The end of the Pacific? Effects of sea level rise on Pacific Island livelihoods

As in the past, most Pacific Island people live today along island coasts and subsist largely on foods available both onshore and offshore. On at least two occasions in the 3500 years that Pacific Islands have been settled, sea level changes affected coastal bioproductivity to the extent that island societies were transformed in consequence. Over the past 200 years, sea level has been rising along most Pacific Island coasts causing loss of productive land through direct inundation (flooding), shoreline erosion and groundwater salinization. Responses have been largely uninformed, many unsuccessful. By the year 2100, sea level may be 1.2 m higher than today. Together with other climate‐linked changes and unsustainable human pressures on coastal zones, this will pose huge challenges for livelihoods. There is an urgent need for effective and sustainable adaptation of livelihoods to prepare for future sea level rise in the Pacific Islands region. There are also lessons to be learned from past failures, including the need for adaptive solutions that are environmentally and culturally appropriate, and those which appropriate decision makers are empowered to design and implement. Around the middle of the twenty‐first century, traditional coastal livelihoods are likely to be difficult to sustain, so people in the region will need alternative food production systems. Within the next 20–30 years, it is likely that many coastal settlements will need to be relocated, partly or wholly. There are advantages in anticipating these needs and planning for them sooner rather than later. In many ways, the historical and modern Pacific will end within the next few decades. There will be fundamental irreversible changes in island geography, settlement patterns, subsistence systems, societies and economic development, forced by sea level rise and other factors.     

‘Borehole Race’ and the Dilemma of Governing the ‘Ungoverned’: Understanding the Urban Political Ecology of Groundwater Exploitation in Nigeria

Groundwater exploitation is an essential aspect of the numerous processes of transforming the urban natural environment for human gains. We use the political ecology of borehole exploitation in Nigeria’s urban environment to understand the micro-and macro-level processes mediating the transformation and changes in urban “groundwater scape”. The fieldwork processes depend on field counting of borehole distribution, in-depth and semi-structured interviews, and a review of secondary literatures. We argue that the social and environmental changes arising from the exploitation of groundwater bespeak the active and continual manifestation of the interplay of combustible interests and power friction among institutional agents within the permissible range of the natural environment. Such dynamic power relations engender a pattern of socio-natural transformation consistent with Swyngedouw’s notion of urban metabolism- “a series of interconnected heterogeneous and dynamic but contested and contestable processes of continuous quantitative and qualitative transformations that re-arranges humans and non-humans in new and often unexpected ways”.     

Comparison of LLNF,ANN, and COA-ANN Techniques in Modeling the Uniaxial Compressive Strength and Static Young’s Modulus of Limestone of the Dalan Formation

Natural Resources Research - The uniaxial compressive strength and static Young’s modulus are among the key design parameters typically used in geotechnical engineering projects. In this...     

Governance,Gender and the Appropriation of Natural Resources: A Case Study of ‘Left-Behind’ Women’s Collective Action in China

China’s rapid urbanization has created large scale of population migration, resulting in many villages being dominated by “left-behind” women, and weak governance of those collectively owned resources. The situation has required these women to take up the functions of decision-making and governance as a remedial mechanism as well as a new path. Based on a case study in a typical hollowing-out village in central China, this paper explores an example of left-behind women’s collective action to prevent the over-exploitation of community and resources. It finds out that although traditionally excluded from public activities and marginalized, the “left-behind” women were able to mobilize and enhance collective action. When empowered, they are growing fast with endurance and courage, and as capable as anyone of defending the common-pool resources. It suggests that the left-behind women offer a new governance option for those population hollowing out rural areas.     

Model employers and model cities?: Bangalore’s public sector and the rise of the neoliberal city

Bangalore is held up as a model for how cities, particularly in the global south, should develop in the globalized information age, in which entrepreneurs with new access to international capital fuel service-sector-driven development. Expanding market forces cultivate cities of skilled middle-class workers whose increased consumption generates broad developmental benefits. Now known as the “Silicon Valley of India,” Bangalore was previously the capital of India’s public sector enterprises (PSEs), which laid important groundwork for the city of today, including the IT sector. I show how, by providing access to homeownership along with high wages and benefits tied to secure employment, Bangalore’s PSEs created the foundation for the city today and its middle-class character. The skilled workforce that PSEs created helped the IT sector emerge in the city. By examining this erased history, we see the role of the state in development projects, and consider alternative models for urban change.     

Contingencies of environmental justice: the case of individual mobility and Grenoble’s Low-Emission Zone

Low-emission zones (LEZs) are core urban areas where vehicles that are deemed especially polluting are prohibited, in the hope of reducing the population’s exposure to outdoor air pollution. LEZs have proliferated in Europe during the past decade. While an emerging body of literature considers LEZs’ impacts on pollution, studies thus far have not tackled LEZs’ impacts on mobility. This article uses household-travel survey data to assess how a projected LEZ in Grenoble, France could affect individuals’ mobility, specifically enquiring whether or not the impact would be socially differentiated and might constitute a social injustice. Four likely scenarios are considered and logistic regressions show that, indeed, the probability that people will be affected by the LEZ is related to their social group. However, interpretations in terms of social justice may vary, depending on the reference population considered and hypotheses regarding the reduction of pollution exposure.     

A Review of “Turf Wars: Discourse,Diversity, and the Politics of Place”

The spatial correlation, or colocation, of two or more variables is a fundamental issue in geographical analysis but has received much less attention than the spatial correlation of values within a single variable, or autocorrelation. A recent paper by Leslie and Kronenfeld (2011) contributes to spatial correlation analysis in its development of a colocation statistic for categorical data that is interpreted in the same way as a location quotient, a frequently used measure in human geography and other branches of regional analysis. Geographically weighted colocation measures for categorical data are further developed in this article by generalizing Leslie and Kronenfeld's global measure as well as specifying a local counterpart for each global statistic using two different types of spatial filters: fixed and adaptive. These geographically weighted colocation quotients are applied to the spatial distribution of housing types to demonstrate their utility and interpretation.     

Africa’s middle class: building houses and constructing identities in the small town of Buea,Cameroon

Across Africa households are commissioning new domestic buildings for their own use or to rent out rather than waiting for governments to supply urban shelter. We conceptualize this as two interwoven processes: building houses for a new middle class and the building of a new middle class identity. We draw particular attention to the impact of international migration on these processes. The paper uses quantitative data from building permits and qualitative data from 29 interviews and walk-round tours with homeowners and government officials in Buea, Cameroon. Despite some significant caveats (related to housing the urban poor, regulating building standards, and lost local government revenue), we argue that these individually initiated building projects do a reasonable job of meeting local demand for shelter. However, from the perspective of identity-building these buildings are less successful. Whilst homeowners take considerable pride in their building projects, the statements that these structures make about their identities are not always “read” by their neighbours in the way owners hope. New housing is the lens through which Buea’s residents interpret growing levels of inequality and its associated social tensions.     

Brazil’s Financial Centers in the Twenty-first Century: Hierarchy,Specialization, and Concentration

The purpose of this article is to examine how the geography of Brazil’s financial centers changed since 2000 in terms of financial center hierarchy, specialization, and spatial concentration. To address these questions, we use data on employment and mergers and acquisitions in financial and business services, complemented with data on remuneration and bank assets. Our results show that São Paulo has consolidated its dominance as Brazil’s primary financial center, with market for corporate control as an important channel of this process. Rio’s decline as a financial center, which started more than fifty years ago, has continued into this century. At the same time, Brasília has emerged as the third most important financial center of Brazil. We document the recent dynamic of this territorial division of labor, with Rio’s specialization in insurance and Brasília’s dependence on government-owned banks. Finally, we show signs that Brazil’s financial center activities might be following an inverse U-shaped pattern whereby increasing geographical concentration is followed by its slow decline. Key Words: Brazil, concentration, financial centers, São Paulo, territorial division of labor.     

Measuring Spatial Variations in Sports Talent Development: the approach,methods and measures of ‘Talent Tracker’

Knowing where sports talent is produced is fundamental to identifying spatial factors in talent production and to assist with talent identification. This research develops spatial analysis methods—the ‘Talent Tracker’—to harness geographical information systems and identify regions that are over- and under-producing sports talent. The approach focuses on the professional Australian Football League (AFL), using data sourced from the AFL itself and other sources, to identify differences in regional ‘talent yield’ based on junior participation. Data from AFL draft records, informants and secondary sources identified the place of junior talent development for the 1290 players who were drafted and played at least one game of senior AFL football in the period 1997–2010. AFL national census data identified junior participation for 94 specified regions for the period 2002–09. AFL talent was assigned to these regions by using ArcGIS procedures, and the datasets synthesised to produce tables and maps of talent yield by participation for each of the 94 AFL regions. The results demonstrate the power of contemporary spatial analysis to open up new research methods for studies into sports talent production and identification. Clear spatial patterns emerge in talent yield at both the national and metropolitan scales. The results provide numerous avenues for further research to explore determining factors for the spatial patterns identified.     

The evolution of the Kolpashevskaya meaner of the Ob’ and ongoing hazardous manifestations of channel processes

We examine the transformation of a gentle segmental to a meander loop with the result that the city, founded in the 17^th century, found itself on the caving bank. Comparison of cartographic materials from different times showed the occurrence of secondary bends on elongated rectilinear wings. Not only did such an evolution of the meanders lead to the caving of the terraced urban bank, but also it involved a likely emergency situation on the underwater crossing of the pipeline, and on other engineering facilities. We ascertained the causes of the ongoing channel deformations; modeling data were used in developing recommendations on meander straightening in order to divert the river away from the city.     

‘We are at the mercy of the floods!’ : Extreme weather events,disrupted mobilities,and everyday navigation in urban Ghana

This paper examines how extreme weather events affect the mobility of low-income urban residents in Ghana. Bringing together scholarship on extreme weather and mobilities, it explores the differential impact of flooding on their everyday lives as they navigate the cities of Accra and Tamale. A range of qualitative methods were drawn on, including semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and follow-along-participant observations in selected communities of both cities. Three key themes emerged: disrupted road and transport infrastructure, everyday mobility challenges, and coping/adaptive strategies. In flooding conditions, residents experienced difficulties leaving/returning home, engaging in income-generating activities, and accessing transport services and other key urban infrastructure. Conceptually, the paper reveals how disruption to urban residents’ daily movements and activities (re)produces new forms of mobilities and immobilities, which have three relational elements: postponed, improvised and assisted. Throughout the analysis, we show how these mobilities/immobilities vary by age and gender: all urban residents, (though women in particular), experience postponed mobility; young people especially engage in improvised mobility; and children and the elderly are in greatest need of assisted mobility. The paper thus contributes to scholarship on extreme weather events and mobility by providing a more spatially nuanced understanding of the multi-faceted domains in which flooding, socio-economic conditions and adaptive strategies intersect to influence urban mobility in resource poor settings.     

Creative destruction in urban planning procedures: the language of ‘renewal’ and ‘exploitation’21

This paper examines the language and phraseology of ‘creative destruction‘ (‘renewal‘ and ‘exploitation’) expressed in urban planning procedures concerning one particular house in West Jerusalem: 28 Radak Street. Through a forensic examination of the planning-related communications about this address, the work analyzes the various stages of the ’destruction’ and ’renewal’ of the property. It demonstrates how each of the various actors involved (Municipality, planning committees, legal courts, private entrepreneur and local residents) uses different language and phraseology to present their argument, while the voice of the original Palestinian owners of the house is entirely absent from the planning battle.     

Understanding the Past and Present and Predicting the Future: Farmers’ Use of Multiple Nutrient Best Management Practices in the Upper Midwest

Understanding what drives farmers’ voluntary adoption of nutrient and soil best management practices has important consequences for many environmental outcomes including water quality. We build on research revealing the need for simultaneous use of multiple nitrogen best management practices to achieve water quality improvement goals. Using social, economic and attitudinal variables we predict the use of multiple nitrogen best management practices at three time points: current use (2013), past use (before 2013), and likelihood of use on their largest field in the next three years. Our empirical analysis uses structural equation modeling with latent variables and 2014 farmer survey data from three Midwestern US states. Most farmers in our sample used at least one of the six best management practices. Our results reveal that farmers’ attitudes, use of information sources, and conservation program participation affect the number of nitrogen best management practices concurrently in use at multiple time points.     

A Review of “In the Shadow of the State: Indigenous Politics,Environmentalism, and Insurgency in Jharkhand,India”

In this article, we first replicate and then adapt an existing index of social vulnerability to hazard developed for the United States to a non-U.S. context. We construct indexes for Norwegian municipalities, describe the adjustment process, and compare the replicated and adapted assessments. Our results indicate only a moderate correlation between the replicated and adapted vulnerability indexes and for several municipalities the difference between the indexes is considerable. This demonstrates that context matters and that indexes of vulnerability need to be adapted rather than replicated. To facilitate such adaption processes, we identify three types of accommodation: conceptual, technical, and geographic.     

“Story-Networks” of Livestock and Climate Change: Actors,Their Artifacts,and the Shaping of Urban Print Media

Despite widespread media coverage of livestock-related issues and growing scientific evidence linking meat production and climate change, systematic content analysis of this relationship in media coverage has been surprisingly minimal. In this article, we combine actor-network theory with framing theory to develop the basis for “story-networks”—networks of actants and artifacts that shape how a media report or “story” is framed. We coded livestock-related articles from a major U.S. newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, over the 1999–2010 period to understand how various actants and artifacts shaped different story-networks. Just 5% of all livestock articles addressed connections with climate change; these articles focused on technology, lifestyle, or policy. Distinctive story-networks characterized each category, framing the livestock–climate change linkage as an issue to be addressed through either technological innovation, individual lifestyle choices, or policy action. In each story-network type, varying configurations of actants and artifacts were involved, including the cattle themselves.     

Socio-spatial segregation in China and migrants’ everyday life experiences: the case of Wenzhou

Although internal migration is one of the most frequently discussed aspects of China’s twenty-first century urbanization, much of the research in this area emphasizes megacities. This paper, however, focuses on Wenzhou, a Chinese city that served as a national model for the introduction of small-scale private enterprise in the 1990s. Through a survey of migrants living in the subdistrict of Shuangyu, a settlement dominated by manufacturing workers, this article argues that socio-spatial segregation research should pay more holistic attention to migrants’ use of urban space, beyond simply place of residence. Focusing on how migrants use space in several aspects of their everyday lives, this article contends that Shuangyu is socially and spatially segregated from other parts of the city. Rather than neatly incorporated into the rest of the city, migrant settlement in Wenzhou is both marginalized and independent. We thus theorize Shuangyu’s place in Wenzhou’s new socio-spatial structure as a “city within the city.”