Contested terrains: Cities and hinterlands in post-apartheid boundary delimitations

In South Africa attempts are being made to address the socio-spatial distortions of the apartheid era through a more equitable distribution of resources, and the re-drawing of municipal geographical boundaries. However, boundaries are not neutral geographic lines. Boundary changes are often associated with a redistribution of political power and resources. The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of the contemporary territorial and administrative restructuring on urban dynamics in South Africa. More specifically, the focus is on how the process of territorial restructuring impacted on metropolitan areas as well as on secondary cities and their hinterlands. Examining and elucidating the manner in which various social, economic and political forces have manifested themselves in the process of boundary delimitation in a major metropolitan centre as well as adjacent rural areas is a central theme of this paper. There were considerable contestations over the delimitation of new local government boundaries. Affluent metro authorities like that in Durban were opposed to the spatial extension of their boundaries because of the costs of the providing services and infrastructure in the deprived margins. Similarly, there was concern that incorporation of rural areas will result in increased municipal service charges being imposed on these communities. Tensions were heightened between urban and rural regions because traditional leaders believed that their territorial jurisdiction and authority were being undermined. In other parts of the country, the merger of traditionally white and black fragments of secondary cities often resulted in many black locations continuing to be marginalized. There appears to be neither the political will nor the economic capacity to upgrade these zones of marginalized urban communities. While the Municipal Demarcation Board was largely successful in eliminating the political geography of apartheid at a macro- scale, this paper suggests that the greater challenge for government and policy makers is to reduce the socio-spatial and economic inequalities which appears to be still very high and perhaps increasing. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Simultaneous use of geochemical and geophysical methods to characterise abandoned landfills

. Groundwater sampling and geophysical methods determined a serious contamination problem associated with refilled exploitation sites at the Cal Dimoni area, Llobregat delta, Barcelona, Spain. To characterise this process, hydrogeochemical analyses were performed and showed the following modifications to groundwater chemical composition: increasing pH values, changing redox conditions, significant increases in total organic carbon (TOC) and certain trace elements, and high groundwater conductivity values. Major ion content accumulations were found under the refilled area. In contrast, elements involved in the oxidation–reduction processes, such as iron, manganese and nitrates, clearly diminished. Electromagnetic prospecting methods were also performed and delineated the contamination plume extent. These methods also showed separate sources of contamination, one clearly related to the groundwater–refilled zone leachate interaction, another as a consequence of the manure–accumulation surface site. Geochemical and geophysical methods have shown similar results for locating groundwater contamination sources, and for determining leachate generation mechanisms and flow paths.     

Seismic endoscopy: multi-offset multi-azimuth imaging around boreholes – data processing and experimental results

An acoustic method, called seismic endoscopy, able to perform 3D imaging around shallow-depth boreholes is presented. A probe, composed of an isotropic source and a directional receiver working in the 20–100 kHz frequency range, provides images of cylindrical volumes having radii of a few metres, with an accuracy of centimetres and 25° azimuthal directivity. In order to obtain clear images of the medium discontinuities, multi-offset and multi-azimuth data acquisition allows specific algorithms to be used to determine vertical directivity correction, azimuthal focusing and reflected wave enhancement by cancellation of the tube waves. The method is tested with data acquired in an acoustic tank and with synthetic data. Initial experimental results at a test site demonstrate the performance of the seismic endoscopy probe.     

成都市民消费结构与休闲活动关系研究

城市居民消费水平，消费结构会影响其休闲消费能力，消费意愿，消费方式，消费态度和休闲时空结构，文章以成都市7个城区歌舞，茶棋牌，电影及城市公园休闲活动调查为基础，探讨了城市居民消费结构及其变化与休闲活动特征的关系。研究结果表明，城市居民消费结构的改变对歌舞，茶棋牌娱乐活动影响最大。     

区域视觉形象识别系统设计的理论与实践

目前，全国各地正在兴起区域形象设计与建设的浪潮，但如何把区域形象信息系统地传递出去，这方面的理论研究大大落后于实践。文章就区域形象信息传递的有效工具－区域视觉识别系统设计的主要内容，设计的原则，设计的基本流程等在理论与实践上作了较为详细的探讨，并就区域视觉识别系统设计方案的经济学论证作了一些有益探讨。     

河南经济技术开发区发展前景与对策

文章阐述了经济技术开发区在区域经济发展过程中的作用。根据河南省经济技术开发区的发展现状和存在的问题，分析了加入WTO后开发区所面临的机遇和挑战，并在此基础上从开发区环境营造，运行机制，筹资方式，产业发展，城市建设等方面提出了加快河南省经济技术开发区发展的对策。     

土地持续利用的五维空间分析

土地资源的持续利用是人类社会发展的基础，文章较为系统地提出了时间，空间，用途，技术和制度是实现土地资源持续利用的五维空间，并对各维度的内涵进行了较为深入的分析。其中，土地持续利用的时间维主要表现为从伦理角度考虑如何在代际间合理分配土地资源，使代际间利益之和最大；空间维则要求实现土地利用在空间上的合理布局；胜任维要求将土地资源合理配置到各种用途上，从而使人们从土地所提供的产品和劳各中获得的总效用最大；技术维选择意味着土地利用的直接或间接技术的选用能够保证土地的永续使用；制度维要求制度建设适应土地利用情况的变化，通过消除不同的土地制度之间存在着的外部利润来实现土地资源的最优配置。     

旅游信息系统建设模式探讨——以佛山市为例

作为当前旅游信息系统开发的两种主要基础平台，地理信息系统和多媒体制作系统都存在一定的缺陷。多媒体制作系统缺乏旅游地图的有效管理，空间查询，分析和统计功能，旅游地理信息系统则缺乏旅游信息的多媒体表达能力。从实用性和普及性出发，集合二者优点开发模式具有更大的推广应用价值。因此，论文提出在同一界面下基于GIS和多媒体集成的旅游信息系统开发模式；（1）在GIS中增加多媒体信息表达能力，以关系数据库为核心，把多媒体文件名信息存储在地理信息系统属性库，依靠多媒休段实现多媒体数据与地理信息系统图形和属性的关联，实现查询的基本概念；（2）在多媒体系统中开发部分GIS空间查询功能。以此思路，佛山科技学院GIS技术实验室利用VB进行GIS和多媒体二次开发，成功地完成了佛山旅游信息系统的设计和开发。