Population pressure in rural Kenya

As an international problem of continuing significance in the underdeveloped world, population pressure foreshadows the future of many Third World countries. Kenya is one such country. Its deteriorating population-resource balances are set against a limited resource base and a demographically explosive growth rate. Although population pressure has yet to be surveyed fully, landlessness, soil erosion, deforestation, overgrazing and river siltation indicate worsening man-land relationships throughout rural Kenya. In an effort to determine the magnitude and extent of population pressure and to find solutions to its manifold consequences, the Kenya Rural Population Pressure Study will conduct an intensive two year program of research.     

Population pressure, agricultural intensification and changes in rural systems in Bangladesh

Sustainable agricultural growth is the key to rural system changes that include changes in rural bio-physical environment, economic infrastructure and social conditions. The present study has examined the temporal changes in 18 selected indicators of rural systems in Bangladesh during the period 1975-2000, and explored the influences of demographic, market forces, environmental, institutional and technological factors inducing and mediating such changes. An analysis of 64 district level published census data showed significant increase in agricultural intensity, cropping patterns, land productivity and farm income; decline in labor and technological productivities; and major improvement in rural housing, economic and social conditions during this period. Spatially, major agricultural growth and rural development were observed in districts with high population density, less constrained environments, and better access to markets, irrigation canals, and capital loans.     

Variations in technical infrastructure and private economic activity in the rural areas of Southern Poland

Restructuring the Polish countryside is a complex and urgent task. Adapting agriculture for EU entry will mean a considerable reduction in employment and rural diversification is needed because other sectors of the national economy will not be able to absorb all the displaced people if they arrive in the towns. However, providing non-agricultural employment in rural areas depends to a large extent on the technical infrastructure available: running water, sewerage systems, gas supply and telecommunications. The paper deals with voivodeships in southern and southwestern Poland (formerly Galicia) and shows that while much progress has been made since the end of the communist period, the inherited inequalities are being perpetuated and in some cases increased. However, even where the infrastructure is satisfactory, private business does not develop at a uniform rate and action is needed to stimulate communities in remoter rural areas, particularly in the eastern part of the study region. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Empirical analysis of electromagnetic profiles for groundwater prospecting in rural areas of Ibadan, southwestern Nigeria

The Slingram electromagnetic (EM) survey using a coil separation of 60 and 100 m was carried out in ten villages in the Akinyele area of Ibadan, southwestern Nigeria to aid in the development of groundwater. Five main rock types including an undifferentiated gneiss complex (Su), biotite-garnet schist/gneiss (Bs), quartzite and quartz schist (Q), migmatized undifferentiated biotite/hornblende gneiss (M) and pegmatite/quartz vein (P) underlie the study area. A total of 31 EM profiles was made to accurately locate prospective borehole sites in the field. Four main groups with different behavioural patterns were categorized from the EM profiles. Group 1 is characterized by a high density of positive (HDP) or a high density of negative (HDN) real and imaginary curves, Group 2 by parallel real and imaginary curves intersecting with negligible amplitude (PNA), Group 3 by frequent intersection of a high density of negative minima (FHN) real and imaginary curves, and Group 4 by separate and approximately parallel (SAP) real and imaginary curves. Qualitative pictures of the overburden thickness and the extent of fracturing have been proposed from these behavioural patterns. A comparison of the borehole yield with the overburden thickness and the level of fracturing shows that the borehole yield depends more on the fracture density than on the overburden thickness. The asymmetry of the anomaly was also found to be useful in the determination of the inclination of the conductor/fracture.

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Résumé Une prospection électromagnétique Silgram (EM) utilisant une séparation de 60 et 100 m, a été réalisée sur 10 sites villageois dans la zone d’Akinyele, Ibadan, au Sud-Ouest du Nigeria, pour le développement de l’exploitation des eaux souterraines. De cette manière il a été possible de définir cinq principaux types de roches comprenant un complexe gneissique indifférencié (Su), un schiste gneissique à biotite et garnet (Bs), une quartzite et un schiste quartzitique (Q), un gneiss migmatisé à hornblende et biotite indifférenciées (M) et une veine de pegmatite et quartz recouvrant la zone d’étude. Un total de 31 profils EM a été réalisé de manière à améliorer sérieusement la localisation des forages de reconnaissance. Quatre groupes principaux ont été définis sur base de leur comportement dans les profils EM. Le Groupe 1 est caractérisé par une forte densité de courbes réelles et imaginaires, positives ou négatives (HDP ou HDN). Le Groupe 2 est caractérisé par des courbes parallèles, réelles et imaginaires, superposées à une amplitude négligeable (PNA). Le Groupe 3 rassemble les densités importantes de courbes réelles et imaginaires, d’amplitude négative minimum, fréquemment intersectées. Le Groupe 4 rassemble les courbes réelles et imaginaires, distinctes et sensiblement parallèles (SAP). Les images qualitatives de l’épaisseur de la couverture et la largeur des fractures ont pu être déterminées sur base du comportement des éléments précédemment cités. La comparaison des débits de forage, de l’épaisseur de la couche supérieure, et du degré de fracturation, montre que le débit du forage dépend plus de la densité de forage que de l’épaisseur de la couverture. L’asymétrie des anomalies a par ailleurs été très utile pour déterminer l’inclinaison des fractures conductrices.

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Resumen Se llevó a cabo un levantamiento electromagnético (EM) Slingram utilizando una separación de bobinas de 60 y 100 metros en 10 comunidades en el área Akinyele de Ibadan, suroeste de Nigeria para ayudar en el desarrollo de agua subterránea. Cinco tipos de rocas principales incluyendo un complejo de gneiss no diferenciado (Su), gneiss/esquisto de granate-biotita (Bs), cuarzita y esquisto de cuarzo (Q), gneiss de hornblenda/biotita migmatizado no diferenciado (M) y vetas de cuarzo/pegmatita (P) se encuentran en el área de estudio. Se levantaron un total de 31 perfiles EM para localizar con precisión sitios prospectivos para pozos en el campo. Se distinguieron cuatro grupos principales con diferente patrón de comportamiento a partir de los perfiles EM. El Grupo 1 se caracteriza por una alta densidad de curvas reales e imaginarias positivas (HDP) o negativas (HDN); el Grupo 2 por curvas paralelas reales e imaginarias que se interceptan con amplitud despreciable (PNA); el Grupo 3 por intersección frecuente de curvas reales e imaginarias con mínimos negativos de alta densidad (FHN); y el Grupo 4 por curvas imaginarias y reales separadas y aproximadamente paralelas (SAP). A partir de estos patrones de comportamiento se han propuesto cuadros cualitativos del espesor del material superficial y la extensión de fracturamiento. Una comparación de la productividad del pozo en relación al espesor del material superficial y el nivel de fracturamiento muestra que la productividad del pozo depende más de la densidad de fracturamiento que del espesor del material superficial. También se encontró que la asimetría de la anomalía era útil en la determinación de la inclinación de la fractura/conductor.

     

Transportation as a limitation to rural development: The case of Abak in Nigeria

Abak was opened by the colonial government as an administrative centre in the early 1900s. Since then the town and its surrounding areas are still rural in outlook. Development possibilities are very slim unless transportation is viewed seriously by both the government.The difficulty here is that the Kwa Iboe River with its tributaries that crosses the area has created transport bottlenecks. Entry into the area from the E, W and S is through narrow onelane bridges on the rivers. The inefficient transport development has led to difficulties in the movement of farm products to the market. The prices of manufactured goods are higher in the area than in other places about 12 or 14 kilometres away.     

The rural sector in the development prospects and problems of a typical African country — Nigeria

This paper begins by theoretically presenting the rural sector of developing countries in a national development context. The critical role of the sector is highlighted and the system effects of inadequate equipment of the sector for such role are considered. The Nigerian situation is used to illustrate the prospects and the problems of the rural sector in most African countries. Remedial policy measures are shown to lie mainly in the provision of infrastructural facilities, in forging effective linkage relationships with the urban sector and in rural economy diversification towards a nationally beneficial integrated development.     

Planning and the rural regions of Nigeria

Conclusion Urban and rural development arek inextricably related, that regional planning can play important roles as catalyst for agriculture and rural development; and that a system of growth centres and/or agropolitan policy which can be important in achieving economic growth with social equity, will be far more influential. Again if the National Planning Authority, Regional Planning Agency and the policy of growth centre in the rural areas of the recommended regions is pursued, it will not only increase agricultural productivity or a path to agricultural transformation for deleterious effects of migration to corporate farming but also could, over time help to reduce the pressure on the urban areas by providing counter-magnets to migration and we envisage, will bring about a national regional planning budget which should be operated on yearly basis.     

Landscape protection and development control: An appraisal of planning in rural areas of England and Wales

Landscape protection has been a well-established policy in British rural planning for the past 30 yr, through National Parks, Areas of Outstanding National Beauty, Green Belts and other similar designations. The main way in which these policies are implemented is through the development control system, but there has been little monitoring to establish how far it has been effective in achieving the landscape conservation objectives. Opinions vary about the extent to which urban development has been contained in England and Wales through planning control. Detailed studies have shown that in certain circumstances development can be directed to specific locations, but that there are definite limits on the scale of any such management.     

Oil-spill disasters and the rural hazardscape of Eastern Nigeria

The objective of the paper is to investigate the links between the patterns of incidents, the amount of hazardous materials locally present and capability of local emergency preparedness in rural local government councils. Four states Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Rivers State were used to examine the nature and pattern of oil-spill disasters in rural Nigeria. It is argued that oil-spill hazards are more than isolated engineering malfunctions. They can be alternatively understood as reflections of the social, economic and political contexts in which they occur. Discriminant analysis is used to examine the relationship between 71 country risk-related and preparedness variables and incident frequency. The findings illustrate the usefulness of contextual analysis in examining the restructuring of rural life and the capacity of fiscally and socially stressed rural communities to respond to environmental change.     

Population pressure in Pakistan

This study attempts to determine the effective population-carrying capacity of land in Pakistan under the existing socio-economic system. Statistical analysis provides the structural framework in which agricultural activities influence the concentration of population in Pakistan. Regression techniques have been used to show which factors are significant in determining the pressure of population in the country, and to present areal variations between the observed and predicted values of population density.     

The regional correlates of child nutrition in rural Southeastern Nigeria

The paper examines some measures of child nutrition status and factors influencing it in two contrasting regional economies. Feeding and weaning habits, average monthly expenditure on food, and some anthropometric measures by age of children are assessed. Regression of nutrient intake with some key regional variables is made. Measurable factors of child nutrition vary between areas, demonstrating some environmental and spatio-economic relationships.     

Eocene tidal sedimentation in the Anambra basin,Southern Nigeria

The Eocene Nanka Formation of the Anambra basin in southern Nigeria consists, in its type area, of four sand subunits each 50–90 m thick, separated by three gypsiferous glauconitic shales each about 2.5 m thick. The sand subunits are unconsolidated, uncemented quartzarenites, planar and trough cross-stratified, flaser and lenticular bedded, and burrowed (Ophiomorpha and Skolithos). Texturally the sands are medium to coarse, moderately sorted, positively skewed and leptokurtic. Two parallel belts, each with a distinctive paleocurrent pattern, are identified: one lying along the present eastern and northern margin of the formation, characterised by a shore-normal paleocurrent pattern; and the other lying on the west, distinguished by a shore-parallel orientation.An integrated analysis of stratigraphic, petrographic, textural, and structural data of the formation enabled reconstruction of an environmental model for the sand body. The model depicts sedimentation in a tidally influenced marine shoreline environment in which an intertidal and a subtidal zone can be delineated. Each zone is characterised by an assemblage of several sedimentary features. Interlaminations of shale and thin sand lenses, gypsiferous and glauconitic shale beds, flaser and lenticular bedding, herringbone structures, and shore-normal paleocurrent pattern are among the features that delineate the intertidal facies. The abundantly cross-stratified, coarse elastic sand-bars with rapid fining-upward sequences, burrowed pebbly horizons overlain by fine sand, and shoreparallel paleocurrent are the distinguishing features of the subtidal facies. The sandflat facies of the intertidal zone and the sandbar facies of the subtidal zone are, however, inseparable in most cases.     

Women's status and childhood mortality in two contrasting areas in south-western Nigeria

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between some women's status factors and differentials in probability of child survival in the south-western part of Nigeria. The present analysis is based on the results of the study of children of some 4677 women in two towns contrasting geographical zones.The results of the studiy indicate the significant role of age of mother at first marriage and BCG vaccination while the influence of maternal education was inconsistent at both household and regional levels. Likewise, the possession of certain household items such as dustbin, dining table seem to enhance the survival of children in the urban centres.The results of the study therefore call for strong measures to discourage the marriage of teenage girls. Also, the campaign for use of family planning devices for at least child spacing should be intensified among both mothers and men. Mothers should also be discouraged from patronizing food vendors to ensure minimum balanced diet for their children. Finally, there is need to encourage integrated research efforts on mortality studies so that the fine points of each discipline can be utilized in the multiple research methodology required in order to make headway in the campaigns for child survival and safe motherhood in developing societies.This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the IDRC, Ottawa, Canada     

Seismic potential of Southern Italy

To improve estimates of the long-term average seismic potential of the slowly straining South Central Mediterranean plate boundary zone, we integrate constraints on tectonic style and deformation rates from geodetic and geologic data with the traditional constraints from seismicity catalogs. We express seismic potential (long-term average earthquake recurrence rates as a function of magnitude) in the form of truncated Gutenberg–Richter distributions for seven seismotectonic source zones. Seismic coupling seems to be large or even complete in most zones. An exception is the southern Tyrrhenian thrust zone, where most of the African–European convergence is accommodated. Here aseismic deformation is estimated to range from at least 25% along the western part to almost 100% aseismic slip around the Aeolian Islands. Even so, seismic potential of this zone has previously been significantly underestimated, due to the low levels of recorded past seismicity. By contrast, the series of 19 M6–7 earthquakes that hit Calabria in the 18th and 19th century released tectonic strain rates accumulated over time spans up to several times the catalog duration, and seismic potential is revised downward. The southern Tyrrhenian thrust zone and the extensional Calabrian faults, as well as the northeastern Sicilian transtensional zone between them (which includes the Messina Straits, where a destructive M7 event occurred in 1908), all have a similar seismic potential with minimum recurrence times of M ≥ 6.5 of 150–220 years. This potential is lower than that of the Southern Apennines (M ≥ 6.5 recurring every 60 to 140 years), but higher than that of southeastern Sicily (minimum M ≥ 6.5 recurrence times of 400 years). The high seismicity levels recorded in southeastern Sicily indicate some clustering and are most compatible with a tectonic scenario where the Ionian deforms internally, and motions at the Calabrian Trench are small. The estimated seismic potential for the Calabrian Trench and Central and Western Sicily are the lowest (minimum M ≥ 6.5 recurrence times of 550–800 years). Most zones are probably capable of generating earthquakes up to magnitudes 7–7.5, with the exception of Central and Western Sicily where maximum events sizes most likely do not exceed 7.     

农村宅基地流转问题的剖析与破解

探讨农村宅基地现行入市流转的相关情况。城市化进程中土地利用效率低下,农村宅基地流转存在模式选择、制度设计与创新、风险规避、退出机制、户籍制度等问题。要使农村宅基地流转产生最大经济效益,建立城乡统一的建设用地市场,必须摒弃原有的、不必要的限制,采用先试点、后推广的方法,积极稳妥地推进农村宅基地流转的制度建设,并处理好现实、政策与法律之间的衔接问题,兼顾各方利益。     

Mass movements in hilly areas (with examples from Nigeria)

In mountainous areas of great relief, mass movements occur regularly as the result of the normal cyclic landscape development process. However, mass movements also occur in areas of lower relief, i.e. in areas of less geomorphic activity. An extreme case of this type has been found in the development of cracks in a flat savannah area of Nigeria which has generally been ascribed to purely hydrological causes. Nevertheless, it can be shown that the development of the cracks occurs along the shear lines of the neotectonic stress field, so thatgeotectonic processes represent the ultimate cause of the mass movements here as well. Conditions intermediate between those obtaining in mountainous and flat areas are found inhilly regions. In this instance, we have investigated a further particular area of Nigeria: the hills and river valleys near Ankpa in Benue State. Nevertheless, the instabilities in the ground may again have a much deeper primary cause. The primary unstable features appear as gullies; these are seen to form a definite orientation pattern; - which fact would point to a tectonic predesign. This contention can be substantiated by studying numerically the orientation pattern of the gullies/cracks and making a statistical analysis thereof. The pattern of the gullies is then compared with joint orientation measurements. It turns out that the pertinent orientation patterns agree within a few degrees with each other indicating that the gullies/cracks and the joints have been created by the same cause: viz. by the action of the stress field: the latter must beneotectonic, since the joints are found in recent laterite.     

National sovereignty & transboundary protected areas in Southern Africa

The notion that Transboundary Protected Areas (TBPAs) will act as `Peace Parks' has become an important argument in their promotion in post-Apartheid Southern Africa. This `Peace Parks Concept' is implicitly based upon the assumption that national sovereignty will not become a constraining factor in the creation and management of TBPAs. However, this assumption is problematic. TBPAs introduce various changes in the landscape with consequences for the ways in which a state can exercise its sovereignty over its borderland and citizens. This situation might evoke state action that could endanger the various environmental, socio-economic and political objectives of TBPAs. A state's behaviour with regard to TBPAs is not just informed by its interests in TBPAs, but also by its strategic and other interests in the wider borderland area. These are not necessarily compatible with the environmental and economic objectives of TBPAs. The ways in which these interests are mediated are highly complex and non-linear. Because of the inter-dependency that TBPAs create, the extent to which a state can pursue certain interests by means of TBPAs will be (partially) constrained by the wishes of the other states involved. In addition, power has to be shared with a wide range of non-state actors. The operation of sovereignty in TBPAs is therefore highly unpredictable and cannot be captured in static zero-sum terms. Actor Network Theory is identified as a possible starting-point to unravel and evaluate these complex political processes in TBPAs and their subsequent outcomes for state sovereignty.