GEOGRAPHIC GEOMORPHOLOGY IN THE EIGHTIES

The geomorphic sciences will continue to be dynamic in the coming decade. Among other developments, there is a trend toward increased dependence on field reserch, more realistic expectations from reserch tools, a resurgence of interest in man-land relations with a renewed dependence on the historical approach, a reinvestigation of morphogenetic regions, study of planetary surfaces other than earth's, and involvement with applied problems, as well as cooperation and collaboration with scientists in related fields. The greatest need is the development of connections between academic and nonacademic geographers at all levels.     

Impact of public bus system on spatial burglary patterns in a Chinese urban context

PurposeTo examine the impact of public bus system on spatial burglary pattern in a Chinese urban context, as well as the spatial variation of this impact.MethodsLocal Moran's I, boxplot-based classification, geo-visualization, Chi-square test, and correlation analysis are used to explore the spatial coupling relationships between bus stops and burglary. Guided by routine activity approach, negative binomial regressions are performed for the developed and developing parts of the DP peninsula, as well as the whole peninsula based on proxies of potential offenders, guardians, targets, and spatial dependence.ResultsStatistically positive correlations are observed between burglary count and bus stop service capability. However, net of other factors, one more unidirectional bus route is expected to reduce burglary by nearly 2 percent for the whole area, and 4 percent for the developed area, while no statistically significant relationship is found for the developing area.ConclusionsThe bus-burglary relationships differ between the developed and developing urban areas. For the former, although burglaries concentrate around bus stops with higher service capability, the increase of bus service capability has a net impact of slightly depressing the occurrence of burglaries. Four possible mechanisms explaining this negative bus-burglary relationship in the DP peninsula are presented.     

A Coregionalized Model to Predict Housing Prices

Abstract

In a uniequational hedonic model, the main source of spatial dependence is found in the explained variable, since the price of a house mainly depends on the housing prices in the neighborhood (although this can also be due to other factors, such as missing covariates and the model of choice). Dependence is one of the primary causes of spatial autocorrelation in disturbances. However, such disturbances may also be spatially correlated with the disturbances of other equations; in this case, they can be considered coregionalized. This paper presents a multi-equational hedonic regression model with coregionalized disturbances and heterotopic data. The model comprises two equations. The first explains housing prices using data from a sample, while the second explains an auxiliary variable, quality of the area, obtained from a different sample. The model is then applied practically to predict housing prices. [Key words: Cokriging, housing prices, geostatistics, multi-equational hedonic model, coregionalized.]     

Market-driven organizational lock-in: A case study of a former first mover

ABSTRACT

The article addresses the question of how an innovative firm develops from being a first mover to an innovation laggard and whether this process can be reversed. Informed by the evolutionary perspective and path-dependence theory, the authors explore how a low-tech Norwegian firm in the oil and gas industry has lost its foothold as an innovator. They also employ the concept of organizational architecture as an analytical tool to investigate the agency for breaking organizational paths. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, their study revealed that the innovation activity of the case firm is in a state of lock-in following a path-dependence development. Product development in the firm is linked to incremental changes to existing products based on the feedback from the customer, and the process is characterized by knowledge exploitation rather than knowledge exploration. The article adds to the literature on path dependence by identifying how a strong market pull can be a driver for organizational path dependence and lock-in.     

Predictive land value modelling in Guatemala City using a geostatistical approach and Space Syntax

ABSTRACT

Spatial information of land values is fundamental for planners and policy makers. Individual appraisals are costly, explaining the need for predictive modelling. Recent work has investigated using Space Syntax to analyse urban access and explain land values. However, the spatial dependence of urban land markets has not been addressed in such studies. Further, the selection of meaningful variables is commonly conducted under non-spatialized modelling conditions. The objective of this paper is to construct a land value map using a geostatistical approach using Space Syntax and a spatialized variable selection. The methodology is applied in Guatemala City. We used an existing dataset of residential land value appraisals and accessibility metrics. Regression-kriging was used to conduct variable selection and derive a model for spatial prediction. The prediction accuracy is compared with a multivariate regression. The results show that a spatialized variable selection yields a more parsimonious model with higher prediction accuracy. New insights were found on how Space Syntax explains land value variability when also modelling the spatial dependence. Space Syntax can contribute with relevant spatialized information for predictive land value modelling purposes. Finally, the spatial modelling framework facilitates the production of spatial information of land values that is relevant for planning practice.     

The Changing Geography of U.S. Hispanics from 1990–2006: A Shift to the South and Midwest

Abstract

Between 1990 and 2000 the U.S. Hispanic population increased by 14 million, which is the largest decadal population rise in United States history. This increase was not spread evenly throughout the United States, nor was it isolated to locations that already had large Hispanic populations. On the contrary, areas that previously had a relatively small Hispanic population experienced large percentage increases. In this article the regional variability in Hispanic population growth is explored, along with an emphasis on the economic pull factors driving those demographic changes. This analysis illustrates how restructuring in the meatpacking industry, and the associated economic impacts, have created a dependence on a low wage, illegal labor force that has shaped the recent demographic trend in the South and Midwest.     

The Dynamic Pathways of Agrarian Transformation in the Northeastern Thai–Lao Borderlands

ABSTRACT

Rural livelihoods in the northeastern Thai borderlands have moved away from being predominantly agrarian, yet farming remains a desirable alternative for many people. The empirical findings from fieldwork in a village in the northeastern Thai–Lao borderlands indicate how dependence on agriculture is determined by family contexts, such as land ownership, education level of household members, their gender and age. Cheap Lao labour and government price-support policies have enabled farmers to remain in production and diversify. Some educated rural people have successfully found employment opportunities outside the village as migratory wage labour, and are able to attain higher social status back in the village. Successful migrants have invested their earnings on cash-crop production and become rural entrepreneurs. Conversely, less educated migrants were unsuccessful in finding good jobs in the city and viewed agriculture as a more favourable alternative and valuable security. Geographical, cultural and economic specificities conditioned rural transformation and contributed to increasingly diverse and geographically extended livelihoods.     

中国城市可持续发展研究综述

城市可持续发展在一个地区或国家的可持续发展战略中具有十分重要的地位。10年来中国城市可持续发展的研究主要集中在城市可持续发展的影响因素、机制、模式、战略、规划以及综合评价等方面。但目前中国城市可持续发展研究中还主要存在以下不足：忽视影响因素的系统性研究、忽视市场机制研究、忽视社会文化模式研究、忽视西部落后地区城市研究、忽视中小城市研究等几个方面。最后根据不足提出了未来研究中应该重视的几个方面。     

Brazil’s Financial Centers in the Twenty-first Century: Hierarchy,Specialization, and Concentration

The purpose of this article is to examine how the geography of Brazil’s financial centers changed since 2000 in terms of financial center hierarchy, specialization, and spatial concentration. To address these questions, we use data on employment and mergers and acquisitions in financial and business services, complemented with data on remuneration and bank assets. Our results show that São Paulo has consolidated its dominance as Brazil’s primary financial center, with market for corporate control as an important channel of this process. Rio’s decline as a financial center, which started more than fifty years ago, has continued into this century. At the same time, Brasília has emerged as the third most important financial center of Brazil. We document the recent dynamic of this territorial division of labor, with Rio’s specialization in insurance and Brasília’s dependence on government-owned banks. Finally, we show signs that Brazil’s financial center activities might be following an inverse U-shaped pattern whereby increasing geographical concentration is followed by its slow decline. Key Words: Brazil, concentration, financial centers, São Paulo, territorial division of labor.     

Policing perception: postpolitics and the elusive everyday

ABSTRACT

This piece argues that urban postpolitical scholarship should pay greater attention to the everyday lives of urban residents and the everyday spaces of contemporary cities. Recent debates in urban geography have sought in part to expand narrow readings of Jacques Rancière’s politics in particular, creating space for broader and more inclusive analyses of resistance to depoliticizing regimes. This article builds on this work, extending these critiques by suggesting that the quotidian is the most pressing analytical avenue for such expansion. The piece builds on ethnographic and archival fieldwork conducted in Mexico City between 2014 and 2017, demonstrating the dependence of a postpolitical regime on the maintenance of particular relations in the everyday spaces and interactions of the city, and some of the salient ways these trends are experienced, reproduced, and contested by the city’s residents.     

The International System of Units and Its Use in Geography and Related Disciplines

Abstract

This paper introduces college-level geography students to the International System of Units (SI), which is a standardized set of units used in science, engineering, and commerce. The system is based on seven base units from which all other units are derived. There are precise rules for using and writing SI units which should be followed, as proper use of SI in geography and related disciplines facilitates communication and reduces wasted effort at converting units.     

Fluid Households,Complex Families: The Impacts of Children's Migration as a Response to HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa*

Abstract

The fluidity of southern African families is related to a long history of internal and external migration. Currently, HIV/AIDS is having a dramatic impact on extended family structures, with the migration of individual members employed as a coping strategy. Children's migration is one aspect of this that is often distinct from that undertaken by other household members. This article is based on qualitative research conducted in Lesotho and Malawi with young migrants and the households that receive them. It examines the processes of fragmentation and re-formation of households through the movements of children that are taking place in response to HIV/AIDS, and explores the impacts these processes have on young migrants and the households they join.     

GEO-Teach: A Preservice Teacher Preparation Program in Geography

Abstract

GEO-Teach is a project funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Preservice Education (FIPSE). The project aims to develop a model preservice curriculum at the secondary level. It incorporates the newly published National Geography Standards and merges content with pedagogy through partnerships with faculty in education and other social and behavioral sciences to deliver the curriculum. School teachers act as mentors to students in the program.     

The Usefulness of a Map with Geographic Text: A Reanalysis of Experimental Data

Abstract

One research report of the usefulness of a map with geographic text appeared inconsistent with other research findings related to other graphic illustrations accompanying printed narrative. Consequently, data employed in the earlier report were reanalyzed through the use of analysis of covariance, a more powerful statistical procedure than the univariate analysis originally used. Results of this reanalysis revealed no treatment effects; that is, a map with text seemed not to be a superior condition to that of text alone. Research procedures as well as the substantive findings are discussed.     

Technical note It doesn't make me nearly as CROSS Some advantages of the point-vector representation of line segments in automated cartography

Abstract

The point-vector representation for line segments offers several advantages over other more familiar representations for lines and line segments, such as the point-slope form, the slope-intercept form and the two-point form. With the point-vector form, line segment intersection routines and related cartographic computations, such as point-in-polygon routines and detection of near-intersections, can be streamlined, simplified and more easily understood geometrically. The point-vector segment representation retains information on the line segment and not just the line. Special case handling for vertical lines is not necessary as with some other representations and several computational short cuts can be derived directly from the segment end-point coordinates.     

The Swedish Land Data Bank

Abstract

The Swedish Land Data Bank System has been developed in order to rationalize handling of data on real properties and land. The system replaces earlier manual systems for property and land registration. It interacts regularly with other EDP-based information systems and serves as a land information system (LIS) in a broad sense. The system is being steadily extended to cover all parts of the country. The costs for design, implementation and maintenance of the system are covered by reductions of costs for property and land registration.     

A Review of “The Power of Place”

Two qualitative case studies, one focusing on K-12 teachers and the other on middle school students, explore key factors associated with using Geographic Information Systems in the classroom. In both studies, access to appropriate hardware is a critical barrier. Time is another critical barrier—time to learn the GIS software and time in the curriculum to incorporate GIS as a learning experience. In both case studies, learning the technology at the expense of learning spatial analysis was a danger, suggesting the need for conscious focus on the goal of using GIS to learn how to “do geography.”     

A Capstone Course of “Geographic Ideas”

Abstract

Through an instructional approach, this article offers a template for a classroom-based geography capstone course grounded in pedagogical elements of synthesis and reflection, as based on exploration of ten key geographic ideas. It provides insights into course goals, structure, and components for instructors who may wish to implement it in geography or in other disciplines, and it situates the template in the general structure of capstone courses detailed in social science literature. The article contributes to geography instruction with a focus on classroom-based capstone courses as an application of teaching and learning undergraduate geography.     

“WOMEN IN GEOGRAPHY” REVISITED: PRESENT STATUS,NEW OPTIONS

The representation of women on geography faculties did not increase appreciably between 1971 and 1977, but women in other academic disciplines have fared somewhat better. The latter have improved their status primarily as a result of actions taken by professional associations representing their fields. When a professional association ignores its female constituency or refuses to commit itself to improving their circumstances, federal agencies now offer alternative channels for obtaining redress.     

Wireless Mapping,GIS, and Learning about the Digital Divide: A Classroom Experience

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe a capstone course in undergraduate student geographical research in which GIS and other geospatial tools were used to teach undergraduate students basic geographical principles. The course uses the “cooperative learning” pedagogical approach to address one of a number of client-supplied research projects, chosen on the basis of logistical difficulty, time, student ability, and project importance. In the connection of primary data with existing data, students confronted a number of important research issues such as mapping ethics, database design and management, time management, group dynamics, and research limitations.