Where Are the Great Plains? A Cartographic Analysis

Geographic regions all have some degree of uncertainty, though this is seldom represented on their maps. Uncertainty of the Great Plains boundary is shown here by comparing 50 previously published maps of the region. These maps were found in a variety of sources, from classic 1930s geographic works to current regional studies on the Internet. By examining this diverse collection, a distinction can be seen between those maps using primarily physical criteria to define the region and those using cultural characteristics, or a combination of these two characteristics. This distinction is supported by trends in boundary shape, size, and even the map's date of publication. The Great Plains is shown as a complex region, subject to the interpretations of individual cartographers, and can be better understood by considering all points of view rather than any single boundary line.     

Where Have We Been? Where Are We Going?

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible” Lord Kelvin ca. 1895, British Mathematician and Physicist²“But what ... is it good for?” Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.³     

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.     

Postindustrial Manufacturing in a Sunbelt Metropolis: Where Are Factories Located in Phoenix?

Manufacturing establishments are integral to the spatial structure of fast-growing Sunbelt metropolitan areas, but most concepts and theories of intrametropolitan location were largely developed for an earlier technological era and different spatial contexts. This article investigates the location of nine disaggregated manufacturing sectors in Phoenix, Arizona, showing varying degrees of central core concentration and metropolitan-wide clustering. Distinct sectoral co-location patterns are also evident. We interpret our results as evidence that the intrametropolitan location of postindustrial manufacturing is best understood as a series of spatial distributions with varying concentration, centralization, clustering, and other order-based characteristics. There is little evidence that randomly scattered discrete industrial zones have developed nor that spatial patterns are uniform. Enduring lock-in effects tied to transportation infrastructure are pivotal to understanding the locational distribution of manufacturing industries in metropolitan Phoenix. Results do not support a hypothesis that a positive relationship exists between establishment size and distance from sectoral mean centers.     

Where Should the Start Zone Be Located for Xiong’an New Area? A Land Use Perspective

China announced plans on April 1, 2017 to create Xiong’an New Area, a new economic zone about 110 km southwest of Beijing. The new area of national significance covers the three counties of Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin in Hebei Province, and is home to Baiyangdian, a major wetland in northern China. It will cover around 100 km² initially (called “Starting Zone”) and will be expanded to 200 km² in the mid-term and about 2000 km² in the long term. In this context, it is important to assess the land use pattern for the new area’s planning and development. Based on remote sensing interpretation of Landsat OLI images, we examine the current land use features, the potential for built-up land saving and intensive use, and the spatial variation of arable land quality. The results indicate that the arable lands, built-up lands and wetlands account for around 60%, 20% and 10%, respectively. The potential for rural built-up land saving and intensive use is quite large. The arable land quality and use intensity in Rongcheng and Anxin counties are much better than that of Xiongxian. The pros and cons for three potential options for the Starting Zone are listed and compared. The eastern area of Rongcheng county, to the north of Baiyangdian, is believed to be the most suitable Starting Zone. Policy recommendations for built-up land expansion, farmland saving and flood risk mitigation for Xiong’an New Area are also proposed in this paper.     

Where have all the people gone? The limits of resilience in coastal communities

The concept of resilience has been used to assess community development and its prospects in natural resource-based localities. The objectives of the article are to evaluate the resilience of two Icelandic coastal communities, and to reflect on the possible shortcomings of the resilience concept for providing policy guidance. Mixed qualitative methods were used, with several weeks of fieldwork in each location. The results showed that the two case communities have had to adjust to a radical change in the fisheries management, with the loss of resource entitlements. Additionally, substantial differences were found in their level of resilience. One community was undergoing a transition towards a non-fisheries-based existence through several innovative new initiatives, while the other was struggling to adjust and seemed to have reached its limits of resilience, as witnessed by continuing outmigration and declining services. A state-sponsored programme to rekindle the local economy has had limited success so far. The authors conclude by identifying some of the limitations of the focus on endogenous strategies in much of the resilience literature, which does not pay much attention to the broader political economy.     

“Where to put the spare cash?” Subprime urbanization and the geographies of the financial crisis in the Global South

This article investigates the geographies of subprime urbanization, and by extension, the displacement of 2007–08 financial crisis to the Global South. Previous research examined the formative ways that technological innovations enabled mortgages to deterritorialize and circulate on secondary markets. Less is known about how cities with underdeveloped financial systems and housing markets have been impacted. The case of Tangier, Morocco, is used to argue that the geography of the crisis must be understood as a particular mode of urbanization, subprime urbanization, predicated upon the creation and exploitation of housing submarkets into new geographical frontiers. Subprime urbanization emerged in Tangier in response to the historic contradictions of regional disinvestment in northern Morocco. Weak financial inclusion for local low-income homebuyers led State bureaucrats to increasingly use housing policy to encourage European investment into Moroccan property markets, thereby transforming policy away from improving homeownership access and inclusion toward an urban model centered on the logics of international property speculation.     

Are ferns in arid environments underestimated? Contribution from the Saharan Mountains

Although ferns are able to colonize dry regions through specific adaptations, they are suggested to be rare in arid environments. By comparing recent observations in the South-Saharan Mountains with existing data from the whole Sahara, we re-evaluated the distribution of the understudied Saharan fern diversity. Observations in the Aïr Mountains (Niger) from 2003 to 2006 identified six ferns species, among which three were new records for the Aïr and for Niger. A total of 17 species are currently known from the Sahara. The desiccation tolerant Actiniopteris radiata and Cheilanthes coriacea were located in habitats with abiotic refuges providing shade, whereas the drought avoiding Ophioglossum polyphyllum was found in a sandy highland plain. All were growing in isolated populations at elevations above 1600 m. These results, combined with data from the Hoggar and the Tibesti mountains, indicate that ferns are more frequent than initially thought in arid environments thanks to efficient dispersal, elevation refuges, physiological adaptations, and the presence of local abiotic refuges. The three newly recorded species most likely radiated from the Ethiopian highlands. Their deep isolation, their rarity, and their successful adaptation to drought suggest that their conservation status might be particularly high.     

Are Fractal Dimensions of the Spatial Distribution of Mineral Deposits Meaningful?

It has been proposed that the spatial distribution of mineral deposits is bifractal. An implication of this property is that the number of deposits in a permissive area is a function of the shape of the area. This is because the fractal density functions of deposits are dependent on the distance from known deposits. A long thin permissive area with most of the deposits in one end, such as the Alaskan porphyry permissive area, has a major portion of the area far from known deposits and consequently a low density of deposits associated with most of the permissive area. On the other hand, a more equi-dimensioned permissive area, such as the Arizona porphyry permissive area, has a more uniform density of deposits. Another implication of the fractal distribution is that the Poisson assumption typically used for estimating deposit numbers is invalid. Based on datasets of mineral deposits classified by type as inputs, the distributions of many different deposit types are found to have characteristically two fractal dimensions over separate non-overlapping spatial scales in the range of 5–1000 km. In particular, one typically observes a local dimension at spatial scales less than 30–60 km, and a regional dimension at larger spatial scales. The deposit type, geologic setting, and sample size influence the fractal dimensions. The consequence of the geologic setting can be diminished by using deposits classified by type. The crossover point between the two fractal domains is proportional to the median size of the deposit type. A plot of the crossover points for porphyry copper deposits from different geologic domains against median deposit sizes defines linear relationships and identifies regions that are significantly underexplored. Plots of the fractal dimension can also be used to define density functions from which the number of undiscovered deposits can be estimated. This density function is only dependent on the distribution of deposits and is independent of the definition of the permissive area. Density functions for porphyry copper deposits appear to be significantly different for regions in the Andes, Mexico, United States, and western Canada. Consequently, depending on which regional density function is used, quite different estimates of numbers of undiscovered deposits can be obtained. These fractal properties suggest that geologic studies based on mapping at scales of 1:24,000 to 1:100,000 may not recognize processes that are important in the formation of mineral deposits at scales larger than the crossover points at 30–60 km.     

Are We There Yet? A Roadmap to Understanding National Park Service Rulemaking

The preproposal stage of the rulemaking process is notoriously understudied, but enormously important in determining regulatory outputs. Recently, Rinfret (2011c Rinfret , S. R. 2011c . Frames of influence: U.S. environmental rulemaking case studies . Rev. Policy Res. 28 ( 3 ): 231 – 245 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) analyzed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) rulemaking process and developed a frame analysis model to interpret stakeholder influence during the preproposal stage. Rinfret argues that stakeholders use three frames to influence agency rulemaking, including an expertise, a fiscal feasibility, and an information frame. This article tests this model to determine whether it is applicable to other federal agencies such as the National Park Service (NPS). Through an analysis of stakeholder framing within the 2012 NPS Yellowstone Winter Use Rule, this research confirms that Rinfret's model is indeed applicable to the NPS process. Therefore, this research suggests that this theoretical model examining stakeholder influence is applicable to other public land agencies, and arguably can be applied across the bureaucracy.     

Trump's America or the People's America? A View from the Periphery

My overarching argument in this article is that the United States is no different than any other country in the world in that its population has elected good leaders and bad. As in other places, global and national neoliberal economic reforms have affected the U.S. economy, hallowing out the manufacturing sector, shrinking government and social safety nets, and fostering income inequality. This has left various U.S. publics struggling to make ends meet and vulnerable to demagoguery. Although the country prides itself on the strength of its institutions, institutions are no more than social contracts that need to be assiduously maintained by civil society. Although there is a strong “ivory tower” tradition in U.S. academe, the republic needs scholars—acting as public intellectuals—to fully participate in civic debates if it is to have a sufficiently robust civil society that maintains and defends its democracy and institutions. This article is divided into three sections. First, I briefly review the Trump administration's proposals for international development and diplomacy, giving particular attention to these issues in the African context. Second, I present an argument for why the United States needs public intellectuals now more than ever. Third, I share some concrete advice on how geographers might better connect with various publics.