Spatial Patterns of Hazardous Waste Generation and Management in the United States

Hazardous waste is generated in the production of almost all consumer goods, especially those that contain plastic. The United States is the world leader in generating hazardous waste with 214 million tons produced in 1995. The majority of this waste was wastewater generated by the fifty largest generating facilities, disproportionately concentrated along the western Gulf Coast. The largest facilities also treat most of their waste on site, particularly wastewater. Most smaller generators send waste an average of 200 miles for treatment or disposal. Among both citizens and state governments there is resistance to local siting of waste facilties. Local resistance has convinced businesses or government agencies to look elsewhere to site a proposed facility. State efforts to directly control the flow of hazardous waste have not been successful due to court challenges from industry and subsequent decisions that state restrictions violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Taxes on both in‐state and out‐of‐state waste have proven effective at reducing in‐state waste disposal.     

再工业化背景下美国制造业发展变化及影响研究

文章基于金融危机后美国实施再工业化战略的背景,根据美国从2005年到2011年的经济数据,运用空间分析法、技术密度法和投入产出法综合剖析了再工业化战略实施后美国制造业的发展变化及影响。文章认为,再工业化战略实施后美国制造业的发展水平开始提升;制造业发展的变化增强了产业间的互动,促使了都会区职能的演变,改变了美国经济的发展路径。     

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。     

The Geography of Religious Diversity in the United States

Religious pluralism is an important and contested topic within the literature on religion. This article explores the spatiality of religious diversity in the United States. It opens with a summary of major conceptual perspectives on the causes and consequences of religious diversity. Second, to unpack the geography of U.S. religious diversity, the article uses Glenmary and Polis data for 2000 to construct four indexes of diversity and presents these results with both choropleth maps and Dorling cartograms. It explores the relation between the distribution of denominations and county population size. The analysis reveals that the most diverse regions include the Pacific Northwest, a broad belt stretching from Denver to Pittsburgh, and central Florida, and the least diverse parts are dominated by Mormons, Baptists, and Catholics. Indexes more sophisticated than the simple number of denominations per county are sensitive to the internal configuration of adherents and reflect a more complex relationship in which population size is not assured of generating greater degrees of religious diversity.     

Explanations for the Spring peak in Ground-level Ozone in the Southwestern United States

Many remote locations in the Northern Hemisphere have a spring peak, rather than a summer peak, in ground-level ozone concentrations, and the principal cause is presumed to be stratosphere-troposphere exchange (i.e., stratospheric intrusions). Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) in northern Arizona also has a spring peak, and the purpose of this study is to explore the impact of stratospheric intrusions and another process synoptic-scale pollutant transport on ground-level ozone levels at GCNP from 1996 to 2000. The primary methods involve the stratification of days to identify stratospheric-intrusion days and the compositing of days to assess the impact of pollutant transport on ground-level ozone concentrations. Results indicate that stratospheric intrusions contributed little to the ozone budget at GCNP. In fact, atmospheric pollution originating in southern California was the likely cause of the May peak in ozone. The transported pollution also appeared to be responsible for high ozone days during all spring months. Tracer-based research (i.e., beryllium-7 and methylchloroform) at multiple locales in the southwestern United States is needed to fully confirm the weak impact of stratospheric intrusions and the strong contribution of ozone and its precursors originating in southern California.     

A rain on snow climatology and temporal analysis for the eastern United States

ABSTRACT

Rain-on-snow (ROS) has the potential to produce devastating floods by enhancing runoff from snowmelt. Although a common phenomenon across the eastern United States, little research has focused on ROS in this region. This study used a gridded observational snow dataset from 1960–2009 to establish a comprehensive seasonal climatology of ROS for this region. Additionally, different rain and snow thresholds were compared while considering temporal trends in ROS occurrence at four grid cells representing individual locations. Results show most ROS events occur in MAM (March-April-May). ROS events identified with rainfall >1 cm are more frequent near the east coast and events identified with >1 cm snow loss are more common in higher latitudes and/or elevations. Decreasing trends in DJF (December-January-February) ROS events were identified near the coastal areas, with increasing trends in the northern portion of the domain. Significant decreasing trends in MAM ROS are likewise present on a regional scale. Factors playing a role in snowpack depth and rainfall, such as movement of storm tracks in this region, should be considered with future work to discern mechanisms causing the changes in ROS frequency.     

Subregionalization of Low-Frequency Summer Drought Variability in the Southeastern United States

Freshwater resources are particularly limited in the Southeastern United States. In recent years, severe summer droughts have placed substantial strain on municipal and industrial water resources, emphasizing the need for further research on the causes of long-term moisture deficits. Previous research has identified a Southeast drought region and specific low-frequency ocean-atmosphere influences on drought. In this article, we identify three distinct subregions of low-frequency summer drought variability in the Southeastern United States using principal components analysis. Multidecadal drought variability is most pronounced in the Southeastern Atlantic Coastal States (SEACS) subregion. The SEACS drought variability is significantly associated with ocean-atmosphere variability in the Atlantic and Pacific basins. The significance of ocean-atmosphere influences on drought in the Southeast is spatially confined within only the SEACS subregion. The Eastern Gulf States (EGS) subregion exhibits a long-term increase in summer moisture that is significantly associated with Northern Hemisphere surface temperature increases during the last century. The peninsular Florida subregion is characterized by high-frequency drought variability that is not associated with any of the climate indexes included in this study.     

Conceptualizing Sanctuary as a Process in the United States

While contentious national debates persist about the promise or peril of so‐called “sanctuary cities,” this article draws on an archive of U.S. subfederal policies that focused on local responses to immigration and enforcement from 2001–2014 to argue that sanctuary constitutes a process rather than a binary state of being. Such a conceptualization underscores the broad spectrum of policy endeavors that comprise sanctuary and shifts the focus away from a reductionist question of whether or not a place is a sanctuary to inquiries into how sanctuary functions as a process in both policy creation and application. I focus on sanctuary as a process to demonstrate its socio‐spatial heterogeneity and to highlight how the assertion of local values within sanctuary policies advances internal bordering. Textually analyzing sanctuary policies in this way illustrates how the process of sanctuary can simultaneously resist the bordering efforts of federal immigration enforcement and reborder local practices to cultivate belonging for citizens and noncitizens alike.     

美国外商直接投资区域分异特征研究

八十年代以来,大量外商直接投资流入美国,逐步使美国成为国际直接投资的净流入国,文章分别以美国大区和洲为研究地域单元,多角度地分析了美国外商直接投资区域分异特征,主要研究结论如下;在大区层面上,各大区的投资比例具有不平衡性,高投资比例的大区与低投资比例的大区之间的不平衡性具有稳定性,且低投资比例的大区比高投资比例的大区的稳定性强,在洲际层面上,外商直接投资分布有沿海性倾向,呈“U”型分布状态;投资密度以密西西兹河为界,东西对比格局强烈;制造业带所在地区整体位次上升快,显示了制造业带的较强的聚集效应,一般而言,人口少,面积大的洲,人均投资额高。     

Economic Freedom,Migration, and Income Change in the United States: 1995 to 2010

Migration is primarily motivated by economic reasons, but people also move for a variety of other purposes, including a desire for political and economic freedom. Although freedoms are often thought of as dominant reasons for international migration in political states with federal systems of governments, migration across internal political borders also takes place to take advantage of local differences in political and economic regulations, taxes, and public goods. Using the combined Internal Revenue Service/Census Bureau state-to-state migration data for 1995 to 2010, we examine the relationship between economic freedom and migration and its impact on state-level income change. We find that economic freedom is positively associated with income change due to net migration but not associated with gains or losses from income differences between in- and outmigrants. In general, states with higher or lower levels of economic freedom gained or lost income due to migration.     

The economic geography of institutional investment in the United States, 2010

The economic geography of United States’ institutional investments as of December 2010 is presented. With a self-declared value of almost $13 trillion, it is the largest class of equity investors. Included are all investors who file Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) form 13f, meaning they manage at least $100 million. Analysis is undertaken at both the firm and metropolitan levels. The largest firms and targets of investment are determined. Geographic concentrations of both investors and their major stock holdings occur in a small subset (the top 10 largest metropolitan areas). The rates of returns on investments are shown to differ by metropolitan area of investment and by urban rank in the urban hierarchy. Intra-metropolitan investment provides worse rates of returns, countering suggestions of informational advantages for local investment. The network of interurban investments shows a clear hierarchical structure, with New York City being the dominant investment centre.     

试论美国汽车工业的国际化与空间格局

美国汽车工业经历了发展、兴旺、波折三个阶段，使国内的汽车工业的格局发生集中──分散──再集中的演变，但仍保持美国汽车国内市场的绝对优势。     

Assessing Climate Change in the Contiguous United States Using a Modified Thornthwaite Climate Classification Scheme

Climate change across the contiguous United States is investigated using a modified version of Thornthwaite's climate classification scheme. This approach allows both moisture and thermal conditions to be examined simultaneously for a better assessment of multivariate climate change. Changes in area of different climate types over time is determined using the climate year approach and the spatial nature of climate change is examined by computing climate types based on averages from three thirty-year periods over the twentieth century. Over the study period from 1895 to 2005, statistically significant changes in areal coverage of different climate types have occurred. In the eastern half of the country, climate divisions have become wetter and changed to moister climate categories. The most prominent change has occurred in the Deep South, where the climate has changed to both a lower thermal category and a wetter moisture category. Much of the country has experienced positive temperature trends, but only climate divisions in the Southwest and Upper Midwest show changes to higher thermal categories.     

Regional heat safety thresholds for athletics in the contiguous United States

Exertional heat illnesses affect thousands of athletes each year across the United States (U.S.). Heat safety guidelines such as those developed by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) are widely used to direct activities based on environmental conditions but rely on a uniform set of heat safety categories. Due to geographic variations in heat exposure and acclimatization, however, lower heat safety thresholds may be needed in areas with cooler climates. Our study addresses this shortcoming by developing regional guidelines for athletic activity that use relative thresholds of a commonly used heat metric -- the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT). We employed a unique WBGT climatology for the contiguous U.S. to determine locally extreme WBGTs, defined as the 90th percentile warm season daily maximum value, for 217 stations. Three heat safety regions were identified based on local extremes: Category 3 (WBGTs ≥ 32.3 °C), Category 2 (30.1–32.2 °C), and Category 1 (≤30 °C). Geographically, Category 3 encompasses much of the southeastern quadrant of the U.S. along with portions of the Southwest, and the Central Valley of California; Category 2 areas extend in an arc from the interior Northwest through Nevada and portions of the Midwest, Ohio Valley, and Northeast; and Category 1 locations include the Pacific Coast, New England, and the northern tier of the country. Associated regional activity guidelines based on those developed by the ACSM and the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) were developed for each heat safety region.     

Evolving United States metropolitan land use patterns

We investigate spatial patterns of residential and nonresidential land use for 257 United States metropolitan areas in 1990 and 2000, measured with 14 empirical indices. We find that metropolitan areas became denser during the 1990s but developed in more sprawl-like patterns across all other dimensions, on average. By far, the largest changes in our land use metrics occurred in the realm of employment, which became more prevalent per unit of geographic area, but less spatially concentrated and farther from the historical urban core, on average. Our exploratory factor analyses reveal that four factors summarize land use patterns in both years, and remained relatively stable across the two years: intensity, compactness, mixing, and core-dominance. Mean factor scores vary by metropolitan population, water proximity, type, and Census region. Improved measurement of metropolitan land use patterns can facilitate policy and planning decisions intended to minimize the most egregious aspects of urban sprawl.     

Changes in growing season in the Northeastern United States

ABSTRACT

Changes in growing season length (GSL) are of concern for agricultural, phenological, economic, epidemiological, and bioclimatological reasons. This research identifies spatial and temporal changes over the last several decades in GSL, along with the day-of-year of the last spring freeze and first autumn freeze, for the northeastern United States – a region particularly susceptible to such changes due to the large population and intense economic activities. Results suggest that growing season has significantly increased in length since 1980 as compared to prior to 1980, and both spatial and temporal variation in GSL has decreased for the region over time. Changes to GSL for this region are driven more by a shift in the first autumn freeze date than the last spring freeze date. The areas of greatest increase in GSL in the pre- vs. post-1980 period tend to be in the high elevations, near large water bodies, and near the largest cities. Results will assist environmental planners as they prepare mitigation and adaptation strategies amid a changing environment.     

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.     

Retail and wholesale enterprise among ethnic groups in core and peripheral urban centers: the late-nineteenth-century United States

Ethnic entrepreneurs often benefit from reciprocal relationships, such as buyer–supplier linkages, among co-ethnic businesses. The present study extends this insight, analyzing census data on the relationship between ethnic enterprise in the retail trade and co-ethnic enterprise in the wholesale trade in urban centers of core and peripheral regions of the late-nineteenth-century United States. As expected, this relationship varied markedly by ethnicity and region. For some groups (e.g., Russians), co-ethnic retail and wholesale enterprises were positively related on the periphery but not in the core; conversely, for other groups (e.g., Irish), co-ethnic retail and wholesale enterprises were positively related in the core but not on the periphery. The results imply that reciprocal relationships among co-ethnic businesses are significantly affected by variation in the characteristics of local opportunity structures across urban-regional locations.     

Probabilistic methodology for estimation of undiscovered petroleum resources in play analysis of the United States

A geostochastic system called FASPF was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey for their 1989 assessment of undiscovered petroleum resources in the United States. FASPF is a fast appraisal system for petroleum play analysis using a field-size geological model and an analytic probabilistic methodology. The geological model is a particular type of probability model whereby the volumes of oil and gas accumulations are modeled as statistical distributions in the form of probability histograms, and the risk structure is bilevel (play and accumulation) in terms of conditional probability. The probabilistic methodology is an analytic method derived from probability theory rather than Monte Carlo simulation. The resource estimates of crude oil and natural gas are calculated and expressed in terms of probability distributions. The probabilistic methodology developed by the author is explained.The analytic system resulted in a probabilistic methodology for play analysis, subplay analysis, economic analysis, and aggregation analysis. Subplay analysis included the estimation of petroleum resources on non-Federal offshore areas. Economic analysis involved the truncation of the field size with a minimum economic cutoff value. Aggregation analysis was needed to aggregate individual play and subplay estimates of oil and gas, respectively, at the provincial, regional, and national levels.