Environmentality unbound: Multiple governmentalities in environmental politics

This article reviews an emerging body of research applying a “multiple governmentalities” perspective derived from Michel Foucault to the study of environmental politics. Previous application of the popular governmentality concept to understand such politics had largely overlooked the multiple forms of governmentality, described in Foucault’s later work, that may intersect in a given context. This paper outlines the evolution of Foucault’s discussion of governmentality and its implications for the study of environmental politics. It then reviews recent research concerning environmental politics employing a multiple governmentalities perspective. It finishes by distilling overarching patterns from this literature and suggesting new directions for future research to explore.     

Dynamic monitoring of landscape patterns and ecological processes using HJ-1 and SPOT satellite data over Hulunbeier grassland,China

Landscape patterns and ecological processes have been in long-term research focus in the field of landscape ecology, but how to measure their quantitative relations is still open. This work chooses the Hulunbeier grassland as the study area where ecosystem shows high vulnerability, frequent evolvement of landscape patterns and ecological processes. With remote sensing technology, the relationships between landscape patterns and ecological processes were analyzed quantitatively from multi-scale, multi-temporal and time series perspective. Firstly, the information about the current situation and change of landscape patterns and ecological processes are obtained from HJ-1 (Environmental and Disaster Small Satellite) and LANDSAT TM (Thermal Mapper) data. Secondly, SPOT NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) data during 2000–2008 are used to analyze the dynamic changes of ecological processes, and to simulate its inter-annual variety at pixel scale. Finally, the dynamic change trends of ecological processes of grassland vegetation are described. The results indicate that the unchanged ecosystem types account for most of the study area, unused land in the central part expands continuously which results in the increase of desertification, and most ecosystem types in the eastern part are changed to grassland and woodland. Furthermore, the vegetation vulnerability is the highest in the grassland-dominated region, the second in grassland–farmland–woodland transition, and the smallest in the woodland-dominated region, where the stability is enhanced in turn. Due to the dynamic change of vegetation, it can be concluded that the study area underwent ecological processes of vegetation cover with a negative trend and a changed phenology.     

Wildfire evacuation experiences of band members of Whitefish Lake First Nation 459, Alberta,Canada

This paper presents results of a study which examined how a mandatory wildfire evacuation affected members of Whitefish Lake First Nation 459, in Alberta, Canada. A qualitative case study approach was used, and semi-structured interviews were completed with 45 band members to learn about their evacuation experiences during the wildfire evacuation in May 2011 and explore the factors that complicated the evacuation process and put further strain on the evacuees and First Nation. This evacuation caused considerable distress for evacuees and had negative effects for the First Nation. Factors that affected evacuation experiences included: (1) transportation issues compounded by cultural land-use activities, (2) fear of home loss compounded by existing housing shortages, (3) information and lack of media interest, (4) language, (5) poverty, (6) large multi-generational families, (7) health concerns, and (8) reimbursement of evacuation-related expenses to the community. An overarching factor that affected the entire evacuation was jurisdiction. Based on these findings, recommendations are provided for emergency managers on improving wildfire evacuation experiences for Indigenous peoples.

     

A new GIS-compatible methodology for visibility analysis in digital surface models of earth sites

As a GIS tool,visibility analysis is used in many areas to evaluate both visible and non-visible places.Visibility analysis builds on a digital surface model describing the terrain morphology,including the position and shapes of all objects that can sometimes act as visibility barriers.However,some barriers,for example vegetation,may be permeable to a certain degree.Despite extensive research and use of visibility analysis in different areas,standard GIS tools do not take permeability into account.This article presents a new method to calculate visibility through partly permeable obstacles.The method is based on a quasi-Monte Carlo simulation with 100 iterations of visibility calculation.Each iteration result represents 1% of vegetation permeability,which can thus range from1% to 100% visibility behind vegetation obstacles.The main advantage of the method is greater accuracy of visibility results and easy implementation on any GIS software.The incorporation of the proposed method in GIS software would facilitate work in many fields,such as architecture,archaeology,radio communication,and the military.     

The praxis and politics of building urban dashboards

This paper critically reflects on the building of the Dublin Dashboard – a website built by two of the authors that provides citizens, planners, policy makers and companies with an extensive set of data and interactive visualizations about Dublin City, including real-time information – from the perspective of critical data studies. The analysis draws upon participant observation, ethnography, and an archive of correspondence to unpack the building of the dashboard and the emergent politics of data and design. Our findings reveal four main observations. First, a dashboard is a complex socio-technical assemblage of actors and actants that work materially and discursively within a set of social and economic constraints, existing technologies and systems, and power geometries to assemble, produce and maintain the website. Second, the production and maintenance of a dashboard unfolds contextually, contingently and relationally through transduction. Third, the praxis and politics of creating a dashboard has wider recursive effects: just as building the dashboard was shaped by the wider institutional landscape, producing the system inflected that landscape. Fourth, the data, configuration, tools, and modes of presentation of a dashboard produce a particularised set of spatial knowledges about the city. We conclude that rather than frame dashboard development in purely technical terms, it is important to openly recognize their contested and negotiated politics and praxis.     

Enhanced visualization of the flat landscape of the Cambridgeshire Fenlands

The Fenlands of East Anglia, England, represent a subtle landscape, where topographic highs rarely exceed 30 m above sea level. However, the fens represent an almost full sequence of Quaternary deposits which, together with islands of Cretaceous and Jurassic outcrops, make the area of geological importance. This feature discusses the advantages of using 3D visualization coupled with high‐resolution topographical data, over traditional 2D techniques, when undertaking an analysis of the landscape. Conclusions suggest that the use of 3D visualization will result in a higher level of engagement, particularly when communicating geological information to a wider public.     

Holocene landscape evolution and its impact on the neolithic and bronze age sites in the Shangqiu area,Northern China

The Shangqiu area, situated on the alluvial plain of the lower Yellow River, is traditionally considered the center of the predynastic and early Shang culture. Archaeologic remains dating to predynastic and dynastic Shang periods, however, have remained elusive. The current pattern of Neolithic and Bronze Age sites is characterized by their upland settings; and it has been often assumed that the area had the same landscape from the Neolithic through recent historic time. The potential impact of geomorphic processes on these early sites has been hardly considered in developing archaeologic models of temporal and spatial distribution of these sites. This article first presents a reconstruction of the Holocene floodplain history in the archaeologically significant area. On the basis of stratigraphy and sedimentology, a Holocene landscape evolution model is constructed to explore the interrelationship between evolving landscape and archaeologic record of the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The prolonged landscape stability from very late Pleistocene or early Holocene to 2000 yr B. P. provided potential Neolithic and Bronze Age human occupation with a favorable physical environment. After 2000 yr B. P., the hydrologic regime changed and the floodplain experienced 2-3 m of gradual vertical accretion during the following millennium. In response to the dramatic change of hydro-logic regime after the early 12th century A. D., a new floodplain formed by dominantly overbank deposition, and the old floodplain surfaces are covered by as much as ten meters of the younger alluvium. As a result, a pronounced effect has been imposed on the preservation, visibility, and discovery of the Neolithic and Bronze Age sites, including those sites of predynastic and early Shang phases. Thus, much difficulty has been imparted to our understanding of the configuration of these early archaeologic sites. This study demonstrates the usefulness of landscape reconstruction in developing settlement models of Neolithic and Bronze age sites in the area.     

WUIVAC: a wildland-urban interface evacuation trigger model applied in strategic wildfire scenarios

An evacuation trigger is a point on the landscape that, once crossed by a wildfire, triggers an evacuation for a community. The Wildland-Urban Interface Evacuation (WUIVAC) model can be used to create evacuation trigger buffers around a community using fuels, weather, and topographic inputs. A strategic, community-scale application of WUIVAC for the town of Julian, California was investigated. Eight years of wind measurements were used to determine the worst-case (strongest) winds in 16 directions. Surface fire rate of spread was used to calculate evacuation trigger buffers for the communities of Julian and nearby Whispering Pines, and for three potential evacuation routes. Multiple trigger buffers were combined to create fire planning areas, and trigger buffers that predict the closure of all evacuation routes were explored. WUIVAC trigger buffers offer several potential benefits for strategic evacuation planning, including determination of when to evacuate and locating potential evacuation routes.     

Numerical limit analysis of three-dimensional slope stability problems in catchment areas

Risk analysis of existing slopes in catchment areas requires quantification of their stability. This quantification becomes particularly difficult when dealing with larger areas under 3D conditions and including saturated and unsaturated water flow. This paper proposes the use of an effective numerical procedure to solve three-dimensional slope stability problems in large areas subjected to pore pressure effects. This numerical approach, numerical limit analysis, utilizes the finite element method and mathematical programming techniques. Mathematical programming is needed because the basic plasticity theorems for limit analysis can be cast as optimization problems. The generated optimization problem is formulated under a second-order cone programming framework, which is known to solve large-scale problems with great computational efficiency. The main objective of this work was to determine the slope safety factor and the collapse mechanism of soils governed by the Drucker–Prager yield criterion for large-scale 3D problems including pore pressure effects. This approach is applied to an experimental catchment in the Oregon Coast Range that failed after an intense rainfall. The results were compared with a previous stability analysis of the area available in the literature that used a novel 3D limit equilibrium method.     

A critical portrait of hate crime/incident reporting in North East England: The value of statistical data and the politics of recording in an age of austerity

This paper contributes to research on the reporting of hate crime/incidents from a critical socio-spatial perspective. It outlines an analysis of third party reporting of hate crimes/incidents in the North East of England, based upon the work of Arch (a third party hate crime/incident reporting system). The data set is one of the largest of its kind in the UK and therefore presents a unique opportunity to explore patterns of reporting across different types of hate crimes/incidents through a system designed to go beyond criminal justice responses. Whilst not downplaying the significance of the harmful experiences to which this data refers, we are very aware of the limitations of quantitative and de-humanised approaches to understanding forms of discrimination. Therefore the paper adopts a critical position, emphasising that interpretation of the data provides a partial, yet important, insight into everyday exclusions, but also cultures and politics of reporting. While the data records incidents across the main ‘monitored strands’, analysis here particularly focuses on those incidents recorded on the basis of ‘race’ and religion. Our analysis allows us to both cautiously consider the value of such data in understanding and addressing such damaging experiences - but also to appreciate how such an analysis may connect with the changing landscape of reporting and the politics of austerity.     

Tsunami risk reduction for densely populated Southeast Asian cities: analysis of vehicular and pedestrian evacuation for the city of Padang, Indonesia, and assessment of interventions

A major tsunamigenic earthquake is expected in the near future along the coast of West Sumatra Province of Indonesia. In the city of Padang, the arrival time of the tsunami is expected to be ~30 min. Currently, there are approximately 400,000 people in the city living within the potential inundation zone. This study aimed to complement the existing research in appraising possible risk reduction interventions, specifically looking at enabling the timely evacuation of the area. This research, developed in consultation with national and local authorities, emergency planners and NGOs, analysed interventions for tsunami risk reduction in Padang through the development of a pedestrian and vehicular evacuation model and the appraisal of possible solutions to enhance the evacuation rates. Some of the conclusions from this research can be applied to other areas in Southeast Asia where the traffic patterns are similar to those in Padang and where the distance to safety is greater than 4–5 km. For the case of Padang, the results show that pedestrian evacuation is strongly preferable to vehicular evacuation due to the limited road capacity and the high population density. In the present situation, however, 70–80 % of the population in Padang could not evacuate within 30 min, even by foot. Common interventions such as widening roads and building bridges prove to be relatively ineffective in this case due to the large distance that has to be covered in a short time. These interventions would only have a decisive impact if a longer evacuation time was available (more than 60 min). In the case of Padang, the evacuation rate in the first 30 min is strongly dependent on the presence/absence of evacuation shelters, whose effectiveness is limited by the capacity of the structures. Building a few high-capacity and high-resilience structures such as evacuation hills is a more effective and robust evacuation strategy than constructing many small high-raised buildings. Even with evacuation structures, wider roads and bridges, about 20 % of the population would still be unable to reach safety by the time the tsunami arrives. This means about 70,000 people of Padang’s current population, which is rapidly increasing. The building of evacuation shelters may be a viable option for saving lives in the short term, but it is not a sustainable option in the medium to long term. It is therefore also necessary to set up and enforce regulations for land use planning that take into account the tsunami risk and prevent further urban development for the areas that may be affected by a tsunami.     

闽北地区(土富)头-下柳源一带伟晶岩型铌钽矿产远景预测

通过特征分析模型分析和变量选取及关联度分级,对闽北地区头—下柳源一带伟晶岩型铌钽矿产进行远景预测研究。运用特征分析模型(Ⅰ-Ⅳ)计算统计矿床的关联度,对已知矿床模型单元进行检验及对未知统计矿床进行预测,并进行远景预测分级。     

LiDAR-based three-dimensional street landscape indices for urban habitability

Streets are like the skeleton of a city. They not only guarantee urban traffic functions and facilitate business activities, but also perform an integral component of the urban landscape. Urban habitability, that is to judge whether a place is suitable for people to live, has been a popular topic for years. A mobile laser scanning (MLS) system can obtain close-range three-dimensional (3D) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data of the sides and surfaces of urban streets. This study explored the possibility of analyzing urban street space landscapes based on MLS LiDAR, and proposed four LiDAR-based 3D street landscape indices for urban habitability: 3D green biomass, street enclosure, sunshine index, and landscape diversity index. Experiments performed in Jianye District of Nanjing (China) showed that these four street landscape indices accorded well with the actual situation and they reflected user perception of street space. Thus, the proposed indices could help us to assess urban landscape from a 3D perspective. To sum up, this study suggest a new type of data for landscape study, and provide an automatic information acquirement for urban habitability assessment.     

数字地图的三维可视化研究及其若干应用

三维可视化理论与技术的引入使得传统静态的、平面的地图向动态的、三维的方向发展, 地图的三维可视化正成为GIS与数字制图领域的一个新的研究课题.数字地图及其建库技术的研究为其三维可视化研究提供了有力的技术支持和充足的数据来源.主要研究基于等高线与离散高程点的地形模型(DEM) 的建立、兼顾地形(即基于DEM) 的街区与街道、居民地模型的建立, 以及植被、道路、水系等各主要要素的三维模型的建立及其显示, 对三维点状地图符号库的建立、模型的动态显示及航空影像的叠加显示等进行了研究.最后对三维可视化技术在基于数字地图的地貌晕渲、模拟飞行、虚拟城市等方面的应用作了探讨.      

“Source–sink” landscape pattern analysis of nonpoint source pollution using remote sensing techniques

Research on the “source–sink” landscape pattern of nonpoint source pollution is of great significance to natural resource management, environmental protection, water quality improvement, nonpoint source pollution prevention and control, and ecological security pattern construction. Remote sensing has proven by many scholars as a practical and effective technique to study landscape patterns and nonpoint source pollution. However, there are still many obstacles to the application of remote sensing technology, such as classification errors, scale effects and the issue, whereby landscape metrics cannot describe the landscape information comprehensively. In view of the characteristics of the macroscale and multi-scale of remote sensing, the analysis of landscape patterns is the basis for the study of the relationship research between patterns and ecological processes, and it is also the key to the study of landscape dynamics and functions. This paper attempts to summarize the representative results and the challenges of remote sensing in the study of the source and sink landscape of the nonpoint source pollution landscape and provide corresponding solutions as a reference for future research.     

Effects of land use classification on landscape metrics based on remote sensing and GIS

Landscape metrics are important when studying landscape structure and function. This study investigated the sensitivity of two core sets of landscape metrics to different land use classification systems by analyzing two typical landscapes at a small watershed scale and a county scale on the Loess Plateau, China. The results showed that (1) eight landscape metrics, selected using Spearman’s correlation coefficient method and principle component analysis, adequately reflected the major landscape properties at both scales. (2) Land use classification had a significant influence on most of the selected landscape metrics, affecting their magnitude and the way in which they changed with increasing classification details; four general patterns were exhibited, i.e., increasing; decreasing; increasing and then decreasing; and relatively constant at the small watershed scale, while for the county scale, they were increasing; decreasing; increasing and then decreasing; and remaining relatively constant after initially increasing. (3) The general response patterns of most of the selected landscape metrics to the changing land use classification were similar among different years at both scales, which implied that the age of the data source used to generate the land use maps since 1982 had little effect on the landscape metrics, and that the underlying landscape pattern described by the metrics had not notably changed.     

基于无人机倾斜摄影的三维数字露头表征技术

随着地质研究目标精细化和复杂化,地质体表征的尺度越来越小,难度越来越大,已有储层分布及预测的方法亟待改进。基于此,在分析传统野外地质考察局限性的基础上,介绍了无人机装置与倾斜摄影的技术特点,提出了基于无人机倾斜摄影的三维数字露头表征技术,利用无人机采集野外露头模型进行了储层构型分析。研究表明:1）传统野外地质考察至少有七方面的局限性;2）无人机倾斜摄影有明显的创新性和技术优势。采集处理后的数据模型带有三维坐标信息（经度、纬度、海拔）与图像信息,可以准确表征模型中任意位置点坐标和图像,因此,三维野外露头构型分析有了良好的资料基础;3）通过实例分析发现,采集处理后的模型精度高（分辨率约3~5 cm）,对砂体内部结构认识的定量化与精细化程度增高。无人机倾斜摄影技术不仅使数字露头成为现实,也是辅助地质学家进行高效野外考察的可靠技术。     

单图像三维立体图简介

立体图指的是在观察图画中的深度时，通过双眼的配合能够构造出一幅心理上的立体透视图来。人们常规的做法是使用一对像图来获得立体景色，这样的图要经适当的制作并要用双眼分别各看一张。近年来，借助于计算机产生的随机点图可用来勾绘出实物。这种随机点图如用单只眼睛观看时则是毫无意义的，但如用双眼观看时便可产生出立体景色。原先这样的随机点立体图似乎均要求制成两张图，但最近的工作表明将此种图合二而一的方法已获成功。     

Prediction of fog/visibility over India using NWP Model

Frequent occurrence of fog in different parts of northern India is common during the winter months of December and January. Low visibility conditions due to fog disrupt normal public life. Visibility conditions heavily affect both surface and air transport. A number of flights are either diverted or cancelled every year during the winter season due to low visibility conditions, experienced at different airports of north India. Thus, fog and visibility forecasts over plains of north India become very important during winter months. This study aims to understand the ability of a NWP model (NCMRWF, Unified Model, NCUM) with a diagnostic visibility scheme to forecast visibility over plains of north India. The present study verifies visibility forecasts obtained from NCUM against the INSAT-3D fog images and visibility observations from the METAR reports of different stations in the plains of north India. The study shows that the visibility forecast obtained from NCUM can provide reasonably good indication of the spatial extent of fog in advance of one day. The fog intensity is also predicted fairly well. The study also verifies the simple diagnostic model for fog which is driven by NWP model forecast of surface relative humidity and wind speed. The performance of NWP model forecast of visibility is found comparable to that from simple fog model driven by NWP forecast of relative humidity and wind speed.