Further assessment of flood‐ and drought‐dominated regimes in south‐eastern Australia

Kirkup et al. (1998) [Australian Geographer 29, pp. 241–55] criticise our theory of alternating flood regimes and question its application to river management. A brief but critical appraisal of their work shows many errors and misrepresentations. When these are corrected, their challenge is found deficient.     

Tetraether membrane lipid distributions in water-column particulate matter and sediments: a study of 47 European lakes along a north–south transect

We studied the distribution of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) in water-column particulate matter and the top 5 cm of sediment from 47 lakes along a transect from southern Italy to the northern part of Scandinavia. Our objective was to investigate the biological sources and potential palaeoenvironmental applications of GDGTs in lacustrine sediments. Both archaea-derived isoprenoid and bacteria-derived branched GDGTs, produced by yet unknown soil bacteria, were identified in all lake sediments. GDGT distributions varied substantially. Crenarchaeotal GDGTs, including the characteristic GDGT crenarchaeol, were found in varying relative concentrations, and were more dominant in lakes from the Alps and some of the lakes from the more southern part of the latitudinal transect. In some lakes, we observed high amounts of the GDGT with no cyclopentane moieties relative to crenarchaeol. As methanogenic Euryarchaeota are known to biosynthesise this GDGT predominantly, these Archaea, rather than Crenarchaeota, may be its dominant biological source. In most of the lakes, high amounts of soil-bacteria-derived, branched GDGTs (>40% of total GDGTs) indicated a substantial contribution from soil erosion. Branched GDGTs dominated, especially in the northern lakes, possibly related to high soil-erosion rates. In many of the lakes, soil input affects the distribution of isoprenoidal GDGTs and prevents the reliable application of the TEX₈₆ temperature proxy for lake water temperature, which is based on in situ crenarchaeotal GDGTs production. In 9 out of the 47 lakes studied, the TEX₈₆ temperature proxy could be used reliably. When we compared the TEX₈₆ correlation with annual and winter lake-surface temperature, respectively, the relationship between TEX₈₆ and winter temperature was slightly stronger. This may indicate the season in which these GDGT-producing organisms have their peak production.     

Chironomids as indicators of climate change: a 100‐lake training set from a subarctic region of northern Sweden (Lapland)

Multivariate numerical analyses (DCA, CCA) were used to study the distribution of chironomids from surface sediments of 100 lakes spanning broad ecoclimatic conditions in northern Swedish Lapland. The study sites range from boreal forest to alpine tundra and are located in a region of relatively low human impact. Of the 19 environmental variables measured, ordination by CCA identified mean July air temperature as one of the most significant variables explaining the distribution and the abundance of chironomids. Lossonignition (LOI), maximum lake depth and mean January air temperature also accounted for significant variation in chironomid assemblages. A quantitative transfer function was created to estimate mean July air temperature from sedimentary chironomid assemblages using weightedaveraging partial least squares regression (WAPLS). The coefficient of determination was relatively high (r² = 0.65) with root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEP, based on jack-knifing) of 1.13 °C and maximum bias of 2.1 °C, indicating that chironomids can provide useful quantitative estimates of past changes in mean July air temperature. The paper focuses mainly on the relationship between chironomid composition and July air temperature, but the relationship to LOI and depth are also discussed.     

“A Mirror and a Lamp”: The Role of Power in the Rural Landscape Trajectory of the Ovens Region of Australia

Power relationships structure discourse and its influence on policy and rural land use planning, but little research has examined how this might be observed in the dynamics of rural landscape transition. In a qualitative case study of the Ovens catchment, Victoria, Australia, discursive power is observed through sites of tension between informant interpretations of past, present, and future landscapes and contemporary local decision making. Three main tensions and an observation emerged that suggest discourse and power can be observed through the transfer and support of social memory narratives. We conclude that the identification of tensions between stakeholder perceptions of the past, present, and future of their landscape; awareness of the influence of those interpretations on current decision making; and attention to social memory narratives can provide invaluable insights for those seeking to understand local relationships of power.     

Multi‐scale correlations between topography and vegetation in a hillside catchment of Honduras

All systems have causes and effects that can be appreciated at different spatial scales. Understanding and representing the complexity of multi‐scale patterns in maps and spatial models are key research objectives. We describe the use of three types of correlation analyses: (1) a standard Pearson correlation coefficient, (2) a ‘global’ multi‐scale correlation, and (3) local geographically weighted correlation. These methods were applied to topographic and vegetation indices in a small catchment in Honduras that is representative of the country's hillsides agro‐ecosystem which suffers from severe environmental degradation due to land‐use decisions that lead to deforestation, overgrazing, and unsustainable agricultural. If the geographical scale at which topography matters for land‐use allocation can be determined, then integration of knowledge systems can be focused. Our preliminary results show that: (1) single‐scale correlations do not adequately represent the relationship between NDVI and topographic indices; (2) peaks in the global multi‐scale correlations in agricultural areas coincided with the median farm size, but there was no evidence of any community or larger‐scale land‐use planning or optimization; and (3) local multi‐scale correlations varied considerably from the global results at all scales, and these variations have a strong spatial structure which may indicate local optimization of land use.     

Preferential treatment in a transition economy: the case of state‐owned enterprises in the textile and garment industry in Vietnam

The article examines the role and contribution of preferential treatment of state enterprises to growth in the textile and garment industry. State enterprises are still the largest single sector in the textile and garment industry in Vietnam, but are losing market shares to private Vietnamese enterprises and foreign‐owned enterprises despite the benefits that they enjoy. However, in the present context of economic transition and keen competition in the global market, well‐managed state enterprises are attractive to foreign buyers of their products and have a role to play in market access abroad. This contrasts with the neoliberal notion that privatization is essential to competitiveness in the global market.     

Growth and physiological responses of larch trees to climate changes deduced from tree-ring widths and δ13C at two forest sites in eastern Siberia

Tree-ring chronologies of ring width and stable carbon isotope ratios (δ¹³C) over the past 160 years were developed using living larch trees at two forest sites, each with different annual precipitation, in eastern Siberia: Spasskaya Pad (SP) (62°14′N, 129°37′E); and Elgeeii (EG) (60°0′N, 133°49′E). Intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) was derived from tree-ring δ¹³C. The physiological responses of the larch trees to climate varied between these sites and over time. Ring widths correlated negatively with summer temperatures at SP, where summer precipitation is lower than at EG, probably due to temperature-induced water stress. Since the 1990s, however, the negative effect of warming has been more severe at EG, where the productivity of larch trees is higher than at SP. A greater reduction of larch tree growth and higher increase rate of iWUE at EG reflects greater temperature-induced water stress, which is incident to the larger forest biomass. Our results suggest that effect of increase in atmospheric CO₂ on larch tree growth is not sufficient to compensate for temperature-induced water stress on larch growth in eastern Siberia and differences in precipitation and forest productivity largely affect the larch tree response to changing climate in eastern Siberia.     

Ground water hydrochemical characteristics: seawater intruded area in eastern and southern coast of Laizhou Bay

Seawater intrusion is a special process of groundwater pollution. The contemporary seawater intrusion and buried paleobrine intrusion especially the latter in eastern and southern coasts of Laizhou Bay are the most representative ones in the world [1]. According to the research on seawater intrusion at home and abroad, In-depth studies on change process and mechanism of hydrochemical composition, while ion adsorption and exchange between the permeable stratum and groundwater are studied shall…     

Mobility Patterns of Overseas Human Capital in Australia: the role of a ‘new’ graduate visa scheme and rural development policy

In 2007, the Australian federal government introduced a ‘new’ graduate visa scheme, the 485 visa sub-class. This visa facilitates the transition from student to worker for overseas graduates from Australian higher education institutions, with the potential to significantly increase their numbers in the country. At the same time, local governments have introduced various policies designed to attract and retain human capital in rural areas to address the shortfall of highly skilled individuals. This paper redresses the current lack of research into the spatial dynamics of overseas human capital in Australia and their relation to the new visa scheme in combination with shifts in rural development policies. Drawing on survey data of graduates describing the ‘before’ (2005) and ‘after’ (2008) periods of the introduction of the 485 visa scheme, this paper shows that the propensity of overseas graduates to move between Australia's regions has increased substantially. In particular, there have been an increasing proportion of overseas graduates moving to major cities despite rural development policy efforts to attract human capital to rural areas. However, these policy efforts appear to have attracted overseas graduates with particular qualifications (education and health) to work in such locales.     

‘Rising Waters Don't Lift All Boats’: a sustainable livelihood analysis of recursive cycles of vulnerability and maladaptation to flood risk in rural Bihar,India

ABSTRACT

Bihar, in the central Gangetic Basin, is simultaneously India's poorest and most flood-prone State. Climate change models currently identify a heightening of Bihar's flood risk, as rainfall patterns become more intense and Himalayan glaciers recede. During the past half century, the major strategy deployed by the State and national governments to address the risk of floods has involved the construction of embankments: raised areas of land that seek to control river flow and provide temporary sanctuaries for flood-affected populations. In this article, qualitative data from interviews with flood-affected villagers and policy makers at local, district and State levels are used to assess the social implications of embankments as an adaptive response to flood risk. Evidence from these testimonies leads us to conceptualise embankments as contributing to recursive cycles of vulnerability, in which women, children and poorer social segments have been unwitting bearers. Hence, reliance on embankments is a maladaptation that perpetuates, if not exacerbates, the severe manifestations of social and economic inequality that continue to plague rural Bihar. Perhaps not surprisingly, the voices of those whose lives have been made more difficult by embankments are heard all too infrequently in policy debates. This emphasises the need for climate adaptation initiatives to be anchored in a sustainable livelihood approach, for which the prime analytical objective is to understand the factors that enable or constrain the abilities of people, especially those who are most vulnerable, to make decisions about their lives.     

Exploring potential human activities in physical and virtual spaces: a spatio‐temporal GIS approach

Today, the opportunity for potential human activity has gone beyond physical space to virtual space. Based on a proposed conceptual framework that models the relationships between physical and virtual spaces, this paper presents an attempt to adjust the space–time prism concept of Hägerstrand's time geography to identify potential activity opportunities in virtual space, focusing on the virtual space access channels available in physical space. A three‐dimensional (3D) spatio‐temporal Geographic Information System (GIS) design has been developed in this research to accommodate the adjusted space–time prism concept to support the representation, visualization, and analysis of potential human activities and interactions in physical and virtual spaces using the prism representation. Following the design, a prototype system has been successfully implemented in a 3D GIS environment. Such a system can provide powerful analytical tools for studies related to potential human activities and applications such as location‐based services (LBS) and accessibility analysis in the information age.     

Holocene environmental history and climate of Råtåsjøen,a low-alpine lake in south-central Norway

The Holocene environmental history and climate are reconstructed for Råtåsjøen, a low-alpine lake in south-central Norway. The reconstructions are based on chironomids, diatoms, pollen, plant macrofossils, and sediment characteristics. From plant macrofossil evidence, birch trees (Betula pubescens) immigrated ca. 10,000 cal BP. The chironomid-inferred mean July air temperature was high, but may be unreliable during the early stages of the lakes history due to the high abundance of Chironomus anthracinus type, a taxon that may include several species. From ca. 9000 cal BP the inferred mean July temperature was lower (ca. 9 °C). Temperatures increased towards 8000 cal BP and pine (Pinus sylvestris) reached its upper limit near the lake. July temperature may have become a significant factor controlling long-term pH in the lake, starting shortly after 8000 cal BP. High pH values were associated with periods of warm summers and lower pH values occurred during periods of colder summers. Alkalinity processes within the lake and/or the catchment are possible factors controlling this relationship. A temperature decline at ca. 5400 cal BP separated two 10.6 °C temperature maxima around 6400 and 4500 cal BP. The 1.5 °C decline in July air temperatures from ca. 4400 cal BP was paralleled by a decrease of pH from 7.2 to 6.8. Following the temperature drop, first pine and then birch trees declined and disappeared from the catchment and organic accumulation in the lake increased. The increased organic accumulation rate had a positive effect on diatom production. At ca. 2700 cal BP the temperature reached a minimum (ca. 9.2 °C) and correspondingly a second pH minimum was reached. Temperature decreased again slightly at ca. 400 cal BP during the Little Ice Age, before increasing by about 0.5 °C towards the present. Percentage organic carbon as estimated by loss-on-ignition appears to be better correlated with chironomid-inferred July temperatures than organic accumulation rates, at least for the last 9000 years. Accumulation rates of organic sediments are more coupled with catchment-related processes, such as erosion and major changes in vegetation, than is percentage organic carbon.     

Multi‐scale spatiotemporal analyses of moose–vehicle collisions: a case study in northern Vermont

Moose–vehicle collisions (MVCs) pose a serious safety and environmental concern in many regions of Europe and North America. For example, in the state of Vermont, one‐third of all reported MVCs resulted in motorist injury or fatality while collisions have increased from two in 1982 to 164 in 2002. Our work used a MVC dataset from 1983 to 1999 in the Northeastern Highlands of Vermont (four major roads) to perform space, time and spatiotemporal analyses and guide future mitigation strategies. An adapted kernel density estimator was implemented for exploratory analyses to detect high density collision hotspots on roads. The kernel in space showed seven major density peaks which varied in magnitude and spread between roads. The kernel estimator in time for all roads showed an exponentially increasing trend with annual periodicity and a seasonal cyclic component, where the majority of collisions occurred from May to October. Spatiotemporal kernel estimation exhibited discontinuous density hotspots in time and space suggesting changing animal movement patterns across roads. We used an adapted Ripley's K‐function to test the hypothesis that MVCs clustering occurred at multiple scales in space, in time and in space–time combined. Statistically significant spatial clustering was evident on all roads at spatial scales from 2 to 10 km. A more consistent clustering in time occurred on all roads at a scale distance of 5 years. Similar to the kernel estimation, annual periodicity was also evident. Positive space–time clustering was present at small spatial (5 km) and temporal scales (2 years) indicating that where MVCs occur is also influenced by when they occur. In retrospect, using multiple road lengths, and the combined kernel estimation and Ripley's K‐function in time and space, provided a powerful methodology to study varying spatiotemporal patterns of wildlife collisions along roads. This can greatly assist transportation planners in identifying optimal mitigation strategies along specific roads, such as deciding on location and spatial length for permanent and expensive measures (e.g. crossing structures and associated fencing) versus less permanent and inexpensive structures (e.g. wildlife signage and reduced speed limits).     

Quantifying precipitation extremes and their relationships with large-scale climate oscillations in a tropical country,Singapore: 1980–2018

Extreme precipitation indices (EPIs) were defined to quantify the precipitation extremes in Singapore, a typical tropical country situated near the equator. The paper investigated the spatial and temporal variability of precipitation extremes based on seventeen EPIs using non-parametric Mann-Kendall test and Sen’s slope, and further explored the linear and nonlinear relationships between precipitation extremes and four large-scale global climate oscillations using correlation and wavelet analysis, during the period of 1980–2018 in Singapore. The results indicated that the trends of precipitation extremes varied for different EPIs, regions and stations. Increasing trends dominated thirteen out of seventeen EPIs. The trends of EPIs were scattered and irregularly distributed. The cross-correlation analysis between different EPIs demonstrated that annual total precipitation on wet days (PRCPTOT) was strongly correlated with other EPIs. The result of composite analysis indicated that El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) exerted stronger impacts on southwest monsoon season (SMS) precipitation than PRCPTOT and northeast monsoon season (NMS) precipitation. The SMS precipitation composite suggested that ENSO created more influence on dry spells than wet spells. The linear and nonlinear relationships revealed that all climate oscillations were negatively correlated with precipitation. The wavelet coherence and phase differences were consistent with the results of correlation analysis, indicating possible prediction of precipitation extremes using climate oscillations as potential predictors.     

A Review of: “Pittsburgh and the Appalachians: Cultural and Natural Resources in a Postindustrial Age”

Abstract

Geography is one of the subjects offered toward a diploma of the International Baccalaureate Organization. Like the others, its syllabus is regularly reviewed and revised to remain current. The advent of a revised syllabus brings overlap that can be challenging for teachers. The syllabus that is now coming to an end was described in 107(4–5) of the Journal of Geography. The present article compares that syllabus with the new one and, particularly, the demands the new syllabus will place on teachers and students alike.     

Griffith Taylor and the SE Australian highlands: issues of data sources and testability in interpretations of long‐term drainage history and landscape evolution

Much of the current research on long‐term landscape evolution and drainage history in SE Australia is built in one way or another on the early work of Griffith Taylor. The controversy prompted by several attempts to incorporate Taylor's work in recent plate tectonics interpretations of the long‐term evolution of SE Australia highlights differences of opinion as to the appropriate methodologies for such investigations. These questions, including the issues of data sources in reconstructions of long‐term landscape history, testability of such reconstructions, and the relationship between the landscape history so reconstructed and larger‐scale, regional landscape histories, appear not to have been addressed in recent literature on geomorphological methodology. This literature notes the demise of critical rationalism and appears to espouse a strongly relativist viewpoint, which relies on the shared understanding among the discipline's practitioners as to what are appropriate data sources and tests for hypotheses of long‐term landscape evolution. This offers little hope for resolution of the current disputes about the evolution of the drainage systems of SE Australia, but puts the onus squarely on us, the practitioners, to develop shared understandings of the appropriate data sources and tests for our hypotheses and grand schemes of the type so favoured by Griffith Taylor.     

GLOBAL sensitivity analysis,GIS and multi‐criteria evaluation for a sustainable planning of a hazardous waste disposal site in Spain

A novel application of Sensitivity Analysis is presented. Useful applications of Global SA (GSA) already exist in the field of numerical modelling. In this paper, we explore the joint use of GSA, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Multi‐Criteria Evaluation. In this preliminary case study, 11 factors have been used to find the best place to locate a hazardous waste landfill. Two variance‐based methods (Sobol' and E‐FAST) are used to compute sensitivity indices in order to identify the factors that determine the variance of the model output. The results show that only three factors jointly account for 97% of the output variance. This information is employed to make a simplification of the original model, retaining only these three influential factors. In addition, if the SA is carried out in a pilot area where the spatial properties are similar to those of the whole region, we can infer the results to the whole area. This procedure achieves the goal of the study with an optimized allocation of resources for GIS data acquisition.