Linking places to problems: geospatial theories of neighborhoods, alcohol and crime

This paper provides a critical review of two broad categories of social ecological theories of crime, social integration and place-based theories, and their relationships to spatial assessments of crime patterns. Social integration theories emphasize the role of neighborhood disorganization on crime, while place-based theories stress the social interactions within and between places as a source of crime. We provide an analysis of the extent to which these two types of theorizing describe processes and mechanisms that are truly ecologic (identify specific interactions between individuals and their environments) and truly spatial (identify specific movement and interaction patterns of individuals and groups) as they endeavor to explain crime outcomes. We suggest that social integration theories do not provide spatial signatures of sufficient specificity to justify the application of spatial statistical techniques as quantitative arbiters of the theory. On the other hand, place based theories go some way toward addressing these issues because the emphasis is placed on understanding the exact physical and social characteristics of place and the activities that occur around locations as sources of crime. Routine activities and crime potential theories attempt to explain clustering or “hot spots” of crime in ways that give clear spatial dimension by looking at micro-spatial interactions between offenders and targets of crime. These theories have strong ecological implications as well, since they contain specific statements about how people use the space around them and how these patterns of use are related to patterns of criminal activity. We conclude by identifying a set of requirements for successful empirical tests of geospatial theories, including the development of valid measures of key theoretical constructs and the formulation of critical empirical assessments of geospatial hypotheses derived from motivating theory.     

Spatial modelling of commercial spaces in medium-sized cities

The pattern of commercial spaces in a city has never been the consequence of chance. Retailers have always searched for the ‘best location’, but the notion of what exactly constitutes the ‘best location’ has changed over the decades. It is no longer a question of being close-to-market. It depends on an amount of social, economic and even morphological aspects of urban life, not to mention intrinsic aspects of the retail sector itself, namely new types of stores, products and purchase and payment options. Consequently, the methods retailers have employed to determine ‘best location’ have also evolved, and today increasingly complex mathematical and geospatial models are in use. It should then be safe to assume that commercial geography has changed and therefore, commercial hierarchies need to be re-invented, or at least challenged. A current trend in the literature is revealing more than ever the influence of commerce in the spatial and morphological re-configuration of cities. Thus, the understanding of modern retail patterns may be a key issue in interpreting and regulating the processes of urban, social and economic development. Using as test-beds four Portuguese medium-sized cities, commercial and morphological data was collected, analysed and compared, applying spatial analysis techniques. Similar patterns were found between the four cities, which led to the proposal of two geospatial commercial distribution models, one for the city-centre and one for the suburbia. These models shed a new light on the structure of Portuguese medium-size cities, and may well be valid in other medium and small towns across Europe.     

地理空间数据的尺度转换

尺度一般是指空间范围的大小,地理空间数据的尺度转换是尺度研究的重要问题之一。针对地理信息系统(GIS)技术支持下的地理空间数据尺度转换问题,首先回顾了尺度转换的理论基础,即等级理论、分形理论、区域化随机变量理论、地理学第一定律等理论的基本内涵;然后总结了地理学不同研究领域内主要的尺度转换方法,重点分析了重采样法、变异函数法、分形分维法及小波分析法的基本原理、模型方法与典型应用案例;最后介绍了地理空间数据尺度转换效应研究的进展。基于上述总结和分析认为:构建一套无级变换的、系统的尺度转换方法,整合不同学科领域的数据与过程模型、形成数据模型同化的技术体系,这是地理空间数据尺度转换研究的重要课题。     

Use of participatory mapping approaches for activity space studies: a brief overview of pros and cons

Participatory mapping approaches have raised increasing interest in a variety of fields of research and practice during the past two decades. However, their use in modeling and studying individual mobility and activity spaces is rather recent and limited. This paper focuses on the use of public participation GIS (PPGIS) data in activity space modeling and analysis and aims to draw more scholarly attention to the existing research potentials in this area. While reviewing the pros of using PPGIS for activity space studies, this paper also discusses the existing limitations and outlines how they can be addressed in future research. PPGIS effectively enables collecting data from larger samples, making it possible to conduct more comprehensive geospatial and statistical analyses on the data. Additionally, the strong link between individuals and places in PPGIS data facilitates more person-based approaches in investigating person-environment relationships. However, use of PPGIS for activity space studies comes with analytical and data quality challenges that need to be thoroughly taken into consideration. Particularly, future research needs to seek new ways of including the temporal dimension in PPGIS and find new methods of using the data for activity space modeling and analysis.

     

Harvesting ambient geospatial information from social media feeds

Social media generated from many individuals is playing a greater role in our daily lives and provides a unique opportunity to gain valuable insight on information flow and social networking within a society. Through data collection and analysis of its content, it supports a greater mapping and understanding of the evolving human landscape. The information disseminated through such media represents a deviation from volunteered geography, in the sense that it is not geographic information per se. Nevertheless, the message often has geographic footprints, for example, in the form of locations from where the tweets originate, or references in their content to geographic entities. We argue that such data conveys ambient geospatial information, capturing for example, people’s references to locations that represent momentary social hotspots. In this paper we address a framework to harvest such ambient geospatial information, and resulting hybrid capabilities to analyze it to support situational awareness as it relates to human activities. We argue that this emergence of ambient geospatial analysis represents a second step in the evolution of geospatial data availability, following on the heels of volunteered geographical information.     

The working class, minorities and housing in Paris, the rise of fragmentations

Which places are left to minorities in the housing and labour markets in metropolitan Paris? Over the last two decades, job structures have evolved dramatically, eroding the formerly prominent Paris working-class, shaking the social and political roots of its identity. These indicators would lead one to diagnose a growing fragmentation of metropolitan society. In the political debate, the burning issue of the crisis of suburbs has replaced outdated debate of the class struggle. This paper aims first to re-examine the interactions between social status and national origins, then analyses the housing conditions of different social strata, and finally demonstrates the pre-eminence of social status over national origins in the pattern of residential segregation.     

虚拟土战略与土地资源可持续利用的社会化管理

土地资源紧缺是威胁世界食物安全的主要限制因素之一, 土地资源可持续利用是区域生态经济系统经济增长和社会发展的关键. 类似于国内已经开展的虚拟水和虚拟水战略概念及相关研究, 首次提出"虚拟土"和"虚拟土战略"新概念, 分析了土地资源管理不同管理阶段及其相关问题. 结合当前国家耕地总量平衡、区域粮食安全问题以及土地资源利用中出现的一些新情况, 从土地资源的社会属性出发, 实证分析了土地生产能力与社会适应性能力的关系, 提出了基于虚拟土概念及虚拟土战略下区域土地资源可持续利用的分析框架. 最后提出了当前我国土地利用中解决区域粮食安全的一些新思路. 建议: 在保证国家粮食基本自足基础上, 实行区域耕地总量弹性平衡政策; 成立专业性土地银行, 加快创新土地使用权流转机制; 强化土地使用权拍卖机制, 提高市场配置土地资源的透明度; 实施虚拟土战略举措, 构建新的土地可持续发展模式, 加强开展虚拟土战略相关理论及其对策的研究工作.     

Geomoney: An option on frost, going long on clouds

The paper adopts a cultural economy approach to explore the emergence of a market in so-called weather derivatives, referred to in the paper as a form of ‘geomoney’. These are specially designed financial products that allow firms to protect their profits against the impact of changing weather conditions. The paper approaches the emergence of this market, and the issues its growth raises, in three interlinked stages. Weather derivatives are located amongst the hybrid collective that is contemporary finance and are analysed through the conceptual apparatus afforded by a cultural economy approach to finance. The paper employs this analytical line to examine the assumptions and models that enable the weather to be turned into a risk and then be transported and traded within capital markets. Through specific examples of weather products together with a discussion of the International Finance Corporation’s recent involvement in this market, the paper suggests something of the ‘world making’ capabilities of finance theory and the politics of finance often hidden beneath the mathematical models. The paper concludes by highlighting not only the usefulness of a cultural economy of finance to geographers but, in light of the examples discussed, the need for cultural economy to recognise and to engage critically in its analysis the politics that such a conceptual approach to the making of financial markets exposes.     

Flood Events in the Rhine Basin: Genesis,Influences and Mitigation

The paper analyses the hydrological regime of the Rhine catchment,the genesis of recent floods,and recommends some research and practical activities to mitigate flood damage. The catchment of the Rhine River can be divided into four main subcatchments: the alpine region with the Aare River as its main tributary and downstream the lower mountain regions of the tributaries Neckar, Main and Moselle. These four basins generate very different hydrographs. Due to the geographical conditions, the average discharge maximums shift from summer to winter downstream the Rhine. Moreover, the spatial and temporalprecipitation patterns of each river have a strong influence on the individual flood events. Some recent extraordinary floods are used to illustrate the parameters that have influenced these events.A strong relationship between recent climate change observationsand the occurrence of flood levels cannot be proven. However, the consequences of human interventions and the resulting changes to the river system (the Rhine and its tributaries) for the hydrograph can be quantified precisely.The influences of different land-use and climatic scenarios on flood conditions in the Rhine basin have not yet been separately identified. Thus, the Dutch-German project LAHoR was established. The primary aim of this project is to giveadvice for the ``Action Plan on Flood Defence' of the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (IKSR). In this plan a multidisciplinary approach to mitigating floods is suggested.It is anticipated that the plan willgenerate synergistic effects between flood prevention, water management, regional planning, agriculture, forestry and ecological demands.     

DAMOCLES: a DAshing MOnolith Cutter for fine sectioning of peats and sediments into LargE Slices

Simple cutting devices such as used in the printing industry allow precise and fine sectioning of frozen peats and sediments, thus enabling research with high temporal resolution. Large slices are useful in the collection of multiple synchronous subsamples for multidisciplinary research. This article describes the apparatus (called DAMOCLES) and its operation, and presents some examples from practice. These include combined microfossil, macrofossil and chemical analyses of the same sample with a sample resolution of 0.5 cm (temporal resolution c. 1 year): rapid changes occur that would have remained unnoticed with a coarser sampling distance. The final example presents a sample resolution of only 0.5 mm. These examples illustrate the possible uses of the DAMOCLES apparatus in palaeoecological research.     

Extraction and accuracy assessment of high-resolution DEM and derived orthoimages from ALOS-PRISM data over Sahel-Doukkala (Morocco)

In Sahel-Doukkala, which is characterized by lands of a relatively low relief, global DEMs and DEMs generated from digitizing topographic maps, have been the primary source of several multidisciplinary researches. Although these products present a great value of the conducted research, the level of the given accuracy is not sufficient enough for detailed geospatial analysis. These requirements led us to generate a high-resolution DEM as an alternative of available global DEMs or/and DEMs generated from digitizing topographic maps. In this study, we present a workflow to extract high-resolution DEM at 5 m resolution and derived orthoimages from ALOS-PRISM data over Sahel-Doukkala, through photogrammetric techniques, using a variation of GCPs obtained from topographic maps at scale 1:25,000. The accuracy of the generated products is reported according to NSSDA standards. Using ten GCPs, a PRISM-DEM with 3.88 m vertical accuracy and 11.60 m horizontal accuracy, both at 95% confidence level is obtained. This DEM will serve as base dataset for further detailed geospatial analysis and mapping applications in order to identify the relationship between surface parameters and groundwater, and also to assess and understand all factors influencing the development of karst landscapes and consequently subsurface stability in the investigated area.     

Volunteered geographic information: future research directions motivated by critical, participatory, and feminist GIS

New interactive web services are dramatically altering the way in which ordinary citizens can create digital spatial data and maps, individually and collectively, to produce new forms of digital spatial data that some term ‘volunteered geographic information’ (VGI). This article examines the early literature on this phenomenon, illustrating its shared propositions that these new technologies are part of shifts in the social and technological processes through which digital spatial data are produced, with accompanying implications for the content and characteristics of geospatial data, and the social and political practices promoted through their use. I illustrate how these debates about VGI conceive of spatial data as socially embedded, and suggest ways in which future research might productively draw upon conceptualizations from participatory, feminist, and critical GIS research that have emerged from similar foundations.     

Volunteered Geographic Information constructions in a contested terrain: A case of OpenStreetMap in China

The recent explosive growth of user-generated geographic information has drawn significant attention from GIS scholars and human geographers. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) here refers to a key component of such a phenomenon, comprising both a range of practices of geographic information production and dissemination by volunteers as well as new forms of geospatial data produced and curated through various interactive online platforms and mobile devices such as OpenStreetMap (OSM) and Google Maps. VGI constructions have raised questions on spatial knowledge, power, and context. Through a study that examines social constructions of OSM in China, this paper makes two contributions to the existing literature: providing a political economic account of VGI constructions in China and exploring legalities in VGI research. Informed by research in critical GIS, this paper traces political economic transitions in relation to OSM constructions and examines OSM contributors' experiences and how these experiences constitute OSM development and usage. Drawing upon law and society research, this paper investigates how OSM mappers encounter the state's regulatory scheme of online mapping. This legality perspective of spatial data production and usage is a topic rarely explored in VGI studies. With interview data and document analysis, this paper unravels processes of powerful state institutional arrangements to control and invest in VGI simultaneously, entrepreneurs' interest in developing location-based services using VGI data, and experiences from a tech-savvy group in exploring and making VGI. While individual experiences vary, they show efforts of questioning embedded power relations shaping spatial data production in these continuously evolving, contested technoscientific and social landscapes.     

Domestic tourist travel patterns in New Zealand

Recent emphasis on the growth in overseas arrivals has overshadowed domestic tourism which, nevertheless, remains a very significant social and economic activity in New Zealand. This paper analyses the geographical dimensions of tourist travel using data from the Domestic Travel Study. Once broad national trends are identified, inter-regional travel patterns are examined using dominant flow analysis and regional profiles are established by means of ternary graphs. This analysis shows the dominance of the major metropolitan markets, the regionalized nature of much domestic tourism and regional variations in visitor profiles. Regional population size plays a major role in determining overall flows but what appears to make the difference between a net loss or gain in total bednights is a region's ability to attract holiday visitors. This underscores the value which the promotion of domestic tourism may have in regional development.     

Implication of coupled natural and human systems in sustainable rangeland ecosystem management in HKH region

The sustainable development of rangeland ecosystems, the vital ecosystems providing many important ecosystem services for millions of people in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region is presently confronted with a number of challenges. A coupled natural and human systems approach is needed to facilitate effective collaboration among social scientists, bio/physical scientists, and management practitioners to better understand how people interact with the environment in which they live. In pursuing this argument, three existing case studies, i.e. Indigenous rangeland management in Himalayan Nepal, Cultivated Grassland Systems in Eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and Grassland Restoration in Central Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau were synthesized in this paper to address the importance of coupled natural and human systems in promoting sustainable rangeland ecosystem management in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region. It was concluded although the research sites and objectives were very different, that these three case studies had many commonalities that addressed the complex interactions and feedbacks between natural and human systems, and highlighted the integration of various tools and techniques from the ecological and social sciences, as well as other disciplines, in sustainable rangeland management. These case studies have offered unique interdisciplinary insights into complexities that cannot be gained from ecological or social research alone. The results from these case studies can be applied to many other coupled systems at local, national, and global levels.     

Crime mobility: Spatial modelling of routine activities of arrestees and substance abusers in South Africa

Routine activity theory proposes that a crime will take place within a criminal's area of social interaction. This space is delimited by his/her workplace, residence and/or place of recreation. This theory, however, has not been tested to include substance use, especially in the South African context. Therefore, where such substances are obtained and used the location of subsequent criminal activities needs to be incorporated in this theory. Given this context, the paper tests the hypothesis that as drug users expand their activity sphere they also expand their crime space. The analysis is based upon an HSRC national survey of arrestees in which data on their place of work, residence, leisure and drug obtaining were collected. These data were linked by GIS and analysed to establish relationships between the social interaction sphere and drug obtaining of the respondents. This expected expanded behaviour is analysed spatially and used to identify hot spots and high priority areas for police intervention. These results assist in making predictions about places where substances can be expected to be obtained. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

鄂西火烧坪地区岩溶生态环境系统及生态农业模式初探

通过对鄂西火烧坪地区的自然地理、地质构造、水文地质、土壤、植被及社会经济等方面的初步研究表明，在岩溶化作用十分强烈的岩溶山区，当气候、地形地貌、地质构造等条件匹配较好时，同样存在着一些极其有利于农业、林业发展的特殊生态环境。在这些地区，结合当地植物资源特点和市场需求，通过农作物类型的调整，能够在短时间内使当地摆脱贫穷的面貌。但在发展经济的同时必须特别关注当地土地资源相对缺乏、水资源时空分布不均、生态环境脆弱等不利因素，做到适度开发，稳步发展，才能从根本上实现小康目标。     

Application of Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence to GIS-based landslide susceptibility analysis

GIS-based spatial data integration tasks for predictive geological applications, such as landslide susceptibility analysis, have been regarded as one of the primary geological application issues of GIS. An efficient framework for proper representation and integration is required for this kind of application. This paper presents a data integration framework based on the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence for landslide susceptibility mapping with multiple geospatial data. A data-driven information representation approach based on spatial association between known landslide occurrences and input geospatial data layers is used to assign mass functions. After defining mass functions for multiple geospatial data layers, Dempster’s rule of combination is applied to obtain a series of combined mass functions. Landslide susceptibility mapping using multiple geospatial data sets from Jangheung in Korea was conducted to illustrate the application of this methodology. The results of the case study indicated that the proposed methodology efficiently represented and integrated multiple data sets and showed better prediction capability than that of a traditional logistic regression model.     

Review of Social Ecological System Research: An Analysis Based on Bibliometrics

Social Ecological System (SES) is the core and highlight of the global change research and sustainability science. Based on Science Citation Index Expanded Database and China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the situation of social ecological system research was analyzed via bibliometrics from 1980 to 2017. The results indicated that: ①The scientific outcomes of social ecological system research are increasing gradually. The developed countries have greatly contributed to it, such as, Sweden and the USA, the leading countries in this field, and Stockholm University is the dominant institution on publication of SES. Cooperation between countries (regions) and institutions is strengthening gradually. ② China is one of the frontier countries in the social ecological system research with a lower increasing speed, its international cooperation and the citation frequency of publications are relatively low, and its international influence should be strengthened in the future. ③ The research highlights are listed as follows: The synergy between social ecological system integrity and social development needs, the complexity and uncertainty of SES, the mechanism between social system and its environmental factors, etc. In addition, under the stress of human activity and global climate change, the research of response and feedback mechanism of SES and policy decision-making are one of the important topics of SES.     

Microborer ichnocoenoses in Quaternary corals from New Caledonia: reconstructions of paleo-water depths and reef growth strategies in relation to environmental changes

Coral reef growth and development depend on several environmental factors, including tectonic and climatic parameters and local ecological drivers. Reef growth is especially sensitive to sea-level variations. Paleo-water depth reconstructions are essential tools used to determine reef growth patterns during different periods of reef growth. Assemblages of corals and/or coralline algae have been commonly used in such paleodepth reconstructions. This study shows that using microendolith ichnocoenoses can sometimes provide better accuracy than traditional coralgal analyses, particularly in the depth-range 0–10 m where coralgal assemblages usually show broad distribution ranges. Holocene and Pleistocene cores from two barrier reef sites on the west coast of Grande Terre in New Caledonia are examined here. Holocene reef development at these sites feature examples of microendolith ichnocoenoses that document rapid environmental changes and small sea-level variations of about 2–5 m in amplitude, and record these changes with more accuracy than coral and coralline algae assemblages which are highly dependant on the hydrodynamic energy of the setting. During the Pleistocene, which was less chronologically constrained, the microendolith ichnocoenoses also reflect paleo-water depths and reef-growth patterns at different periods of reef history.