Changing regional climatic gradients in the United Kingdom

Various (groups of) myths from the Pacific Islands are discussed. Generic groups considered are diluvian myths, myths involving abrupt subsidence, abrupt uplift, and simultaneous abrupt subsidence and uplift. Specific myths, recently validated, illustrate the superiority of the mythic explanation for recent volcanism over available geological information, and the possibility of myth recalling a migration which took place nearly 3000 years ago. The implications of the correct interpretation of the geographical basis of myths for an understanding of environmental change in the Pacific are explored. Particularly in a region where written history is relatively recent, myths have the potential for extending available chronologies of particular phenomena and allow consideration of issues such as the role of infrequent catastrophic events in landscape evolution and the role of (rapid) environmental change in cultural transformation to be considered more fully.     

Perceptible earthquakes in the United Kingdom

Summary. Earthquake occurrence in the United Kingdom is analysed using Gumbel's third type asymptotic distribution of extreme values. Uncertainties in both the parameters and predictions derived from the Gumbel distribution are obtained and it is shown that an earthquake with body-wave magnitude slightly over five is the one most likely to be perceived at any point in the United Kingdom.     

Gender and physical geography in the United Kingdom

Summary This paper presents the results of a questionnaire survey of all higher education geography departments in the United Kingdom, in order to provide an overview of the current status of women employed in the discipline, particularly female physical geographers. The survey examined the position of female physical geographers of doctoral level and above, in terms of employment status, type of contract, career structure, research and teaching disciplines and successful grant applications. The publication records of female academic staff were also examined. The results of the survey demonstrate that women are under-represented in physical geography at all levels of the academic hierarchy and that the majority of female physical geography academic staff are below 40 years of age, and employed at the lecturer level on permanent contracts.     

欧美景观地理学的新进展及其启示

文章从文化景观、景观概念、景观解释、景观与文化、景观政治学等方面阐述了欧美景观地理学的新进展。目前,欧美文化地理学正在重新整合,文化景观研究是其核心。针对景观的不同用法(艺术上的,社会科学上的),提出了4种专业化的景观解释模型。景观政治学是新文化地理学的关键建设领域,甚至有人把它当作景观解释的中心。地理学者对文学的兴趣日益增加,并将不同的文学形式看作是研究景观意义的途径。     

Producer Services Research in the United Kingdom

This paper reviews recent research in the United Kingdom on producer services and suggests directions for further research. A recurrent theme in UK-based geographic research into producer services is the role of service activities, establishments, and trade in uneven development of the UK space economy, a role manifested in uneven provision and quality of services in peripheral regions. During the 1980s, overall growth in demand for producer services and the rapid rise in metropolitan London real estate costs reduced London's dominance, but these trends moderated by the end of the decade. In the absence of adequate government statistics, regular and standardized surveys are needed to compile a time series of service change in the United Kingdom. Directions for continued empirical research include the role of producer services in innovation and technology transfer, the implications of information technology for the location of employment in the sector, and the impacts of productivity increases on employment and wages.     

Views and Visions of Land Use in the United Kingdom

As part of a national study aimed at surveying the land use and landscape of the United Kingdom, 1287 surveyors recorded their views and visions of one-kilometre grid squares in which they conducted fieldwork. This study, which took place in 1996, has links to previous national land-use surveys by L. Dudley Stamp (1950) and Alice Coleman (1976, 1977). Of the total sample, 1037 reports are from the observations of school children. Their views relate to six key questions which have been analysed using qualitative research techniques to identify categories of shared responses. Reported in frequency counts, the results highlight a degree of communality in the perceptions of the majority of young people and adults involved. They show their hopes and dreams for a cleaner and varied landscape in the future with more green space, greater provision for well-planned low density housing, and recreation facilities. At the same time their expressed concerns for the management of the environment, housing development, green space provision, recreation and leisure activities indicate a disquiet about the future. This apparent pessimism is most notable in the views for urban locations. For rural locations there is a higher expectation that things will remain more-or-less the same in 20 years time.     

Holocene floodplain metamorphosis in the Midlands, United Kingdom

Many lowland rivers in the United Kingdom, including the Nene, Soar and Severn, have layered floodplains with a basal gravel of Pleistocene or Late glacial age and a structureless silty clay superficial unit burying the entire former floodplain. This burial is illustrated by the existence of variable, mixed and pedologically disturbed sediments and palaeo landsurfaces between the basal gravels and superficial silty clay. This paper presents a comparison of the pre- and post-late Holocene palaeo landsurfaces and palaeochannels using data from the Nene, Soar and Severn valleys. From this comparison it is argued that during the mid to late Holocene (ca 4500 yr BP to 2500 yr BP) floodplains and river channels underwent a metamorphosis. This is indicated by accelerated vertical accretion, a reduction in floodplain relative relief, changed floodplain soil conditions, a reduction in channel W/D ratios and a resultant increase in the silty clay proportion of channel perimeter sediments. There are indications that hydrological change preceded this metamorphosis but the primary cause was an increase in fine sediment supply during the later Holocene and a disequilibrium between channel bed and floodplain aggradation rates resulting in relative incision. This metamorphosis, which is explained in this paper by the proposed stable-bed aggrading-banks model (SBAB), is the key factor in the Holocene evolution of low-energy floodplain systems in the United Kingdom, upon which more subtle short-term fluctuations are superimposed.     

The Past,Present, and Future of Geodemographic Research in the United States and United Kingdom

This article presents an extensive comparative review of the emergence and application of geodemographics in both the United States and United Kingdom, situating them as an extension of earlier empirically driven models of urban socio-spatial structure. The empirical and theoretical basis for this generalization technique is also considered. Findings demonstrate critical differences in both the application and development of geodemographics between the United States and United Kingdom resulting from their diverging histories, variable data economies, and availability of academic or free classifications. Finally, current methodological research is reviewed, linking this discussion prospectively to the changing spatial data economy in both the United States and United Kingdom.     

The Design of Treatment Wetlands in the United Kingdom: Successes, Failures, and Alternative Approaches

Constructed wetland was first introduced into the United Kingdom in the middle of 1980s,following a visit by a group of scientist to Western Germany.In the past 2 decades,the applications of constructed wetlands in this country have expanded substantially,due to the demand for green technologies and rising cost of fossil fuel energies.This paper reported a statistical investigation of the performances of 78 horizontal flow wetlands,representatives of such system in the United Kingdom.Alternative design equations,based on organic matter removal efficiency,have been developed from Monod kinetics,and the accuracy and reliability of current and alternative design approaches have been examined.     

Power intermittency, redundancy and tidal phasing around the United Kingdom

The tidal resource is large in north-western European waters and a number of axial flow, vertical rotor and oscillating hydroplane schemes are approaching full-scale design and construction. However, the intermittency of the output from such devices that only generate electricity during the flood and ebb suggests that back-up generating capacity would be required with the associated inbuilt redundancy. Basic, shallow water tidal theory is reviewed and it is shown that carefully sized tidal stream installations in the Clyde, Tees, Humber, Severn, Menai Straits and the Mersey can utilise the phase locked occurrence of tidal flow and provide a more or less regular and continuous supply of electrical power to the National Grid. Estimates are given for the required capacity of the installations and a scheme is proposed by which an installed capacity of little more than, for example, 200 MW can provide a continuous supply of about 45 MW from these sites, thus achieving a significant and uninterrupted contribution to the Government's 2010 and 2020 targets.     

A spatial perspective on the distribution of the Indians in the United Kingdom, 1981

The author analyzes the spatial distribution of Indians living in Great Britain in 1981. The impact of factors such as demand for labor, location of manufacturing industries, and the attraction of urban areas is examined.     

Flogging a dead norm? Newspaper coverage of anthropogenic climate change in the United States and United Kingdom from 2003 to 2006

The journalistic norm of 'balanced' reporting (giving roughly equal coverage to both sides in any significant dispute) is recognised as both useful and problematic in communicating emerging scientific consensus on human attribution for global climate change. Analysis of the practice of this norm in United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) newspaper coverage of climate science between 2003 and 2006 shows a significant divergence from scientific consensus in the US in 2003–4, followed by a decline in 2005–6, but no major divergence in UK reporting. These findings inform ongoing considerations about the spatially-differentiated media terms and conditions through which current and future climate policy is negotiated and implemented.     

生态红线区管理:英国科研专用区的历史脉络与经验借鉴

作为关键生态保护区域边界线,生态红线划定当前已经上升为中国国家层面战略部署,然而当前生态红线的研究尚处于探索阶段,对于如何针对红线区域具体设计法规保障、制定管理规则、限定开发行为等方面的研究较为匮乏。鉴于英国已经较为成熟的科研专用区相关保护管理的历史经验,梳理和定位了英国科研专用区的3个发展阶段,探讨了各个发展阶段的基本原则、管理机制和实施保障的演变过程,总结英国科研专用区的规划与管理经验,提出了完善法律保障与规程规范、实施统一监管和区域统筹、并行生态补偿与保护自住、签订标准化管理协议、加强公众参与与研讨机制、提升资金保障与使用效率等对我国生态红线区管理与保障的有益借鉴。     

Comparative spatial inequality dynamics: The case of Mexico and the United States

In this paper we examine the trajectory of regional income inequality dynamics for two neighboring national systems. Using data on 3038 US counties and 2418 Mexico municipios, from 2000, 2005, and 2010, we employ recent extensions of spatial Markov chains and space-time mobility measures, to consider the following questions: Are regional inequality dynamics fundamentally distinct between Mexico and the United States? Does the role of spatial context influence the distributional dynamics of the two systems? Finally we examine if there is a distinct international border region that displays inequality dynamics different from those of the internal regions of the two national systems. Strong evidence of spatial heterogeneity in regional income mobility is found between the two national systems, with Mexico having higher mobility relative to the US. The international border region is found to have distinct mobility dynamics from either national system, experiencing the strongest mobility. Extensive evidence of spatial contextual effects are found throughout the US-Mexican pooled data set indicating that a region's transitional dynamics are influenced by incomes of neighboring regions.     

Regional Applications of Lake Sediment Dating by Spheroidal Carbonaceous Particle Analysis I: United Kingdom

Spheroidal carbonaceous fly-ash particles (SCPs) are produced by the high temperature combustion of fossil-fuels such as coal and oil. They are not produced by any natural processes and therefore are unambiguous indicators of atmospheric deposition from power generation and other industrial sources. In lake sediments, SCP concentration profiles are robust, replicable and often regionally characteristic such that the main profile features can be used for sediment dating. Previous work in the UK provided dates for the three main SCP profile features for Scotland, North Wales and Northern Ireland and also highlighted the lack of information for the rest of the UK. In this study, archived SCP data and new SCP concentration profiles were compiled from 80 radionuclide-dated sediment cores from across the whole of the UK in order to determine the regional coherence of temporal trends. Using SCP cumulative percentage profiles, with the SCP concentration peak set as 100%, dates for each 10% were produced for each core. Comparing these dates, eight distinct regions were found within the UK and dated cumulative profiles, with errors, were determined for each. Despite this regionality, the whole of the UK showed the same date for the start of the record (1850±25 years) and for the 40- and 50% (1940±15 and 1955±15, respectively). The national coherence of the former is thought to be due to the large confidence limits in the radionuclide dates for this period, whilst the latter is thought to be due to the impact from the major increase in electricity demand following the Second World War and the widespread introduction and use of cheap fuel-oil. Since the 1960s the trend has been one of increasing regionalisation resulting from the introduction of particle arrestor technology, the decline of heavy industry, the move to fewer and larger sources, particularly power stations, and an increase in accuracy for the dates of recent horizons. Regional trends are seen to compare well with industrial development in the UK and in some western areas influenced by emissions from Ireland. Areas of uncertainty remain in South Wales and the northern isles. A cumulative percentile was also calculated for each region for 1963 in order that this can be compared with the ²⁴¹Am and ¹³⁷Cs peaks.     

Shades of green in local authority policy-making: a regional case study

Summary Local authorities have been seen as an important agent in the development of more sustainable economies. This paper explores the level and form of 'greening' taking place amongst local authorities in the Midland region of the UK. Particular attention is paid to intra-regional variations in environmental policy-making.     

江苏省内一体化、制造业聚散与地区间分工演化

在区域一体化发展的过程中,产业集聚和地区专业化在地区产业发展中相互关联,是地区间分工的基础.通过对江苏省1984-2008年间制造业空间集聚和扩散以及各地区专业化发展的关联分析,发现地区分工深化与区域一体化并非同步,不同时期对各类地区专业化发展具有不同的特征.区域一体化较低水平时期,中心和外围地区专业化指数较高的同时存在“假性分工”的现象;一体化水平向较高水平发展过程中,中心地区资源环境约束下可能凭借发达的产业基础率先步入升级通道使其专业化加深,而外围地区的被动地位以及发展的冲动往往对产业承接的选择能力较差,一定时期内专业化反而会出现下降.其原因是外围地区接受了大量的非优势产业,其中有部分产业是中心地区淘汰的落后产能,一定程度上预示着外围地区有可能会步中心地区先污染后治理的老路.     

Huhu grubs,bull semen shots and koki: Visceral geographies of regional food festivals in Aotearoa

This article draws attention to the visceral geographies of two unique Aotearoa New Zealand regional food festivals – Kāwhia KaiFest and Wildfoods Hokitika. We address the question: how do organisers and attendees sensually experience place through food festivals? Interviews, participant ‘sensing’, the researchers’ own bodies and ‘gut feelings’ were used as research instruments. The affective work of visceral pleasure and disgust highlight food that is deemed (in)edible. We argue that the visceral is crucial to understanding place for wild Hokitika or calm Kāwhia. The two food festivals provide insights and paradoxes into the embodied experiences of regional and culturally diverse tourism geographies.     

Examining the influence of settlement morphology and separation zones policies on the availability of shallow coal resources in the United Kingdom

In 2013, demand for coal in the UK was 60 million tonnes. Of this, 12.7 million tonnes (21%) came from indigenous sources; the majority of which was from surface mining (8.6 million tonnes). Many planning applications for surface mining of coal and the coal extraction that follows, are often a source of conflict with the communities who live within shallow coalfield areas. Policies which enforce a gap, or ‘separation zone’, between communities and surface coal mining operations exist in Wales and Scotland, but do not exist in England. This paper examines the effect of applying separation zones on the availability of shallow coal resources within two study areas; one within the South Wales Coalfield, the other within the Midlands Coalfield (comprising the Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and North Derbyshire Coalfield areas). Density profiles and a shape-index algorithm are used to compare and contrast settlement morphology (i.e. shape or footprint) and distribution to determine whether they have a bearing on the areal extent of any potential separation zone applied. The implications on the availability of shallow coal resources of applying different separation zone distances around settlements within these two areas are explored. Results reveal that although the settlement morphology is important in determining the area of the separation zone, and has greatest influence in the South Wales Coalfield, the area of coal resource sterilised by the application of separation zones is greatest in the Midlands Coalfield due to it having a higher proportion of urban development situated on the surface extent of the shallow coal resource.