-justificatory set of entitlements, warrants and exclusionary prerogatives which we have labelled a “rights” of privilege.     

Birth and death of the Late Cretaceous “La Luna Sea”, and origin of the Tres Esquinas phosphorites

Deposition of organic carbon-rich intervals of the La Luna and Navay formations of northwestern Venezuela was governed by the development of key paleobathymetric barriers (Santa Marta and Santander massifs, Paraguana Block, and ancestral Mérida Andes). These enhanced the development of anoxia in the “La Luna Sea” by causing poor circulation and limited ventilation. Anoxia was also promoted by high evaporation and low precipitation rates (high salinity bottom water), and high levels of marine algal productivity (high organic matter flux). Nutrient supply was augmented by infrequent fluvial sources.Bottom water oxygen levels increased from the Late Santonian through the end of the Cretaceous. Ventilation of anoxic bottom waters may have been enhanced by more frequent or intense seasonal upwelling (caused by higher wind stress) and catastrophic overturn, as well as the removal of a key paleobathymetric barrier. Common byproducts of overturn events were massive phytoplankton blooms, which produced red tides. Fish and marine reptile bone beds within the Tres Esquinas Member (La Luna Formation) are attributed to massive mortality during these events, and are correlative with similar Campanian units in eastern Colombia. During the Maastrichtian, increasing ventilation, combined with siliciclastic dilution, ultimately produced sediments with lower total organic carbon (TOC) content.     

A watershed perspective on nutrient enrichment,science, and policy in the Patuxent River,Maryland: 1960–2000

The Patuxent River, Maryland, is a nutrient-overenriched tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. Nutrient inputs from sewage outfalls and nonpoint sources (NPS) have grown substantially during the last four decades, and chlorophylla levels have increased markedly with concomitant reductions in water quality and dissolved oxygen concentrations. The Patuxent has gained national attention because it was one of the first river basins in the U.S. for which basin-wide nutrient control standards were developed. These included a reduction in NPS inputs and a limit on both nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loadings in sewage discharges intended to return the river to 1950s conditions. Full implementation of point source controls occurred by 1994, but population growth and land-use changes continue to increase total nutrient loadings to the river. The present paper provides the perspectives of scientists who participated in studies of the Patuxent River and its estuary over the last three decades, and who interacted with policy makers as decisions were made to develop a dual nutrient control strategy. Although nutrient control measures have not yet resulted in dramatic increases in water quality, we believe that without them, more extensive declines in water quality would have occurred. Future reductions will have to come from more effective NPS controls since future point source loading will be difficult to further reduce with present technology. Changing land use will present a challenge to policy makers faced with sprawling population growth and accelerated deforestation.     

Curbing the power of developers? Law and power in Chinese and English gated urban enclaves

This article contributes to the legal geography literature through exploration of the contested concepts of power and law and their interconnected processes. Research findings from studies of urban gated enclaves in China and in England are used as a starting point to analyse the spatialisation of power in the creation of gated urban enclaves, with a particular focus on the role of law. Four categories of law are identified. The article suggests an analytical framework for understanding how particular modalities of power intersect with these different types of law. This framework is then applied to temporal stages in the creation of gated enclaves, in the context of the different legal geographies of China and England. In the final analysis, the manipulative power of neoliberalism outweighs law’s authority, for example when developers form alliances with municipal government to circumvent ‘policy’ and ‘regulatory’ law. Property rights as conceptualised through ‘high’ law are shown to be ineffective in resolving problems experienced by residents of specific enclaves, particularly those relating to common property rights. Developers were found to use ‘facilitative’ law to gain control of the juridical field, materialised through property rights allocation and resolution of disputes within urban enclaves.     

Post-orogenic shoshonitic magmas of the Yzerfontein pluton,South Africa: the ‘smoking gun’ of mantle melting and crustal growth during Cape granite genesis?

The post-orogenic Yzerfontein pluton, in the Saldania Belt of South Africa was constructed through numerous injections of shoshonitic magmas. Most magma compositions are adequately modelled as products of fractionation, but the monzogranites and syenogranites may have a separate origin. A separate high-Mg mafic series has a less radiogenic mantle source. Fine-grained magmatic enclaves in the intermediate shoshonitic rocks are autoliths. The pluton was emplaced between 533 ± 3 and 537 ± 3 Ma (LA-SF-ICP-MS U–Pb zircon), essentially synchronously with many granitic magmas of the Cape Granite Suite (CGS). Yzerfontein may represent a high-level expression of the mantle heat source that initiated partial melting of the local crust and produced the CGS granitic magmas, late in the Saldanian Orogeny. However, magma mixing is not evident at emplacement level and there are no magmatic kinships with the I-type granitic rocks of the CGS. The mantle wedge is inferred to have been enriched during subduction along the active continental margin. In the late- to post-orogenic phase, the enriched mantle partially melted to produce heterogeneous magma batches, exemplified by those that formed the Yzerfontein pluton, which was further hybridised through minor assimilation of crustal materials. Like Yzerfontein, the small volumes of mafic rocks associated with many batholiths, worldwide, are probably also low-volume, high-level expressions of crustal growth through the emplacement of major amounts of mafic magma into the deep crust.     

Neighbourhood redevelopment and the making of a housing middle class: Can gentrification explain China’s spatial and social changes?

GeoJournal - This paper addresses the relationship between spatial change and social process in China. Studies in Anglo-American and European cities usually suggest middle classes move into a...     

A spatial investigation of venture capital investment in the US biotechnology industry, 1995–2008

The objective of this research is to investigate the role of geography in the venture capital investment in the US biotechnology industry. Data include 4,409 quarterly investment deals from the MoneyTree Survey during 1995 and 2008. Strong spatial concentration patterns are identified. Using both ordinary squares regressions and geographically weighted regressions, we find that as the geographic distance between biotechnology firms and their investors decreases, deal size increases. Location in established biotechnology clusters, such as New England and California, helps to bring a larger deal into individual firms as well. Also, the impact of distance decay in these two clusters is more significant than that in other regions. In addition, we find that a global venture capital investing syndication network brings large deals. Furthermore, firms in later stages of development, and/or with few financing rounds, tend to receive more capital per deal.     

Energy policy,market environment and the economic benefits of enterprises: evidence from China’s petrochemical enterprises

Natural Hazards - This paper studies the external impact of China’s energy policy and market environment changes and the internal impact of internal control and management on the economic...     

Geochronology and geochemistry of Mesozoic mafic–ultramafic complexes in the southern Liaoning and southern Jilin provinces,NE China: Constraints on the spatial extent of destruction of the North China Craton

LA–ICP–MS zircon U–Pb ages, geochemical and Sr–Nd–Pb isotope data are presented for mafic–ultramafic complexes from the southern Liaoning–southern Jilin area with the aim of determining the nature of the Mesozoic lithospheric mantle and to further constrain the spatial extent of destruction of the North China Craton (NCC). The complexes consist of olivine-websterite, gabbro, dolerite, and gabbro-diorite. Zircons from the complexes show typical zoning absorption, are euhedral–subhedral in shape, and yield high Th/U ratios (1.23–2.87), indicating a magmatic origin. Zircon U–Pb age data indicate that they formed in the Early Cretaceous (129–137 Ma). Geochemically, they have SiO₂ = 44.3–49.8%, MgO = 6.8–26.5%, Cr = 102–3578 ppm, and Ni = 31–1308 ppm, and are characterized by enrichment in large ion lithophile elements (LILEs) and light rare earth elements (LREEs), and depletion in high field strength elements (HFSEs) and heavy rare earth elements (HREEs), as well as a wide range of Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic compositions [(⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr)i = 0.70557–0.71119; ε_Nd (t) = ?5.4 to ?20.1; (²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb)i = 15.13–17.85; Δ7/4 = ?11.49 to 16.00; Δ8/4 = 102.64–203.48]. Compared with the southern Liaoning mafic–ultramafic rocks, the southern Jilin mafic–ultramafic rocks have high TiO₂ and Al₂O₃ contents, high ε_Nd (t) values, low (La/Yb)_N values, low initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios, and low radiogenic Pb isotopic compositions. These findings indicate that the primary magmas of the southern Jilin complexes were derived from lithospheric mantle that was previously metasomatized by a melt derived from the delaminated ancient lower crust, whereas the primary magmas of the southern Liaoning complexes originated from partial melting of a lithospheric mantle source that was previously modified by melt derived from the broken-off Yangtze slab. Therefore, the lateral extent of the NCC destruction should include the southern Liaoning–southern Jilin area.     

Granulites of the Kolpakovskaya Series in the sredinny range,Kamchatka: A myth or reality?

Geological, mineralogical, and geothermobarometric data testify that the regional metamorphism of the terrigenous protolith of the Kolpakovskaya Series, which composes the stratigraphic basement of the Kamchatka Median Crystalline Massif, corresponded to the kyanite mineral subfacies of the amphibolite facies at temperatures of 560–660°C and pressures of 5.9–6.9 kbar. This metamorphism predetermined wide kyanite development in high-Al garnet-biotite plagiogneisses. The younger granitization and migmatization of the plagiogneisses took place at a decrease in the pressure (depth), as follows from the textures of kyanite reaction replacement by andalusite in both the metamorphic rocks and the vein synmetamorphic granitoids and pegmatites. The temperature of the granitization and migmatization processes in the plagiogneisses was estimated at 620–650°C, and the pressure was evaluated at 1.9–3.0 kbar. Acid leaching that accompanied the granitization and migmatization processes resulted in the intense replacement of biotite by sillimanite (fibrolite) and, to a lesser degree, muscovite in the metamorphic and vein magmatic rocks. The highest temperature orthopyroxene-cordierite-biotite-orthoclase-plagioclase-quartz mineral assemblages were determined to have been formed in the Kolpakovskaya Series at a temperature of 830–840°C not by the regional metamorphism but in contact aureoles around gabbro-granitoid intrusions of the Lavkinskii intrusive complex of Oligocene-Miocene age in garnet-biotite and kyanite-garnet-biotite plagiogneisses of the amphibolite facies and cannot thus be regarded as evidence of an early granulite stage in the metamorphism of these rocks.     

Effects of errors and biases on the scaling of earthquake spatial pattern: application to the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman sequence

This study discusses the scaling properties of the spatial distribution of the December 26, 2004, Sumatra aftershocks. We estimate the spatial correlation dimension D ₂ of the epicentral distribution of aftershocks recorded by a local network operated by Geological Survey of India. We estimate the value of D ₂ for five blocks in the source area by using generalized correlation integral approach. We assess its bias due to finite data points, scaling range, effects of location errors, and boundary effects theoretically and apply it to real data sets. The correlation dimension was computed both for real as well as synthetic data sets that include randomly generated point sets obtained using uniform distributions and mimicking the number of events and outlines of the effective areas filled with epicenters. On comparing the results from the real data and random point sets from simulations, we found the lower limit of bias in D ₂ estimates from limited data sets to be 0.26. Thus, the spatial variation in correlation dimensions among different blocks using local data sets cannot be directly compared unless the influence of bias in the real aftershock data set is taken into account. They cannot also be used to infer the geometry of the faults. We also discuss the results in order to add constraints on the use of synthetic data and of different approaches for uncertainty analysis on spatial variation of D ₂. A difference in D ₂ values, rather than their absolute values, among small blocks is of interest to local data sets, which are correlated with their seismic b values. Taking into account the possible errors and biases, the average D ₂ values vary from 1.05 to 1.57 in the Andaman–Nicobar region. The relative change in D ₂ values can be interpreted in terms of clustering and diffuse seismic activity associated with the low and high D ₂ values, respectively. Overall, a relatively high D ₂ and low b value is consistent with high-magnitude, diffuse activity in space in the source region of the 2004 Sumatra earthquake.