Religion on the Fringe: the representation of space and minority religious facilities in the rural–urban fringe of metropolitan Sydney,Australia

This article examines land-use development applications for minority religious facilities in two local government areas on the rural–urban fringe of metropolitan Sydney, Australia. Using critical discourse analysis and underpinned by Lefebvre's (1991) conceptual triad of space, the work interrogates the way in which place identity is generated and codified both by land-use planners and local residents through spatial representation. This representation is revealed in discourses around the compatibility of minority religious facilities for particular zones, lack of a sufficient minority population and social disruption. These discourses reveal a construction of peri-urban space that is aligned with particular elite Anglo-Australian activities (horse riding and gentleman farms) and land uses (rural residential, small-scale agriculture and the ‘bush-church’). These case studies illustrate the potential for the creation of exclusionary, abstract space by urban planners but also the ways in which local residents use discoursive strategies to ensure the stability of their position as elites in rapidly changing spatial situations.     

Household Water Insecurity in the Global North: A Study of Rural and Periurban Settlements on the Texas–Mexico Border

This article examines household-level characteristics that predict water insecurity in low-income rural and periurban communities on the Texas–Mexico border. We employ two logistic regression models (binary and ordered) to identify household characteristics that are more likely to result in water insecurity. Our analyses yielded unexpected findings: Whereas socioeconomic factors are weak predictors, immigration status of household members is a significant variable that contributes to household water insecurity. Policymakers need to pay more attention to marginalized communities as “universal” water access still leaves populations without adequate, reliable, and affordable water in the Global North.     

Contingencies of environmental justice: the case of individual mobility and Grenoble’s Low-Emission Zone

Low-emission zones (LEZs) are core urban areas where vehicles that are deemed especially polluting are prohibited, in the hope of reducing the population’s exposure to outdoor air pollution. LEZs have proliferated in Europe during the past decade. While an emerging body of literature considers LEZs’ impacts on pollution, studies thus far have not tackled LEZs’ impacts on mobility. This article uses household-travel survey data to assess how a projected LEZ in Grenoble, France could affect individuals’ mobility, specifically enquiring whether or not the impact would be socially differentiated and might constitute a social injustice. Four likely scenarios are considered and logistic regressions show that, indeed, the probability that people will be affected by the LEZ is related to their social group. However, interpretations in terms of social justice may vary, depending on the reference population considered and hypotheses regarding the reduction of pollution exposure.     

Driving factors and spatiotemporal effects of environmental stress in urban agglomeration: Evidence from the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region of China

Environmental stress is used as an indicator of the overall pressure on regional environmental systems caused by the output of various pollutants as a result of human activities. Based on the pollutant emissions and socioeconomic databases of the counties in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, this paper comprehensively calculates the environmental stress index(ESI) for the urban agglomeration using the entropy weight method(EWM) at the county scale and analyzes the spatiotemporal patterns and the differences among the four types of major functional zones(MFZ) for the period 2012–2016. In addition, the socioeconomic driving forces of environmental stress are quantitatively estimated using the geographically weighted regression(GWR) method based on the STIRPAT model framework. The results show that:(1) The level of environmental stress in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region was significantly alleviated during that time period, with a decrease in ESI of 54.68% by 2016. This decrease was most significant in Beijing, Tangshan, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, and other central urban areas, as well as the Binhai New Area. The level of environmental stress in counties decreased gradually from the central urban areas to the suburban areas, and the high-level stress counties were eliminated by 2016.(2) The spatial spillover effect of environmental stress increased further at the county scale from 2012 to 2016, and spatial locking and path dependence emerged in the cities of Tangshan and Tianjin.(3) Urbanized zones(development-optimized and development-prioritized zones) were the major areas bearing environmental pollution in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region in that time period. The ESI accounted for 65.98% of the whole region, where there was a need to focus on the prevention and control of environmental pollution.(4) The driving factors of environmental stress at the county scale included population size and the level of economic development. In addition, the technical capacity of environmental waste disposal, the intensity of agricultural production input, the intensity of territorial development, and the level of urbanization also had a certain degree of influence.(5) There was spatial heterogeneity in the effects of the various driving factors on the level of environmental stress. Thus, it was necessary to adopt differentiated environmental governance and reduction countermeasures in respect of emission sources, according to the intensity and spatiotemporal differences in the driving forces in order to improve the accuracy and adaptability of environmental collaborative control in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region.     

Change and continuity of income divide in the American Southeast: A metropolitan scale analyses, 2000–2014

Changing racial/ethnic diversity along with economic growth have also drawn renewed public attention to growing income inequality and lack of economic well-being in the American society. This paper investigates one element of contemporary inequality – the income divide between the richest and the poorest population groups in the metropolises of the U.S. Southeast. This paper examines income divide across southern U.S. metropolises in 2000 and 2014, their change during 2000–2014, their variation across major races/ethnicities, and their relationships with important metropolitan characteristics such as diversity, intermixing, socio-economic status and built-environment attributes. Cartographic, ranking/matrix, and correlations analyses suggest that the largest, most diverse, most segregated, and those with a greater presence of better educated are the most income divided metropolises, whereas the small-to-mid-sized metropolises, with lesser educated population are less divided. The income divide has increased during 2000–2014 in a majority of these metropolises, and for all races/ethnicities, even though Whites and Asians are relatively better-off compared to overall population whereas Blacks and Hispanics lag behind.     

Exploring the future of rural–urban connections in sub-Saharan Africa: modelling urban expansion and its impact on food production in the Addis Ababa region

Abstract

The built-up area of Addis Ababa and its surrounding towns is expanding into the peri-urban region leading to high losses of farmland, directly influencing the food production for the urban population. This paper investigates the patterns of settlement growth in the region surrounding Addis Ababa and their impact on peri-urban agriculture using an urban spatial scenario design model. The effects of two population density scenarios are explored within the framework of a proposed master plan. The model output was used to estimate areas of different suitability levels that would be lost to the modelled settlement expansion. The settlement area in 2038 would represent 29% of the case study’s total area in the low-density scenario but only 19% in the high-density scenario. Compared to the low-density scenario, the high-density scenario would only require a third of the agricultural land transformed into settlement areas. Settlement development would contribute to higher losses of land suitable for cultivating important export products, high nutritional value and import-substituting products. The scenario approach can support sustainable regional planning for settlement expansion that conserves valuable farmland in the peri-urban area and contributes to building capacity for strategic planning of the city regions of sub-Saharan Africa.     

Men and women in Boston learn about terrorism differently: gendering the urban values–vulnerability nexus

This paper expands the values-vulnerability nexus for studying urban vulnerability to terrorism. Gender is among the most salient social structures affecting a person’s interpretation of risk, and urban geographers have demonstrated that gender also deeply affects the experience of urban life. However, the values that shape urban vulnerability to terrorism have been conceptualized more broadly, usually focusing on the underpinning economic organization of cities that terrorists exploit rather than on concepts such as gender. As a result, the role of gender in understanding societal responses to terrorism—specifically risk perception and preparedness—is underdeveloped, including in the 2008 US National Survey of Disaster and Preparedness, which sought to understand Americans’ responses to terrorism. This paper outlines a gender values–vulnerability nexus for studying terrorism. Using interview data from Boston, Massachusetts conducted before and after the 15 April 2013 Boston Marathon attacks, I demonstrate that gender deeply affected how Bostonians learned about and responded to terrorism. The gender values–vulnerability nexus explores the role of gendered political, social, economic, and geographical dimensions in urban vulnerability to terrorism. The role of gender has the potential to substantially increase vulnerability for urban populations, particularly given gender-similar social networks and urban contexts that continue to yield different experiences for men and women. The implications of these findings may signal challenges for urban emergency managers, public safety officials, and ordinary people in American cities.     

Last deglaciation and Holocene environmental change at high altitude in the Pyrenees: the geochemical and paleomagnetic record from Marboré Lake (N Spain)

Sedimentological, geochemical and magnetic data in a ~ 7-m sequence from Marboré Lake (2612 m asl, central Pyrenees) provide information about environmental variability since the last glacier retreat (14.6 cal ka BP) in high-altitude Pyrenean environments. The sediment sequence is composed of millimeter- to centimeter-thick rhythmites made of finer greyish laminae and coarser-grain, carbonate-bearing laminae arranged in varied patterns throughout the sequence. Finer laminae are interpreted as deposition during periods of predominantly ice-covered conditions, whereas coarser, carbonate-bearing sediments reflect periods of higher runoff. The age model, based on 13 ¹⁴C dates and a reservoir effect assessed with ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs, is coherent with known synchronous vegetation changes across the Pyrenees. Warmer intervals such as GI-1 (14.6–12.8 cal ka BP, Bølling/Allerød period), 10.4–8.2 cal ka BP in the Early Holocene, 7.5–5.2 cal ka BP in the Mid Holocene and the Medieval Climate Anomaly (AD 900–1300), are characterized by peaks in productivity and higher carbonate preservation. Deposition during colder periods such as GS-1 (12.8–11.7 cal ka BP), the Neoglacial (ca. 5.2–3.5 cal ka BP) and the Little Ice Age (last 400 years) show an increase in finer laminae. The presence of magnetite throughout the whole section suggests that Marboré Lake maintained predominantly oxic conditions since its formation. Changes in magnetic properties and the increase in magnetite from 3.5 cal ka BP to present, however, indicate a more oxic environment at the lake bottom during the last few millennia. The occurrence of Pb concentration peaks in sediments of Roman and modern age demonstrates the global distribution of heavy metal deposition, even into high-mountain lakes.     

‘We are at the mercy of the floods!’ : Extreme weather events,disrupted mobilities,and everyday navigation in urban Ghana

This paper examines how extreme weather events affect the mobility of low-income urban residents in Ghana. Bringing together scholarship on extreme weather and mobilities, it explores the differential impact of flooding on their everyday lives as they navigate the cities of Accra and Tamale. A range of qualitative methods were drawn on, including semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and follow-along-participant observations in selected communities of both cities. Three key themes emerged: disrupted road and transport infrastructure, everyday mobility challenges, and coping/adaptive strategies. In flooding conditions, residents experienced difficulties leaving/returning home, engaging in income-generating activities, and accessing transport services and other key urban infrastructure. Conceptually, the paper reveals how disruption to urban residents’ daily movements and activities (re)produces new forms of mobilities and immobilities, which have three relational elements: postponed, improvised and assisted. Throughout the analysis, we show how these mobilities/immobilities vary by age and gender: all urban residents, (though women in particular), experience postponed mobility; young people especially engage in improvised mobility; and children and the elderly are in greatest need of assisted mobility. The paper thus contributes to scholarship on extreme weather events and mobility by providing a more spatially nuanced understanding of the multi-faceted domains in which flooding, socio-economic conditions and adaptive strategies intersect to influence urban mobility in resource poor settings.     

Segregation as a multiscalar phenomenon and its implications for neighborhood-scale research: the case of South Seattle 1990–2010

Neighborhoods and neighborhood change are often at least implicitly understood in relation to processes taking place at scales both smaller than and larger than the neighborhood itself. Until recently our capacity to represent these multiscalar processes with quantitative measures has been limited. Recent work on “segregation profiles” by Reardon and collaborators expands our capacity to explore the relationship between population measures and scale. With the methodological tools now available, we need a conceptual shift in how we view population measures in order to bring our theories and measures of neighborhoods into alignment. I argue that segregation can be beneficially viewed as multiscalar; not a value calculable at some “correct” scale, but a continuous function with respect to scale. This shift requires new ways of thinking about and analyzing segregation with respect to scale that engage with the complexity of the multiscalar measure. Using block-level data for eight neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington, I explore the implications of a multiscalar segregation measure for understanding neighborhoods and neighborhood change from 1990 to 2010.     

The Changing Geography of U.S. Hispanics from 1990–2006: A Shift to the South and Midwest

Abstract

Between 1990 and 2000 the U.S. Hispanic population increased by 14 million, which is the largest decadal population rise in United States history. This increase was not spread evenly throughout the United States, nor was it isolated to locations that already had large Hispanic populations. On the contrary, areas that previously had a relatively small Hispanic population experienced large percentage increases. In this article the regional variability in Hispanic population growth is explored, along with an emphasis on the economic pull factors driving those demographic changes. This analysis illustrates how restructuring in the meatpacking industry, and the associated economic impacts, have created a dependence on a low wage, illegal labor force that has shaped the recent demographic trend in the South and Midwest.     

Reclamation and revolt: Social responses in Eastern Inner Mongolia to flood/drought-induced refugees from the North China Plain 1644–1911

In the present study, Eastern Inner Mongolia (EIM) and the North China Plain (NCP) during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) were selected as study areas. Based on records of agricultural exploitation, settlement expansion, and revolts obtained from the Veritable Records of the Qing Dynasty (a collection of official records), a collection of proxy data reflecting historical social change in EIM was gathered. The social response in EIM to the immigrants from the NCP, who were mainly destitute and homeless refugees and came into EIM under the acquiescence or even with the encouragement of the government in and after a severe flood or drought, was analysed by comparing the data on climatic factors as well as changes in governmental policy. The results indicated that social response was significantly dependent on phase changes. In the 18th century, immigrants from the NCP promoted the reclamation of EIM, which was a pastoral region throughout the 17th century and displayed agricultural prosperity, settlement expansion, and positive regional interactions. However, from the beginning of the 19th century, agriculture declined and settlement slowed. Immigrants intensified local social contradictions in EIM, which led to a series of armed revolts and collapse in the late 19th century. This transformation was affected by both natural and human factors, especially periodic fluctuations in temperature, which significantly affected land use and environmental capacity in EIM by controlling the location of the agro-pastoral transitional zone, and the implementation and repeal of quarantine policy, which immediately affected the extent of immigration in EIM.     

Authigenic clays in East Africa: Regional trends and paleolimnology at the Plio–Pleistocene boundary, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Ultrafine clays (<0.1 m) from six East African basins show wide chemical variability that can be conveniently described as the octahedral cation index (OCI), calculated as octahedral element ratio Mg/(Al+Fe). Values range from dioctahedral clays with OCI < 0.1 (upland soils/detrital sources) to trioctahedral clays with OCI > 4 (saline, alkaline lake deposits). The association of Mg-rich clays with saline, alkaline conditions provides a paleochemical proxy in sedimentary contexts. The octahedral chemistry of central-basin clays from paleolake Olduvai (1.79 Ma) records two lake expansions, with an intervening lake contraction, over 18,000 years. The initial lake expansion correlates well with the marine record of increased African humidity, but the subsequent drying episode does not, suggesting that some high-frequency environmental oscillations in East Africa may occur independent of obliquity and precession control. The clay record correlates well with the fossiliferous and archaeologically rich stratigraphy of the lake margin, and suggests that fossils and artifacts accumulated on the exposed lake margin over <4000 years. The chemistry of clays is a potentially powerful tool to add to multi-proxy studies in basins with alkaline waters, particularly in stratigraphic intervals that lack pollen, calcareous, or siliceous microfossils.     

Variations in levels of deposition of atmosphere-borne industrial pollutants at three oligotrophic lakes in Ireland over the last 50–150 years: sediment-based archives of sources,levels and ecological sensitivity

Atmosphere-borne acidic pollutants constitute an important, potentially critical, risk to aquatic ecosystems. Long-time series datasets are a requirement in the assessment of the biological impacts of both increased and decreased loadings of acidic pollutants and allow for the anticipation of future pollution loadings and their effects that can be acted upon with some confidence. Little is known concerning levels of deposition of atmospheric pollutants and their effects on acid-sensitive aquatic ecosystems in Ireland. Moreover, unequivocal evidence of acidification by atmospheric deposition is limited. The objective of this study was to provide a preliminary assessment of pH response in three lake sites that are situated in acid-sensitive areas of Ireland, and to determine whether pH response tends to be uniform or differs due to variations in atmospheric loading and catchment properties. Levels of spheroidal carbonaceous particle (SCP) deposition have been used as a general indicator of the timing and extent of atmospheric pollutant loading and ecosystem response has been assessed by estimating diatom-inferred pH with a weighted-averaging calibration model (72 lakes) developed specifically for the Irish ecoregion. Levels of diatom-inferred pH (DI-pH) appear to respond to increased and decreased levels of atmospheric pollution loads—as represented by SCPs—at two of the three sites examined in the east and west of Ireland. In contrast, the site situated in the southwest of Ireland showed a varying and less directional DI-pH response, possibly due to lower deposition pressures, large lake size, and more buffered edaphic geology.