The impact of residential desegregation on social integration: Evidence from a South African neighbourhood

This paper analyses the potential for social integration in post-apartheid urban South Africa by examining the lives of those already living in desegregated spaces. The case study is a low-cost state-assisted housing project situated in the wealthy southern suburbs of Cape Town. In this social housing project, named Westlake village, coloured and Black African (alongside a handful of white and Indian) residents were awarded state housing in 1999 as replacement for their previous homes (informal and formal), which were demolished to make way for a mixed land-use development, of which their new homes form a small component. Westlake’s desegregation is found to extend beyond mere residential abode, affecting resident’s everyday lives to the extent that apartheid’s history and geography are superseded by other factors (such as proximity and affordability) in decision-making. Furthermore, integration at the everyday level of informal neighbourly mixing is prevalent. Although more formal cross-race friendships are rare, discussion reveals this as a consequence of Westlake’s specific socio-historic identity rather than racial divisions per se. Empirical evidence is used to propose a continuum of social integration experience. This continuum addresses the form of integration, for example greeting in the street, visiting homes, inter-marriage; and also the spaces of integration, for example physical space (shared neighbourhood), economic space (common employment-type), social space (cross-race friendship), political space (common involvement in civic organisations) and cultural space (shared sense of belonging).     

住区水环境建设探讨

住区作为城市的基本单元,其水环境的建设对解决城市缺水问题有重要的意义.本文以此为出发点,探讨了住区水环境建设中中水、雨水的利用及各种高新技术应用等新动态,分析了现阶段住区水环境建设中存在的问题:盲目的开发建设、设计不完善、先进理念应用度低、居民环保意思不强等,针对现状及问题,提出了坚持可持续发展原则、营造体现地域特色的...     

Compliance with land use regulations in peri-urban areas in Ghana: a study of Bamahu and Danko residential areas in Wa municipality,Upper West Region

GeoJournal - Globally, there is a sharp increase in human population in urban areas resulting to competition for land for settlement. With pressure on urban land, compliance with land use planning...     

Between social and spatial convergence and divergence: an exploration into the political geography of European contact areas

The European continent, the motherland of nationalism, and the part of the world where political borders and different territorial and cultural identities are mostly interrelated, is now facing new challenges regarding how best to represent its numerous interests within one system. With the increase of international integration European countries began to devote greater attention to the development problems of their border areas that had to be helped to undertake certain functions in the international integration process. The fostering of a more balanced regional development also resulted in a strengthening of regional characteristics, which the new model could no longer ignore. Regional characteristics in turn have always been preserved in Europe by persistent historical and cultural elements of ethnic and linguistic variety. Therefore, it is not surprising that the process of European integration based on the new regional development model was accompanied by a parallel process of ethnic or regional awakening of minorities and other local communities. The key question for contemporary European (though of course this is not limited to Europe) political geography is, then, how the process summarised under the twin labels of social convergence and deterritorialisation will effect the persistent maintenance of regional identities and the corresponding divergence of regional spaces. Or, in other words: is the ‘unity in diversity’ European programme ever practicable and exportable on a world-wide scale or are we to be absorbed by a new global ‘melting pot’?     

皖南石台大山富硒区人居放射性环境评价

安徽石台大山地区分布着较为广泛的下寒武统荷塘组石煤层,而石煤出露地区即是富硒区也是放射性水平含量较高区.根据本次调查在下寒武统荷塘组含煤岩系分布区的地方,其天然γ射线水平较高,不适宜人类在此居住.而调查区内的居民村庄大多远离含煤岩系分布区的地方,对当地的居民接收天然γ辐射照射人均年有效剂量估算,该地区居民居住的村庄和学校的人年均天然贯穿辐射有效剂量当量为0.32~0.43 mSv.因此,可以确定认为该地区居民居住γ射线辐射水平对人居环境影响不大,天然γ射线辐射环境对当地居民健康是安全的.     

Vibrations in a neighborhood: A case-study in applied geography

In 1981, residents of Trois-Rivières-Ouest (Québec) who lived near the Kruger pulp and paper mill began to complain that strong vibrations were damaging their homes. A study sponsored by the local university led to the identification of three destinct sectors with regard to the vibrations. These were found to be due to a combination of factors including automobile, rail and maritime traffic, with the most significant source of vibrations being the Kruger plant itself. Using the data collected in the study, residents presented a convincing case to both city hall and the Kruger company, and were thus able to obtain a satisfactory solution to their problems.     

Estimating the expansion of urban areas and urban heat islands (UHI) in Ghana: a case study

Natural Hazards - This research is focused on identifying urban sprawl pattern and extent in two rapidly growing major Ghanaian cities (Accra and Kumasi) and how urban expansion affected heat...     

Spatio-temporal variations of respirable particles at residential areas located in the vicinity of opencast coal projects,India: a case study

The objective of the study is to investigate spatio-temporal variations of PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and PM₁ concentrations at seven residential sites, located in the vicinity of opencast coal projects, Basundhara Garjanbahal Area (BGA), India. Meteorological parameters such as wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, and temperature were collected simultaneously with PM concentrations. Mean concentrations of PM₁₀ in the range 215 ± 169–526 ± 412 μg m^?3, PM_2.5 in the range of 91 ± 79–297 ± 107 μg m^?3, PM₁ in the range of 68 ± 60–247 ± 84 μg m^?3 were obtained. Coarse fractions (PM_2.5–10) varied from 27 to 58% whereas fine fractions (PM_1–2.5 and PM₁) varied in the range of 51–73%. PM_2.5 concentration was 41–74% of PM₁₀ concentration, PM₁ concentration was 31–62% of PM₁₀ concentration, and PM₁ concentration was 73–83% of PM_2.5 concentration. Role of meteorology on PM concentrations was assessed using correlation analysis. Linear relationships were established among PM concentrations using least square regression analysis. With the aid of principal component analysis, two components were drawn out of eight variables, which represent more than 75% of variance. The results indicated that major sources of air pollutants (PM₁₀, PM_2.5, PM₁, CO, CO₂) at the residential sites are road dust raised by vehicular movement, spillage of coal generated during transportation, spontaneous combustion of coal, and biomass burning in village area.     

Analysis of social vulnerability of residential community to hazards in Tianjin,China

Flood management consists many aspects such as hazard assessment, vulnerability assessment, exposure assessment, risk assessment, early warning system, damage assessment as well as risk mitigation planning. Conventional flood management are depending on the ground based monitoring of rainfall and river discharge. Many parts of the world are not covered by these sensor networks in one hand and these ground based systems are costly. Most of the tropical countries have high flood risk and low financial and institutional capacity to afford ground based system. While conventional flood management is time and cost intensive, spaceborne remote sensing provides timely and low-cost data in comparison to field observation, and is the obvious choice for most developing countries affected by flooding. Many aspects of flood management are being aided with the advancement of remote sensing technology. More precise and near real time flood detection, lead time in flood early warning system, accurate and advance inputs of hydrological models are now blessed by space technology. Many methods and approaches have been developed to overcome the constrains in the application of spaceborne remote sensing in flood management. Application of satellite remote sensing in flood hazard assessment is well documented, however, the application of space technology in other aspects of the flood management is also promising. Therefore, this review paper focuses on the applicability of spaceborne remote sensing and in most of the aspects in flood management.

     

Cross validation of kriging in a unique neighborhood

Cross validation is an appropriate tool for testing interpolation methods: it consists of leaving out one data point at a time, and determining how well this point can be estimated from the other data. Cross validation is often used for testing “moving neighborhood” kriging models; in this case, each unknown value is predicted from a small number of surrounding data. In “unique neighborhood” kriging algorithms, each estimation uses all the available data; as a result, cross validation would spend much computer time. For instance, with ndata points it would cost at least the resolution of nsystems of n × nlinear equations (each with a different matrix).Here, we present a much faster method for cross validation in a unique neighborhood. Instead of solving nsystems n × n,it only requires the inversion of one n × nmatrix. We also generalized this method to leaving out several points instead of one.     

The OSACA database and a kinematic analysis of stars in the solar neighborhood

We transformed radial velocities compiled from more than 1400 published sources, including the Geneva-Copenhagen survey of the solar neighborhood (CORAVEL-CfA), into a uniform system based on the radial velocities of 854 standard stars in our list. This enabled us to calculate the average weighted radial velocities for more than 25000 HIPPARCOS stars located in the local Galactic spiral arm (Orion arm) with a median error of ±1 km/s. We use these radial velocities together with the stars’ coordinates, parallaxes, and proper motions to determine their Galactic coordinates and space velocities. These quantities, along with other parameters of the stars, are available from the continuously updated Orion Spiral Arm Catalogue (OSACA) and the associated database. We perform a kinematic analysis of the stars by applying an Ogorodnikov-Milne model to the OSACA data. The kinematics of the nearest single and multiple main-sequence stars differ substantially. We used distant (-r ≈ 0.2 kpc) stars of mixed spectral composition to estimate the angular velocity of the Galactic rotation, ω_o = ?25.7 ± 1.2 kms^?1 kpc^?1, and the vertex deviation, l = 13° ± 2°, and detected a negative K effect. This negative K effect is most conspicuous in the motion of A0–A5 giants and is equal to K = ?13.1 ± 2.0 kms^?1 kpc^?1.     

Two-dimensional modeling of flood wave propagation in residential areas after a dam break with application of diffusive and dynamic wave approaches

Natural Hazards - In this study, a two-dimensional hydraulic routing model was applied to a sudden failure scenario for the Atasu Dam in Trabzon, Turkey. The goal was to simulate spreading and...     

Fingerprinting sources of bacterial input into small residential watersheds: fate of fluorescent whitening agents

The presence of fecal coliform bacteria in many watersheds is often linked to septic system effluent. Fluorescent whitening agents (FWA) are part of most laundry detergent formulations and previously have been used for fingerprinting anthropogenic sewage waters. This study was carried out to investigate the fate of FWA in spring water downstream from a well-monitored septic system in a small forest watershed. Samples for FWA were collected at the spring and along the flow path downstream and analyzed fluorometrically. Selected sampling events were scheduled at night and daytime and after rainstorms to investigate possible changes in the spring water composition. In addition, reference fluorescence spectra were prepared for humic and tannic acid and for the laundry detergent used exclusively in the household discharging into the test septic system. The results indicate that FWA can be detected in spring water, but interference with increasing humic acid concentration downstream limits the fingerprinting value of the method to the vicinity of the spring. Also, sampling for FWA after rainstorms only yielded results if at least 4 days had passed. Otherwise, dissolved organic substances transported into the spring water interfered with the FWA spectrum. No significant differences between night and daytime sampling were found. Overall, the method, as used at this study site, is of limited value for fingerprinting FWA in natural waters.     

The role of land use patterns in earthquake resilience: a case study of the Ahvaz Manba Ab neighborhood

Natural Hazards - Urban resilience to natural disasters has constantly been a challenge to sustainable development in human societies. Since Iran is always exposed to natural disasters such as...     

各区分组讨论情况之第四组:各省大区标办

我们通过这几年的摸索加强标准化的工作,这几年建设部和勘察设计协会也都加强了这方面的工作,联系和组织。大家都在勘察设计协会标准设计工作委员会的平台上进一步发展国家标准、地方标准以及大区标准的联系和合作。其中存在着相当大的矛盾和经济利益上的分歧和冲突,但所有的矛盾和分歧都可以坐下来谈,我们要本着平等、相互尊重和共同协作的精神做好工作。一、关于标办的机构体制的问题各个地区标办的体制不同,情况非常复杂,有的机构归于设计处,有的在设计院,有独立出来成为事业单位的,有全额拨款的,有自收自支的。由于体制不同,工作职能不…     

Ocean expansion: The role of detachment faults

Detachment faulting at slow spreading ocean ridge axes is recognized as a major surface creation mechanism, yet the structural relationships of these faults with feeder-dykes of on-axis volcanoes remained unresolved. This summary study shows that surface creation leading to ocean widening is exclusively controlled by detachment faults, shallow tracers of tectonic stresses induced by the westward drift of plates. Volcanoes are fed by feeder-dykes following on-axis rotational detachment faults. Once formed volcanoes are dragged along the detachment whose footwall is made of mantle material sometimes hosting gabbro sills. Due to the faster drift of the uppermost lithospheric layer, the feeder-dykes are then intersected by active deeper low-angle detachments, become inactive and are replaced by new ones on-axis. Rooted vertically on either side of the plate boundary, the detachment flexing is all the earlier and more progressive as the faults are far from the axis, positioning gabbro as sills at shallow level within a deformed mantle interspersed with cataclasite horizons. Correlations between shallow and deep lithospheric processes are then clarified.     

Suitability evaluation of rural residential areas under the threat of geological disasters:A case study in Yinchanggou watershed of Pengzhou City

At present, the research on the layout of rural residential areas in the mountainous environment under the threat of earthquake disasters and frequent geological disasters is still rare. Taking Yinchanggou watershed in Longmenshan Town of Pengzhou City as an example, based on the summary of the geological hazard development characteristics in this area, the authors carried out the hazard risk zoning through 8 indexes. Then the geological hazard risk zoning was used as the primary factor to evaluate the suitability of rural residential areas. Besides, combined with the topographical conditions, socio-economic situation and ecological environment, a suitable evaluation index system for rural residential land under the threat of geological disasters was constructed, with the restrictive conditions of extremely high-risk areas, single geological hazards, slopes ≥25° and basic farmland protection areas. Finally, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method was used to evaluate the suitability of residential land in Yinchanggou watershed of Pengzhou City. The results show that high suitability areas account for 4.2% of the total area of the study area, moderate suitability areas 11.4%, low suitability areas 10.5%, and unsuitable areas 73.8%. The “suitable” areas for rural residential land are mainly distributed along the highway, and some are multiple “blocky” concentrated distribution areas. The terrain is flat and the traffic condition is convenient, which can provide some guidance for the selection of new rural residential locations.