Urban expansion and intra-urban land evolution as well as their natural environmental constraints in arid/semiarid regions of China from 2000–2018

Rapid urbanization has occurred in arid/semiarid China, threatening the sustainability of fragile dryland ecosystems; however, our knowledge of natural environmental constraints on multiscale urban lands in this region is still lacking. To solve this issue, this study retrieved 15-m multiscale urban lands. Results indicated that urban area increased by 68%during 2000–2018, and one-third of the increase was contributed by only three large cities.The coverage of impervious surface area(ISA) and ve...     

Areas of intensive livestock agriculture as emerging alternative economic spaces?

The ideal of the intensification of agriculture has vanished in developed market economies as the outcomes of conventional production have caused growing environmental problems, in particular in areas with a high concentration of livestock. There is also a growing concern notable about animal welfare issues, accompanied by the belief that agricultural production needs to move away from an conventional agriculture towards one that is loosely defined as ‘alternative’. This paper uses the concept of multifunctionality as a lens for describing and explaining the nature of rural change in Germany. I argue that the case study example of the Oldenburger Münsterland illustrates that multifunctionality rates weakly as agricultural practice in production systems dominated by a conventional food regime and – hence – a transition towards diversity and resilience has to occur within conventional agriculture. In spite of the popularity of the idea that areas of intensive livestock farming might have been gradually transformed into emerging alternative economic spaces, the principle of coexistence between ‘productivist’ and ‘non-productivist’ practices poses major challenges. In particular the scarcity of agricultural land hinders the transition into ‘alternative’ food futures in the Oldenburger Münsterland, while the doubts about conventional agriculture and the industrialized food industry rise in an unprecedented way in German society.     

The street as urban icon? Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard

In this article, I analyze Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard as an example of an urban symbol and suggest that while main streets, avenues and boulevards are usually perceived as integral parts of the urban symbolic ecology, they are rarely considered as exclusive urban icons in their own right. Although prestige of “privileged” streets influences reputations of cities and constitutes an important part of their imaginary, their complicated physical structure and multifunctional character conflict with their iconic status. The physical nature of streets resists configuration and articulation as exclusive, durable urban icons because symbols are generally conspicuous physical objects that can be directly interpreted and rendered as iconic.     

Rural modernisation as national development: The Norwegian case 1900–1950

Nilsen, R. 2014. Rural modernisation as national development: The Norwegian case 1900–1950. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift–Norwegian Journal of Geography Vol. 68, 50–58. ISSN 0029-1951.

The aim of the article is to explain the maintenance of a pattern of scattered rural settlement in Norway during industrialisation and modernisation. The ‘master narrative’ of Norwegian transformation, based on the development of waterpower and the metallurgical and fertiliser industries, is only one of three narratives that can be told about the national transformation in the 20th century. A second narrative concerns the modernisation along the coast, and a third concerns the development of a varied, mostly rural, manufacturing and import-substituting industry. It is suggested that this attempt at rewriting the history of Norwegian modernisation can do what the master narrative does not do, namely explain the transformation from a poor to a rich society while more than half of the national population continued to live in rural areas.     

Can sheep replace indigenous antelope as seed dispersers in the Kalahari?

The Southern Kalahari Duneveld is an arid savannah, which has been used for permanent stock farming since around 1900. Farming with high numbers of animals has led to changes in the vegetation which have been associated with excessive grazing and trampling. To determine whether altered seed dispersal could be an alternative or additional explanation, we investigated how replacing antelope with sheep affects seed dispersal. We determined the dispersal potentials of plant species by various vectors using standardized experiments and studied the variation of dispersal potential along a grazing intensity gradient and among different habitats.Wind dispersal potential was low, but diaspores of many plant species were well adapted to dispersal by water. Biotic long-distance dispersal potentials were relatively high and varied between sheep and antelope: the species of plants dispersed differed, as did the number of seeds transported and the time of year that seeds were dispersed in.The importance of zoochory and the differences found between antelope and sheep dispersal suggest that dispersal is affected by a change of animal type. Thus, sheep can not replace antelope as seed dispersers. Therefore, sustainable grazing management or restoration efforts should benefit from seed input of sensitive species where antelope are rare.     

Housing Foreclosure as A Geographically Contingent Event: Columbus Ohio 2003–2007

This article seeks to better understand geographic manifestations of housing foreclosure, moving beyond the usual portrayal that highlights, e.g., race/ethnicity and income. We depart from the usual analytical strategy which centers on factors that subsume high proportions of variance. Instead, this is the starting point for considering constellations and idiosyncratic but formative characteristics—contingencies—that further understanding of, e.g., why two households with identical attributes experience different outcomes. Empirical focus is on Columbus Ohio, 2003–2007. Regression analysis identifies central tendencies, followed by regression tree procedures that reveal variable combinations which alter correlational expectations. Unique areas are examined by neighborhood reconnaissance, exploratory data analysis, interviews, and archival research. Relevant factors include race/ethnicity and socio-economic characteristics. Beyond that, differing variable combinations lead to different outcomes, as do processes such as neighborhood life cycle, institutional actions/involvement, and year of home purchase/construction relative to housing de/inflation and mortgage market characteristics.     

Fast-growing firms as elements of change in Canada’s headquarters city system

This research explores the factors that shape the evolving geographic distribution of business headquarters (HQ) activity. We address an understudied influence on HQ geographies: metropolitan HQ changes driven by the process of small, rapidly expanding businesses growing into mature companies. This investigation focuses on the developmental paths followed by fast-growing firms (FGFs) and the geographic distinctions that can be observed in a FGF tracking study of Canada’s metropolitan regions from 1987 to 2005. Our research findings indicate that geography plays an important role in this development, as FGF tracking records throughout Canada’s metropolitan areas diverge sharply. We find that most FGFs that emerged in Vancouver and Toronto continued as ongoing businesses following their rapid growth phase, while a high proportion of FGFs based in Montréal and Calgary did not. These results contribute to a greater understanding of metropolitan economies, business development, and HQ location in Canada     

Commodifying Legality? Who and What Counts as Legal in the Indonesian Wood Trade

This article examines how legality verification in Indonesia, as developed under the European Union (EU) Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), shapes who and what count as legal. A review of Indonesia’s evolving legality verification system and in-depth stakeholder interviews reveal a process of commodification driven by international demand for an interchangeable label of “legality.” This interchangeability is produced through a reduction of forest governance to a narrow set of legal standards and third-party, private auditing, which risks obscuring key governance challenges such as corruption and unclear tenure, and excluding most domestic and small-scale operators from economic and legal recognition. Given the market logic of legality licensing, it is more likely to “ratchet down” than “ratchet up” local access to, and benefit from, wood production, unless there is greater support and investment in legal and tenure reforms and improved local benefit capture.     

Green Laboratories: University Campuses as Sustainability “Exemplars” in the Arabian Peninsula

ABSTRACT

Like many universities in the West, universities across the Arabian Peninsula are increasingly home to various conspicuous sustainability initiatives. This article examines this trend at three of the region’s most prominent projects: NYU-Abu Dhabi in the Emirates, Qatar Foundation’s Education City, and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Based on the textual analysis and informed by fieldwork in these countries since 2012, this article joins interdisciplinary research in political geography, sustainability experimentation, and laboratory studies to understand their iconic campuses not as enclaves, but as “exemplars” of sustainability and renewable energy futures in the region. Tracing their effects beyond their walls, I argue that they have mostly been limited to symbolically injecting sustainability into public discourse. While more substantial shifts toward sustainable development in the region are underway, these have largely stemmed from market forces rather than a new environmental consciousness promoted by these three iconic universities.     

Understanding Place as ‘Home’ and ‘Away’ through Practices of Bird-watching

Bird-watching is an increasingly popular leisure activity. Previous research has taken for granted the identity of people who watch birds, often categorised by their level of skilled practice as ‘dude’, ‘birder’ or ‘twitcher’. Feminist geographers encourage us to explore identity work as an outcome of the reciprocal relationships between practices and place. Our feminist approach illustrates that the practices of bird-watching are always much more than categorising birds as species. This paper illustrates how the practices of bird-watching are integral to the making and remaking of sense of place as ‘home’ and ‘away’, to sustain identities beyond accepted categories of ‘dude’, ‘birder’ and ‘twitcher’. The creation and application of different types of ‘bird-lists’ helps to explain the ways in which practices of bird-watching facilitate making sense of place as simultaneously ‘home’, ‘away’ and habitat, as well as the identity work of home-maker, citizen-scientist and tourist. Our insights into these leisure practices of bird-watching are drawn from analysis of data gathered from 21 people who actively bird-watch and reside on the South Coast, New South Wales, Australia by combining research methods of talking, walking, drawing and photography.     

Learning about distant places through the Internet: Young students as global citizens?

The article explores how the use of the Internet in school settings influences the way young people develop as citizens in an interconnected world and the possible implications for teaching geography subject at school. First, this topic is approached theoretically through a discussion of new forms of citizenship. The issue is investigated by using interview data and observations on the use of the Internet by upper secondary school students in Norway when searching for information about distant places. During the interviews, knowledge about tropical rainforests was used as a practical example. The main finding is that although the students could access information about a large part of the world from their laptop, a distance remained between the students and the rainforests and those who live in them. The article also reveals that, although it is often argued that the national context is weakened as a frame for civic engagement, the students referred to it as a basic frame when engaging with what is distant. Thus, it may be questioned how the use of the Internet in schools contributes to the development of students as global citizens.     

Technology Integration in K–12 Geography Education Using TPACK as a Conceptual Model

There is a need for quality professional development programs and instructional models addressing the needs and challenges of K–12 technology integration in the geography classroom. This study used a mixed-methods design employing surveys and observations to evaluate teacher experiences within a professional development program focused on developing in-service geography teachers’ technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) through content-specific learning tools and resources. Results indicate that instructional scaffolding plays an important role in improving teachers’ ability to integrate technology in pedagogically meaningful ways geared toward enhancing students’ geographic inquiry skills.     

Social Networks as Livelihood Strategies for Small-scale Traders on the Thai–Lao Border

ABSTRACT

Small scale cross-border trade on the Thai–Lao border has come under increasing pressure with the construction of a new Mekong bridge that has expanded formal trade between the two countries. Most small-scale traders are women who, with assistance from family and friends, have developed small businesses from childhood, and created social networks across the border with other traders, and relevant actors such as drivers and government officials. Such networks, trust, experience and familiarity enabled superior access to information and trading concessions that have enabled the continued success of small-scale trade, the maintenance of complex cross-border livelihoods, and the ability of traders across an increasingly regulated border to deal with constraints and risks. A few established traders have developed trade networks and social relationships involving supply chains across several countries.     

Optimizing Ore–Waste Dig-Limits as Part of Operational Mine Planning Through Genetic Algorithms

Dig-limit optimization is an operational decision making problem that significantly affects the value of open-pit mining operations. Traditionally, dig-limits have been drawn by hand and can be defined as classifying practical ore and waste boundaries suiting equipment sizes in a bench. In this paper, an optimization approach based on a genetic algorithm (GA) was developed to approximate optimal dig-limits on a bench, given grade control data, equipment constraints, processing, and mining costs. A case study was conducted on a sample disseminated nickel bench, in a two destination and single ore-type deposit. The results from using the GA are compared to hand-drawn results. The study shows that GA-based approach can be effectively used for dig-limit optimization.     

Palaeovalleys in foreland ramp settings: what happens as accommodation decreases down dip?

Recent advances in our understanding of palaeovalleys are largely guided by examples from passive margins, in which accommodation increases down depositional dip. This study tests these models against a dataset from the Pennsylvanian Breathitt Group of the central Appalachian foreland basin, USA. This fluvio‐deltaic succession contains extensive erosionally based fluvio‐estuarine sand bodies that can be tracked over 80 km down depositional dip from a proximal zone of high accommodation close to the orogenic margin to a distal, lower accommodation zone close to the cratonic margin of the basin. The sand bodies are up to 25 m thick, multi‐storey and characterized in their lower parts by strongly amalgamated storeys containing sandy fluvial to estuarine bar accretion elements, and in their middle to upper parts by more fully preserved storeys up to 10 m thick and laterally extensive over 100s of metres. The upper storeys include abandonment channel‐fills of heterolithic marine or marginal marine deposits or muddy to sandy point‐bar elements. Three major regional‐scale architectures include: (i) Tabular sand bodies that everywhere incise open marine prodelta and mouth bar facies and are interpreted as palaeovalleys formed during falling stage and lowstand systems tracts, when eustatic sea‐level fall outpaced tectonic subsidence across the entire study area. (ii) Sand bodies that incise genetically related floodplain lake and/or bay‐fill minor mouth bar deposits up depositional dip and open marine prodelta and mouth bar facies down dip. These stacked distributary channel deposits map down dip into palaeovalleys and formed when up dip subsidence rate resulted in positive, but reduced rate of accommodation creation, while lower tectonic subsidence rate down‐dip resulted in incision. (iii) Sand bodies that incise genetically related floodplain, lake and/or bay‐fill minor mouth bars up dip and pass down‐dip into genetically related unconfined floodplain, prodelta and mouth bar deposits. These sand bodies represent stacked distributary channel fills and channel amalgamation was the product of high rates of lateral migration, typical of the behaviour of channels above their backwater reach. Case (2) sand bodies demonstrate that in rapidly subsiding foreland basins, cross‐shelf palaeovalleys may form down depositional dip from aggradational, distributive fluival strata. Additionally, the genetic relationship between stacked distributary channels and palaeovalleys supports recent models for palaeovalley formation that emphasize diachronous, cut‐and‐fill during falling stage and lowstands of relative sea level.     

The enrichments of organic matter and total nitrogen in sediment as affected by relavant factors

1IntroductionResearch results have shown that overland flow firstly removes fine particles of topsoil because the fine soil particles can be easily transported in runoff (Burwell etal., 1975; Alberts etal., 1983; Gregory 1991). The component differences of fine soil particles between the sediment resulting from soil erosion and the original soil were studied (Meyer etal., 1975; Loch etal., 1982; Cogo, 1983). Sediment was normally composed of soil aggregates and particles of different diamet…     

Road investment as enabling local economic development? Evidence from a rural Philippine fishing village

This paper investigates how efforts to achieve local economic growth conflicted with long‐term sustainable resource use when road accessibility was improved between a supply area – the households and household firms in a Philippine fishing village, Dinahican, previously hampered by very poor transport conditions and accessibility – and its major market. Findings indicate that improved road access to big fish markets stimulated investment in production enhancing inputs, which allowed increased fish landings and sales outside Dinahican, together with employment and incomes. At the same time, poorly implemented fisheries resource management resulted in overfishing in municipal waters and obvious disparities in access to productive resources. Thus, while road investment in relatively inaccessible rural resource rich areas may spur economic development as an underutilized production potential is released, it can facilitate resource depletion and intensify an unequal distribution of benefits if the enforcement of laws and regulations is lacking. In the case of Dinahican, coordination between infrastructure supply and the implementation and enforcement of fisheries resource management is found to be urgently needed.