Changing settlement patterns in the German Democratic Republic: 1945–1976

The settlement pattern in the German Democratic Republic has undergone dramatic changes since 1945, largely as a consequence of the socialist government's aim of concentrating population into fewer but larger central places. The impact of this policy has been greatest in rural areas, most especially in the northern part of the country. This paper examines the character of the changes experienced by both urban and rural areas in northern G.D.R. since 1945.     

Technical and biological recultivation and development of exhausted open cast mines in the German Democratic Republic

The production of lignite required for the GDR's national economy calls for the shifting of more than a thousand million cubic metres of overburden and the raising of about 1.5 thousand million m³ of ground-water. The ecological and infrastructural consequences are drastic, particularly in the Bezirke of Cottbus, Leipzig and Halle, where most lignite mines are situated. Planned reclamation of exhausted mining areas has so far permitted more than 50,000 ha in the GDR to be returned to agricultural and forestry use. Several attractive recreational areas have been developed by making use of exhausted workings that have been flooded. An outline is given of the legislation governing the responsibilities of the mining enterprises for the reclamation of devastated regions. The work to be done by the agricultural, forestry and water management enterprises to which the reclaimed areas are handed over for final recultivation is described, and the landscape management by which such former open cast mines can be converted into valuable amenities and economically viable regions are discussed in some detail.     

Die entwicklungsprobleme im “nordkalottgebiet” Schwedens Development problems in the northernmost parts of Sweden Les problèmes de développement dans la région suédoise de la “calotte du nord”

Sweden's high economic and social standard has been gained through a hard past and present structural rationalization process in the economy. This process has had the regional consequence that Norrland and especially its northernmost parts have met with considerable difficulties in maintaining services and full employment. A large number of farmers and forest workers migrated southward. Swedish location policy after 1965 aims at creating one or two growth poles in northern Norrland; Luleå and its neighbouring towns of Piteå and Boden appear to have good prerequisites. However, Umeå has the strongest population increase, a result of the newly established university which has developed very rapidly. It appears that the growth potentials in northern Norrland are greatest on the coast. Long distances, a widely spread population, and a bad urban structure with too many small communities and no big expansive ones make the inland of northern Norrland the greatest regional-political problem in Sweden.     

Riyadh and its development

After World War II Saudi Arabia has experienced spectacular changes. Based on huge oil and gas revenues a particularly rapid growth of population and a spectacular urbanization took place. One of the most booming cities in the desert environment of the arabian peninsula is the Kingdoms capital city of Riyadh. With a built-up area of 3.5 km² only before 1950 the city's present-day expansion reaches more than 500 km². During the same period of time the population of Riyadh grew from less than 50,000 in 1945 to more than 1.4 Mio. in 1985. Such an explosive development can be documented best by a satellite image. In this paper the process of urbanization of Riyadh is presented by the interpretation of a MOMS image taken in 1984, documenting the geographic situation, urban structures, and the city's development.     

Seasonal residence and counterurbanization: the role of second homes in population redistribution in Finland

Since the late twentieth century, many developed countries have experienced population deconcentration, labelled as counterurbanization. There has been an academic discussion on the meaning, validity and universality of this concept, drivers of counterurbanization and its impacts on rural areas. To date, research on counterurbanization mostly apply static and discrete definitions of residence, migration and population, which is an increasingly simplistic view in the contemporary reality of a growing multitude of forms of mobility, often related to dual residence. Particularly large-scale quantitative studies on counterurbanization are confined by existing statistical practices. This paper attempts to overcome this obstacle and describe the transformation of the settlement system in Finland acknowledging the role of second home mobility. To achieve this goal, it introduces two alternative measures of population, seasonal and average population, and analyses their spatial dynamics between the years 1990 and 2010 based on georeferenced grid statistical data. The study finds that although registered population has been concentrating during the period in analysis, seasonal population has been increasingly dispersed due to the growing number of second homes. It shows that the counterurbanization process, though not noticed by conventional statistics, does occur in Finland, manifested by seasonal rather than permanent moves. The article concludes that various forms of mobility should be taken into account when analysing the urban–rural population dynamics and transformations of settlement systems as well as in rural development planning.     

Labour markets in transition. The experiences of women in two border regions of East Germany

The political turning point in the former GDR and the transformation processes that have been observed since then have significantly affected economic and social structures in the new Federal States. Gender roles, however, were subjected to even more dramatic changes. Whilst many women experienced the employment policies of the GDR era as beneficial, social researchers often designate them as the losers of unification nowadays. This is largely because the abundance of State support measures for employed women and mothers has been drastically reduced and women as a group have been hit hardest by the crisis on the East German labour market. Using two cases (Mecklenburg-Westpommerania and Thuringia), this paper aims to illustrate the impact of the transformation process on the everyday (working) lives of women. We are particularly concerned with a comparative analysis of how women experience and deal with regional disparities in East Germany. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Preliminary estimation of the tsunami hazards associated with the Makran subduction zone at the northwestern Indian Ocean

We present a preliminary estimation of tsunami hazard associated with the Makran subduction zone (MSZ) at the northwestern Indian Ocean. Makran is one of the two main tsunamigenic zones in the Indian Ocean, which has produced some tsunamis in the past. Northwestern Indian Ocean remains one of the least studied regions in the world in terms of tsunami hazard assessment. Hence, a scenario-based method is employed to provide an estimation of tsunami hazard in this region for the first time. The numerical modeling of tsunami is verified using historical observations of the 1945 Makran tsunami. Then, a number of tsunamis each resulting from a 1945-type earthquake (M _w 8.1) and spaced evenly along the MSZ are simulated. The results indicate that by moving a 1945-type earthquake along the MSZ, the southern coasts of Iran and Pakistan will experience the largest waves with heights of between 5 and 7 m, depending on the location of the source. The tsunami will reach a height of about 5 m and 2 m in northern coast of Oman and eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates, respectively.     

The regional differentiation of the German Democratic Republic — Structure · dynamics · development

In this paper aspects of the regional differentiation within the German Democratic Republic are presented, and the structure, dynamics and development of this differentiation are shown. The GDR founded after World War II comprises a territory of 108,000 sq.km with 16.7 million inhabitants. At the initial stage, its territorial structure was marked by a polarization between the industrialized regions in the South and the backward agricultural regions of the North and the East. Under socialist condition, however, his regional differentiation has been changed during the last three decades due to various basic and sequent processes. The foundation and development of a nationally-owned sector, particularly in industry, and a cooperative sector in agriculture, the industrialization of former agrarian regions, demographic processes, and a changing settlement structure has contributed to this development. The present regional differentiation is analysed by a new probabilistic approach, and seven macro-regions of the GDR are described.     

Impact of anthropogenic and natural factors on the air quality above the northern Caspian Sea and the ecological risk level for the human population in the coastal zone

The paper reports monitoring results (obtained in 2000–2001) of the seasonal variations in the quality of lower atmospheric air in the coastal zone of the northern Caspian Sea due to the occurrence of aerosols with submicrometer-sized particles and soot in the lower atmosphere. The contributions of natural and anthropogenic factors to the ecological risk for the local human population are evaluated, along with the contribution of the premature mortality of the human population in the coastal zone in 2005 to its overall average death rate for the Russian Federation (approximately 24%). The authors’ estimates are consistent with those made by the World Health Organization at the United Nations (WHO) for the Russian Federation as a whole (approximately 21%). The information presented in this publication is important for evidence-based recommendations on preventive environment-protective measures to be taken with regard for the development of oil and gas fields on- and offshore the northern Caspian Sea.     

扬子台地北缘志留纪笔石Oktavites spiralis居群差异研究

通过对陕西紫阳、岚皋地区多个志留系特列奇阶剖面的研究,根据更为精确的化石定义,奥氏笔石属新种Oktavites ziyangensis sp. nov可以从Oktavites spiralis 居群中识别出来。新种O. ziyangensis 在笔石枝盘旋方式和胞管形态上与O. spiralis 和Oktavites contortus 均存在一定的相似性,三者共生层位为特列奇阶Spirograptus turriculatus 笔石带至Cyrtograptus lapworthi 笔石带。尽管新种O. ziyangensis 地层延限较长,但胞管的快速演化仍使其具备较强的地层对比意义。根据“深水起源、浅水扩散”的笔石演化模式推测,O. contortus-O. ziyangensis-O. spiralis 的演化过程是笔石在纵向上的生态位占据过程,而O. spiralis 居群形态差别则是笔石深度分带的结果。同时,关于O. spiralis 居群差异的研究,也为讨论弓笔石的起源和分类提供更多的参考依据。     

Analysis of the institutional and social responses to the eruption and the lahars of Mount Pinatubo volcano from 1991 to 1998 (Central Luzon, Philippines)

Mount Pinatubo volcano erupted in June 1991 in the main island of Luzon belonging to the Philippines archipelago. Huge economic losses and population exodus have followed. This major crisis has been relayed with other crises due to rain-fed lahars which have been supplied with eruption deposits. These lahars have occurred every year since 1991 during the rainy season. They will probably last until 2005. After a brief presentation of the Philippine official response system to disasters, this paper draws up a critical analysis of the different kinds of institutional and social responses deployed to manage the different crisis and post-crisis phases of this event. Based on three viewpoints: from population, media and other actors, this analysis attempts to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the official management system, especially by studying the efficiency and the range of the solutions taken. So, it appears that the management of the June 1991 main crisis (eruption) was a success. On the other hand, difficulties have occurred with lahars risk management. Indeed, these lahars have obliged the authorities to protect and relocate thousands of people. In spite of persistent problems, the management system (monitoring/warning/evacuation) of lahar crises improves year after year. Failures appear especially within the rehabilitation program (protection/rehousing). Many direct (lack of means, preparedness, coordination, dialog, etc.) and indirect (politico-administrative, socio-economic, cultural contexts) factors come together to lock the wheels of the institutional response system. They defer the socio-economic start of this vital northern Philippines area. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

High‐resolution bathymetric mapping reveals subaqueous glacial landforms in the Arctic alpine lake Tarfala,Sweden

In Arctic alpine regions, glacio‐lacustrine environments respond sensitively to variations in climate conditions, impacting, for example,glacier extent and rendering former ice‐contact lakes into ice distal lakes and vice versa. Lakefloors may hold morphological records of past glacier extent, but remoteness and long periods of ice cover on such lakes make acquisition of high‐resolution bathymetric datasets challenging. Lake Tarfala and Kebnepakte Glacier, located in the Kebnekaise mountains, northern Sweden, comprise a small, dynamic glacio‐lacustrine system holding a climate archive that is not well studied. Using an autonomous surface vessel, a high‐resolution bathymetric dataset for Lake Tarfala was acquired in 2016, from which previously undiscovered end moraines and a potential grounding line feature were identified. For Kebnepakte Glacier, structure‐from‐motion photogrammetry was used to reconstruct its shape from photographs taken in 1910 and 1945. Combining these methods connects the glacial landform record identified at the lakefloor with the centennial‐scale dynamic behaviour of Kebnepakte Glacier. During its maximum 20^th century extent, attained c. 1910, Kebnepakte Glacier reached far into Lake Tarfala, but had retreated onto land by 1945, at an average of 7.9 m year^–1. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Water dynamics and population pressure in the Nepalese Himalayas

Water is rapidly becoming a critical factor in the development of Nepal despite the fact that it has one of the greatest hydro-power potentials in the world. The country is faced with three key water issues: hazardous hydro-power development, problems with community water supply and pollution, and shortages of irrigation water. Both the environmental settings and the socio-economic conditions have contributed to these problems which are now widespread and alarming. Environmental factors have not been taken seriously as shown in the largest existing hydropower reservoir, which has recently lost much of its storage capacity in a single unusual storm. Shortages in water supplies in the capital city are also reaching crisis proportions both in terms of quantity and quality. The widespread lack of irrigation water in the Middle Mountains during the dry season has serious implications for the future food supplies of the largely rural population. Some of these problems result from a rapidly expanding population living in a very marginal environment, an ineffective government organization and an international community that is mostly self-serving, focussing on large projects with little concern for local needs. The degradation of water resources is putting the food supplies and health of a large part of the population at risk.     

对中国北方岩溶水研究方向的思考与实践

中国北方碳酸盐岩含水层连续沉积厚度大、分布范围广,蕴藏着丰富的地下水资源,是重要的国家级含水层。北方岩溶水集水资源、旅游资源、生态功能等于一体,在国民经济建设中具有举足轻重的地位,特别在城市供水和能源基地建设中发挥了不可替代的支撑性作用。近50年来,受大规模水资源开发利用和人类其它高强度活动影响,北方岩溶水环境问题凸显并带来了一系列负面效应,严重制约了水资源的可持续利用。在国家大力倡导生态文明建的大背景下,如何协调好北方岩溶区资源开发与环境保护,是水文地质工作行业需要着重思考的问题。本文从国家需求出发,提出北方断流岩溶大泉泉水复流的生态修复、闭坑煤矿酸性“老窑水”对岩溶水的污染防治、深层岩溶水的水和热资源开发利用等应作为未来一段时期北方岩溶水的重点研究方向,同时,对近年来在这几个方面开展的调查研究工作取得的成果了进行简要介绍。      

Land reclamation in Singapore,Hong Kong and Macau

The spatial and temporal significance of land reclamation from the sea in relation to the development of the three SE Asian small coastal territories of Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau are examined and compared. In all three territories the rate of reclamation has been an index of the rate of economic development. Four phases of land reclamation are identified: (1) pre-1900: involved relatively unplanned and uncostly projects in shallow water and swamplands around the main focus of settlement; (2) 1900–1945: involved military projects outside the main settlement core; (3) 1945–1980: this phase of large-scale projects unconstrained by natural conditions because of advances in technology and high rate of reclamation was driven by rapid industrial and population growth; (4) 1980 to date: a period marked by large infrastructure projects designed to maintain and extend the status of the territories as world economic and commercial centres. Currently 10%, 5% and 33% of the total land surfaces of Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau respectively comprise land reclaimed from the sea and these proportions will continue to rise.     

Land use and land rights in the West African savannah: The Senufo in northern C^ote d'Ivoire

The change in property rights in the West African savannah has been analysed in particular from the perspective of development policy, i.e. from the perspective of state regulation. This contribution, however, attempts to trace property rights from the perspective of the farming population in the savannah in the northern part of Côte d'Ivoire. For peasants, the change of law is part of a long-term process which had already started before the colonialisation at the end of the 19th century and is still continuing today. The changing law is not analysed per se but is rather analysed with reference to people's actions, out of which the sphere of life of the local population is constituted. The changing forms of farm work and of land usage play an important role in this respect. The change of property rights is inscribed in the conflicts with the state and state power on the one hand, and the changes of social forms of organisation on the other.     

Settlement and sustainability in the Polish Sudetes

The paper summarises the history of human settlement in the Sudetes from the Bronze Age. A more intensive stage was reached in the Middle Ages when settlers from the west established new villages deep in the mountain valleys. By the beginning of the 20th century the Sudetes were already overpopulated but after a near-complete ethnic replacement from a German to a Polish population in 1945–8, population continued to grow until the 1980s. However, the economic system was hardly sustainable by this time. There were many polluting industries in the region and massive transboundary pollution from adjacent areas of Czechoslovakia and Germany had a devastating effect on the forests. Moreover, subsidised state agriculture placed heavy pressure on vulnerable mountain grazings. Since 1989 there has been a process of deindustrialisation in the Sudetes and surrounding areas and, with the disappearance of the state farms and the reduction in subsidies, agriculture is now better adjusted to the natural potential and is complemented by a promising start with agrotourism. The population of the region is growing relatively slowly (0.8% per annum 1956–1999), with the rural areas now in decline. A sustainable future for the region is now a possibility, but while there is a consensus for continued environmental reconstruction, supported by alternative economies, this will have to be carefully managed in the years ahead when EU accession may bring heavier development pressures than those evident at the moment. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Assessment of paleo-recharge under the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet and its impact on regional groundwater flow in the northern Baltic Artesian Basin using a numerical model

The study investigates the mechanism of glacial meltwater recharge under the Fennosciandian Ice Sheet during the last glacial maximum (LGM) and its impact on regional groundwater flow in the northern Baltic Artesian Basin (BAB) in Estonia and Latvia. The current hypothesis is that a flow reversal occurred in the BAB due to subglacial recharge during the LGM. This hypothesis is supported by an extensive dataset of geochemical and isotopic measurements in the groundwater of northern Estonia, exhibiting significant depletion in δ¹⁸O with respect to modern precipitation. To verify the consistency of this hypothesis and better understand groundwater flow dynamics during the LGM period, a numerical model is developed for this area. Two cross-sectional models have been created across the northern BAB, in which groundwater flow and the transport of δ¹⁸O have been simulated from the beginning of the LGM to present-day. Several simulations were performed with different subglacial boundary conditions, to investigate the uncertainty related to subglacial recharge of meltwater during the LGM and the subsequent flow reversal in the northern BAB. Several simulations provide a satisfying fit between computed and observed values of δ¹⁸O, which means that the hypothesis of subglacial recharge of meltwater is consistent with δ¹⁸O distribution. The numerical model suggests that preservation of meltwater in northern Estonia is controlled by confining layers and the proximity to the outcrop area of aquifers, located in the Gulf of Finland. The results also suggest that glacial meltwater has been preserved under the Baltic Sea in the Gulf of Riga.     

The women of Kano: internalized stress and the conditions of reproduction, Northern Nigeria

Kano State in northern Nigeria has been presented as a region which has undergone adaptation to rapid demographic growth without adverse ecological effects (Mortimore 1993a). The population has grown by natural increase and by in-migration, fueled partially by growth of the Kano urban and peri-urban zones and sustained by manure-fed upland and irrigated lowland agriculture. This paper presents demographic data for Kano State, collected through the 1990 Demographic and Health Survey (Macro International 1992) for Nigeria, to explore some possible demographic consequences of the population growth observed there. Covered will be sections on women's work and mobility, child nutrition and mortality, birth intervals, and weaning age. By presenting this data, I will suggest two points. First, there is perhaps an alternate hypothesis to the rosy though incomplete picture presented by Mortimore and others. The agricultural transformation in Kano seems to have put progressively more stress on women as domestic producers, which reflects in the demographic data. Second, there is a need for more temporally and spatially robust datasets on health and demography, as well as more concerted efforts to link, via more integrated analyses, agricultural production and health outcomes.     

东构造节的伸展和折返: 泰国北部裂谷的重力信号

Although many of its details have been criticised, the indenter model of India-Asia collision (Fig 1) is still widely accepted as providing a workable first-order explanation for the structural development of the eastern syntaxis and the initiation of the major NW-SE faults that segment the mainland of Southeast Asia. Arguments have largely concerned the extent to which the arrival of the continental crust of greater India has been accommodated by thickening beneath the Tibetan Plateau or by extrusion of blocks into Southeast Asia. Second-order structures relevant to such questions include elevated plateaus, metamorphic core complexes and the networks of rift basins with broadly N-S trends. In northern Thailand, one such rift network has been responsible for the development of a characteristic basin-and-range morphology.