Landslides: a top international journal in geological engineering and engineering geology?

Scientific literature is becoming daily more and more abundant. Scientific and professional journals as primary information sources are competing to each other to attract readership. Their position (ranking, visibility, attractiveness, prestige) in scientific community can be measured by using different journal bibliometric and scientometric parameters, journal impact factor being only one of them. Springer Nature publishes the journal Landslides: Journal of the International Consortium on Landslides since 2004. Being examined in the past by different authors from bibliometric and editorial point of view, this review on the journal’s achievements confirmed the high ranking of this journal in the fields of geological and geotechnical engineering and engineering geology. Strong and weak points are discussed from the bibliometric point of view, stressing the need for higher internationality of co-authorship of published articles in order to be true international journal. Continuous publishing and the move to a monthly journal in 2018 will eventually increase journal’s h-index and cited half-life of citations, but further editorial efforts should be directed to attract excellent review papers and focused technical notes to increase cites per paper. Until now, the journal Landslides is the foremost journal in the field of landslide disaster risk reduction, and the top young international journal in the field of geological engineering and engineering geology.     

The Zaghawa and the Midob of North Darfur – A comparison of migration behaviour

Two ethnic groups of North Darfur, the Zaghawa and the Midob, are being compared as regards their migration behaviour and their identification in their destination areas. Both groups have severely suffered as a result of the drought phase of the last three decades, during which more than half of the Zaghawa and Midob have migrated southwards and to the towns. Despite the similarity of the two ethnic groups, being non-Arab agropastoralists who are socially and politically marginalised both within Darfur and within the Sudan, they show marked differences in their migration behaviour and ethnic solidarity. The Zaghawa migrants are considerably more economically successful than the Midob migrants. The main reasons are: – The Zaghawa started their outmigration earlier than the Midob. Thus, they could establish ethnically-based networks in Libya and the Gulf countries, to which Zaghawa migrants can resort to make a good start in their destination areas. By the time the Midob started their migration in the 1980s, the conditions of employment in the Arab oil countries had worsened. – The Zaghawa show a strong clan solidarity. They readily lend money to young members of their clan to cover the high costs of travelling to the Arab oil countries for work, where many of them have already established themselves. – The Midob, both in the Sudan and abroad, have much less resources available. The only country open for them outside the Sudan is Libya. Lacking capital, the Midob go there on camels, mostly illegally. Having no connections in Libya, except those to other poor Midob there, they usually try to work in herding sheep and goats, which is not a lucrative profession. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Agricultural diversification and dietary diversity: A feminist political ecology of the everyday experiences of landless and smallholder households in northern Ghana

There is an emerging literature suggesting that when smallholder households diversify their agriculture, a wide range of food groups will be available, and consequently, dietary diversity will be improved. The present article brings this literature into critical conversation with research in feminist political ecology. Grounded in five years of repeated fieldwork, the article weaves together 70 in-depth interviews, and dietary as well as farm production diversity data from 30 households in northern Ghana. This dataset is analyzed by considering not only the diversity of farming systems, but also household headship, including male-headed, de facto female-headed, and de jure female-headed. Among other findings, the paper suggests that dietary diversity scores are lowest for households who have lost their farmlands to on-going land grabbing in Ghana. Furthermore, the paper suggests that while agricultural diversification is essential, it is not sufficient in itself to address nutritional challenges confronting smallholder households. In the contested and political arena of the household, the gendered politics of access to food can deeply shape how agricultural diversification contributes to dietary diversity. Overall, I do not wish to conclude that there are no benefits of increasing the diversity of farm production. Rather, I wish to stress that farm production diversity might not be the best or only strategy to improving dietary diversity among rural households. Through this case study, I also contribute to emerging research in new feminist political ecologies by demonstrating how the intersection of gender, seniority, marital status, and sexual politics shapes resource access and control.     

AnnouncingEstuaries and Coasts, Journal of the Estuarine Research Federation

This is the first issue ofEstuaries and Coasts (ISSN 1559-2723), which continues the Estuarine Research Federation's publication inEstuaries (1978–2005) (ISSN 0160-8347) of scientific reports, reviews, comments, and notes on estuarine and coastal scientific research from around the world. Numbering of volumes ofEstuaries and Coasts continues uninterrupted fromEstuaries since the expanded title was not intended to mark a change in the scope of the journal. It is our hope that the journal will continue to become more international in its coverage, and to include more coastal science than is sometimes associated with the single word nameEstuaries. In addition to the change of the journal's name there is also a new cover design that will change with each issue and highlight an estuary or coast associated with one or more articles in the issue. Another change to the journal is a new column entitled Perspectives in Estuarine and Coastal Science, which is intended to stimulate discussion about emerging topics in estuarine and coastal science. The H. T. Odum Synthesis Essay, initiated in 2005, will be continued on an annual basis.     

Labouring geography: Negotiating scales, strategies and future directions

In our editorial introduction to this themed issue on labour geography, we outline some important on-going debates in the relatively young field of labour geography and suggest future directions for research. First, there is the key question of labour as an active agent in the production of economic landscapes. The agency of labour will likely remain a defining feature of labour geography, but perhaps it is not as important to construct theoretical analytical boundaries as it is to define labour geography as a political project. Second, debates continue surrounding the production of scale and the multiscalarity of organized labour. Third, labour geographers have yet to engage in any sustained fashion with unpacking the complex identities of workers and the way in which those identities simultaneously are shaped by and shape the economic and cultural landscape. Fourth, there is some debate on the costs and benefits of a ‘normative’ labour geography which emphasizes what workers and their organizations ‘could’ or even ‘should’ do. Lastly, we challenge the assumption that labour geographers have not yet asserted themselves as activists in their own right. We conclude the editorial by introducing the articles included in the issue. While these articles may not address every gap in the literature, they do contribute in significant ways to move the labour geography project forward.     

An optimized spatial-temporal-sectoral allocation model for water resources

The deficiency of water resources is limiting directly and severely the social-economic development and ecological environment protection in many regions, and has been exacerbated by rapid industrial growth and national and state agriculture production objectives. Recent national, provincial and local water reform efforts are also focusing on economic efficiency in water allocation. Mathematical modeling in advance is the requirement for scientific decision-making. Water allocation may have different objectives and bases, but in market economy and on the condition of national investment, we should mainly pursue the maximization of economic objectives, except the basic water guarantee for living, ecology and assuring basic production water use. The amount of allocated water is a multi-dimensional variable and can be optimized in many contexts due to differences in the definition of industrial structure, the technical level of production among different areas and the marginal revenues of water resources. Therefore, the problem of water allocation comes down to solving problems of spatial optimization. This paper presents an equating marginal revenue theory for spatial allocation of water resources: when the marginal revenues of water in all area have the same value, the economic benefit from water for all the intake areas reaches its maximum. When the local available water resources and the marginal revenue of water for all sub-areas are given, for different total water supply from outside, we may calculate the optimized dynamic allocation scheme, the sequence of water allocation starting and the economic benefit from the water allocation for different sub-areas, as well as the integrated maximum economic benefit from water utilization. The example of the six southern districts in Hebei province of China illustrates the feasibility of the theory and models. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The bibliometric impact of books published by the International Consortium on Landslides

Dissemination of research results is an important part of basic as well as applied research if not the most important one. A large part of research results is published in scientific literature, and since there are many forms of it, the question arises which form is the most visible and attractive to the world scientific community. The International Consortium on Landslides (ICL), based in Kyoto, Japan, is one of the leading institutions in the field of landslide research and landslide risk reduction. On behalf of ICL, Springer Nature has published the journal Landslides: Journal of the International Consortium on Landslides since 2004. It is a very successful scientific journal with regard to its scientometric parameters. Since January 2018, it has been a monthly journal published in full color in electronic as well as printed form. Another form of dissemination of the ICL scientific and professional activities are published books in the form of monographs and proceedings from triennial World Landslide Forums. This paper discusses the impact of 52 books with 3426 chapters taken from the field of landslide science and published by Springer Nature from 2005 to 2018 in the earth sciences category, using different scientometric parameters, such as Bookmetrix downloads and citations, Scopus citations, Scopus h-index, Google citations, and Google h-index. The analysis was performed on the book chapter level (using mainly citations as the main scientometric parameter) as well as on the book level (using book h-index and percentage of cited chapters). Out of the selected 52 titles, 22 were published on behalf of the ICL, with 1419 chapters. The differences among landslide-related books can be quite large; only a few chapters from analyzed book titles were found to be cited frequently compared to highly cited scientific journal articles. On average, the analyzed 3426 book chapters from 52 landslide-related books have been downloaded since publication over 53,000 times each; 1092 chapters (32%) received 2932 citations (2.68 citations per cited chapter and 0.86 citations per published chapter). The analysis shows that the books published on behalf of the ICL are, together with other landslide-related book titles, on the forefront in the Springer eBook collection Earth and Environmental Science (EES). The selected 52 landslide-related book titles are above the average metrics for the whole EES with regard to the total number of downloads per book, the total number of citations per book, and the total number of readers per book. The ICL-related books are getting more downloads but less readers and citations (so far) as the selected non-ICL-related books. A way in raising the visibility and impact of the ICL books on landslide research community would be to support their open access publication in the form of e-Books as much as possible, and inclusion of ICL books into Web of Science.     

The stadial analysis of sedimentary process

The paper presents analytical review of articles in the journal Lithology and Mineral Resources devoted directly or indirectly to the essence and real results of implementation of one of the fundamental methods in lithology—study of the successive formation (hereafter, stadial analysis) of mineral and textural-structural parageneses in sedimentary rocks and their geological formations. The wide application of this method in Russian lithological studies corresponded to the time of the journal foundation. The journal published regularly works of Russian scientists and applied geologists in this field. These publications allow us to trace the development of approaches and methodology of the stadial analysis and its interrelations with other (isotopic-geochronological, lithofacies, system-formation) methods. In addition, they mention and briefly characterize particular discoveries and achievements obtained by different researchers owing to the stadial analysis during the last semicentennial period.     

我国西部世界遗产地门票价格变动对客源市场的影响——以甘肃省和四川省世界遗产地为例

旅游需求的显著特点之一是随时间变化而变化,定量研究和预测旅游需求随时间的变化,对世界遗产地的科学开发规划和经营决策具有重要的指导意义.选取甘肃和四川两省世界遗产地景点的门票价格,统计分析了世界遗产地门票价格变动对客源市场的调节作用,用时间结构分析模型探讨门票价格变动引起的客源市场季节性结构特征和年际结构特征.结果表明:门票价格的上涨对世界遗产地的客源市场在短期内具有一定影响,但长期影响不显著.要解决目前世界遗产地人满为患的困境,尚需积极寻求其它有效措施.     

1983 Compilation of Elemental Concentration Data for Samples SO-1 to SO-4

Concentration data for as many as 72 constituents in the four Canadian Certified Reference Materials Project (CCRMP) soil samples have been collected from journal articles and technical reports published since these soil standards were issued in 1978. These data are summarized into mean +/- one standard deviation values and compared with available certification data from CCRMP. All literature data located or calculated are presented in the appendices.     

Behind the scenes: How transnational firms are constructing a new international division of labor in media work

Predictions that work in fields such as computer programming, architecture, and graphic design will be globally sourced have raised the specter of job losses among skilled workers in high wage economies. One of the most interesting cases tied to this controversy is that of so-called “runaway” motion picture and television production from the traditional center of entertainment media production in Los Angeles to non-US satellite production centers. Although runaway production is an old complaint in the entertainment media industries, the production location decisions of media entertainment firms since the mid-1990s look considerably different than those in the 1980s when a similar alarm was raised. Among the critical differences are: (1) the location of an expanded range of production activities in regions outside the “headquarters” location of Los Angeles; (2) the ability of transnational firms to access multiple, self-organized and networked pools of skilled labor in production locations outside Los Angeles; and (3) the expanded role of the sub-national state in reducing the overall production costs of transnational firms, including those attendant to their use of skilled labor pools. The current controversy provides an opportunity to consider how transnational firms use international out-sourcing to address their need for high-skilled and specialized labor in the production process. It also contributes to the on-going theoretical debate over how transnational firms are combining the advantages to be derived from territorial agglomeration with those of substitutability of labor skills in multiple locations.     

《中国地质》地质科学数据专辑征稿启事

《地质科学数据》是由自然资源部主管、全国地质资料馆主办的地质学数据期刊。该刊以“促进科学数据资源共享,推进数据知识产权保护,引领中国地质数据国际化”为办刊宗旨。《地质科学数据》每期出版的数据论文关联的实体数据均在“地质科学数据出版中心”(geodb.cgs.gov.cn)出版,并采取“开放获取”(Open access)运行机制。     

Increasing public awareness of natural hazards via the Internet

NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center is using state-of-the-art Internet tools for natural hazards education, public outreach, and access to natural hazards data. For example, NGDC acquires, processes, and provides access to geologic hazards event data that are useful in natural hazards risk assessment and hazards-related research. In addition, a collection of natural hazards slides and a teacher’s guide on volcanoes are available online. NGDC also created an online “Kids Hazards Quiz” to test the user’s knowledge of disaster safety information. An online Natural Hazards Data Resources Directory provides access to information and links to organizations that provide natural hazards data and information. Expanded access to these data and information by the public and researchers can increase public awareness of natural hazards, improve hazards research, and ultimately reduce the devastating impacts of natural disasters.     

矿井明水注浆技术

明水注浆是在巷道已经发生涌水后进行堵水注浆的一种方法，以开滦东欢坨矿井下明水注浆实践为基础，阐述了明水注浆技术及注浆工艺。大水矿井由于排水电费占生产成本的比例较大，影响企业的经济效益，进行明水注浆有着重要的意义。     

Technical, financial and location criteria for the design of land application system treatment

Conventional water treatments when downsized to cover the demands of small and scattered populations are costly and ineffective. In fact, many small towns cannot afford the high average treatment costs nor provide the skill and complex management requirements. Even when these facilities are available, waste water might not be properly treated. Land application system treatments (LAST) have been shown to be preferable on the basis of their technical effectiveness and financial viability. The recently approved Spanish regulations (RDL 1620/2007, pp 50369–50661) represent an opportunity for the implementation of well-designed LASTs. This paper presents an assessment methodology for the design of LASTs by combining technical, financial and location criteria. The method is applied to the design of LASTs to cover the water disposal demand of twelve municipalities located within the protected natural landscape, and surrounding areas of ‘El Rebollar’, Salamanca, Spain.     

冬奥会交通走廊矿山地质环境治理思路探讨--以三道营铁矿有限公司铁矿为例

随着2022年冬奥会所有雪上运动项目将在崇礼县进行,届时将接待大量国内外游客,但是该县境内在冬奥会交通走廊及赛场周边共有7个露天开采矿山点,由此产生了大量的矿山地质环境问题,有损于城市形象,本次工作任务是消除奥运通道沿线矿山地质环境破坏对视觉景观的影响。本文选择其中最为典型的三道营铁矿有限公司铁矿为例,阐述其恢复治理的思路,以供探讨治理方案。思路为少投入,多见效,治理重点考虑水土保持措施和生态复绿效果。矿区中较大的废石堆、渣堆、露天采坑,主要采用削高填低、分阶整平、覆土绿化的治理措施,矿区地势较低、容易汇水的地段修建截排水沟,将地表汇水引入露天采坑储存,并可作为绿化用水。设计的矿山工程从施工可行性、施工工艺复杂性、环境治理效果、工程投资费用大小及效益产出等多方面,进行了分析对比。     

Socio-economic factors influencing sustainable water supply in Botswana

The paper examines the socio-economic and political issues of sustainable water supply in Botswana. It pays particular attention to the actual and potential role of economic instruments. Water consumption occurs both in a market and non-market contexts (producer = consumer). Due to rapidly increasing water demand and the fact that the "easy" solutions to increase water supply have largely elapsed, Botswana is concerned with water shortages which may hamper peoples basic needs and industrial development in the future. Other sustainability concerns relate to the environment (pollution), social factors (equity and affordability) and economic considerations (cost recovery and efficiency). Prices, costs and the value of water are instrumental in striking a compromise between these goals. Trends in pricing and their relationship with costs and resource value are presented, and the impact of prices and subsidies on water demand and supply reviewed in order to assess their contribution towards a sustainable equilibrium. There is a substantial scope to improve the performance of economic instruments such as price subsidies and tax relief. The long-term marginal costs calculated in the Botswana National Water Master Plan contribute to prices approaching the costs of water production, but it excludes the environmental considerations. Resource scarcity is partly reflected where it increases the water supply costs; the indirect use and non-use values and external impacts are not incorporated in the water charges. Higher prices would increase the economic feasibility of water recycling and water harvesting and generate investment capital needed for the expansion of the water supply systems. Government subsidies may discourage efficient resource use. It is generally concluded that there is need for greater emphasis on re-use of waste water and control of the demand by harmonizing fees or tariffs between urban and rural areas as far as non-essential use is concerned; and provide more incentives for large-scale consumers to increase water use efficiency and sustainability.     

Landslides: A state-of-the art on the current position in the landslide research community

The international journal Landslides (ISSN 1612-510X), launched in 2004 and published by Springer Verlag, soon gained international recognition as the only specialized scientific journal in the world dedicated to different aspects of landslides, and as one of the leading world journals in the field of geological engineering. After 7 years, seven published volumes with 28 issues and 290 published papers on 2,794 pages, there is time to make a comparison with other related journals that also cover the field of landslide risk mitigation. The critical review of these seven publishing years was done using ISI Journal Citation Reports produced by Thomson Reuters, and available scientometric data from the ISI Web of Knowledge and SCOPUS. The data presented in this paper and the analysis shown may help the Editorial Board to further improve the journal into the direction of a high quality scientific journal with even higher impact on the international research community in the field of landslide risk mitigation.