ROUND ONE FOR HSGP: A REPORT ON ACCEPTANCE AND DIFFUSION

The expansion of the Internet and e-mail access around the globe, especially into less-developed areas, raises the question of how geographers might use this technology for research purposes and the development of appropriate methodologies. This paper identifies three ways in which the use of e-mail surveys for geographic research differs from traditional mail surveys. First, there are substantial differences in selecting an appropriate sample population. Second, electronic medium considerations such as alphabet character translation, survey format, and receiving end conditions pose unique data collection challenges. Third, ascertaining that e-mail addresses to be included in a survey are operative is discussed as a useful means of maximizing the potential of an e-mail survey. Examples from an e-mail survey of environmentalists in Russia illustrate these points.     

A review of temporal database research and its use in GIS applications

Abstract

A great deal of recent work in computer science applies itself to temporal database design. Designers of geographical information systems (GIS) can build on this work to create a temporal GIS capability to trace geographical change and understand geographical processes. This paper reviews temporal research in information processing, contrasts various proposed temporal database designs and summarizes the problems of adapting it to GIS requirements.     

A New Look at the Maya Lowlands of Middle America

Abstract

The long search for geography's uniqueness may be aided with the acceptance of its primary tool being the multiple-scale approach. This is the division of data on a given topic or area into significantly different groups by the scales of the information needed to describe, analyze, and present its distributions. By using several scales in a logical order during research and presentation, geographers can improve the contributions of the discipline to science.     

Teachers as Learners Examine Land-Use Change in the Local Environment Using Remote Sensing Imagery

Abstract

In environmental science education, learners are exposed to earth phenomena that occur across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. However, it is challenging for learners to grasp the significance of spatial and temporal change because they have limited perspectives of the Earth. Within the scientific community, remotely sensed imagery is used for observing the Earth as a system. These same tools can be applied at all levels in environmental science education to help learners understand and visualize earth change. In this article, the experiences of teachers as learners are described as they conducted a temporal analysis of a local wetland using aerial photography in an inquiry-based activity.     

New Modes of Environmental Governance in Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation in Oregon

Abstract

Natural resource challenges often span administrative jurisdictions and include actors and processes operating at different spatial and political scales. We applied concepts of new environmental governance to analyze Oregon’s approach to greater sage-grouse conservation. Through one in-depth case study in Lake County, we traced features of new environmental governance (cross-scale interactions, decentralization, and capacities of actors) through different governance levels. Interviews and qualitative analysis revealed that decentralization of administrative functions facilitated cross-scale interactions and relied on intermediaries, gap-filling, and perceptions of legitimacy at lower levels. State and agency guidelines steered the effort and were accompanied by financial and technical resources from multiple arenas, which increased local capacity. This study adds to the understandings of environmental governance for implementing multi-actor, multi-level conservation arrangements in resource-dependent communities. Further exploration of connections between higher levels and local contexts will reveal important, new ways to link policies with on-the-ground outcomes.     

Geographic perspectives on urban sustainability: past,current, and future research trajectories

ABSTRACT

The 21st century has been called the “century of the city” and compounded concerns that current development pathways were not sustainable. Calls for scholarship on urban sustainability among geographers cites strengths in the human-environment and urban subfields that positioned the discipline to make unique contributions to critical research needs. This special issue reflects on the contributions that geographers have made to urban sustainability scholarship. We observe that that integration across human-environment and urban subfields reflects broader bifurcations between social theory and spatial science traditions in geography. Piggy-backing on the rise of sustainability science, the emergence of urbanization science compels geographers to reflect upon the ways in which we are positioned to make unique contributions to those fields. We argue that those contributions should embrace systems thinking, empirically connect social constructs to biophysical patterns and processes, and use the city as a laboratory to generate new theories.     

Methodological Issues in Researching Migration

Population geographers should consider a mixed methods approach to thestudy of migration. This methodological position arises in response to the challenges of contemporary social theory. It is argued that application of structuration theory favours use of a diversity of methods to investigate the recursive relationship between agency and structure. Similarly a realist stance, as advocated by Sayer (1992), leads to a mixing of methods in order to carry out the synthesising tasks expected of geographers. Postmodernism, when interpreted as method, also points the researcher to consider adopting flexible research practices in order to capture the multiplicities of meaning associated with migration and place. These points are illustrated by a case study of migration to and from Hong Kong.     

Editorial Notes and News

Abstract

Bibliographic instruction is aneglected component of undergraduate education in many geography curricula. Significant research problems are difficult to formulate and self-education cannot be achieved without the ability to use reference materials effectively. The research methods course is a logical vehicle for providing bibliographic instruction at the undergraduate level. Library training can be incorporated in this course through a series of instructional modules that requires students to work with a wide variety of bibliographic materials. Students should be allowed to focus on publications pertaining to topics of individual interest in all phases of their work. This paper outlines a methods course that emphasizes bibliographic instruction and gives suggestions for incorporating selected developmental materials.     

旅游地社会-生态系统适应性研究进展

适应性思想和方法因符合生物多样性保护要求,对实现旅游地社会-生态系统可持续发展和改善旅游地社区生计具有重要意义,业已成为学术界关注的焦点。在对旅游地社会-生态系统适应性研究文献系统分析基础上,从研究尺度、研究对象、评估方法和分析框架4个方面进行了详细的梳理与评述,研究发现：① 研究尺度宏观微观相结合,以小尺度研究居多,中尺度研究需加强,研究对象需要多维度融合;② 研究结合多角度框架分析,主要包括“脆弱性-适应性”“恢复力-可持续性”和“恢复力-适应性”3种类型,促进多元化评估方法在旅游地社会-生态系统适应性研究中的应用;③ 研究思路和研究内容需综合多学科领域进一步拓展。     

Statistical Tests In The Absence Of Samples: A Comment

Abstract

Manufacturing employment has steadily declined in the Charlotte metropolitan area, with significant losses occurring in textiles, apparel, and related industries. Production activity remains widespread in the region, however, both in terms of the number of manufacturers and workers and the wide range of industries in which they are involved. Evidence from a survey of manufacturers within the Charlotte region indicates that a number of firms continue to succeed despite various competitive issues on the local and national scales. This article examines these challenges, their implications, and the strategies used to address these issues. Overall, manufacturers across the region are in a period of rapid change.     

Re-placing soil and its mattering in more-than-human cities

ABSTRACT

What role does soil play in sustainable design interventions and can it help to reconfigure human place experiences and human-nature relations in cities? Cities are home to a host of nonhuman actors that are overlooked or under-acknowledged in design and planning practices and in everyday dwelling. Soil is one such under-acknowledged urban inhabitant. In a period where cities and their inhabitants must adapt to the challenges of a changing climate, the paper draws together theory in design, planning and geography and empirical research with designers and residents in Australian cities to re-place soil as mattering in place(making) practices, everyday urban dwelling and urban sustainability transitions. The research contributes to recent work in (post)human geography to discuss ‘soil-planty mattering’, or the active role of soils and their intra-actions with other urban matter in shaping place. Soil-planty mattering is shown to disrupt human place(making), extending cities in material, temporal and spatial ways. In these extensions, the research suggests that soils have particular potential to re-orient human relationships with nonhumans in urban realms.     

Multi-Method Research: An Introduction to Its Application in PopulationGeography

This paper sets the context for four papers on multi-method research inpopulation geography. It begins by outlining the various ends to which multi-method research may be employed. The focus then shifts to the broader plane of method, epistemology, and research design. It is argued that epistemological position only determines how methods can be used: it does not preclude the use of particular methods. The possibilities for multi-method research are therefore considerable. Finally, some issues pertaining to multi-method research thathave not yet been resolved are raised for future debate.     

土地变化科学中的尺度问题与解决途径

尺度问题是土地变化科学中的关键问题。总结国内外近10年来土地变化研究中尺度问题的进展表明:土地变化研究中的尺度问题多集中于数据处理、格局与过程的表征、驱动力的影响、模型运用、生态环境效应以及土地政策与可持续管理等方面。尺度问题主要产生于地理现象的异质性、地理系统的等级性、响应与反馈的非线性、干扰因素的影响及主观认识的局限等。土地变化中尺度问题研究的一般途径为尺度选择-尺度分析-尺度综合;尺度选择时应该以问题为指向,数据为基础,选择适宜的尺度;尺度分析中需要从更大尺度和更小尺度同时开展分析,找出重要的变化动态,防止信息的遗漏或夸大;尺度综合是认识全球与地方关系的纽带,可将其分为尺度上推和尺度下推,在尺度综合中方法是主导,目标是寻找各尺度之间的"连通性"。模型有助于深刻理解土地利用系统动态,发展嵌套式模型是目前尺度综合研究中的重要内容。     

Activity patterns,socioeconomic status and urban spatial structure: what can social media data tell us?

ABSTRACT

Individual activity patterns are influenced by a wide variety of factors. The more important ones include socioeconomic status (SES) and urban spatial structure. While most previous studies relied heavily on the expensive travel-diary type data, the feasibility of using social media data to support activity pattern analysis has not been evaluated. Despite the various appealing aspects of social media data, including low acquisition cost and relatively wide geographical and international coverage, these data also have many limitations, including the lack of background information of users, such as home locations and SES. A major objective of this study is to explore the extent that Twitter data can be used to support activity pattern analysis. We introduce an approach to determine users’ home and work locations in order to examine the activity patterns of individuals. To infer the SES of individuals, we incorporate the American Community Survey (ACS) data. Using Twitter data for Washington, DC, we analyzed the activity patterns of Twitter users with different SESs. The study clearly demonstrates that while SES is highly important, the urban spatial structure, particularly where jobs are mainly found and the geographical layout of the region, plays a critical role in affecting the variation in activity patterns between users from different communities.     

Communication,Partnerships, and the Role of Social Science: Conservation Delivery in a Brave New World

Abstract

The Saginaw Bay Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) in Michigan is an innovative conservation effort organized to address water quality impairments involving a unique collaboration between conservation organizations, agronomists, universities, commodity groups, and agribusinesses. We track the evolution and adaptation of the Saginaw Bay RCPP, and the collaboration among the traditional and nontraditional conservation partners. Our reflections are organized around three key lessons: vertical and horizontal communication challenges; contextual and structural constraints; barriers that remain between private and public sector entities for this and alternative conservation-delivery models. Lessons from this evaluation will inform the design of future collaborative/multi-stakeholder watershed management efforts. We also demonstrate that rather than being used as an ad-hoc approach, social science evaluation was integrated into conservation planning and practice, hence increasing the salience and legitimacy of the conservation social science in collaborative watershed management.     

Reconciling Multiple Societal Objectives in Cross-Scale Marine Governance: Solomon Islands’ Engagement in the Coral Triangle Initiative

Environmental governance aims to reconcile an expanding set of societal objectives at ever-larger scales despite the challenges that remain in integrating conservation and development at smaller scales. We interrogate Solomon Islands’ engagement in the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security to contribute new insight on the scalar politics of multi-level marine governance. We show how regional objectives are re-interpreted and prioritized as they translate into national policy and practice. Our data suggest that enhanced coordination of finances and activities, integration of objectives in shared protocols and priority geographies, and a subtle shift in power relations between the state, donors, and implementation partners have resulted from processes of re-scaling. We discuss important procedural adjustments in cross-level and cross-scale governance across jurisdictional, institutional, and sectoral scales. We also reflect on the changing role of national governments in shifts toward large-scale, multi-national initiatives.     

The Council at Work

Abstract

The field of geography education is sadly lacking in empirical data that might inform and underpin decisions about standard setting, curriculum design, materials development, teaching strategies, and assessment procedures. Large quantities of high-quality data are necessary if geography is to be successfully implemented in the American education system. This article advances four needs that, if met, would generate the data necessary to make the case for geography in America's schools. We need a new attitude towards research, a series of baseline studies, a research agenda, and a research clearinghouse if we are to make a convincing case for geography in America's schools.     

Mapping the Urban Debtscape: The Geography of Household Debt in Canadian Cities

Abstract

Vulnerability resulting from debt is part and parcel of the risk society and a salient characteristic of current neoliberal times under financialized global capitalism. Rising indebtedness increases the susceptibility of homeowners to housing and labor market restructuring, and if the degree of leverage is very high, can threaten the solvency, living standards, and social stability of local communities. However, very little is understood regarding how levels of household indebtedness are spatially distributed within or across cities, and how private debt maps onto the geography of race, class, housing, urban form, and other social variables, especially outside of the United States. It remains unknown whether and how higher and unsustainable levels of indebtedness might be associated with urban growth, decline, suburbanization, gentrification, immigration, racialization, and/or greying. This article examines the spatial distribution of household debt in Canadian cities at multiple scales of analysis. It analyzes how levels of household debt relate to a number of key socio-demographic and housing variables from the census, including those related to changes occurring over the 2000s. It simultaneously models the geography of debt at the metropolitan and neighborhood scales using multi-level hierarchical linear modeling methods, and in doing so, it identifies some key drivers and correlates of household debt and the scales at which they operate. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the empirical findings for understanding the role of the emerging urban debtscape in the restructuring of the social geography of the city.