Firm finances, weather derivatives and geography

This paper considers some intellectual, practical and political dimensions of collaboration between human and physical geographers exploring how firms are using relatively new financial products - weather derivatives - to displace any costs of weather-related uncertainty and risk. The paper defines weather derivatives and indicates how they differ from weather insurance products before considering the geo-political, cultural and economic context for their creation. The paper concludes by reflecting on the challenges of research collaboration across the human-physical geography divide and suggests that while such initiatives may be undermined by a range of institutional and intellectual factors, conversations between physical and human geographers remain and are likely to become increasingly pertinent. The creation of a market in weather derivatives raises a host of urgent political and regulatory questions and the confluence of natural and social knowledges, co-existing within and through the geography academy, provides a constructive and creative basis from which to engage with this new market and wider discourses of uneven economic development and climate change.     

Estuarine Ecosystem Response Captured Using a Synoptic Climatology

Estuarine and coastal ecosystems respond strongly to proximate climate forcing. In this study, we present a regional, synoptic climatology as an approach to classify weather patterns that generate interannual variability in coastal and estuarine ecosystems. Synoptic climatology is a method that classifies sea level pressure data into distinct patterns representing common weather features for a specified region. A synoptic climatology was developed for the eastern United States and used to quantify surface conditions affecting Chesapeake Bay during wet and dry years. In a synthesis analysis, several mechanisms were identified that explained the link between weather patterns and ecosystem structure, principal among them is the delivery of freshwater to the Bay during spring. Wet and dry years were characterized by shifts in biogeography of the Chesapeake Bay. The shifts resulted from habitat changes and trophic interactions and included the timing and magnitude of the spring phytoplankton bloom, the distribution/abundance of mesozooplankton and gelatinous zooplankton, and juvenile indices of fish. Synoptic climatology resolved regional weather variability at a spatial scale not strongly controlled by larger-scale climate indices and explained ecosystem responses in Chesapeake Bay.     

Commodification and the selling of ethnic music to tourists

The commodification of culture has received much attention in social and cultural geography. Based on empirical research in Lijiang, a World Heritage site in China, this paper contributes to an understanding of commodification through a focus on selling ethnic music to tourists. Drawing upon a theoretical framework of tourism commodification and the cultural politics of music, I argue that the commodification of music is embedded in a temporal process in which culture, economy, and politics synthesize to shape place making and identity building. This paper presents three major findings: (1) commodification sustains discourses of identity building and cultural revival that in turn serve to justify the pursuit of profit; (2) commodification is variegated over time and across space; and (3) commodification provides the conditions for local musicians to increase their capacity to produce local narratives of music. By demonstrating the commodification of ethnic music and the cultural politics of musical space in Lijiang, this paper calls for an interconnection of economy, culture, and politics in understanding the materiality of music.     

大气能量有效性的研究进展

大气能量有效性一直是大气科学研究中的重要组成部分，在过去的几十年中，得到了长足发展。对大气能量学特别是能量有效性问题的研究进展进行了全面回顾。为了将能量有效性的研究从全球大气整体向局地或区域尺度拓展，针对经典有效位能理论中存在的问题提出了扰动位能的新概念，并初步探讨了其理论和应用问题。在已开展的工作中，利用NCEP/NCAR再分析资料研究了扰动位能的时空结构以及与大气动能之间的联系，取得了很有意义的结果。     

Transgressions of the man on the moon: climate change,Indigenous expertise,and the posthumanist ethics of place and space

Indigenous peoples have been enrolled in climate change research for decades, participating in data-gathering, as writing collaborators, and serving as the symbolic “canary in the coal mine” for public outreach and policy-making. They have indeed experienced some of the most rapid environmental changes, but rather than emphasize their vulnerabilities, we argue their expertise is narrowly understood in formulating knowledge; the research on climate change has a limited understanding of what it might mean to be inter- or trans-disciplinary because research is formulated exclusively through the assumptions of Enlightenment thought, without sufficiently engaging non-Western subjectivities. Qualitative social sciences and “Indigenous methodologies” can be used to better achieve trans-disciplinarity; in this article we re-tell a story told by Native elders from tribes across Alaska about the “man on the moon.” While literally referring to the US moon landing, elders invoke this story when addressing climate change: it teaches the ethics of the human-nature relationship, developed from a “more-than-human” (or “posthuman”) philosophy. Our data comes from participant-observation and oral history; we draw upon poststructuralist theory, and frame our analysis through the literatures of critical geography, science studies, and American Indian studies. To ensure that Indigenous peoples are not used as props in Western policy agendas, researchers must engage with non-Enlightenment intellectual traditions. More than being a source of data or a symbol of humanity’s ruin, Indigenous wisdom can productively inform sustainable policy agendas to adapt to climate change. What can be learned, for example, is a more-than-human ethics of place and space.     

Planning for resettlement: building partnerships for,by, and with Indigenous peoples

Efforts in the United States to plan or implement relocation in response to climate risks have struggled to improve material conditions for participants, to incorporate local knowledge, and to keep communities intact. Mixed methodologies of community geography provide an opportunity for dialogue and knowledge-sharing to collaboratively diagnose the challenges of climate adaptation led by communities. In this article, we advance a participatory practice model for the co-creation of knowledge initiated during a two-day workshop with members from the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe from Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana, Yup’ik people from Newtok Village in Alaska, and researchers from the MIT Resilient Communities Lab. Building on prior scholarship of indigenizing climate change research, this article shares the experience of the workshop to support knowledge exchange and dialogue, with the goal of understanding how to build participatory and non-extractive community-academic partnerships. We reflect on the community values and principles used to guide this workshop to inform more inclusive and co-produced research partnerships, and pedagogies that can improve and assist the self-determination of groups impacted by climate change. Workshop presentations and discussions highlight interconnected themes of resources, systems & structures, regulatory imbalance, and resilience that underpin climate resettlement. We reflect on the narratives presented by members of both Indigenous tribes and NGO partners that illustrate the shortcomings of resettlement planning practices past and present as perpetuating existing inequality. In response to this structured knowledge exchange, we identify potential roles for community-academic partnerships that aim to improve the equity of existing resettlement models. We propose approaches for incorporating traditional knowledge into the pedagogy, discourse, and practice of academic planning programs.

     

The Influence of American geography on Korean geography

Korean modern geography emerged from the dark age of unfortunate Japanese colonial rule after liberation in 1945, and has grown rapidly since the 1960s. Modern geographical theories and methodologies were introduced to Korea by the Korean geographers who received PhD degrees in the United States and returned home to teach at universities in Korea, especially in the 1970s and early 1980s. American geography has influenced the progress of the modern geography in Korea in various ways — education systems, curricula for college students, training graduate students — and research methodologies in Korean geography during the last half-century have been directly and indirectly influenced by American geography. The influence has had, however, both positive and negative effects in the development of Korean geography. There is a tendency in recent years to reinterpret Western theories and concepts in the Korean context, considering distinctive regional and cultural characteristics.     

中国沙漠物源研究:回顾与展望

沙漠物源研究不仅在风沙地貌学上有重大的理论和实践意义,而且对联结大气粉尘排放、黄土堆积、气候系统和海洋生物地球化学循环也有重要价值。在简要回顾中国沙漠研究的基础上,梳理了中国沙漠物源研究的理论、方法和主要成果,结合国际上沉积物物源分析的趋向,指出目前世界沙漠物源的研究都是基于沉积物组份属性统计的反演模型,这种研究范式在数据获取、处理与解释方面存在缺陷,如沉积物的取样设计与测试分析、未消除"粒级依赖"对沉积物组份影响、数据未进行对数变换、忽视Dickinson图解应用的前提条件等。提出今后中国沙漠物源研究的方向:①采用正确统一的取样设计和分析方法对各沙漠的沉积物组份属性进行系统研究,建立中国沙漠沉积物组份的属性数据库;②选择若干典型沙漠,利用其周边山地详尽的地质构造、母岩和气候数据,定量构建沉积物生成的正演模型,模拟源区生成沉积物的数量、成分和结构,并用建成的沉积物组份属性数据验证和校正;③定量评估河流冲积物、冲积-湖积物、洪积-冲积物和基岩风化的残积、坡积物对中国各沙漠物源的贡献率与迁移路径,研究中国各沙漠中细颗粒物质的形成机制,对比中国沙漠与低纬度沙漠物源的形成机制;④定量研究历史和地质时间尺度沙漠-黄土-深海沉积物物源的内在联系及其驱动因素,建立陆地-大气-海洋物质循环的机理模型。     

An overview of sensor calibration inter-comparison and applications

Long-term climate data records (CDR) are often constructed using observations made by multiple Earth observing sensors over a broad range of spectra and a large scale in both time and space. These sensors can be of the same or different types operated on the same or different platforms. They can be developed and built with different technologies and are likely operated over different time spans. It has been known that the uncertainty of climate models and data records depends not only on the calibration quality (accuracy and stability) of individual sensors, but also on their calibration consistency across instruments and platforms. Therefore, sensor calibration inter-comparison and validation have become increasingly demanding and will continue to play an important role for a better understanding of the science product quality. This paper provides an overview of different methodologies, which have been successfully applied for sensor calibration inter-comparison. Specific examples using different sensors, including MODIS, AVHRR, and ETM+, are presented to illustrate the implementation of these methodologies.     

陆面过程与天气研究

陆面作为大气运动的下边界,通过动量、热量及物质交换与大气发生复杂的相互作用。陆面过程被认为是影响天气气候的关键过程之一。关于陆面过程对气候的影响已经开展了大量较为深入的研究,相比之下,针对陆面过程对天气的影响研究并没有受到足够的重视。近年来,陆面过程与天气研究也开始受到了越来越多的关注。本文从陆面基本要素、下垫面构成、陆面诱发的局地环流3个方面,回顾了土壤湿度、地形、土地利用、山谷-平原环流等要素和过程对强对流、暴雨、台风、高温热浪等天气事件影响研究的相关进展,以期为今后的研究提供参考。需要指出,尽管此方面的研究已取得了一定进展,但关于陆面过程对天气,尤其是极端(高影响)天气的影响及机制还有待深入研究,进而从陆面过程的角度来理解重要天气形成、发生和发展的机理,从而为数值模式发展和天气预报业务提供更有力的科学支撑。     

地面GPS探测大气的最新进展

综述了利用地面ＧＰＳ站探测大气的技术，包括基本原理，方法，应用，最新进展和结果的介绍以及存在于该技术的误差源的讨论。从地面ＧＰＳ站的观测和表面气象参数可得出天顶湿延迟的估计，再由它和可降水汽量之间的转换关系就可得出ＰＷＶ估计。这种方法求得的ＰＷＶ时间序列不仅能提高天气预报的准确度而且有助于气候变化的研究和数值天气预报模型的改进，这就是新兴学科ＧＰＳ气象学形成的基础。     

Changing climate and human response: The impact of recent events on climatology

Over the last decade climate has become an increasingly significant factor in world affairs because of its effect on food supplies, energy consumption and environmental quality. At the same time the scientific community has had to re-appraise the nature and scope of climatology, increasing political relevance, leading to a growth in interdisciplinary activity involving both natural and social scientists. The 1980s promise to continue this broadening of scope as the two-way interaction of human societies and the atmospheric system are further explored and evaluated. This paper examines these trends, paying particular reference to the main climate-based environmental concerns currently being debated: the effect of halocarbons on the ozone shield, climate and food production, desertification, the CO₂ ‘greenhouse’ effect, acid rain and the significance of teleconnections.     

Everyday effects, practices and causal mechanisms of ‘cultural embeddedness’: Learning from Utah’s high tech regional economy

In recent years, economic geographers have drawn extensively upon notions of ‘cultural embeddedness’ to explore how spatially variable sets of cultural conventions, norms, values and beliefs shape firms’ innovative performance in dynamic regional economies. However, our understanding of these causal links remains partial, reinforced by an ‘over-territorialised’ conception of cultural embeddedness which sidelines the role of institutional actors operating outside and across the boundaries of ‘the local’. So motivated, this paper offers a theoretically-informed - and theoretically informing - empirical analysis of the high tech regional economy in Salt Lake City, Utah to explore the everyday causal mechanisms, practices and processes - both local and extra-local - through which firms’ cultural embedding within the region is manifested, performed and (un)intentionally (re)produced. In so doing, this paper aims to further our understanding of the constitutive entanglement and complex interweaving of cultural/economic practices, and to contribute to the development of an in-depth empirical corpus of work which compliments the exciting conceptual developments that have largely dominated cultural economic geography over the last decade.     

Utilizing synoptic climatological methods to assess the impacts of climate change on future tornado-favorable environments

Previous research into the impacts of climate change on severe mid-latitude weather has been limited by the spatial resolution of many important variables in global climate model output. By utilizing synoptic climatological methods, however, this research takes an entirely different approach. Using a six-step process that includes principal components analysis, cluster analysis, and discriminant function analysis, this study first creates a continental-scale map pattern classification at three levels of the atmosphere, from geopotential height and temperature fields. These patterns are then associated to historic F2 and stronger United States?? tornado days using binary logistic regression. Using output data from two GCMs, spanning five different model emissions scenarios, this synoptic climatology of tornadoes is then utilized in order to project the changes in the frequency and seasonality of tornadic environments due to a changing climate. Results indicate that F2 and stronger US tornado days will increase anywhere from 3.8 to 12.7% by the 2090s. The majority of this increase is likely to be manifested in the earlier part of the tornado season. In addition to the shift in seasonality, a broadening of the peak tornado season is also noticed under some scenarios. Geographically, portions of the Northern and Central Plains, the High Plains, the Lower Great Lakes, the Mid-Atlantic States, and the Southeast are projected to experience an increase in tornado days under some future scenarios. The Upper Great Lakes states and the Southern Plains are projected to experience a decrease in tornado days.     

气候变化对陆地水循环影响研究的问题

简要地回顾了现存的由气候情景驱动水文模型研究气候变化对陆地水循环影响的方法。指出这种单向连接方法很难将气候变暖及人类活动引起的陆地水循环变化反馈给大气。这既影响对降雨的预测精度,又不能正确地描写陆地水循环的变化。近10年来气候学家对大气环流模型中陆面过程模型的改进以及水文气候学家对大尺度水文模型研究所取得的进展,展现了它们之间的互补性,以及未来用水文-气候耦合模型方法研究气候变化与人类活动对陆地水循环影响及水资源预测的可能性。     

A matter of terminology — the ecological approach in geography: a re-examination of basic concepts

Ecology is receiving increased attention as a research focus for geography and other academic disciplines. A consideration of basic concepts and the relationship of such ideas to the organizing frameworks of individual disciplines is needed to define the position of ecology as a substantive field or methodological approach. Geographers are concerned with the identification and explanation of the spatial patterning of earth phenomena. The ecosystem concept, with an emphasis on structure, networks of interaction, and function, is quite useful for conducting such geographical investigations. It acquires enhanced value within the subfields of geography by refining the approach through topical foci. Cultural ecology is one example; in this case a system is studied in terms of how its various cultural and biophysical components relate to a cultural characteristic (s) selected as the focus of investigation. Ecology is thus viewed as a methodological approach with significant applications for geographic research.     

Neolithic agriculture, freshwater resources and rapid environmental changes on the lower Yangtze, China

Analyses of sedimentary evidence in the form of spores, pollen, freshwater algae, dinoflagellate cysts, phytoliths and charcoal from AMS ¹⁴C-dated, Holocene-aged sequences provide an excellent opportunity to examine the responses of Neolithic agriculturalists in the lower Yangtze to changing environments. Evidence from two sites close to the southern margin of the Yangtze delta and separated by what is now Hangzhou Bay attests the critical importance to early attempts at food production of access to freshwater resources. More readily, if episodically, available freshwater resources during the early to mid-Holocene on the Hangjiahu plain may have encouraged an early reliance on rice-based agriculture, which in turn facilitated the accumulation of agricultural surpluses and cultural diversification. Cultural change was relatively attenuated and human population pressures possibly lower on the Ningshao plain, seemingly because of much more profound environmental impacts of variations in local hydrological conditions, and because predominantly saline conditions, associated with rising relative sea level, hampered the early development of irrigated agriculture. The evidence, although largely dating to the early and middle parts of the Holocene, provides a timely warning of the complexity of vulnerability to climate change-induced processes of agriculture, and indeed human activities more generally, on megadeltas in Asia.     

A low plain between arcadia and agronomy: Ippolito Nievo and the Friulan landscape

An analysis of the historical and cultural context of a large number of literary works illuminates the concept of landscape, a recurrent theme in contemporary humanistic geography. In this context, the works of Ippolito Nievo present an opportunity to look closer at the socio-economic circumstances of his time while also offering suggestive interpretative elements about the attitudes held concerning the wetlands of the lower Friulan plain.     

The role of applied climatological research in alleviating the hazardous impact of the monsoons in South and Southeast Asia

This paper surveys the extent to which the Asian Monsoon system and, especially, its hazard component have been studied from the applied climatological standpoint and seeks to draw attention to the deficiencies and inadequacies. More intensive and detailed investigations are required for providing a better basis for planning, implementing and evaluating preventive and remedial action in hazard mitigation. The main focus of the discussion is the instability of the hydro-climate which constitutes the bane of Asian agricultural economies. It is felt that the main thrust of applied climatological inquires should be directed towards instilling in decision-makers, planners, and the farming community in general, a better knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the opportunities and challenges of the water environment as an economic constraint. In this connection, more emphasis should be placed on the manageable aspects of the atmosphere/man interaction directly or indirectly contributing towards greater hazard proneness. The role that applied climatology proposes to play should be guided more by physical-environmental and socio-economic realities rather than by mere academic dictates. Also, the need for an inter-disciplinary approach to studying the adversities of the monsoon climate cannot be over-emphasized.     

数据同化在气候模拟中的应用——对中国西部区域气候研究的展望

现代数值模拟技术是一种把数值模型与观测资料结合起来对地球系统状态进行理想化评估的方法。除了在数值天气预报和气候分析中发挥重要作用外，数据同化技术也被应用于气候研究的许多方面，如模式初始化、确认及最优化。主要通过几个与中国西部区域气候研究紧密相关的议题，讨论了数据同化在气候模拟中的应用。并且阐述了其将面对的挑战、潜在方法学、最新研究成果和未来发展。