Can the integration between urban and rural areas be realized? A new theoretical analytical framework

Urban-rural integration is an advanced form resulting from the future evolution of urban-rural relationships. Nevertheless, little research has explored whether urban and rural areas can move from dual segmentation to integrated development from a theoretical or empirical perspective. Based on the research framework of welfare economics, which offers an appealing paradigm to frame the underlying game between cities and villages, this study clarifies the ideal state of urban-rural integration. It...     

On Correlational Properties for Volcanic Earthquakes Associated with Asamayama (Japan), 1983–2005

To a first approximation, earthquakes directly associated with volcanic activity may be studied as point-stochastic processes. The earthquakes associated with B-type (movements located at 1 km or shallower) eruptive activity in the caldera of Asamayama differ in correlational properties from concurrent deep-seated seismic activity (A-type, located deeper than approximately 1 km). A-type activity occurs either in the form of independently distributed intervals between events or as dependently distributed intervals which are most appropriately analysed in contiguous sub-samples (“windows”). The cross correlations between the magnitudes of A-type earthquakes and depth of events for three periods from 1983 to 2005 may be of significance for interpreting aspects of the volcanic history of Asamayama. The lag-1 serial correlation coefficient for the A-type sequence from 1983 to 1990 is not significantly different from zero. In the case of the sets for 1991–2002 and 2003–2005, the coefficients are small but not zero. The difference is in part, at least, probably due to the well-known confounding effect of trending as opposed to true serial correlation between successive events. The serial correlation coefficient for the B-type crater sequence is not significant. The novel aspect of the present study concerns the relationship between depth of A-type earth movements and magnitude of associated shocks.     

A Bibliography Of The Geographical Llterature On The American Indian, 1920–1971

The legal city and the urbanized area fail to depict accurately the physical area of urban development and therefore prevent an accurate calculation of population densities. When underbounding occurs, densities tend to be unrealistically high and with overbounding they are low. Delimitations made by air photo interpretation demonstrate that the physical city, measured on a 21/2 acre scale of generalization, provides a more accurate basis for calculating population densities of urban areas than either the legal city or urbanized area because the bounding problems are eliminated.     

A response to ‘A comment on geographically weighted regression with parameter-specific distance metrics’

In this article, we respond to ‘A comment on geographically weighted regression with parameter-specific distance metrics’ by Oshan et al. (2019), published in this journal, where several concerns on the parameter-specific distance metric geographically weighted regression (PSDM GWR) technique are raised. In doing so, we review the developmental timeline of the multiscale geographically weighed regression modelling framework with related and equivalent models, including flexible bandwidth GWR, conditional GWR and PSDM GWR. In our response, we have tried to answer all the concerns raised in terms of applicability, veracity, interpretability and computational efficiency of the PSDM GWR model.     

Professor Just Gjessing: ‘A journey with a purpose’

Based on a commemorative speech given at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters on 9 February 2006, the article provides an account of the geographical career of Professor Just Gjessing at the University of Oslo from 1950 until his death in 2005.     

Effects of rural–urban migration on vegetation greenness in fragile areas: A case study of Inner Mongolia in China

Different government departments and researchers have paid considerable attention at various levels to improving the eco-environment in ecologically fragile areas. Over the past decade, large numbers of people have emigrated from rural areas as a result of the rapid urbanization in Chinese society. The question then remains: to what extent does this migration affect the regional vegetation greenness in the areas that people have moved from? Based on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data with a resolution of 1 km, as well as meteorological data and socio-economic data from 2000 to 2010 in Inner Mongolia, the spatio-temporal variation of vegetation greenness in the study area was analyzed via trend analysis and significance test methods. The contributions of human activities and natural factors to the variation of vegetation conditions during this period were also quantitatively tested and verified, using a multi-regression analysis method. We found that: (1) the vegetation greenness of the study area increased by 10.1% during 2000-2010. More than 28% of the vegetation greenness increased significantly, and only about 2% decreased evidently during the study period. (2) The area with significant degradation showed a banded distribution at the northern edge of the agro-pastoral ecotone in central Inner Mongolia. This indicates that the eco-environment is still fragile in this area, which should be paid close attention. The area where vegetation greenness significantly improved showed a concentrated distribution in the southeast and west of Inner Mongolia. (3) The effect of agricultural labor on vegetation greenness exceeded those due to natural factors (i.e. precipitation and temperature). The emigration of agricultural labor improved the regional vegetation greenness significantly.     

Microfirms in peripheral areas: How can evolutionary economic geography contribute in studies of diversification? A case study from Norway

The article discusses whether and how the emerging approach of evolutionary economic geography is fruitful when researching diversification among microfirms in peripheral regions. The author argues that such microfirms represent a source of heterogeneity that potentially could enrich our understanding of economic evolution. The sources of variation and mechanisms of selection operating among diversifying farmers in Norway are examined and diversifying farms are identified as both microfirms and households. The findings indicate that motivation at household level is the key to successful diversification. Further, the findings confirm that microfirms are not only able to influence their own destiny, but also institutional progress at regional level. The author concludes that the role of microfirms as actors and the possibility for the study of the agency of such actors are the major reasons why evolutionary economic geography is a fruitful approach in researching microfirms in peripheral areas.     

How deep is your love – Of nature? A psychological and spatial analysis of the depth of feelings towards Dutch nature areas

The most binding nature protection policy in the Netherlands and the EU primarily designates areas based on ecological value, ensuring their sustained protection. Of less concern to these policies are the current and future needs of the average citizen, who is experiencing increases in education, income, and health. This paper argues that although existing policies protect biodiversity needs, the spatialemotional needs of the public are of similarly high importance. We analyze the spatial and emotional characteristics of favorite natural places in the Netherlands selected on the Hotspotsmonitor survey. Content analysis of the open question, "Why is this place important to you?" identified three categories: peace & quiet, explore, and peak. These were mapped using GIS to identify predominant hotspots and compared against the most binding nature protection policy - Natura 2000. The important societal benefits of augmenting ecologically based nature protection policies with emotional valuation are discussed.     

Gauss Krüger projection for areas of wide longitudinal extent

This paper describes a new algorithm for calculating all equations (direct and inverse transformation, convergence of meridians, linear distortion, calculus of surfaces, and arc‐to‐chord correction) for the Gauss–Krüger projection. Instead of using different equations for each problem, all the calculi are based on the equations used to obtain the direct transformation. These equations are also more accurate than previous ones and can be extended to an arbitrary width. This paper also explains how the Gauss–Krüger projection may satisfy the needs and requirements of civil engineers as well as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) users, particularly if extended beyond its usual 4° longitudinal range, and therefore can be used as a global reference system for GIS.     

Area characteristics associated with food pantry use in Berlin – A cross-sectional ecological study

Although food pantries have become a crucial component of the food landscapes in many countries, so far they have rarely been included in research on the food environment. This study aims to map and analyze the relation between the proportion of adult food pantry users and child food pantry recipients as well as compositional and structural characteristics of areas in Berlin, Germany.Publicly accessible data including the percentage of adults and children receiving welfare and those with migration background were used to characterize area composition. Investigated structural resources included the availability of discount stores, stops of the public transport as well as 44 food pantries throughout the city. Small spatial units of two incongruent spatial area data sets were denominated to characterize the 44 food pantry areas and the areas within walking distance (1000 m) to a food pantry. Linear multiple regression models were conducted to model the proportion of food pantry recipients among adults and children. Results of the study showed that the proportion of child food pantry recipients was more than twice as high compared to the proportion of adult food pantry users, with large variations between pantries. The distribution of food pantries largely mirrored the distribution of welfare recipients in Berlin. Results of multiple regression analyses suggested that the percentage of adults receiving welfare benefits and the number of stops around a food pantry were positively, and the percentage of adults with migration background was negatively related to the proportion of adult food pantry users. Among children, the percentage of children receiving welfare benefits, the number of discount grocery stores per 1000 children, and the number of stops around a food pantry were positively related to the proportion of food pantry recipients. Results of the spatial analyses can be used to improve the allocation of social and food services to support impoverished people. Future studies could investigate whether there are unmet needs of food assistance services among inhabitants with migration background.     

Globalising Swedish countrysides? A relational approach to rural immigrant restaurateurs with refugee backgrounds

The main purpose of the article is to connect rural immigrants’ business ventures and development in Sweden to relational perspectives on their proximate and distant family and co-ethnic networks at structural and individual levels. Accordingly, the authors employ a relational approach and draw on in-depth interviews. In the context of urban–rural relationships’ meanings for the restaurateurs’ business benefits and constraints, they address two questions: (1) What does embeddedness in proximate and distant family and co-ethnic networks mean for the interviewed restaurateurs and for their businesses? and (2) How do previous and anticipated transitions in the restaurateurs’ families influence their business decisions and migration trajectories? The results suggest that the interviewees employed transnational dimensions in their social embeddedness and that they maintained material and emotional relationships with their countries of origin. This relational approach thus contributes to a better understanding of what the studied businesses mean for the entrepreneurs and the selected localities. The restaurateurs contribute to a globalisation of Swedish countrysides, but their socio-economic potential for countering rural depopulation in Sweden is not fully realised. Additionally, the study illuminates how individuals influence, and are influenced by, place-to-place mobilities on a daily basis and during their life course.     

A Review of: “Geographic Information Systems for Geoscientists—Modelling with GIS”

Distances from points to closest shorelines in a given direction are used, for example, in some models for estimating wave exposure. Such distances, also called fetch lengths, can be determined using standard geographic information systems. However, performance may be a problem if these distances are required for a great number of study points. Two new algorithms for determining fetch lengths for study points in the same directions are presented in this paper. It is assumed that the two‐dimensional map is stored in vector format, i.e. shorelines of islands and mainland are stored as polygons. The first algorithm works on a set of undirected line segments derived from the shoreline polygons. The other works on a raster representation of the map. The algorithm saves memory by postponing the rasterisation until necessary. Both of the new algorithms have superior efficiency to a previously reported algorithm when the number of study points is large.     

Residents’ urbanized landscape preferences in rural areas reveal the importance of naturalness-livability contrast

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Urbanization has caused significant landscape changes in rural areas, leading to the emergence of urbanized landscapes (ULs), which have been generally criticized...     

A tripod piston corer for taking a meter-long sediment core with an undisturbed sediment–water interface

We present a design for a piston corer that can take a sediment core up to 1 m long, with an undisturbed sediment–water interface. The coring device possesses a tripod unit and a core-tube unit, the latter comprised of a core tube, a piston with a wire, a drive weight in which the core tube is mounted and a steel rod. The tripod stands on the sediment surface during coring, stabilizing the system and serving as an anchor point for the piston wire. A ball clamp, the critical component of the design, is mounted on top of the tripod. The steel rod runs through the ball clamp and at its lower end, holds the drive weight and the core tube. The ball clamp allows the core tube to slide downward, while the piston is held in a fixed vertical position by the wire connected to the tripod. When the corer is lifted, however, the ball clamp locks. This makes it possible to operate the corer with a single cable, because the piston is not subject to any lifting force when the corer is retrieved. The piston remains in position in the core tube even if the collected sediment core is very short. The piston corer can be deployed from a raft or a boat.     

Representing geographical objects with scale‐induced indeterminate boundaries: A neural network‐based data model

The degree of uncertainty of many geographical objects has long been known to be in intimate relation with the scale of its observation and representation. Yet, the explicit consideration of scaling operations when modeling uncertainty is rarely found. In this study, a neural network‐based data model was investigated for representing geographical objects with scale‐induced indeterminate boundaries. Two types of neural units, combined with two types of activation function, comprise the processing core of the model, where the activation function can model either hard or soft transition zones. The construction of complex fuzzy regions, as well as lines and points, is discussed and illustrated with examples. It is shown how the level of detail that is apparent in the boundary at a given scale can be controlled through the degree of smoothness of each activation function. Several issues about the practical implementation of the model are discussed and indications on how to perform complex overlay operations of fuzzy maps provided. The model was illustrated through an example of representing multi‐resolution, sub‐pixel maps that are typically derived from remote sensing techniques.     

Comparison of input data with different spatial resolution in landscape pattern analysis – A case study from northern Latvia

A suitable spatial scale needs to be selected in geographical and landscape ecological research, and this requires great consideration as different scales have profound effect on derived landscape spatial patterns. Numerous studies have investigated the effects of different scales on landscape metrics using simulated patterns, but few have been conducted to compare different data sources with variable scale for regional- and landscape-scale assessments. Possibly this has occurred because researchers have been prone to use the best available source, a well-known standard, and easiest to use. This study was conducted to assess the impact of input data resolution on values of landscape pattern metrics in four landscapes at scales 1:10 000, 1:50 000 and 1:100 000. The aim was to determine the applicability of three data sources for thematic models in landscape pattern analyses in the Eastern Baltic region. We found that the utility of CORINE Land Cover data for comprehensive structural assessment in mosaic-type landscapes was very limited, as the level of cartographic generalization excluded many small and linear landscape structure elements with potentially high importance for landscape functioning, such as habitat continuity. We also found that actual area harvested using clearcuts was considerably higher than shown in CORINE data, due to clearcuts size being much smaller than the minimum mapping unit. In the light of this, we suggest using data with spatial resolution corresponding to a cartographic scale of at least 1:50 000, in cases when spatial patches have size up to 25 ha.     

Improving the factual knowledge of landscapes: Following up the European Landscape Convention with a comparative historical analysis of forces of landscape change in the Sjodalen and St⊘lsheimen mountain areas,Norway

A focus of implementing the European Landscape Convention (ELC) in Norway is on improving the factual knowledge of landscapes, which implies analysing the forces transforming them. The article aims to identify important forces of change and to elucidate its complexity by a comparative historical study of land cover and land use in two mountain areas in Western and Eastern Norway. The land covers and uses in focus are transport infrastructure, seasonal farming, vegetation, tourism and outdoor recreation, and nature and landscape protection. Based on an understanding of forces as something being exerted, a framework including pressure, attraction, friction, repulsion, and working force is developed. A comprehensive literature analysis shows how differences in intensity and extent of land use and development of land cover result from a complex interaction of common extrinsic forces with locally different intrinsic forces. To control landscape change and to maintain diversity among landscapes as a Europe-wide resource, the national implementation of the ELC will require a strong focus on the local level. Moreover, understanding the ELC as an origin of forces is recommended, because it allows more appropriate individual responses to landscape change.