Recent urban growth in Papua New Guinea

Using population estimates from recent censuses and from the 1977-1978 Urban Population Survey, the author examines trends in urban growth in Papua New Guinea. Reasons for the differences between actual and predicted rates of urban growth are investigated     

Much ado about nothing: urbanization,predictions and censuses in Papua New Guinea

Urbanization trends in Papua New Guinea are analyzed using official data from the 1971 and 1980 censuses. The author suggests that the massive urban population growth rate for 1966-1971 was a figment of post-enumeration miscalculation. However, the data indicate that the annual urban growth rate for the period 1971-1980 was nearly four times higher than the growth rate for the population as a whole.     

The oil palm industry of Papua New Guinea

Encouraged by the initial success of the Cape Hoskins oil palm scheme, the national government developed two more oil palm schemes, one at Bialla in New Britain, and the other at Popondetta in the Northern Province. The three schemes are organised on the same basis: a nucleus estate surrounded by a large number of smallholdings. It is estimated that these three schemes will earn about forty million kina by 1987–88; this will represent more than ten per cent of the total Papua New Guinea agricultural exports, a remarkable achievement in the space of twenty years. However, the success of the industry may depend on the performance of the smallholders, and already, there are signs that this sector of the industry is experiencing some problems.     

Land resources assessment for sugar-cane cultivation in Papua New Guinea

The nature of climatological, hydrological, geomorphological and soils information required for the locational planning of a sugar-cane estate is considered in the light of optimum needs for crop cultivation. In the Markham-Ramu Valley unstable river channels, swamps, alkaline groundwaters, climatological factors and shallow, stony soils all impose constraints on site location. The most significant factors, such as flood prevention, drainage works and supplementary irrigation needs, are those which impose an economic penalty in terms of high capital cost. These factors, along with climatological and pedological information, are used to develop a land suitability classification for sugar-cane cultivation. Careful land resource investigations help define potential problems and have enabled one site to be given preference over two others as the most suitable location for the development of Papua New Guinea's sugar industry.     

Natural diversion of the ramu river in Papua New Guinea

At present, the Ramu River in Papua New Guinea flows directly into the Bismarck Sea, while the adjacent Keram flows into the Sepik River. There is evidence to suggest that the Ramu previously occupied the existing Keram water course, and has been gradually diverting its discharge into its present channel, probably over the last 4,000 years. The diversion process is not complete yet, and during the wet season flood water still travels across these two rivers. The most direct evidence to support this proposal of river diversion is that there are much larger meander bends on which the existing Keram stream channel is superimposed. The diversion of the Ramu is believed to be a result of relative sea‐level rise in the late Quaternary which altered the gradients of the Keram and Ramu rivers, and may have been facilitated through neo‐tectonic movement of the floodplain.     

Finding common ground: relational concepts of land tenure and economy in the oil palm frontier of Papua New Guinea

In the oil palm frontier regions of West New Britain and Oro provinces, Papua New Guinea, customary land tenure arrangements are changing in response to the growing demand for land for agricultural development. This paper examines one aspect of these changes, namely the gifting and selling of customary land for oil palm development to people who have no customary birthrights to the land. By analysing how access rights are maintained over the relatively long cultivation cycle of oil palm (approximately 25 years), and in the context of the rapidly changing socio-economic and demographic environments of the oil palm frontiers, the paper demonstrates that while land transactions seemingly entail the commodification of land, land rights and security of land tenure remain embedded in social relationships. For customary landowners, the moral basis of land rights is contingent on 'outsiders' maintaining particular kinds of social and economic relationships with their customary landowning 'hosts'. In exploring how these social relationships are constituted through the performance of particular kinds of exchange relationships, the paper provides insights into relational concepts of land rights and how these are able to persist in Papua New Guinea's oil palm frontier regions where resource struggles are often intense and where large migrant populations are seeking land for agricultural development.     

Relationships between String Bag Craft Distributions,Language and Geographical Distance in the Upper Sepik and Border Mountains of Papua New Guinea

This paper describes analyses involving patterned string bags collected in the upper Sepik in Papua New Guinea. The Mantel test and correspondence analysis were used to explore whether variability in craft repertoires exhibits any covariance with the region's complex linguistic picture, and if so, whether this relationship is more significant than any spatial autocorrelation the data may exhibit. Bag construction techniques exhibited strong spatial autocorrelation, while for colour patterns the effect was weaker. An effect for language remained for both dependents after statistical control, but colour pattern characteristics had a slightly stronger association with language overall. The weaker spatial autocorrelation for colour pattern variability is argued to be due to higher rates of dissemination facilitated by the visibility of the patterns and their compatibility with a broad range of construction techniques. The effect for language, on the other hand, is argued to have resulted from of a higher rate of inter-settlement migration along a particular stretch of the Sepik where people speak the same language.     

Diatom-temperature transfer functions based on the altitudinal zonation of diatom assemblages in Papua New Guinea: a possible tool in the reconstruction of regional palaeoclimatic changes

Indirect and direct gradient ordination techniques were used to study the relationship between present-day benthic and periphytic diatom assemblages and environmental factors along an altitudinal gradient in Papua New Guinea. Both within the screened initial data-set and a narrowly-defined subset of soft-water lakes, shifts in diatom assemblages are clearly related to altitudinal differences. This relation is used to construct transfer functions for inferring altitude (and hence average water temperature) from the diatom records. Calibration by canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and simple weighted averaging calibration proved to be superior to models using WA with tolerance downweighting and to a simple WA model based on a selection of 52 indicator taxa. From the calibration models and the linear relationship between altitude and epilimnetic water temperature, the average lake water temperature can be predicted with an accuracy of 3.2°C. After further refinement, a transfer function for palaeotemperature based on diatoms would be of potential value for climatic reconstructions in tropical regions.     

Decision makers in migration--Papua New Guinea

The author critically examines the assumption that the decision to migrate is made by the individual. Data from surveys of individuals living in 16 towns and 50 rural villages are used to analyze patterns of population movement in Papua New Guinea in an attempt to determine the roles of institutions and of persons other than the migrant in decision-making.     

新型城镇化与非正规就业：规模、格局及社会融合

中国城镇化由偏重数量转向更加注重质量的新型城镇化,促进农村转移人口市民化、提高就业质量成为城镇化发展的重要目标,疫情影响下非正规就业问题更为突出。论文从新型城镇化与非正规就业的关系出发阐释非正规就业人口的历史产生和发展要求,基于人口普查和《中国劳动力动态调查》测度了中国城镇非正规就业的规模和格局特征,总结了非正规就业者当前面临的社会融合难题,并提出发展思路和路径。结果发现：① 城镇化与非正规就业之间关系密切,非正规就业为城镇化过程中农村转移人口提供大量就业机会,缓解了城镇就业压力。以人为本的新型城镇化需要关注非正规就业模式,以促进农业转移人口市民化和社会融合。② 经多源数据估算,中国城镇非正规就业占城镇总就业的33.2%~44.7%,就业人数达1.38亿~1.55亿,以隐性就业部分为主。在空间分布上总体呈现东、中、西逐渐减少的特征;在雇佣类型上以从事各类非正规工作的被雇型就业为主;行业结构主要集中在批发和零售贸易及餐饮业,居民服务、修理和其他服务业与制造业等。③ 非正规就业者主要面临职业困境、户籍限制、公共服务差距、风险应对能力弱等问题,需要通过完善就业服务体系等改革,提升就业质量,推动市民化和社会融合。     

过渡时期俄罗斯区域社会经济发展新特点

俄罗斯成为独立国家后，在其实行经济转轨的20世纪90年代至今区域社会经济发展发生了很大变化，具有一系列新的特点。本文在着重阐述了俄罗斯区域社会经济发展的四大新特点的基础上，对其不同的发展模式作了总结。     

A new ‘New Guinea syndrome’ and the utility of geography: a review

Human geographers working in Papua New Guinea and elsewhere in Melanesia are tending to work in multidisciplinary teams. This reflects the utility of geography where the specialist‐synthesis and a fieldwork approach is wanted and needed by consultants, lending and aid agencies, and government departments. Work on the Less Developed Areas program and integrated rural development planning in Papua New Guinea are used as examples of the sort of work geographers are doing.     

城市自然地理学的理论、实践和发展

在全球快速城市化背景下,城市成为经济高速发展、人类活动高度集中、人地相互作用最强烈的区域,人工环境下“第二自然格局”的形成以及剧烈的城市土地利用/覆被变化效应使得城市自然地理学在城市复杂系统的研究中具有重要的理论和应用价值。本文通过对城市自然地理学的缘起、学科发展的综合分析,从学科理论体系、研究内容以及前沿发展领域等方面进行了论述,以期丰富和深化城市自然地理学研究内容,并进一步推动城市自然地理学的研究和发展。未来,城市自然地理学的研究应从以下方面开展：①关注基础理论研究,深化学科理论体系;②发展多学科的交叉视角,深化城市地表系统多要素变化研究;③聚焦城市自然—人文复杂系统,揭示自然和人文多要素间耦合机理及驱动机制;④拓宽城市服务应用领域的研究,提供城市可持续发展的多目标决策。     

New dynamics of rent gap formation in New York City rent-regulated housing: privatization,financialization, and uneven development

ABSTRACT

To explain newfound investor interest in rent-regulated multifamily housing in New York City since 2001, this paper analyzes the transformation in ownership and management of the Riverton Houses, a large rent-regulated housing complex in northern Manhattan. The paper finds new dynamics of rent gap formation at work; rather than depressed capitalized rent attracting investment, increasing potential rent provides a new mechanism for opening rent gaps. The Riverton Houses case shows how three factors increase potentials rents: 1) changes in rent control law that provide new avenues to increase rents, 2) new financial actors and institutions that have higher expectations for risk and return, and 3) longer-term processes of uneven development at the urban scale. Altered rent gap dynamics under processes of privatization, financialization, and uneven urban development complicate the geography of reinvestment beyond a reinvested core and gentrifying periphery. Instead, the urban frontier is drawn recursively within urban space.