Cities on edge: Smuggling and neoliberal policies at the Iguazú triangle

The vision of a borderless world, of people, ideas and products freely circulating within a self‐regulating market, is one that clashes with the emerging legal regime based on the punitive force of the state. After a period of liberalization, seen in the opening of national economies and the promotion of regional trade projects and free‐trade zones, the ambivalence of neoliberalism is manifest in a borderless capitalism that ambiguously depends on the securitization of national borders. Such a changing regime of state intervention is clearly seen at the Iguazú triangle – the tri‐border urban conglomerate that straddles Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina – where the illegality of informal cross‐border trading has been tolerated for decades. Recently stepped up police raids and controls hinder the passage of people and goods, while a new fiscal regime introduced in 2009 in Brazil attempts to regularize cross‐border trafficking by turning petty smugglers into micro entrepreneurs. Petty smugglers – dubbed sacoleiros– can hardly be defined as entrepreneurs and do not constitute an identifiable category of entrepreneurship but, as typical in the informal sector, act on opportunity and need. Drawing on ethnographic research, this paper contextualizes the programmes for border controls and regularizing smuggling inspired by neoliberal ideology in South America.     

The Qijurittuq site (IbGk-3), Eastern Hudson Bay: An IPY Interdisciplinary Study

Geografisk Tidsskrift—Danish Journal of Geography 110(2):227–243, 2010

An interdisciplinary study was conducted at Qijurittuq (IbGk-3), an archaeological site located on Drayton Island along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay, Nunavik. Local Inuit made important contributions to the research. High school students participated in the field school, and elders shared their traditional knowledge. The elders expressed an interest in the source of the wood used to construct Qijurittuq's semi-subterranean dwellings, and this inspired us to expand our research in that direction. This interdisciplinary study included a reconstruction of the geomorphological and environmental history of Drayton Island, wood provenance and dendrochronology studies, research on house architecture and settlement patterns, and a zooarchaeological analysis. This paper synthesizes the preliminary results of this interdisciplinary investigation within the context of climate change. We discuss the persistence of semi-subterranean dwellings in eastern Hudson Bay long after they had been abandoned elsewhere. At Qijurittuq, their abandonment corresponds with the end of Little Ice Age. However, at the same time, the development of more permanent contact with Euro-Canadians was having a strong impact upon Inuit culture.     

Compact,concurrent, and contiguous: smart growth and 50 years of residential planning in the Toronto region

In this article, we use parcel-based land-use data to analyze 50 years of residential development in the Toronto region. We test two hypotheses: (1) Toronto’s form does not conform to conventional definitions of suburban sprawl and (2) Toronto’s suburban development shows high levels of continuity over time with relatively high densities and mixed housing types. Contrary to recent research suggesting a convergence of urban forms among North American metropolitan regions, Ontario’s robust planning system has created a distinctive, highly consistent pattern of residential development that has, for half a century, achieved many of the core goals of smart growth including relatively compact, contiguous, and concurrent development. This form continues to be automobile dependent, however, and is not producing many of the benefits ascribed to smart growth. Rather than continuing to adopt United States-inspired smart growth policies, a more ambitious set of initiatives will be required to address current regional challenges.     

New major element analyses of proximal tephras from the Azores and suggested correlations with cryptotephras in North-West Europe

The Azores Archipelago is one of the most active volcanic areas in the North Atlantic region. Approximately 30 eruptions have been reported over the last 600 years with some major VEI 5 (Volcanic Explosivity Index) eruptions further back in time. The geochemical composition of associated tephra-derived glass, however, is not well characterized. An Azorean origin of cryptotephras found in distal areas such as North Africa, the British Isles and Greenland has been suggested, but proximal data from the Azores are scarce and the correlations have only been tentative. These tephras have a traychtic composition, which excludes an Icelandic origin. In a previous study, we presented major element analyses of proximal tephra-derived glass from five Holocene eruptions on the Azores Islands. There is a striking geochemical similarity between tephras from volcanoes on São Miguel and Irish cryptotephras, and especially with eruptives from the Furnas volcano. Here we present new analyses of proximal tephras that confirm and strengthen a link between Furnas and cryptotephras found in south-west Ireland. We also suggest a correlation between a previously unsourced tephra found in a Swedish bog with an eruption of the Sete Cidades volcano c. 3880 a cal BP.     

Correction to: Spatial distribution and estimation of rainfall trends and erosivity in the Epitácio Pessoa reservoir catchment,Paraíba,Brazil

Natural Hazards - The article “Spatial distribution and estimation of rainfall trends and erosivity in the Epitácio Pessoa reservoir catchment, Paraíba, Brazil”, written by da...     

Prediction of ground displacements and velocities from groundwater level changes at the Vallcebre landslide (Eastern Pyrenees, Spain)

In active landslides, the prediction of acceleration of movement is a crucial issue for the design and performance of warning systems. The landslide of Vallcebre in the Eastern Pyreenes, Spain, has been monitored since 1996 and data on rainfall, groundwater levels and ground displacements are measured on a regular basis. Displacements observed in borehole wire extensometers have shown an immediate response of the landslide to rainfall episodes. This rapid response is likely due to the presence of preferential drainage ways. The occurrence of nearly constant rates of displacement in coincidence with steady groundwater levels suggests the presence of viscous forces developed during the movement. An attempt to predict both landslide displacements and velocities was performed at Vallcebre by solving the momentum equation in which a viscous term (Bingham and power law) was added. Results show that, using similar rheological parameters for the entire landslide, computed displacements reproduce quite accurately the displacements observed at three selected wire extensometers. These results indicate that prediction of displacements from groundwater level changes is feasible.     

Linear system techniques applied to the Fuenmayor Karst Spring, Huesca (Spain)

Black box identification techniques are very useful tools to study the relationship between rainfall and the discharge of karst aquifers. Autocorrelation, cross-correlation, cross-spectral, impulse response identification (Wiener–Hopf and error minimization methods) and parametric identification of transfer functions techniques have been used by different authors. A review of these techniques has been realized to assess the possibilities and limitations. The reviewed techniques are applied to a time rainfall–discharge series of Fuenmayor karst spring, (southern central Pyrenees, Spain) to establish the relative quality of the obtained models. The quality is evaluated with the Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient. In addition, effective rainfall has been used to improve the performance of every model. The whitening technique has been used in the cross-correlation technique with good results. The studied spring shows a Fontestorbes type behavior. The linearity of the system has been analyzed by the coherence function. Fuenmayor has an acceptable linear response, except for high frequency events. The parametric identification provides the best efficiency value E = 0.8164 and provides a proper transfer function, with five parameters (one zero, two poles, the gain and the delay). The prediction power of this transfer function is validated with another time series, with an efficiency value of E = 0.7904.     

FTIR spectroscopy of Ti-chondrodite,Ti-clinohumite,and olivine in deeply subducted serpentinites and implications for the deep water cycle

Separated olivine grains from a deeply subducted serpentinized wehrlite (Changawuzi in the western Tianshan ultrahigh-pressure belt, China) were analysed with unpolarized transmission FTIR and the Ti contents were determined using LA-ICP-MS. The major bands in the olivine spectra display striking similarities to Ti-clinohumite and are interpreted as OH in lamellae. The quantification of the water content in lamellae requires calibration of the IR-absorption for such bands. We have obtained a new absorption coefficient for Ti-clinohumite of 0.125+/?0.017 ppm cm² based on polarized FTIR measurements on three orthogonal sections through a large single crystal of Ti-clinohumite from Val Malenco, which has a known water content of 1.53 wt%. The resulting water content in olivine using this calibration factor ranges from 440 to 2,600 ppm and correlates positively with the Ti content that ranges from 130 to 1,400 ppm. For the quantification of the water content in Ti-chondrodite and Ti-clinohumite that are associated with olivine, we developed a new method using attenuated total reflectance FTIR spectroscopy. Ti-chondrodite and Ti-clinohumite display similar IR bands at ~3,562, 3,525 and ~3,583–3,586 cm^?1. As in olivine, the water content and Ti content correlate in both Ti-clinohumite and Ti-chondrodite, indicating an intergrowth of these minerals, which has been confirmed by TEM analyses. Our results confirm previous suggestions that there is a strong correlation between the Ti content of ultramafic rocks and their capacity to transport water to the deeper mantle in subduction zones beyond conditions where hydrous phases are stable.     

Palaeokarst and rauhwacke development,mountain uplift and subaerial sliding of tectonic sheets (northern Sierra de los Filabres,Betic Cordilleras,Spain)

The rauhwackes near Serón in the northern Sierra de los Filabres (S Spain), previously considered as true tectonic breccias, are reinterpreted on the basis of sedimentological, geomorphological and geometrical evidence as subaerial or nearly subaerial sedimentary deposits. Channel fills, parallel lamination, cross-lamination, graded bedding, sedimentary clastic dykes and other sedimentary structures and features occur in the rauhwacke body. These sedimentary rocks correspond to continental deposits of alluvial and karstic origin deposited over a karstified erosional surface of Nevado–Filabride marbles. Although no fossils have been found in the rauhwackes, a Tortonian age for these rocks is suggested on the basis of structural arguments and lithostratigraphic data from the nearby Almanzora basin. The rauhwackes were buried by slabs of Alpujarride rocks that gravitationally slid over them during the uplifting of the Sierra de los Filabres.     

Field characterization and data integration to define the hydraulic heterogeneity of a shallow granular aquifer at a sub-watershed scale

Providing a sound basis for aquifer management or remediation requires that hydrogeological investigations carried out to understand groundwater flow and contaminant transport be based on representative data that capture the heterogeneous spatial distribution of aquifer hydraulic properties. This paper describes a general workflow allowing the characterization of the heterogeneity of the hydraulic properties of granular aquifers at an intermediate scale of a few km². The workflow involves characterization and data integration steps that were applied on a 12-km² study area encompassing a decommissioned landfill emitting a leachate plume and its main surface water receptors. The sediments composing the aquifer were deposited in a littoral–sublittoral environment and show evidence of small-scale transitional heterogeneities. Cone penetrometer tests (CPT) combined with soil moisture and electrical resistivity (SMR) measurements were thus used to identify and characterize spatial heterogeneities in hydraulic properties over the study area. Site-specific statistical relationships were needed to infer hydrofacies units and to estimate hydraulic properties from high-resolution CPT/SMR soundings distributed all over the study area. A learning machine approach was used due to the complex statistical relationships between colocated hydraulic and CPT/SMR data covering the full range of aquifer materials. Application of this workflow allowed the identification of hydrofacies units and the estimation of horizontal hydraulic conductivity, vertical hydraulic conductivity and porosity over the study area. The paper describes and discusses data acquisition and integration methodologies that can be adapted to different field situations, while making the aquifer characterization process more time-efficient and less labor-intensive.