Floorspace to worker ratios in shopping centres: A note

The characteristics of employment within the retailing sector are still poorly understood. This short paper expands on a previously presented study of Canberra (Geoforum10, 407–425) by reporting on the systematic variation between the ratio of floorspace to employees and type of shopping centre, and the different relationships between floorspace per worker and size of store by type of shopping centre. The planning implications in terms of employment provision are briefly discussed.     

Classifications of retail stores and shopping centres: some methodological issues

This paper reviews current methods used in classifying retail outlets and areas devoted to retailing, in the geographical and town planning literature. For retail outlets, classifications based upon types of goods sold, and types of shopping trip, are discussed. This is followed by an analysis of modern large store development which reflects property developers' and retailers' concerns. Areas devoted to retail uses are subdivided into unplanned ‘retail areas’ and planned ‘shopping centres’. Traditional classifications based upon central place theory are reviewed for both of these types, and found wanting in the light of recent changes in retail development practice and consumer behaviour. Classifications based upon physical development characteristics and type of shopping trip are recommended. Finally, classifications of urban retail location are examined. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The impact of the parking situation in shopping centres on store choice behaviour

The article discusses the effects of changing the parking situation in the surrounding of shopping centres on consumers store choice behaviour. To get insight into these effects a hierarchical logit model of parking lot and store choice behaviour is estimated and validated. The research is based on before-and-after data of supermarket visitors collected in a major regional shopping centre in a suburban area in The Netherlands. The model is estimated using the before data. At the level of the supermarkets the estimated hierarchical logit model performs very well. The model is less accurate at the level of parking lots but still performs satisfactory. Significant attributes are a constant representing the characteristics of the supermarket, the distance between supermarket and parking lot, the number of parking spaces per parking lot, the location of the parking lot vis-à-vis the origin of the consumer, and the availability of supermarket trolley facilities at the parking lot. Validating the model by reproducing the after data yields less satisfactory results. Especially the model does not perform very well on predicting parking lot choice. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Heavy metals pollution in the soils of suburban areas in big cities: a case study

Soil pollution in agricultural areas surrounding big cities is a major environmental problem. Tabriz is the largest city in the northwest of Iran and the fourth largest city in the country. Soil samples were taken from 46 sites in the suburbs of the Tabriz city, and separate samples were taken from control site and analyzed. The results indicated that the mean pH value of the soil samples was 9.29, while the mean EC value was 354.33 μs/cm and the amount of TOC and TOM was 0.99 and 1.7 %, respectively. The mean concentrations of Cd, Pb, Cu, Cr, Ni, and Zn in the soil were determined to be 1.61, 10.56, 101.25, 87.40, 38.73, and 98.27 mg/kg, respectively (dry weight). The concentrations of heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Cu, Cr, and Zn), with the exception of Ni, were higher than the concentrations of the same heavy metals at the control site. Despite these elevated concentrations, the concentrations of heavy metals were lower than the toxicity threshold limit of agricultural soils. The values of the pollution index revealed that the metal pollution level was Pb > Cr > Cu > Zn > Cd > Ni, and the mean value of the integrated pollution index was determined to be 1.81, indicating moderate pollution. Nevertheless, there were some sites that were severely polluted by Cr (maximum values of 1,364 mg/kg). It was concluded that city probably has affected the surrounding agricultural area. Application of wastewater (municipal and industrial) as irrigation water, using of sludge as soil fertilizer, and atmospheric perceptions have been considered as main reasons of increased heavy metals concentrations found in the studied area.     

GIS-based flood risk assessment in suburban areas: a case study of the Fangshan District,Beijing

Suburban areas have become rapid development zones during China’s current urbanization. Generally, these areas are also regional precipitation centers that are prone to flood disasters. Therefore, it is important to assess the flood risk in suburban areas. In this study, flood risk was defined as the product of hazard and vulnerability based on disaster risk theory. A risk assessment index system was established, and the analytic hierarchy process method was used to determine the index weight. The Fangshan District in Beijing, China, which is an example of a typical suburban area undergoing rapid urbanization, was selected for this study. Six factors were considered in relation to hazard, and three factors were considered for vulnerability. Each indicator was discretized, standardized, weighted, and then combined to obtain the final flood risk map in a geographical information system environment. The results showed that the high and very high risk zones in the Fangshan District were primarily concentrated on Yingfeng Street, Xingcheng Street, Xincheng Street, and Chengguanzhen Street. The comparison to an actual flood disaster suggested that the method was effective and practical. The method can quantitatively reflect the relative magnitude and spatial distribution patterns of flood risk in a region. The method can be applied easily to most suburban areas in China for land use planning and flood risk management.     

A GIS-based study toward forecast of suburban forest change

At a time when the concept of ‘human and environmental symbiosis’ has taken on much significance, protection of suburban forests (i.e. forests adjacent to or near developed areas) is a topic that has drawn much attention. Suburban forests have, since ancient times, been places where people have gathered firewood and cultured trees. As a result, the vegetation of suburban forests is only partially natural and continues to change as the forms of human activity in and around them changes. Accurate forecasts of how suburban forests will change are, therefore, an important element in the debate over how to protect them. In this study, a suburban forest was analyzed with laser radar sensing, multi-spectrum scanning, digital photogrammetry analysis, aerial photograph interpretation, and a field survey. Data gathered using these techniques were compiled on a GIS to forecast future changes in the forest. Aerial photographs taken over the past 50 years were analyzed to illuminate changes in the forest over that period. Specifically, comparisons of precise Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) measured by using digital photogrammetry workstations made it possible to estimate growth in forest height. The possible future conversion of such results to estimates of amounts of carbon dioxide consolidated by forests should be very significant for discussions of global environmental problems. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Consumer spatial choice strategies: A comparative study of some alternative behavioural spatial shopping models

The purpose of this paper is to outline a conceptual model of consumer spatial decision making and choice behaviour and to investigate the use of various combination rules of consumer's evaluations of attributes of shopping centres to predict spatial choice behaviour.The research findings indicate that the linear combination rules perform as well as the multiplicative rules and that both types of rules perform quite acceptably. The paper concludes by discussing some implications for future research on spatial decision making and choice.     

Progress in the study of the geography of retailing and wholesaling in Britain

Geographers have devoted a considerable amount of attention to the distributive sector. In part this has arisen because this sector provides an excellent testing ground for techniques. Substantive research, despite the needs of decision makers in both the public and private sectors, has been inbalanced. It has tended to focus on shoppers' behaviour and the factors controlling supply, at least equally important, have been relatively neglected. The paper indicates the significance of these factors and demonstrates how they need to be integrated into different modelling and theoretical approaches if research is to provide really useful insights for decision makers. It outlines how the focus of geographical study has shifted from examining the distributive trades as indicators of other facts of urban systems to the examination of spatial variations which are of substantial operational significance. Such studies do, however, fit readily into a wider frame-work of a geographical environment which is continuous but partitioned, limited but expanding and organised but diversified. Fruitful research can thus adopt both a spatial and an ecological perspective. The importance of the sector in the economy is sufficient reason for such research to be conducted.     

A PDF-based analysis of the spatial structure of retailing

The present paper proposes a new method for analyzing the spatial structure of retailing, using microscale locational data of individual retail stores. The method is based on the probability density function (PDF) of stores estimated from their locational data, and consequently it is applicable to both micro- and macro-scale retail analyses. The PDF approach provides a set of quantitative methods that permit us (1) to measure the degree of agglomeration, (2) to classify spatial patterns of store location, (3) to analyze the relationship between the size and function of retail agglomerations, and (4) to analyze the spatial structure of retail agglomeration. An empirical study is performed to test the validity of the method, and some empirical findings are shown. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Retailing in rural areas: A case study in Norfolk

In Britain the decline of facilities in rural settlements in the face of increasing urban dependence is becoming a major policy issue; despite high mobility, many people still lack access to essential facilities. This paper is based on fieldwork carried out mostly during 1976 in two rural areas of Norfolk, as part of a Government-sponsored study of rural transport and accessibility. It looks first at the pattern of shops and their location related to parish size, and then discusses levels of use in comparison with urban facilities, drawing on household activity surveys. The paper then analyses in depth the ownership and operation of village shops, using the results of a survey carried out among the proprietors of the shops in the two study areas, and also considers the issues that concern shopkeepers and villagers. Finally it notes changes over the past two years in the pattern of facilities and discusses the case of two villages. The implications for rural planning are examined, and the author concludes that development of rural settlements must be based on sensitive and local understanding, rather than directive blanket policies, if reasonable access to shops and similar facilities is to be retained.     

Geographical study of ethnicity: Comparison between downtown and suburban Chinese in Metropolitan Los Angeles

There are two main schools of theory in the history of ethnic study in the US: acculturation/assimilation, and ethnicity/pluralism. The former emphasizes ethnic groups will merge to the host society and lose their entity; the latter indicates the ethnic identity will continue to exist. This paper proposes a now model of ethnic group distribution multiple cluster to support ethnicity/pluralism theory by adding the spatial perspective. The model indicates there are both traditional ethnic enclaves in inner city and new relatively concentrated ethnic residential and business districts. Creating a new landscape of their own in suburb will help the persistence of ethnic identity. The situation of Chinese. in Monterey Park becomes a Chinese hub with strong ethnic signature and entities, which attracts more Chinese people and businesses.     

Boundary assessment under uncertainty: A case study

Estimating certain attributes within a geological body whose exact boundary is not known presents problems because of the lack of information. Estimation may result in values that are inadmissible from a geological point of view, especially with attributes which necessarily must be zero outside the boundary, such as the thickness of the oil column outside a reservoir. A simple but effective way to define the boundary is to use indicator kriging in two steps, the first for the purpose of extrapolating control points outside the body, the second to obtain a weighting function which expresses the uncertainty attached to estimations obtained in the boundary region.     

Kinetic aspects of sector zoning in arsenopyrite: A case study

Summary A simple quartz-arsenopyrite vein assemblage formed at temperatures of 280–200°C occurs in the Madan lead-zinc ore district, Bulgaria. Spear-shaped arsenopyrite is bounded by {101}, {010} and {210}; compositionally it is pure FeAs_1-xS_1+X of variable x. The BSE image of an oriented (001) section reveals a pronounced sector zoning defined solely by differences in the S/As ratio. The boundary between the (210) and (010) growth sectors reflects the changes of their growth rates V⁰¹⁰ and V²¹⁰ in perfect correlation with zonal S/As oscillations. The V°10/V²¹⁰ ratios determined in 20 zones range from 0.1 to 2.4, and correspond to S variations from 39 to 34 at.% derived from 7 microprobe point analyses. The S content in the (010) sector is on average 1.5 at.% lower than in the (210) one, the difference decreasing from about 2.5 to less than 0.33 at.% with the decreasing V⁰¹⁰/V²¹⁰. The rate/composition relationship obeys the following rules: the higher the S/As the lower the V⁰¹⁰/V²¹⁰, and the slower the (010) growth. The phenomenon is interpreted in terms of crystal growth theory of a solid solution analyzing the arsenopyrite growth history on hand specimen, microscopic and structural scales. Sector zoning in this particular case is explained by processes taking place very close to the growing crystal surface which are superimposed on those produced by larger-scale variations in the hydrothermal environment.

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Kinetische Aspekte des sektoriellen Zonenbaues von Arsenkies: Untersuchung eines Wachstumsphdnomens

Zusammenfassung Eine gewöhnliche Quarz-Arsenkies Paragenese im Blei-Zink Erzgebiet von Madan, Bulgarien, bildete sich im Temperatur-Intervall von 280-200°C. Speerförmiger Arsenkies ist begrenzt von den Flächenformen 11011, {010} und {210}, wobei das Mineral der Zusammensetzung FeAs_1-xS_1+X mit variierendem x entspricht. Die Rückstreuelektronenabbildung eines (001)-orientierten Querschnittes zeigt einen deutlichen Sektorzon-enbau, der ausschließlich durch Unterschiede im S/As-Verhaltnis bestimmt wird. Die Grenze zwischen den Wachstumssektoren (210) und (010) spiegelt Veränderungen in ihren Wachstumsgeschwindigkeiten V⁰¹⁰ und V²¹⁰ wieder, die mit den zonenkorrelierten S/As Schwankungen variieren. Die Verhdltnisse V⁰¹⁰/V^21O wurden in 20 Zonen des Kristalls bestimmt; she variieren zwischen 0.1 und 2.4 und entsprechen einer Variation von 39 bis 34 At.% S, die durch 7 Elektronenstrahlmikrosondenanalysen bestimmt wurden. Der S-Gehalt im Sektor (010) ist durchschnittlich mit 1.5 At.% niedriger als im Sektor (210); der entsprechende Unterschied nimmt von ungefdhr 2.5 bis 0.33 At.% mit der Verringerung von V⁰¹⁰/V² ab. Die Beziehung Wachstumsgeschwindigkeit/ Element unterliegt der Regel: je hoher das Verhaltnis S/As; desto niedriger ist V⁰¹⁰/V²¹⁰ und desto langsamer ist das Wachstum von (010). Diese Erscheinung wird im Rahmen der Kristallwachstumstheorie einer festen Lösung gedeutet, wobei die Wachstumsgeschichte des Arsenkieses makroskopisch, mikroskopisch und strukturell analysiert wurde. Auf these Weise wird der Sektorzonenbau als ein Resultat von Prozessen interpretiert, die ganz nah der wachsenden Kristalloberfldche ablaufen und die die Veränderungen des hydrothermalen Milieus überlagern.

     

Speleogenesis in aeolian calcarenite: A case study in western Victoria

Most studies of karst landscapes and their processes have been concerned with consolidated, often well-jointed limestones. There are particular problems involved in the study of karst procesess in softer, less-compact limestones such as chalk, coral reefs, and aeolian calcarenite. Previous studies in aeolian calcarenite indicated these problems and a scheme was developed of speleogenesis in aeolian calcarenite. A study of karst processes in aeolian calcarenite at Bats Ridge in western Victoria has developed this scheme further. The karst features and processes at Bats Ridge are an integral part of the landscape of a mid-Pleistocene calcarenite dune system. The resolution of problems of the rapid subaerial speleogenesis in the area is achieved by the synthesis of the known karst features of the ridge and the geology and geomorphology of the area. Karst development on this aeolianite ridge depends on lithological conditions as well as the availability of aggressive water capable of solution. The diagenesis of the calcarenite is occurring now and must have been occurring by the mid-Pleistocene. This simultaneous lithification of the carbonate dunes into aeolian calcarenite rock and the development of solutional karst features in the dunes is the characteristic feature of the speleogenesis in this area. It is the formation of a hardened kankar layer (cap rock) in the dunes of sufficient compressive and tensile strength to support cavities, which is the result of these interrelated factors, that has strongly determined the formation of the karst features.     

A study of service centres and the evolving patterns of linkages in the Mahaweli development area

The absence of service centres that are required to facilitate economic and social development is a characteristic feature of the peripheral areas of Sri Lanka. One of the objectives of the Mahaweli Development Project is the setting up of a hierarchy of service centres in the recently developed areas of the Northern Dry Zone. The settlement programme of System H of the Project area was completed in 1984. Within a decade, 8 Townships and 26 Village Centres were established to serve more than 23,000 families.A comprehensive study of the pre-project situation and the changes taking place in the Galnewa region of System H indicated that the new hierarchy of service centres as well as the linkages that promote or result from the interaction among settlements have made a significant contribution to its socio-economic development. Problems that exist today can be solved and the experience gained so far has been valuable in planning the development of the remaining areas of the Project.     

Polynomial expansions in likelihoods for spatial data: A case study

This paper illustrates the computational benefits of polynomial representations for quantities in the likelihood function for the spatial linear model based on the power covariance scheme. These benefits include a comprehensive study of likelihoods and maximum likelihood estimators for data. For simplicity, we focus on a relatively simple covariance scheme and data observed at equal intervals along a transect; we briefly indicate how generalizations to more complicated covariance functions and higher dimensions will operate.     

Population and resource crisis: A Kenyan case study

In recent years the population/development debate has shifted to consideration of the adequacy of resources to meet the accelerating population growth especially in developing countries. In the second area of concern the problem has been the adverse impact of the rate of population growth on availability of land.The history of Kenya's population growth clearly shows a steep rise from just after World War II to the late 1970s. In quantitative terms the rate of population growth has increased from just about 2% per annum to almost 4% per annum. The cause of the accelerated growth of population lies in the rising fertility and in particular to the sharp reduction in mortality and foetal loss as a result of development process.The rise in growth rate has taken place at different rates in accordance with limited areas of medium and low potential land. The implications of the spatial differential rates of growth include a significant decline in land availability and acceleration in the rate of soil loss. Equally more important is pressure on available water and wood fuel resources.In terms of policy options, Kenya must accommodate itself to continued acceleration of population growth and increasing pressure on land resources. The policy options include a rise of land in the main productive heartland of the country and water management policy that will permit an enlargement of agricultural land in the semi-arid and arid zones which constitute almost 2/3 of the land area. However, a permanent solution must rely in development of human resources and in the moderation of population growth.