Teachers’ Concepts of Map-Skill Development

Maps are an increasingly used source of information and it is therefore essential to develop map skills in students. A fundamental factor affecting the choice of map skills and the way they are developed is the teacher and his/her concept of map work. Based on the results of a survey and semi-structured interviews among Czech teachers, this study identifies three basic conceptual types of teachers: “Navigators” and “Problem-Oriented” and “Source-Oriented” teachers. Similarities with teachers’ concepts of map-skill development identified in previous studies are discussed together with means of improvement.     

Future Teachers’ Spatial Thinking Skills and Attitudes

The spatial thinking skills and attitudes of geography majors were compared with those of future teachers majoring in elementary education and secondary social studies education. Scores were obtained for each group on two measures: the spatial skills test and the attitude toward spatial thinking inventory. Mean differences were examined based on five factors: major, gender, travel experience, geography courses, and experience using geographic information systems (GIS). For both outcome measures, results showed that the mean scores for elementary education majors were significantly lower than scores from secondary social studies majors and geography majors. Geography majors outperformed both groups of education majors on both measures. Implications for the preparation of geography teachers are discussed.     

Preservice Geography Students’ Exposure to Systems Thinking and Cooperative Learning in Environmental Education

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a cross-curricular approach that needs to be accommodated in all subjects in the training of students as recommended by UNESCO. This South African case study of preservice geography students is presented for the purpose of understanding how they experienced systems thinking and a cooperative teaching strategy. A qualitative research approach was applied as the research design. Interpretation of the data was done through thematic analysis, which indicated that exposure to the pedagogic approach bore positive results. Teaching and learning strategies promoting the integration of ESD should form part of the training of geography students.     

Depth distribution of chironomids and an evaluation of site-specific and regional lake-depth inference models: a good model gone bad?

We used 39 surface samples from Marcella Lake, Yukon Territory, to examine the distribution of chironomid head capsules in relation to depth and to develop a site-specific (intralake) inference model for reconstructing past lake levels. Ten of the 34 most-frequently occurring taxa encountered in the surface-sediment samples are significantly related to depth. We then applied the site-specific inference model and a previously developed regional model to samples from deep- and shallow-water cores from Marcella Lake. The inferences were compared to an independent Digerfeldt-type reconstruction of lake level history and to moisture inferences drawn from pollen data. Although the site-specific model was good in having better performance statistics than the regional model, it was bad at producing depth reconstructions because most samples from the long cores lacked suitable analogues in the site-specific training set. None of the chironomid-based reconstructions was a good match to the Digerfeldt-type reconstruction. Inconsistencies remain between the paleohydrological inferences derived from the chironomid depth models, the Digerfeldt-type reconstruction and pollen-inferred reconstructions of past moisture regimes.     

A Review of “Knowledge Externalities,Innovation Clusters and Regional Development”

Land use information over large areas is increasingly important for many studies related to environment in general and global change in particular. Yet there is a dearth of methodological knowledge in this area, especially regarding the practical task of producing land use maps. In this article, a systematic land use mapping approach is developed, based on land cover maps that in turn are produced through remote sensing. The concept is based on the recognition of varying strengths of land cover (LC) – land use (LU) relationships, from the thematic and spatial points of view. Several categories of relationships are identified, ranging from direct (case 1) to multiple/complex (case 4), and appropriate mapping strategies are discussed for these cases. Using a mapping study in Lebanon, it is shown that the principles embodied in this approach correspond to issues and conditions in real mapping situations. Finally, the concepts are translated into a series of steps through which the method can be applied to large areas, taking into consideration the specific requirements and constraints of each case. The final land use map represents an acceptable compromise between accuracy, level of detail, and cost.     

Review of and prospects for China’s human and economic geography

The “High-Level Forum of the Development of China’s Human Geography Under the Background of Change” was held in Beijing on January 22-23, 2016. More than 30 professors attended this forum. At this conference, they discussed the major progress made towards developing China’s human geography, as well as the existing problems, limiting factors, opportunities, international collaborations, emerging directions, and prospects in the development of this discipline. In recent years human geography has boomed, generating many important opportunities for its development. Establishing an academic community for joint research on major research issues and collaborative innovation is a promising and important route to take. We should embrace both domestic and international characteristics, to promote China’s human geography onto the world stage. Meanwhile, the cultivation of various scholarly talents is also of great value to enrich and advance the discipline.     

Toward Equal Opportunity of Primary Education: Introducing a Lottery into China’s Proximity-Based Enrollment System

A serious spatial inequality of educational opportunity in school enrollment persists worldwide. The use of random mechanisms in school allocation might improve spatial equality, with lotteries applied in some choice-based systems. China uses a proximity-based assignment, yet the optimization of spatial equality of educational opportunity by introducing a lottery has received little consideration. To achieve the maximum spatial equality of educational opportunity, in this study, a random proximity-based model was developed, and the swarm optimization method was used to solve the model. A case study in the Shijingshan district of Beijing was used to illustrate the model outputs. For comparison, a proximity-based model was also developed and solved. After introducing a lottery into a proximity-based enrollment system, the spatial disparity of educational opportunity was reduced by 70 percent. The average travel distance to school increased 3.5-fold but was still much less than the actual average distance of 4.3?km. Relaxing the maximum travel distance constraint could significantly improve spatial inequality. Although total equality was significantly improved, only 51 percent of students benefited from increased opportunities, which implies that the model could be adopted in a centralized institutional context, such as China, but might be ineffective in a democratic system.     

China’s corridors-in-the-sky design and space-time congestion identification and the influence of air routes’ traffic flow

Journal of Geographical Sciences - With rapid development of air transportation, the airspace structure of the future will need to be flexible and dynamic to accommodate the increase in traffic...     

Understanding Place as ‘Home’ and ‘Away’ through Practices of Bird-watching

Bird-watching is an increasingly popular leisure activity. Previous research has taken for granted the identity of people who watch birds, often categorised by their level of skilled practice as ‘dude’, ‘birder’ or ‘twitcher’. Feminist geographers encourage us to explore identity work as an outcome of the reciprocal relationships between practices and place. Our feminist approach illustrates that the practices of bird-watching are always much more than categorising birds as species. This paper illustrates how the practices of bird-watching are integral to the making and remaking of sense of place as ‘home’ and ‘away’, to sustain identities beyond accepted categories of ‘dude’, ‘birder’ and ‘twitcher’. The creation and application of different types of ‘bird-lists’ helps to explain the ways in which practices of bird-watching facilitate making sense of place as simultaneously ‘home’, ‘away’ and habitat, as well as the identity work of home-maker, citizen-scientist and tourist. Our insights into these leisure practices of bird-watching are drawn from analysis of data gathered from 21 people who actively bird-watch and reside on the South Coast, New South Wales, Australia by combining research methods of talking, walking, drawing and photography.     

Determinants and identification of the northern boundary of China’s tropical zone

The influence of monsoon climatic characteristics makes the tropics of China different from those of other parts of the world. Therefore, the location of the northern boundary of China’s tropical zone has been one of the most controversial issues in the study of comprehensive physical regionalisation in China. This paper introduces developments in the study of the northern boundary of China’s tropical zone, in which different scholars delimit the boundary with great differences based on different regionalisation objectives, indexes, and methods. The main divergence of opinion is found in different understandings of zonal vegetation, agricultural vegetation type, cropping systems, tropical soil type and tropical characteristics. In this study, we applied the GeoDetector model, which measures the spatial stratified heterogeneity, to validate the northern boundaries of the tropical zone delimited by six principal scholars. The results show that the mean q-statistic value of the higher latitude boundary delimited by Ren Mei’e is the largest (q=0.37), suggesting that, of the rival views, it best reflects the regional differences between China’s tropical and subtropical zones, but it is not necessarily suitable for guiding the development of tropical agriculture. The mean values of the q-statistics of Zheng Du’s line and Yu Xianfang’s line around the Leizhou Peninsula at a lower latitude were smaller, at 0.10 and 0.08 respectively, indicating that the regional differences were smaller than those of Ren Mei’e’s boundary. Against the background of global climate change, the climate itself is changing in fluctuation. It is, thus, worth our further research whether the northern boundary of the tropical zone should not be a fixed line but rather should fluctuate within a certain scope to reflect these changes.     

Tropical cyclone Ivan’s tornado cluster in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States on 17–18 September 2004

This paper presents a case study of a cluster of tornadoes produced by tropical cyclone (TC) Ivan in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States on 17–18 September 2004. Ivan produced 118 tornadoes between 15 and 18 September, but 57 of these occurred in a period of only 10 h on the last two days. The number of tornadoes that occurred in this event is anomalous when compared to regional tornado climatology and to other TC tornado events. Furthermore, a significantly large number of the tornadoes, when compared to other TC tornadoes, were rated strong according to the Fujita Scale, and they were anomalously long- and wide-tracked. Ivan was in a synoptically favorable environment when these tornadoes were produced, and the tornadoes occurred in a favorable local-scale environment near a front with spatially overlapping shear and buoyancy.     

Measuring the spatiotemporal variation and evolution of transport network of China’s megaregions

Megaregion has become a prominent feature of modern China. Reflecting upon China’s recent path of transport infrastructure construction, this research examines the spatiotemporal characteristics of transport network development and its accessibility impacts in China’s ten megaregions from 1982 to 2010. Using historical transport network data and multiple national censuses (1982, 1990, 2000 and 2010), we computed two levels of indicators of megaregional transport network: megaregion level and county level, and analyzed the intra-megaregion and inter-megaregion disparities of transport network of the ten megaregions of China. Transport networks at the megaregion level are measured by three indicators: 1) transport network density; 2) infrastructure endowment per capita; and 3) size of transport network’s standard ellipse. Two accessibility indicators for measuring transportation network at the county level are calculated: weighted average travel time and potential accessibility. The research results show the following: 1) Road and rail network densities witnessed the greatest growth during the 2000–2010 period, and growth was more significant for railway network. 2) By 2010, average road endowments per capita in inland megaregions became higher than in coastal megaregions, while average rail endowments per capita in coastal megaregions became higher than in inland megaregions. 3) The sizes and directions of the standard deviational ellipses of road and rail network changed continuously during the study period. However the changes of road network ellipses were relatively small, while the changes of railway network ellipses were more significant. 4) Megaregions have all benefited significantly from transportation infrastructure improvement in the past few decades in terms of WATT and potential accessibility, but the three giant megaregions benefited most.     

The evolution of the Kolpashevskaya meaner of the Ob’ and ongoing hazardous manifestations of channel processes

We examine the transformation of a gentle segmental to a meander loop with the result that the city, founded in the 17^th century, found itself on the caving bank. Comparison of cartographic materials from different times showed the occurrence of secondary bends on elongated rectilinear wings. Not only did such an evolution of the meanders lead to the caving of the terraced urban bank, but also it involved a likely emergency situation on the underwater crossing of the pipeline, and on other engineering facilities. We ascertained the causes of the ongoing channel deformations; modeling data were used in developing recommendations on meander straightening in order to divert the river away from the city.     

A Review of: “Urban and Regional Technology Planning: Planning Practice in the Global Knowledge Economy”

Haiti and other developing countries have increasingly turned to emigrant remittances as a potential source of development capital. There is a vigorous debate in the development community about the impacts of remittances, however, with concerns about dependence challenging the optimism about a potential new development engine. Based on interviews with forty-two remittance recipients in Haiti and forty-five corresponding senders in New York State, we find that the remittance economy in Haiti is indeed productive and has the potential to generate employment and other important development benefits. That said, there are important limitations created by broader political–economic conditions and deeply entrenched inequalities.     

Structural-typological characteristics and ecological potential of the Baikal region’s geosystems

We outline the methods and results of cartographic analysis and assessment the present state of a large region’s geosystems: their structural, functional and functional-value characteristics have been revealed. Drawing on the notion of epiformations, we determined the ecological potential of geosystems at the regional level for nature management purposes. A fragment of the typological general-purpose interpretation map “Ecological potential of the Baikal region’s geosystems” is presented.     

Perceptions of Environmental Change and Climate Concern Among Idaho’s Farmers

Climate change public opinion research has identified conservative political ideology as the primary predictor of skepticism about climate change’s anthropogenic causes. Most farmers in Idaho are politically conservative, but they are also a unique group for whom observing their environment is part of daily life and work. We use data from in-depth interviews with 30 Idaho farmers to examine the relationship between observations of specific environmental changes and climate concern. We find that while most farmers report noticing changes in precipitation patterns, growing season length, and winter temperatures, few farmers connect these with long-term global climate change. These findings have two important implications: 1) direct experience, even in the form of disruption to an individual’s economic security, is not enough to overcome the influence of political ideology on climate change beliefs, and 2) acknowledging climate variation is not sufficient to convince individuals that the changes are produced by human activities.     

The development of Fujian’s outward-oriented economy and its regional differentiation

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Colorado’s Millennial Generation: Youth Perceptions and Experiences of Nature

Abstract

This study uses survey and focus group methods to explore attitudes toward and experiences of nature among millennial-aged students in northern Colorado. First, results confirm that young people possess a strong interest in the outdoors yet time, transportation, and new technologies hamper their ability to visit public lands and outdoor spaces. Second, respondents experience nature in ways more mediated by new technologies such as cell phones and nature DVDs. Third, citizen science and active learning show promise as techniques for returning young people to the outdoors. The challenge lies in teaching young people to reimagine the outdoors not as elsewhere or out there but as a backyard geographic space.