Editorial: Geography and general education

Editorial: Geography and general education     

Stepping from the wreckage: Geography, pragmatism and anti-representational theory

This paper draws out linkages between non-representational theory (NRT) and pragmatism. In doing so it sets NRT in a much wider, historical anti-representational movement. This should add momentum to its progress, and open up the considerable pragmatist and neo-pragmatist heritage as a resource for dealing with questions about methods, politics and ethics that NRT raises. Firstly I outline pragmatism and NRT to ground the discussion. Secondly the convergences between pragmatism, poststructuralism and the later work of Wittgenstein are considered. After that I go through a series of working principles which can underpin what is being termed anti-representational theory. These include; the primacy of life and action, pluralism, materiality/spatiality/temporality/relationality, anti-essentialism, creativity, collectivity, fallibilism, and disorder in method. I conclude by considering anti-representational knowledge production through radical incrementalism underpinned by witness and narrative.     

年代古地理学: 理论与实践*

古地理学研究和探讨的是地质历史时期的地表环境,是构造—环境(气候)—物质相互作用的产物。传统的古地理学及相应的构造古地理、生物古地理学等对大地构造演化及古大陆重建、油气勘探等起到了重要的作用。随着地球演化的深入研究,在多层圈的相互作用,特别是古气候、古环境等研究基础上,需要有机地把地表环境和构造环境相结合,并且综合考虑深层及浅层地质过程对古地理格局的形成和演化的制约。在传统的古地理学基础上,提出一个新的学科——年代古地理学,用以研究和探讨地质历史时期的地表过程。该学科是精细的同位素年代格架下的不同动力学—运动学—物质迁移—环境变迁形成古地理的研究,或者物质—力学—环境(气候)相互作用下的古地理格局的研究。旨在研究和探讨地表过程,亦即形成地表环境的过程,强调同一时间的多元性、不同空间的差异性和不同尺度的穿时性。文中以近年来研究的台湾、扬子及华北克拉通等地区的精细时间尺度下的古地理环境为例,进一步剖析年代古地理学对于重新理解和认识古构造格局演化的重要性。     

地质灾害活动强度评估的原理、方法和实例

为了探索区域群发地质灾害活动强度评价的原理、方法和指标体系,从地质灾害强度的基本涵义和快速测量的技术要求2个方面简要地分析了影响群发地质灾害活动强度的主要指标和参数,并参考地震震级计算和划分的(宏观)依据,初步提出了以地质灾害分布最大面密度为衡量区域地质灾害活动强度指标的基本思路和分级标准,建立了地质灾害活动强度指数(GHI—geohazard index )8级划分标准;初步提出了快速统计估算地质灾害最大面密度的2种基本方法,即栅格法和自然斜坡(流域)统计法。结合汶川Ms8.0级地震诱发地质灾害、陕西省宁陕县城2003年暴雨诱发地质灾害和宝鸡市地质灾害活动强度分析评价,简要地讨论了在地质灾害强度评价指标、最大面密度统计测量方法及其代表性等方面存在的问题,强调地质灾害强度(GHI)指标评价分级还处于探索研究的开始阶段,还需要在实践中不断修改完善。     

云南巍山—永平矿集区流体地质填图的理论与实践

流体地质填图是一种全新的地质调查及找矿方法。本次研究选择云南巍山－永平矿集区进行流体地质填图试验，研究了矿集区的控矿地质要素、各种主要的矿床（点）特征、成矿流体子系统及流域、流体的盐度与均一温度、流体的气液相成分、微量元素含量、稳定同位素特征及成矿流体的浓集中心。得到的流体地质图基本反映了本区成矿流体的性质与状态，反映了两个成矿流体子系统的基本特征，圈字了2个成矿流体子系统的流域范围及7个成矿流体浓集中心。这些浓集中心与已知矿化点分布、化探异常及有利的地质条件基本吻合，成为该区进一步找矿预测的重要依据之一。本项目的实践表明，流体地质填图不失为一种有效的找矿手段。     

Geography (or geographers) and earth system science

A response to Pitman’s recent arguments regarding a perceived invasion of geographers’ territory within the academic division of labour by earth system science. Geography is not the grand synthesiser, the only discipline which can explain the big picture, and arrogant claims that it is are counter-productive, both within and outwith the discipline. Geographers should just get on with what they are doing—well.     

Geography,segregation and American urban society

Despite the growth and increasingly dominant role of cities within its economic, social and political life, the United States still possesses many ingrained ‘rural’ traits that served to characterize the emergent nation in the late 1700s. While an increase in the scale of settlement and related increasing differentiation and segregation between rich and poor, white and coloured, has taken place, within the city we continue to discern the manifestations of traditions which represent the basis of the American heritage. “What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow out of this stony rubbish?”     

Land use change modelling: current practice and research priorities

Land use change models are tools to support the analysis of the causes and consequences of land use dynamics. Scenario analysis with land use models can support land use planning and policy. Numerous land use models are available, developed from different disciplinary backgrounds. This paper reviews current models to identify priority issues for future land use change modelling research. This discussion is based on six concepts important to land use modelling: (1) Level of analysis; (2) Cross-scale dynamics; (3) Driving forces; (4) Spatial interaction and neighbourhood effects; (5) Temporal dynamics; and (6) Level of integration. For each of these concepts an overview is given of the variety of methods used to implement these concepts in operational models. It is concluded that a lot of progress has been made in building land use change models. However, in order to incorporate more aspects important to land use modelling it is needed to develop a new generation of land use models that better address the multi-scale characteristics of the land use system, implement new techniques to quantify neighbourhood effects, explicitly deal with temporal dynamics and achieve a higher level of integration between disciplinary approaches and between models studying urban and rural land use changes. If these requirements are fulfilled models will better support the analysis of land use dynamics and land use policy formulation.     

Geography,tourism and recreation in the antipodes

Conclusions This review, albeit of necessity selective, has outlined a diversity of interests, not only in subject matter but also in approach; a concern with methodological and conceptual issues as well as with the practical application of such research. Thus in spite of the small number of Antipodean geographers actively engaged in the field, the indications are that tourism and recreation research is alive, well and flourishing in the South Pacific.     

The shear strength of rock joints in theory and practice

SummaryThe Shear Strength of Rock Joints in Theory and Practice The paper describes an empirical law of friction for rock joints which can be used both for extrapolating and predicting shear strength data. The equation is based on three index parameters; the joint roughness coefficientJRC, the joint wall compressive strengthJCS, and the residual friction angle _r . All these index values can be measured in the laboratory. They can also be measured in the field. Index tests and subsequent shear box tests on more than 100 joint samples have demonstrated that _r can be estimated to within ± 1° for any one of the eight rock types investigated. The mean value of the peak shear strength angle (arctan/ _n ) for the same 100 joints was estimated to within 1/2°. The exceptionally close prediction of peak strength is made possible by performing self-weight (low stress) sliding tests on blocks with throughgoing joints. The total friction angle (arctan/ _n ) at which sliding occurs provides an estimate of the joint roughness coefficientJRC. The latter is constant over a range of effective normal stress of at least four orders of magnitude. However, it is found that bothJRC andJCS reduce with increasing joint length. Increasing the length of joint therefore reduces not only the peak shear strength, but also the peak dilation angle and the peak shear stiffness. These important scale effects can be predicted at a fraction of the cost of performing large scale in situ direct shear tests.With 20 Figures     

Above the treetops: nature, history and the limits to philosophical naturalism

This paper suggests that the idea of “nature” remains a thematic leitmotif within interdisciplinary debates because it provides a potential bridge between the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities. Yet the development of new kinds of interdisciplinary insights into nature-society relations risks a renewed form of philosophical naturalism within which the epistemological tensions between bio-physical and social domains become blurred. In the fields of architecture, planning and urban studies, for example, we find instances where the idea of nature has mutated into a form of “neo-organicism” in which the ideological and historical context for contrasting ideas of nature remain obscured. If we re-examine our understanding of nature, however, drawing on recent insights in ecology, evolutionary biology and other scientific developments we uncover new possibilities for an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas that may avoid the crude determinisms of the past.     

Perxanthates — A new factor in the theory and practice of flotation

A compound with a UV absorption maximum at 348 nm was observed in Mount Isa copper flotation plant solution. This spectrum was similar to that of the product of reaction of xanthate and peroxide in dilute, alkaline aqueous solution. The compound was termed perxanthate (more correctly “O”-alkyl dithiomonoperoxycarbonate).A new compound, ammonium sec-butyl perxanthate (C₄H₉ OCSSO·NH₄), was prepared by reacting potassium sec-butyl xanthate and hydrogen peroxide in dilute alkaline solution, acidifying, extracting into iso-octane, and precipitating with anhydrous ammonia. Solutions of this compound were compared with solutions containing the Mount Isa compound. Each compound was found to have the same UV absorption spectrum in a given solvent (alkaline aqueous, acid aqueous, chloroform, iso-octane, iso-amyl alcohol, and n-butyl acetate), but the spectra were different in different solvents (especially in alkaline and acid aqueous solutions). Both compounds could be extracted from acid, but not alkaline, aqueous solutions by organic solvents, and both had similar IR and mass spectra.It was concluded that the perxanthate in plant solution resulted from reaction of xanthate with peroxide derived from reduction of oxygen during flotation. This lends credence to the electrochemical theory of flotation and has some important theoretical and practical implications.     

中国城市地面沉降研究的有关问题

根据作者近年来参与地面沉降研究及管理的实践,对国内地面沉降研究中出现的有关问题作了分析探讨,并对目前国内使用的地面沉降计算模型作了评述,指出了地面沉降研究应进一步深化的几个方向。     

综合地质数据库系统的研究与开发

针对地质数据数量庞大、数据分布散乱、数据种类繁多、数据格式复杂等特点,根据线分类方法,对综合地质数据进行分类,提出了地质数据树的概念,运用了综合地质数据模型,采用关系数据库技术,建立了综合地质数据库.同时利用系统导入导出功能,从地质工作的角度实现数据的备份与恢复.将基于角色的资源访问控制(RBAC)思想引入到系统的权限...